One of the sure-shot ways to attract more and more customers towards your business is by planning a successful event. Now tell me something: how do you learn about new products in the market? Simply, by watching advertisements or attending some kind of local event. Similarly, planning an event is more like advertising, whether you want to share about your storewide sale or host a charity event or even introduce a wide range of products and services, event planning is all you need to consider.
The future of event planning is fraught with uncertainties. With the rise of new COVID-19 variants, how will regulations on gatherings evolve? In an age where people can tune in virtually from the comfort of their homes, will attendees be willing to travel to be there in person? Getting “back to normal” is the talk of the town among event professionals. Yet, the future is unlikely to look anything like our pre-pandemic normal, as virtual event technology and changing attendees’ behaviours have utterly transformed the landscape of event planning.
Now, what exactly is event planning? In layman’s words, when a company tends to promote its products and services by hosting an event. An event can be anything, an online webinar or in-person trade shows, or conferences, just you need to ensure that the event stays adhere to your predetermined business goals and objectives. And more importantly, the end results turn out to be fruitful.
Why is it important to plan an event?
#1 Increase Brand Exposure
One of the obvious benefits of planning an event is you get to enhance brand and product exposure. All you have to do is ensure that you promote it in such a way that it can attract more and more people towards their existing business. Events are best when it comes to grabbing the attention of customers and potential prospects in a pretty short span of time.
In fact, events can be promoted by the social media profiles of your guests. Let’s say someone named Sarah attended your event, ask her to mention your company name and relevant hashtags to increase awareness. Now, much like Sarah, even 25-30 other people share such posts, imagine your event can expand to a great extent.
#2 Enhance relationships with customers
Another crucial benefit of promoting an event is to enhance relationships with end customers. Hosting events enables companies to meet and greet with their current and potential clients, and customers all at once. I must say it’s the most crucial time to make memorable impressions for you, and your customers and establish relationships that might not be formed through other types of marketing efforts.
#3 Increased Sales
All these efforts are no waste of money but sooner or later they do pay off in regards to an increase in sales and return on investment. In fact, here customers can ask their queries right then and there and businesses have time to make a good impression and be prepared to gain more reliable and regular customers.
Now here comes the big question, how? Well, the following post focuses on how to promote an event successfully.
Tips and tricks to Promote an Event
Now I am pretty sure you must be knowing the drill of event planning. I mean first, you have to come up with an idea and then create an action plan to execute. After all these steps are taken care of, you need to spread the word and sell tickets, and above all you need to ensure that everything runs smoothly and steadily. Do you know what’s the catch here? Most of the time businesses tend to hold an event but always fail to say thank yous and take follow-ups or feedback. So how to promote an event and that too in a tight budget?
Further below I would like to mention some of the best tips and tricks to take into account while promoting an event.
#1 Leverage the power of hashtags
One of the obvious yet crucial strategies to take into account is by using hashtags as many times as you can do. I am pretty sure that by now you must have already thought of using a hashtag. If not, then it’s high time you should start thinking of it right away! Now, what’s so cool about these hashtags? Well, whenever you mention your event, just include the same hashtag in every social media post and marketing channel, wherever it’s possible! Incorporating hashtags means you are anchoring the event and enforcing people to take it into account.
In fact, hashtags are no longer limited to promotions or pst-events but it’s about making things easy for people to find relevant photos and videos and interactions that happened while conducting the event. Now make sure that your hashtag is:
- Unique
- Short
- Well-relatable
- Easily memorable
Some of the best examples for event hashtags include #SXSW is the evergreen hashtag used by the South by Southwest (SXSX) festival, #CMC2021 is the official hashtag of the 2021 Content Marketing Conference, #BiotechWeekBoston is the event hashtag for — you guessed it — Biotech Week Boston
Remember, excessive use of the hashtag can result in business spam, so make sure you don’t go crazy with the trending hashtag. On and all, word of mouth is very important for every marketer out there.
#2 SEO is the Key
Another crucial tip or strategy to consider is by using SEO. I am sure today everyone knows what SEO is and how everything works here. Now to enhance your online presence, you don’t have to focus on your website but also try boosting or showing off your event page. It may quite interest you to know that events tend to rank higher on search engines. Wondering how?
- Conduct relevant Keyword research
- Have you created an event pack yet? Now event pack is basically the page where search engine results tend to display events which are quite similar to the local pack. So what happens is when you click a result within the event pack, you get redirected to google’s event search experience. Concerts, festivals, events, shows, parties, and tickets can trigger an event pack to appear.
- Optimise content for your keywords
- Get on Google
- Add events to third-party websites
- Promote your event packs via social media platforms, email marketing, PR, etc
#3 Who are the key speakers and influencers?
The next approach you must consider is working on your key speakers and influencers. Who you will be choosing for your event? In today’s times, collaboration is one of the best ways to consider promoting an event. Try incorporating as many brand influencers or event sponsors as you can. Also, consider having strong brand partnerships with other companies who can become your advocates and assist well in the overall event promotion.
Not just influencers or keynote speakers but also try influencing your audiences in such a way that they become your advertisers and help you well in spreading the word of mouth. You see, third-party promotion always works and most importantly, it always tends to sound authentic.
#4 Make use of social media
We are on the verge of social media. In fact, in today’s time, social media promotion is everything. No event can be considered fulfilled without promotion on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Each one of them is of a kind! And all of them can be used well to share relevant images, videos, behind-the-scenes shots, event preparations, promoting the key speakers and whatnot! No wonder, these channels are pretty much perfect for running competitions with ticket giveaways and offering other cool promotions
#5 Converting mere attendees into hard-core advocates
Planning or promoting an event requires lots and lots of money, no two ways about it! Try comforting everyone right from the brand ambassador to all the guests attending the event. Let them have a good time and I bet, they will definitely spread word of mouth on your behalf. Also, try offering them as many instagramable and tik-tok moments. Your event promotion won’t be limited to just your network but it will also be praised and shared among networks of the attendees as well as the brand ambassadors. Also, here you can provide some giveaways or vouchers or incentives.
Conclusion
Event planning as well as promoting an event is not easy, it’s an ongoing thing before the event, while the event and even after the event is completed. So make sure you make the most of this time and assist your business to skyrocket well.
