Events are a powerful marketing tool for any business looking to create meaningful connections with customers and prospects. But, an event will only be successful if you have a clear roadmap. This roadmap is a well-thought-out event marketing plan that is executed in style.
To truly make a difference, however, your event marketing plan needs to be as effective and purposeful as possible.
Learn how you can make your next event an undeniable success with these five steps!
What Is a Marketing Plan, and Do You Need One?
A marketing plan is a blueprint for how you’re going to market your business, product, or in this case, your event.
Overall, a marketing plan allows you to clearly define your goals and marketing strategies. It also gives you a clear picture of the budget you need to set and the resources you need to achieve your goals.
Even better, it sets out how you’ll measure your results when the time comes.
Very simply, you absolutely need a marketing plan.
Now, let’s break down how you can create an effective marketing plan to have a successful, sold-out event!
How To Create An Effective Event Marketing Plan
Pre-Event:
1. Determine Your Goals + Define Your Target Audience
According to a study, people who set goals are 10 times more likely to succeed. Setting your event goals will give you both direction and help you measure its results.
Some goals to consider are:
- The purpose of the event
- The budget for the event
- How many people you want to attend
In addition to setting out your goals, you need to define who your target audience is. Because, let’s face it, no audience, no event. To get the people you want, you need to research what their needs and preferences are.
More importantly, you need to find out what platforms they’re on most frequently, and what kind of they consume.
By putting in time and effort to create targeted content for your event, you can effectively engage your desired audience and increase the chances of attracting attendees.
2. Create A Marketing Content Calendar
Once you know what your goals are, who your target audience is and the kind of content you want to produce, it’s time to set up a content calendar.
A content calendar allows you to plan what content you want to post and where. This allows you to plan how you’re going to engage with your audience in an effective way.
It also helps you specify the type of content you want to publish each day. This keeps your social media feeds fresh and your audience well-informed about your event. It also allows you have some fun with the content you produce.
Your content calendar should also include post-event content, like recaps and thank-you posts.
3. Create Promo Content
Once your content calendar is set up, it’s time to start creating and scheduling that essential promotional content.
Promo content not only gives your audience the necessary information about your event, but it also helps generate hype and excitement.
That’s not all though. Promo content also gives you the opportunity to start measuring some metrics.
You’ll be able to see what aspects of your event your audience is looking forward to the most by checking out the engagement metrics. This helps you plan future event content and will give you an indication of what you should take notes of during your event.
Getting value from your event content is tough, but it’s so much easier with this guide.
When you’ve got all your promo content down, you can start scheduling your posts according to your content calendar.
During The Event:
4. Live Content
So your event is finally here! However, that doesn’t mean you need to stop marketing. By live posting and engaging with your audience during your event, you can maintain their excitement.
Moreover, people absolutely love engaging with event content as the event is happening. It makes them special and like they’re a crucial part of your event.
Live content also allows your audience to give you live feedback – which is always a bonus.
Post-Event
5. Post-Event Content and Measure Your Results
Now that the event is over, you can start planning and scheduling post-event content. As mentioned, these posts include recaps and thank-you posts. This content can come in the form of emails to your attendees, or traditional social media posts.
From there, you can start measuring the results of your event with feedback from the attendees and engagement on these posts.
Speaking of measuring your results, it’s also the time to start analysing if your event went according to plan. See if you met your intended goals and if there’s anything you need to improve going forward.
Take Your Event To The Next Level
Now that you know how to create an effective event marketing plan – it’s time to take your event to the next level.
Better yet, get in touch with us today, to learn all about our event marketing services!
For more great content like this, head over to The Moody Insider!
