It’s the moment many of us have been waiting for! In-person events are back, and we get to shake hands, have face-to-face conversations and real-life industry experiences. Some companies are jumping back into the event world feet first, while others are adopting a hybrid approach giving options to attend events both in person or online.
Whichever direction your business decides to take, don’t forget to shake the dust off the good ’ol marketing event plan book and add these fresh new content ideas for your next out-of-office experience.
Email Communication
If you don’t want to stand alone in your booth or host a networking party with crickets, then it is essential to get the word out about your event. Sure, you can send an email to let people know what’s going on, but try taking it a step further with these email communication ideas:
- Round up a selection of evergreen blog posts relating to the event theme and send them before the event.
- Hold a raffle that will take place at your event location for those who rsvp, sign up for a demo, or schedule a meeting in your booth.
- Create a sense of FOMO by sending live updates during your event with images of key moments and experiences.
- Follow up with a thank you gift for attending.
Start event communication early, and try not to stall on your event follow-up. The excitement from traveling and being exposed to new ideas will fade within a few weeks and you want to capture potential customers when they are motivated to make decisions to move forward.
Social Media
Whether or not you have a social media manager, designate someone to schedule a mixture of live and planned posts for your event. Check off the basics like letting people know where you will be and why they should attend, but also try adding a few of these ideas to your social content roundup:
- Take behind the scene footage of your team getting ready for the event to build anticipation.
- Share keynote speaker quotes.
- Get on-the-spot attendee testimonials about your company or product (with their permission of course!).
- Create a timelapse video of the setup, execution and teardown showing the full scale of your event lifecycle and the dedication behind it.
- Give a shout out to your booth neighbors and tag them, compliment them on what they did well, it’s all about networking!
- Take pictures, more pictures and then even more pictures after that. Post them live or post them later, trust us — you can never have enough!
Live event experiences provide a plethora of valuable content opportunities, ripe for use in real-time and even further down the road to engage attendees and create a sense of unity and industry connection.
Marketing Takeaways/Swag
The sole purpose of an event is to stretch the footprint of your brand, and network, and hopefully capture warm leads that you can transform into customers. Many people check the obvious marketing takeaway boxes: business card, 1-page handout, promotional swag. And these marketing assets still work, but we suggest you amplify them with a QR code.
A new study from Juniper Research has found the number of QR code coupons redeemed via mobile will reach 5.3 billion by 2022, up from an estimated 1.3 billion in 2017. Using a QR code omits the need to download an app or manually type a URL. It is a straight one-click shot of the content you want to distribute. Try using a QR code to share content in these ways:
- Use a QR code to share your website on a business card.
- Use a QR code on a promotional one sheet to share your latest eBook or white paper.
- Put a QR code on your swag or even your employee uniform that goes to a promotional video or product demo.
- Use QR codes to RSVP for events, deliver event schedules, and get feedback.
Luckily generating a QR code is really quite simple. Here is medium.com’s top list of free and paid QR Code generators.
Videos
Think of a promotional video loop as an extra employee on-site to educate attendees about your product but they don’t need a hotel room and they won’t eat anything.
If your marketing plan was successful then your event will be buzzing, but sometimes the employee/attendee ratio won’t match up. If there is ever a time to invest in a professionally made 30-second sizzle video or maybe a longer animated educational piece — it’s now. Not only can videos be used across most marketing channels (social, website, presentations, sales outreach, etc.), they can hold the attention of attendees if there is no one to talk with them as they walk in. Here is an example of an explainer video we did for our client, Legwork.
Events bring on a lot of excitement, however, they also come with a long list of to-dos. It can be easy to revert back and repeat the same marketing routine. Hopefully, one of these easy-to-implement ideas sparks some interest and adds a little flair to your next event.
Content Matterz can help bring your target audience together in real life (gasp!) and create a promotional strategy for your event including fresh new content and design that will lead you to success.