23rd Annual HR Florida Leadership Conference

January 9, 2016

Jenni Stone, MHRM, PHR, SHRM-CP

Program & Conference Promotion

HR Florida Leadership Conference Rosen Shingle Creek- Orlando, FL

Marketing and Promotion

Before you start developing your marketing materials you must differentiate between “Features versus Benefits”

A Feature is what your product, service or event has or does. It is a characteristic that is a quantifiable, indisputable fact.

Example: This program offers ten time management tips

A Benefit is something of value or usefulness that helps your target audience with solving problems or improving their personal or professional lives

Example: The program offers you tips on how to efficiently manage your time so that you can focus on high priority tasks

Determining the Benefits

Every feature typically has a benefit, so the question is how to identify the benefit?

Start with a list of all your features

Then ask some questions:

Why does this benefit matter?

Why problem does it solve?

How does it improve something?

What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)?

*If you find yourself describing features, listing product or program attributes, insert these two words, “So that” and finish your sentence with the benefit words.

The program offers ten time management tips “so that” you can prioritize your time and use it more effectively

Identify your target audience…and

reach them!

Identify Your Target Audience

How Do You Reach Them?

Website

E-Mail Blasts

Calendar of Events

Flyers and Brochures (Printed and on-line)

Posters

Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

Your Promotional Materials

A Great Headline

Use visuals and something that will grab your

audience

Meeting title, dates, location and contact details

Who should attend and why

The Benefits – This is about them, not you

Session Description, Speakers and Bios

Registration Information (how-to, deadline and fees

if any)

Where to go for more information

Your Website

Where are your events?

Website

Eventbrite

Calendar

How do I find them?

On the home page?

How many clicks?

Is it easy to register?

How may clicks?

Are all the details there?

Who, what, when, where, why

Email Blasts

The Subject Line:

Invite the email recipient to gain a benefit. They aren’t going

to open your email, unless they know that there’s something

in it for them. So, don’t be vague! One great benefit you can

include is an educational opportunity.

Avoid cliché email marketing terms. Common ones include

“act now”, “limited time”, “free” and “special offer”. These

words will do one thing – land your email in the spam folder.

Aim for 50 characters or less. Any more, and you risk part of

your subject line getting cut off.

Email Blasts

The Subject Line:

Don’t use too much punctuation. Steer away from

exclamation marks, all capital letters, dollar signs

and other cluttering symbols.

Make clarity a priority over cleverness. You want to

make sure that your subject line reflects the

content of the email. Otherwise, people who open

it may feel disappointed. Or they may not open it

at all, because they can’t find the benefit in all of

your creativity.

Email Blasts

Content:

Include a default if you are using dynamic content. Dynamic content varies by recipient. For example, you may include the first and last name of the email recipient in your message. Unless you want to scare your audience away with Dear [FIRSTNAME] [LASTNAME], include a default such as “Valued Member.”

Include a call to action. Set goals before you draft your email. Ask yourself, “What do I want the recipient to do with this email.” The answer may be that you want them to go to your website or sign up for an event. Whatever it may be, make your call to action eye-catching and vibrant, and only include one call to action.

Email Blasts

Content:

Don’t write an encyclopedia. Make your email

brief. People are only willing to give you so much

time out of their days.

Don’t forget to include the reader. The e-blast

should be about your audience and the benefits

they can receive from you – not all about yourself.

Make sure they know who the email is coming

from and communicate a genuine personality, but

don’t lose sight of the recipient.

Email Blasts

Layout:

Don’t design your email to look like your website, but

make sure there isn’t a disconnect between your email

and website and that people can easily redirect to your

site.

Don’t change your layout every other email. People don’t

like change, and you want to create long-term loyalty.

Don’t exceed 650 pixels wide. Most email clients are

capable of displaying emails up to 600-650 pixels. Unless

you want part of your email cut off, restrict the width to

these parameters.

Email Blasts

Images:

Include the basics in text format. Many email clients

display emails in plain text format by default. This

means that your images won’t show up unless the

recipient requests that they do. You want to make

sure that all of your vital information is viewable

without images.

Maintain a good ratio of images to text. Many spam

filters catch emails with an unbalanced ration of

images to text. So make sure your email is neither all

text nor all pictures.

Email Blasts

Images:

Don’t use large images that take forever to load. People

will likely leave the email rather than wait for your images

to load.

Don’t design your entire email as an image. Again, many

email clients show emails in plain text format by default. If

you design your email as an image, some recipients may

think you are sending them a blank message.

Don’t use stock photos. Using stock photos in an email

campaign is impersonal. Distract from the content.

Images should complement, not distract from, the

content of your email.

Email Blasts

Sending:

Choose a logical time to send your email. Most

business emails are best sent on Tuesday and

Thursday mornings, but every business is different.

Don’t send it from donotreply. Create engagement

with your members by sending your eblast from an

email address that will communicate with anyone

who replies to the eblast.

Don’t rush the process. Give yourself time to prepare

your email. Leaving it to the last minute invites all

kinds of mistakes and stress.

We’d love for you to attend our

conference. There will be 2 dishes, 3

snacks, 15 colors of napkins, seating

for 75, and two buffet tables. 30

sponsors, five speakers who will

present for 60 minutes each, while

you watch in amazement.

I bet you can't wait!

It’s about them, not you.

Carefully check your copy. Focus on the

member. It’s not that you assembled 25

education sessions, but rather the tangible

benefits that participants will gain — getting

answers to problems they have. If you want

to talk about your organization, use

testimonials.

Share Photos

Of actual conference attendees in all your

communication pieces. This allows you to

convey the diversity of your attendees in

terms of age, gender, and race. Let the

potential attendee see someone like them in

your photos. Never, ever use stock

photography.

Link to Critical Stuff

Attendees want to scan, bookmark, or print several

things: a schedule at a glance, a list of who else is

coming, and pricing. Don’t make any of these

difficult to find.

No one wants to read a 500-word email. Keep your

messages succinct and your headlines tight and

strong, with only one goal or call to action per

communication piece. Trying to communicate too

many ideas in one message is a surefire way to

disenchant or confuse the reader.

And now the fun stuff…..

Social Media Marketing!

Tips for Building a Marketing Plan

Develop a strategy by identifying your objectives and your audience. Ask yourself what you want to achieve:

Are you branding your chapter?

Are you promoting events?

Are you looking for new members?

Determine your audience by asking where your supporters congregate online: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, texting or e‐mail?

What do I want to achieve?

Social Media Audit

Consistency

Are you using them? Last post?

How many followers, likes, friends?

Growth

Engagement

Tips for Building a Marketing Plan

Launch an initiative designed to achieve your

objective and reach your target audience.

This could a Facebook page, a Twitter feed or a

YouTube channel, to name a few.

Be creative and original, but also look at what

others are doing and adapt it to your needs.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

My initiative will be….

Tips for Building a Marketing Plan

Feed and nurture your initiative. Find the

people in your chapter that can generate

content to power your initiative.

My Social Media Team includes…

Tips for Building a Marketing Plan

Measure and evaluate your initiative. What

worked and what didn’t.

How much time did we spend on it?

Did it have an effect?

My measurement includes…

Blogging

Only once or twice a month

Program or conference summary

Article written by speaker

How the topic/program relates to your

audience

Twitter Post Ideas

Event info: date/time/topic/registration info

Topic/Speaker/registration info

Blog posts

Key fact or statistic about monthly program topic,

registration info

Link to speaker’s blog, website, registration info

Last call for registrations •

Tweets during programs (photos, data nuggets)

LinkedIn

Discussions (Create 1/week can tie in to

program topic)

Monthly program events posted

Facebook

Monthly program events posted

YouTube video clips from events

Photos from every event

Blog link

Media Releases about events

Create a Highlight Reel from Previous

Events

Remember your intended audience. Your video

should convey the value of your event to

prospective attendees. Make the benefits of

attending crystal-clear.

Host on both YouTube and Vimeo. Each platform

has different strengths, so take advantage of

that. YouTube is the #2 search engine in the

world and the most used video platform on the

Internet. Vimeo, though smaller, offers more

control over your brand and no distracting

banner advertisements.

Create a highlight reel from previous

events

Leverage it everywhere. Video can be shared

almost everywhere: your website and/or event

landing page, in your newsletter, in articles,

with affiliates and on social media, including

15-second clips on Instagram.

Facebook loves video. Uploading native video

maximizes your exposure in the news feed.

Harness the Power of Visual Testimonials

Do you have great comments in the exit surveys from previous events? Maybe you’ve interviewed attendees or speakers and captured statements of excitement about specific sessions, speakers or your event in general. Don’t let those nuggets go to waste!

Create a template with branded images and a consistent color palette to help unify your marketing efforts and make it easy to share testimonial quotes.

Empower Affiliates, Fans and Attendees

With Shareable Assets

Make it easy to share your event. Provide a

web page with branded downloadable

resources that fit any platform.

For attendees: Capitalize on their excitement!

Provide a button to immediately share a

tweet or post when they land on your thank-

you page after registering.

Tip: ClickToTweet makes it super-easy to

create a simple, pre-crafted tweet.

Empower Affiliates, Fans and Attendees

With Shareable Assets

For affiliates/fans: Make it easy for them to share

your event by providing a variety of

downloadable content: audio, video, an article,

graphics, updates, email/blog posts and

blurbs/newsletter updates.

Provide options to accommodate different

posting styles as well as the image requirements

of the various social networks. For example,

rectangular images work best on Twitter, while

square images look best on Instagram.

Use Photos of Attendees in Social Updates

If you have a repeat event, leverage those fun photos you took at previous events. Even better, share user-generated content on your social accounts.

Take a flattering, fun picture of some of your attendees and create a status update. Identify the people in the picture and be sure to tag them if you can. This gives people an opportunity to comment and talk about how much they learned or what a great time they had and how much they’re looking forward to attending again.

Create One Unified Hashtag for Use Across All

Social Channels…and mention it EVERYWHERE!

By using an event-specific hashtag, you’ll

make it really easy for people to find not only

what you’re sharing, but what other people

are saying, too!

This is also a great way to create and

participate in an engaging conversation with

attendees and interested parties.

Don’t forget to add it to the Bio (About)

section of each of your social accounts.

Share Pictures of Speakers With Quote

Overlays

• Exposure for

speaker

• Glimpse into the

speaker for

potential

attendees

• Visual!

Leverage the Influence of the Speakers!

If some of your event speakers have a

significant social media presence, ask them to

promote your event on their social platforms

before, during and after the event. This can

go a long way toward generating buzz and

driving visits to your event website.

During the event, encourage speakers to take

pictures with event attendees and engage

with them on social media.

Add your event to your email signature

Have you considered how many emails you send

and receive on any given day? Each one of those is

an opportunity to spread awareness for your event.

Simply add a hyperlink and/or graphic to your

signature line.

Jenni Stone, SHRM-CP, PHR

HR Director, Partner

I want to see YOU at HR Florida State Conference!