We are familiar with the definitions of events. We are familiar with the definition of a marketing campaign.

These two words are combined and make the whole greater than its parts. Event marketing is an effective and versatile marketing channel that is becoming increasingly important in many industries.

Event Marketing: The Process

Forrester Research estimates that events account for 24% of a CMO’s average B2B marketing budget. Projections show that by 2020, 3.2 million professional events worldwide will take place annually. This trend is growing.

These statistics should not be surprising. Live events are a powerful way to cut through digital noise in a digital age, where consumers are bombarded with digital messages from multiple sources.

Events marketing is one of the most effective and personal ways to connect with your target audience. Executing an event marketing campaign can be difficult and requires the coordination of many moving parts.

How to create a marketing campaign

Here are 15 steps to ensure your marketing campaign is successful.

1. Establish SMART Event Goals

We already know how smart and intelligent you are, so don’t be alarmed. SMART is a simple acronym that helps you set goals. The first steps of any marketing campaign are the most crucial.

You’ll be better able to communicate with your team and manage them by clearly defining the campaign’s goals.

Specific goals will help team members be more on the same page, and understand the steps required to reach the goal. To properly evaluate the campaign’s performance, make sure that the goals are quantifiable.

It is important to keep your goals realistic to feel accomplished throughout the planning process.

Focusing on the outcomes of each goal allows you to be results-oriented. Finally, it is important to be punctual with your goals and set hard deadlines so that you can ensure that everything moves at the correct pace.

2. Choose the most appropriate ROI metrics

After the team has established the goals and reached an agreement, it is time to decide on the metrics that will be used to measure each goal.

It is important to remember that different goals can be measured, so it is crucial to choose the right metric to analyze your event marketing ROI. Keep in mind, however, that one goal can be measured in many ways.

3. Choose an Event Marketing Campaign Attribution Model

How much credit should the event be given when more deals are closing after an event marketing campaign? Did this event mark the first interaction between these customers and the brand? These are just a few examples of why attribution models are so important to better understand the event’s impact.

You must first analyze all marketing campaigns running simultaneously with your event campaign, and then choose the best attribution. The W-shaped model is an example of an attribution structure.

This model, while being the most accurate in describing event ROI, is also the most difficult to use.

It takes into account all marketing efforts and touchpoints that led to a customer’s closing. Let’s take, for example, a prospect visiting the company blog and converting to an ebook. Then they attend a webinar and become customers.

The W-model would track all of these touchpoints and credit them accordingly. You could attribute 30% to your blog, 20% to the ebook, 20% to the webinar and 30% to events.

4. Make a detailed event marketing planning timeline

Once you have established your event goals and metrics, you can begin to plan your attack. The focus should be on setting deadlines, not a list of tasks when planning an event.

It will be much easier to prioritize tasks and make adjustments in the course of the campaign if you view it as a timeline. Gantt charts are a great way to organize your event planning timetable.

Gantt charts organize specific projects in the left column and a timeline in the top row. This is one way you can get a complete view of your event marketing campaign.

5. The Ideal Location

It is important to secure a venue. Large venues can often be booked months, sometimes even years ahead of time. Before you reserve the space, have a plan for how the event will unfold. Your event goals should be reviewed.

Facilitating networking among attendees is one of the objectives. It’s crucial to find a venue that has ample open space for networking or small meeting rooms for more structured sessions.

Lighting, accessibility, and staging/presentation areas are all important considerations. Before you start looking for the perfect venue, make sure you have a list of all your needs.

6. Secure Sponsorships

Event organizers face many challenges when trying to secure sponsorships. However, it is crucial if they want to organize a large-scale event.

You should reach out to potential sponsors as soon as possible. Also, make sure to create a sponsorship package that is attractive and hard to refuse.

Sponsors want the same ROI as you, at the end of it all. These can be in the form of sales leads, social media impressions, or website visits.

Include specific metrics that your target sponsors are most interested in in your sponsorship package.

7. The Right Event Campaign Management Software

After you have all the pieces in place, spend some time looking for the right event management software.

Platforms that reliably gather valuable event data and offer rich insights are the best. When you are looking at different software options, these are some of the questions you should be asking:

• Can I track the performance of event registrations in real-time

• Does your platform offer a website editor? Is the website customizable in any way?

• Is there an app for event networking?

These questions will help you to better understand the relationship between the software and your event goals.

8. Software integrations can be set up for your event data

You may use more than one software for managing your event marketing campaign.

You will need several tools to manage all the data generated by the campaign, whether it’s a marketing automation platform (MARP) or a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Integrating across platforms is key to leveraging all these tools. This allows you to have a comprehensive, high-level view of event data. Integrations reduce inefficiencies, increase productivity and give insights that are difficult to see without them.

9. Create a user-friendly event website

Let’s take a moment to look at event data and discuss best practices for creating a great event website. It should properly represent the event brand and provide an intuitive user experience.

It is important to keep things as simple as possible, but still, communicate the main message of the event. This should tie in with why website visitors should attend.

Make sure that the website offers seamless registration for attendees. Your website should be able to handle all ticket sales and registrations. This will ensure that attendees have the best possible experience.

10. The Social Media Strategy

Why not share your event marketing campaign with the world when you create it? Make sure you have a plan for your social media strategy. Here are some things to remember:

• Use hashtags for events hashtags. Make them concise, short, and memorable. Include them on as many marketing collaterals and web pages as you can (but not too spammy).

• Make attendees promoters. Your event will attract the most people. You can capitalize on this passion by holding social media competitions. Prizes will be given to the people who get the most likes and shares.

• Before the event, create online communities. To create buzz about the event, ensure that social media platforms are used well before the event. This will allow attendees to communicate with each other and build anticipation for the day they meet face-to-face.

11. Make a dedicated email campaign

An email will be one of the most important means of communication between your attendees and you. Set up an automated campaign to send emails as the event nears. Keep in mind, you’ll most likely have at minimum three different email workflows.

These workflows are for speakers, sponsors, and attendees. You can also be more specific about your segmentation. A higher engagement rate is possible if an email campaign is contextually relevant for the recipient.

These data-backed email marketing strategies can be tested. These email marketing best practices are also similar to those for web design services in Miami. Both in content and design, keep it simple.

Avoid overwhelming recipients with irrelevant or cluttered information. Make sure you have a visible and clear call-to-action button. This will direct them to the event website or separate landing pages.

12. Maximize your Onsite Experience

Your event day is finally here after much planning, organizing, and strategizing. Even though there are many things you need to do on an event day, these key elements will ensure that attendees have a pleasant experience.

• Registration on-site: This is the most important impression you make. Make sure that attendees smoothly arrive at registration. These tools will allow for an easier onsite registration process.

• Adoption of event apps: This is a great way to increase attendees’ engagement. An event app that is high quality will have many features such as session registration, real-time polling, and networking. Consider all the ways that participants can download the app and how they can use it to their full potential.

• Communication between the team is essential: A strong team will be able to overcome the challenges of an event day. These are the key attributes that will ensure that attendees have a memorable experience at your event.

13. Make the event a source of content

An event is not an island. Events are not only a great way to experience the event live, but they also provide a wealth of original content that can then be used in future marketing campaigns. You can be creative about how you squeeze content out of the event. You might consider creating a Facebook Live video series that captures the excitement of event planning.

You can host a Q&A session via live streaming during the event. Participants can also participate online. After the event, you can create blog posts about the highlights and the things to look forward to at next year’s conference. You have many options to produce content through event marketing so make sure you take advantage of every opportunity.

14. Surveys to Capture Attendee Information

Surveys are often used for post-event analysis. However, it is important to use surveys throughout the planning process.

Send surveys to attendees well in advance of the event to find out what kind of content, workshops, or speakers they want to see. Use the event app to conduct real-time surveys during the event asking attendees how they felt a particular workshop went and what their overall impressions of the event were.

You should also send out surveys after the event to get feedback from all participants (sponsors, exhibitors, speakers). These surveys will help you determine your net promoter score (NPS).

It will be vital data for next year’s conference to get a complete picture of the feelings of all attendees.

15. Measure against the Initial Event Metrics

After the event is over, take some time to review the data with your team and compare it to the original event goals and metrics. You should look at key statistics like gross revenue, total registrations, and total check-ins.

You can take advantage of more advanced event management software by breaking down each metric further to understand the entire event scope.

It is crucial to have a clear understanding of the performance of the event campaign about the original goals. This will help you plan future events marketing strategies and accurately measure event impact.

Conclusion

Although it can seem daunting at first, event marketing is much easier once you have the right systems in place.

These 15 steps will help organize your campaign and set up the processes that will ensure success.

This list is not exhaustive, so you can combine the steps with other best practices and any tips that you have learned from your own experiences.

As live events continue to grow in popularity as a marketing solution for professionals from all industries, it will be a great way to expand your knowledge of event marketing campaigns.