Conference events can be costly for organisers, but promotion that encourages high volume ticket sales are key to ensuring that such speaking or networking events are successful. We’ve crowdsourced some great suggestions from around our communities on LinkedIn and received some great suggestions about the best way to promoting conference events online.
How To Promote Conference Events Online
We asked our communities; “Which is the best channel on which to promote conference events?”
1. Connect with relevant websites and blogs
“It’s worth connecting with sites (especially blogs) that really focus on the same audience you hope to attract for your event. An aggressive guest posting strategy can get you a lot of coverage, as can an affiliate sales strategy – especially if your main goal is to sell tickets.”
Thursday Bram
2. There is no single channel
“It is ‘the one your attendees are on’. There is no single ‘most important’ channel or method that is true across the board. You need to talk in the spaces where your people are listening. If they are not there, then there is no point in putting out information via that channel – or, at least, not in making that a central piece of your outreach.
I’ve worked with some groups that prefer email – so we do email blasts for them. Other groups prefer to get their information from the event
web site or in industry/organization publications – so we’ll focus on those avenues for them.
Karl Baur CMP
3. A combination that prioritises social media
“To say that one channel is the most important would cause debate. The combination of these marketing channels would be the best way to go about promoting a conference event or any business related matter. Monitoring Social Media can be important to finding out how an online marketing campaign is doing as it gives you the opportunity to have an overview of social media chatter and therefore the opinions of your targeted market.”
Patrick Murphy
4. Build a good database of contacts
“I think the most important thing is working the list you already have. You need to milk that for all its worth and build excitement with your list through your website, emails and even direct mail.”
Robert Luther
5. Profile the exhibitors
“Promoting through the website is probably the most used and effective tool. Giving exposure to the exhibitors on the website is also very important, because they are the reason attendees get interested and visit an event. Even if they don’t attend promoting the exhibitors or sponsors would be beneficial for the future. There are different tools, such as newsletter and e-mail marketing, matchmaking and pre-scheduling meetings, that would attract attendees and increase the value they receive.”
Marta Meskovska
Thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts to this discussion.
Conference Promotion Tips from us:
1. Blogging
Conference events are about sharing information so writing blogs on relevant topics before the event is a great way to share insight and advice or preview discussions that will take place at the event.
2. Videos
Interview panelists or speakers for upcoming events and post these videos on YouTube. If possible, use video footage from previous conferences to demonstrate the value of attending.
3. Create a Hashtag
Hashtags are an excellent way to highlight different topics or events with the Twitter community and launching one before the event will also allow attendees to identity each other or submit questions to panelists.
4. Testimonials
Promote testimonials on email or social media from attendees of previous events, this will bolster evidence of the benefits of attending the event. Impartial endorsement from peers or colleagues is often the most persuasive evidence of a successful conference.
For More Marketing Advice – https://evvnt.com/blog/category/event-marketing/