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Events come in all sizes, big and small, yet share a common goal: to bring together people. In the marketing world, this means gathering key people, delivering a meaningful experience and message to them, and ultimately, converting them into a devoted fan of your brand, product, and services.
To achieve that, we come up with these cool types of events that, in our minds, "Who wouldn't want to attend this event?" And leave it at that. What we don't realize is that it takes a lot more than just gathering the event speakers, generating the event topic, and choosing a venue. That is only the first step. To take it a step further, marketing needs to step in to build a strategy that will drive registrations.
Registration Goal = End Goal
It starts with setting yourself up with a numerical registration goal. I've seen cases where companies will decide on a registration goal based on, well, nothing. This will set you up for failure. My technique is to work backwards from your end goal and this can work in many ways. For instance, if your end goal is to drive $10K in sales from this event alone and an average sale is $1K, and only 10% of pipeline closes, then you need 100 opportunities (averaging at $1K each) in the pipeline at the least. Then let's say, on average only 10% of attendees open an opportunity. In order to have at least 100 opportunities, we need to have 1K attendees. Now remember, not everyone who registers will attend your event. On average, only 50% of registrations will attend your event. So, double your attendee goal which, in this case, will be 2K. Finally, let's say only 50% of those you invite register. So you have to invite 4K people to ensure you hit your registration goal. Here are the goals below,
Invites = 4,000
Registrations = 2,000
Attendees = 1,000
Opportunities = 100 or $100,000
Sales = $10,000
Easy peasy, right?
Using Appropriate Channels
Now that you have your goals set, it's time to think about the channels you will use to reach your audience. In Part One of this blog series, we talked about defining your target audience. Once you've figured that out, FIND THEM. Think about the various methods in which we, as marketers, can reach this audience such as email, social media, specific websites, etc. And don't limit yourselves to one channel or your efforts will be a loss. Create an integrated marketing campaign and go for the W.
In my previous roles, I've always been keen on spending the least amount of budget on virtual events and a little more on in-person events. That being said, don't go too crazy on spend or you will have to make up for it in your ROI with very little room for error. If you have an existing database of leads, email marketing with retargeting ads is quite effective. Social media posts are ideal as well. Another area that you can leverage to fill the world wide web with your event, is using free event listing websites. In Toronto, we have www.eventbrite.com, todocanada.ca, allevents.in, and more. Or you can submit your event to newsletters or publishers, such as these examples from Toronto, Canada: NowToronto, BlogTO, Toronto Star, and more.
If you have room in your budget, get creative and start using uncommon methods such as flyers, direct mailers, or working with a partner to drive registrations.
Making Sure Registrants Attend
Your efforts do not stop at registrations. You still need to make sure they attend. I've been guilty of getting excited about registration numbers. But then I'm reminded of the sad reality that some of these registrations could be fake and only half (on average) attend the event. The expectation is that only half of registrations attend and that's just a number that seems to be the outcome every single time I've hosted an event. With in-person events, I've seen between 50-80% of registrations attend depending on the type of event, location, weather that day, and many other factors that affect attendance rate.
To help remind and get your registrants excited about the upcoming event, I would start with making sure you have a set of reminder emails scheduled. How often should you remind your guests of the upcoming event? Commonly used is an email that goes out one week before, one day before, and the day of. You can also tailor the messaging of your reminder emails to fit your segmented audience to make them feel extra special, or add a call to action below the fold of the email to maintain engagement. With this series of email reminders, social posts, adding your guests to a calendar invite, and other creative ways to make sure they attend, you'll reach your attendee goals without a doubt.
If you are planning an event soon, give these methods a try and see how they result. Keep in mind that all of your decisions around building an event should be in consideration of your audience, keeping in mind their pain points, interests, and needs. Never build an event that's built based on your brand or company, or you will come across as "salesy" and "unempathetic". Content is a way to build trust with your audience. Some of the most effective events are more interactive and allow the audience to have a voice, in-person or virtually. Now, go on. Give this a try and we will talk about how to keep your guests entertained or engaged during the event in Part 3 of this blog series.
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