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ENGAGEMENT: UNCOVER THE SECRETS

DRAWING A CROWD AT YOUR NEXT EVENT IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK

EVENT ENGAGEMENT: UNCOVER THE SECRETS

Event Engagement: Uncover the Secrets to Draw a Crowd

Organizations spend over $563 Billion per year on conventions, conferences, tradeshows, exhibitions,

incentive events and corporate meetings.*

Organizers of these various events spend an average of over 6 months to a year planning.

Considering the investments made in events, we must maximize every engagement opportunity to

increase attendees and reach a larger, relevant audience.

Crowdster | Event Engagement Solutions |Jenn Maffeo 1

EVENT ENGAGEMENT: UNCOVER THE SECRETS

Now, we know you’re not reading this guide to hear about what you already know. We get that.

So we’re going to let you in on a few little secrets. Lean closer.

Here’s Secret #1- Engagement should not be done solely at the event. Engagement should be cultivated before, during and after the event passes.

Long Before Attendees Arrive:

On its own, an event must be alluring enough to draw a crowd (of your targeted demographic of course). But, the engagement strategies leading up to the event months before are equally as important. There is pre-promotional work that must be done in order to max out your list of event attendees.

“What can we do to promote an event months before it happens? (You might be saying to yourself). Well, this leads us into secret #2.

Here’s Secret #2- Aside from spreading the word via expected means like direct mail and magazine ads, try getting your registrants to do the promoting FOR YOU.

What? How are we going to do that? (You might be saying to yourself).

When friends spread the word about an event, their recommendation goes a lot further than any advertisement because it’s coming from a person they know, or a trusted source.

Crowdster | Event Engagement Solutions |Jenn Maffeo 2

EVENT ENGAGEMENT: UNCOVER THE SECRETS

Did you know that 92% of people trust recommendations from family and friends more than all other forms of marketing? (Neilsen) Give registrants a means to spread the word easily with personalized event pages and email functionality. In this way, when a friend is really interested in attending an event, he or she can create their own personalized event page to invite their friends and share news about the favorite events via social media.

Speaking of social media, we’re on to secret #3.

Here’s Secret #3- By leveraging the social networks of your event registrants, news spreads about your events through the most effective, word-of-mouth- marketing methods out there.

Creative pre-event communication tactics can effectively promote the event details in a way that excites potential attendees and creates buzz.

Start with a good hashtag. It should be short, memorable, relevant and not to be confused with any other acronym. (Trust me, #WTF brings a lot more to mind than the World Taekwondo Foundation). Conduct a quick search before using your selected hashtag to see if anything pops up that would compromise the promotion of your event.

In fact, 81 % of U.S. online consumers make financial decisions to purchase as influenced by friends’ social media posts. (Market Force)

Crowdster | Event Engagement Solutions |Jenn Maffeo 3

EVENT ENGAGEMENT: UNCOVER THE SECRETS

Implementing social media hashtags for your brand or social media accounts gives brands the opportunity to publish relevant event information and content for consumer indulgence. Also, branded online event content can be found by attendees long after the event is held.

Re-engage via Email: Drip, Drip, Drip

Let’s say “John” registers to attend an event. Once that initial point of contact is made, it’s in the brands best interest to keep in touch with John, right?

Guess what? You’re on to secret #5.

Here’s Secret #5- A Drip Email Marketing Campaign is a great way to reinforce John’s interest with personalized messages. These automated and behavior-triggered emails enable brands to have another point of contact with consumers based on where they are in decision making process. With drip email marketing, John will be kept in the loop through set emails that will invite, excite and remind him about your upcoming event.

“Okay we get it. Drip Email Marketing helps keep people engaged with your event content online. Is there anything else we can do to keep our community engaged?” (You might be saying to yourself).

We’re so glad you asked! It happens to lead us right in to secret #6.

Marketers will use dynamic content to deliver highly personalized experiences to the right audiences at the right time in 2014.

Crowdster | Event Engagement Solutions |Jenn Maffeo 4

EVENT ENGAGEMENT: UNCOVER THE SECRETS

Here’s Secret #6- With any promotional strategy, brands must drive and guide the public conversation with a variety of online marketing techniques. Make it fun by gamifying elements of event promotion.

With gamification, you can incentivize your network to promote events and receive rewards for loyalty and participation. For example, if John invites 150 people to the Ad Tech conference, he may receive a reward for excellent participation. Rewards can amount to social media interactions, badges or real-live prizes. This added element of fun will be more effective at generating buzz and excitement and will help you uncover who are your most effective influencers for future opportunities.

Your event may be months from now, start crafting your pre-promotional strategy today. With these uncovered secrets of event engagement, you now know various ways to bring your fans into the conversation.

That’s the end of our guide, but you can still share this article with all of your friends and keep the engagement going. Don’t forget to connect

with us on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin!

Crowdster | Event Engagement Solutions |Jenn Maffeo 5