Event Marketing For Online Events: How to successfully plan and market digital events with Charles Matthews

Description

Today's episode is all about event marketing because marketing your small business at events can't stop now and you still want to take advantage of meeting people, talking to people, networking, engaging in one-on-one conversation, getting that brand awareness and generating leads and sales for your small business at events. It's important and we can stop it right now - we just need to move it online. You will learn how you can move your in-person events online and turn them into digital events.

Transcript

Time Stamps

• 00:00
  Intro
• 04:23
  How did you get into public speaking and overcame your fear of it?
• 07:14
  How have you managed to move your event planning business online within a week?
• 10:52
  What are the most important things that you have to consider when you're planning an online event? How do you get started?
• 13:25
  What's the best way to go about marketing your event? What tools can small business owners use to market their digital event?
• 20:09
  What other tips do you have for signing up and inviting people to your event?
• 47:02
  How can people contact you, Charles?

Watch The Interview Video

Resources, Links, Mentions and More

• Take my free branding course Brand Story
• Event marketing is planning, organizing and executing an event for the purpose of promoting your brand, product or service. Hosting marketing events for your small business can generate you leads and sales, brand awareness and 1-on-1 engagement.
• Types of events:
• Conferences
• Workshops
• Seminars
• Trade shows, fairs, expositions
• Launch parties, weddings, celebrations
• Galleries
• General event marketing tips:
• Give your event a unique, relevant, short and sweet name that’s easy to say and remember
• Plan a launch/promotion phase of 6-8 weeks before your event
• Think about the WIIFM (what's in it for me) of your speakers and attendees
• Know your worth
• Repurpose your event content
• Collect reviews
• Brand everything
• Event registration best practices:
• Know what your goals are for your event and collect all necessary data you need to contact your prospects or attendees afterwards
• Use a CRM system
• Have a refund policy if your event includes paid tickets
• Answer event specific questions in a FAQ upfront and use it as a tool to overcome objections
• Use descriptive ticket descriptions for your different ticket types that make people want to buy a higher ticket category
• Include your full name, contact address, phone number, email address and a photo of yourself in the registration email
• How to market your online event on social media:
• Create an event hashtag
• Engage your audience and post about the event
• Use Canva to design graphics
• Reveal your speakers and their roles
• Do Q&A's
• How to optimize your event promotions:
• Use tracking links
• Monitor and optimize your event marketing efforts with marketing analytics
• Find partners and allies who help you promote your event e.g. your speakers
• Create a promotional calendar and stick to it
• Have a holistic view of your ROI and track your spending
• Develop a pricing strategy
• Set your goals and plan accordingly
• How to network at online events:
• Zoom gives you possibility to put smaller groups of people in separate rooms
• Have a dedicated platform or area on your website where the event takes place with different rooms to join for different topics
• Allow for social sharing opportunities
• Allow people to chat and excahnge social handles
• Create a community or closed group (Facebook or LinkedIn) where people can network before, during and after the event, find people and start conversations
• How to master your event followup:
• Follow up personally 1-on-1 with connections
• Send followup emails to all
• Send out event content e.g. pictures, documents people have collaborated on
• Turn your events into content, use the videos, write a blog post about it, post on social media
• Post an event survey
• Event emails 101:
• Email marketing tips for your event marketing and promotion:
• Let people know what you are referring to in the subject line, subject lines are highly contextual and you’ll get the open by being specific and relevant
• Keep the main message and call-to-action (CTA) above the fold in the email as it will increase your conversion rate
• Brand your emails, use your logo and colors
• Link to your signup page in every email
• Include your contact details
• Provide relevant information only and do not spam
• Kinds of emails:
• Invitation and registration email
• Clearly explain what the event that you are hosting is about
• Give a quick overview of the value they will get from attending
• Include all important event details
• Allow potential registrants to start planning
• Include your photo for a personal touch and so attendees can recognize you at the event
• Confirmation email
• Thank people for signing up
• Remind people of what they signed up for
• Include event details
• Ask your attendees to use your event hashtag and get engagement going online to build a relationship right from the start of the registration
• Reminder email
• Send a reminder email at least one week before your event and the day before your event
• Include important information e.g. time, location, agenda, link to join
• Followup email
• Segment: Send one email to those who attended, and one to those who signed up but did not attend
• Include important follow up information, replay videos, content that is available post-event and links to where they can sign up for your next event
• Lead nurturing email
• Provide value
• Have a CTA and get people to convert to something else
• Tool recommendations: There is technology out there for everybody
• Active Campaign: Get started with email marketing
• Canva: Create flyers, banners, graphics for social media and more
• Linktree: Connect audiences to all of your content with just one link
• Descript: Transcription and editing tool for video and audio
• Find Charles Matthews on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and his website or give him a call at 416 414 8964