Flyers, banners, newspaper ads, and various printed media used to be the typical advertising format for events. Event marketing now goes far beyond that. Today, festivals, conferences, and other gatherings have websites, email lists, and social media accounts that all need to be analyzed and monitored over the duration of the event.

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These digital components are part of inbound marketing efforts and will propel your event to the next level. So, how can you connect with those that would be interested in your event? There are 5 key components to reaching your attendees and boosting your online presence:

Website/SEO

You need a website, and it’s especially important when there is a gathering hosted that involves your brand. It’s amazing to think that a website can be your first impression before your event even happens! To accomplish a “top shelf” location you must increase your Search Engine Optimization with any and all new information. Building SEO is a process, and sometimes there are larger companies that will monopolize certain keyword searches. The importance is coming up in a potential attendee’s Google search. SEO allows your website to gain more views from a variety of different keyword searches. This is where you can ensure that your events website is seen by anyone that searches for things that are relevant to your event. Your website should have answers to questions, links to social media, calls-to-action, and most of all are continually updated! The more keywords and information that you have on your website, the higher your website will rank in searches. In addition, your website should have a call-to-action button to capture email addresses from those interested in your event, which leads me to my next point: email marketing.

Email Marketing

With all of your volunteers, sponsors, past attendees and future attendees, you should have email lists set up that will remind people of your upcoming gathering.  Include calls-to-action, links to sponsors, links to blogs and a link to your website. According to a study done by Eventbrite and Hubspot, statistics for emails for events have proven beneficial. The most important aspect of email marketing is ensuring your emails are mobile friendly. Did you know that 80% of emails are opened and read on mobile devices? By making your content phone-friendly, you increase your chances of registration, shares, and overall engagement. This type of content distribution is a basic, yet powerful tool, so don’t underestimate its influence.

Blogs

Blog posts add value to the rest of your marketing efforts. Not only does it give you another opportunity to talk about your event, but it encourages conversations and sharing on social media platforms. Are you in need of volunteers? Blog about it! Want to bring special attention to bands, sponsors, or vendors? Give them a shout out! Don’t forget about the keywords mentioned earlier. Your blog is one place where those come in handy and need to be used. Give your brand, and event, a story worth talking about and allow your attendees to feel like part of that process.

Social media

As mentioned earlier, social media is a key component to event marketing. People connect with you through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Engaging with your audience before your conference, party, festival, or gathering is just as important as engaging with them during and after! According to Hubspot, a whopping 65% of event goers post to social media during an event, and, on average, attendees share the event on Facebook about seventeen days before it starts. What are some ways to drive engagement through social media? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Snapchat your vendors and bands
  • Post a Facebook status of your location and share that your event
  • Tweet a “thank you” to your sponsors and retweet deals they might be sharing
  • Give your guests a Snapchat geotag to put on their story
  • Make sure that your event has a hashtag for Instagram

Having a team or business behind your social media can be even more effective so that you can focus on running your festival or conference while your social media team takes care of, well, social media.

Social Intelligence Monitoring

Okay, the event is over, so how did you do? How do you know what’s being said about your event? The social intelligence monitoring software, NUVI, is here to help show you. All engagement surrounding your event, from mentions to peak conversation times, can be tracked through this program. These statistics are important because they can help you engage with your audience afterward, as well as provide statistics to help you understand your attendees’ questions, concerns, and needs. Thankfully, the reports are easy to glean information from once it’s time for overall success to be measured. Easy to understand graphs and numbers will point you in the right direction when it comes to improving performance for the next time

With inbound marketing efforts included in your event, you are sure to raise engagement, awareness, and attendance! Allow your guests to have input and engage with them through social conversation. Create a one-of-a-kind website to drive traffic and answer questions, an email marketing campaign to remind your fans of the upcoming event, and a blog to build credibility and shareability. Don’t forget to engage with a social media team during the event to cover all media needs, and analyze the performance of your event with a social intelligence monitoring system. Keep all of these things up until your next event and you will see a rise in attendance and create raving fans!