Our first CFS Events blog post! Why? Because we need to start practising exactly what we are about to preach. How and why you should be marketing your events to delegates. This is our way of creating a quick & simple guide which will help you break through the noise, reach your target delegate audience and encourage them to attend your event. We have pulled together 10 simple rules which, we believe, if you follow them correctly will help you in achieving this.
So here we go…
1. No more faceless marketing
Make all marketing as personal as you can. People don’t like to feel as if a ‘computer’ is talking to them. Engage with your audience by using as much personalisation as you can.
2. No more mass marketing! Think small & targeted
Avoid sending mass or blanket emails to a large group of people with the hope that your potential delegates will be in that group. Create targeted content to a specific group of people, it will have a lot more power behind it than a mass communication.
3. Don’t give up on bookings that are sitting on the fence
Try and capture the data of those registrations that haven’t been completed and take the opportunity to follow up with them and finalise their booking at a later date. They’ve showed a desire to attend, so a friendly nudge to complete their booking might be all they need. Also send out final reminder emails so no one can miss the boat.
4. Utilise the power of repeat bookings
If you’re running an event for the first time, make sure you are capturing everyone’s data so that should you run the event again you already have a pool of the right people to target.
5. Learn from your event marketing successes
Make sure you’re asking delegates that have booked, how they found out about the event. This way, you know what channels are working and which ones aren’t so much. This can also be done by looking at website & social media analytics, email open and click through rates, and ROI on any digital marketing spend which is usually automatically tracked through the source.
6. Create discount codes
For attendee referrals, set up a landing page which enables them to enter discounted codes for registration fees and have welcome messages. This will make them feel like they have been carefully selected and have exclusivity, which never goes a miss!
7. A call to action is essential
A call to action or CTA as it’s more commonly known, does exactly what it says, and demands action. But, we all too often use the predictable ‘Register now’ as a go to CTA. Don’t let the ‘typical way’ of doing things stifle your creativity. Try and use something more appealing like ‘Join us in New York’ or ‘Of course I’ll be there!’ to increase attendee’s interest and make them click that button.
8. Short & sweet
Keep marketing communications short, concise and to the point. Give delegates all of the information they need to know and end it there. Don’t give them pointless information which they won’t read or will put them off reading the communication in the first place if it’s too lengthy.
9. Decisions, decisions
Think about everything that makes your delegates decide whether or not they can attend your event. There are a number of elements that will play a part; peer recommendations, price, comparison to other events, personal accreditation’s, speakers, time of year, venue, location, the list goes on. Make sure you understand all of these and offer the target market a really strong offering they can’t refuse.
10. Social Influencers
Where you can, get influential people, such as speakers and exhibitors on board with promoting your event. If people see that they are there and are talking about the event, the likeliness is it will increase their desire to attend. Get them to tweet, blog, email or comment on the event and reach out to potential delegates.
The list could go on and on, but these are our top 10 tips to help start you off!
Give them a go when planning your next event and let us know how you get on. Keep an eye out for more CFS blog posts coming soon…
www.cfsevents.co.uk
