savvy marketer’s playbook to event marketing success · 2019-10-24 · foreword this event...

SAVVY MARKETER’SPLAYBOOK TOEVENT MARKETINGSUCCESS

EVENT MARKETING GUIDEEvent marketers need a new guide that enhances brand

connections, create brand experience and successful

series of brand gestures. This guide provides guiding

principles that will help answer those tough questions,

provide strategic direction and what B2B event

marketing means to your business.

Regalix © Savvy Marketer’s Playbook to Event Marketing Success

FOREWORDThis event marketing playbook is a guide to developing

a thriving business in this rapidly growing digital industry.

Technological innovations have led event marketing beyond

traditional tactics to methods that are more creative and far

more effective. The ever evolving digital channel has opened

up a world of new possibilities, and the key to success

is identifying areas to work and how to work them. Event

Marketers in all brand categories need to create a marketing

plan that will connect with the target audience, whether they

are live events or online events. An event marketer needs

to ensure that brand experiences reach the intended target

audience. They are no longer just mere target audience for

your marketing plans and consumers of your product or

service. They are your brand ambassadors, recommender’s,

co-innovators, partners and brand advocates. As a result,

event marketing messages have become a conversation

among millions and brands need to make sure they

collaborate with all facets of marketing goals


1. The Event Industry

2. Create a Solid Event Strategy

3. SMART Objectives for Events

4. Smart Ways to Boost Your Events:

5. The Event Page

6. Pre-Event Email

7. Pre-Event Social Activity

8. Event Blog Posts & Media Webcasts

9. Search Engine Optimization

10. Putting Social Media to Work

11. The Digital Event Value Chain

12. Measuring the effectiveness of the event

13. Create Meaningful Brand Experiences

14. Risk Assessment

15. Conclusion

SECTION


THE EVENTINDUSTRY1

(On an average, marketers spend about 30% of their marketing budget on

events ( Source: Forrester), which is a sizable amount. Events provide a unique

opportunity for lead generation, branding, customer and prospect engagement,

and educating attendees. There are not many other tactics in a marketer’s

toolbox that can deliver the same impact as an event. Event Marketing has been

a staple in B2B, where the face-to-face conversation enabled by a corporate

event plays a valuable role in launching and deepening a business relationship.)

B2B perception pendulum swings economic mood. Stakeholder relationships

nurtured through live events are more valuable than ever. B2B net sales in the

coming year will continue to be heavily influenced by live events that offer direct

customer connection and cement relationships as trusted advisors. . One could

call it event marketing, live marketing, experiential marketing or any other sobriquet

and we live in this new world where we are building technological overlay to real-

world places for e.g using QR codes to market your business—all with the motive

of educating and engaging your target audience.

Marketers find themselves facing planning phases where volatility is the mainstay

and respond now is the daily executive battle cry. We are under pressure to

pinpoint priorities and contain spending while still delivering an increase in revenue.

While prudent cost containment is at the core of any marketing plan, one needs

to also engage directly with the target group meaningfully. If the goal of advancing

the relationship remains at the center of the strategic planning cycle, it is possible

for marketers to take it to the next level. Making deft adjustments in response to

market challenges guided by an understanding of the value behind strategic event

formats is critical to crafting a plan that builds customer relationships and scope

for new avenues.

Regalix © Savvy Marketer’s Playbook to Event Marketing Success / 04

How do you promote, plan, and execute your events so that they are flawless and hit all of the right notes. Consider the following aspects when you structuring your marketing plan.

• Reach the right people

• Consider the information they need to know about your event

• Make a decision about understanding its purpose.

Key Points to consider during the planning process:

• Successful planning ensures that an event remains competitive

• It creates ownership of strategies and communicates this to the

organization

• It helps communicate where an organization is at present, where it is

best placed to go in the future, and the strategies and tactics needed

to achieve that position.


1. Event Name

2. Event Date(Make sure your event does not clash with others)

3. Time(s)

4. Location

5. Background (Is it a one-off or Regular occurrence?

What is the focus of the event?

6. Event Description

7. Objectives (Identify the objectives of your event. Objectives should be measurable)

8. Target Audience (Demographic and Psychographic characteristic)

9. Branding (Identify the features that make your event unique)

10. Strategies (Identify strategies that will be used to achieve the event objectives)

11. Budget (Develop a marketing and promotion budget for your event)

12. Medium (Identify mediums through which you plan to

promote your event)

13. Identify how you plan to measuring the effectiveness of the event

14. Tools used to measure the success of the event

THE MARKETING PLAN TEMPLATE

CREATE A SOLID EVENT STRATEGY

The event will have to be tied to a strong concept and purpose. Identify an

opportunity and assess the various risk factors associated with its successful

delivery. A large part of the planning process is determining your event goals

and strategy.

• If it’s a unique event or if it’s duplicating an existing event.

• Determine which audience(s) the event will appeal to; select methods and channels for reaching those audiences

• Identify the gap in the market and detail out how the event will bridge this gap

• Overall demand that the event will generate

• Is it financially viable

• Will it have potential for growth

• Detail out the demographics and psychographics of the target group for the event

• Look and feel of the event

• Basis the look and feel, brand tone and manner decide the location of the event

2


SMART OBJECTIVES FOR EVENTS

Specific to the brand’s marketing objectives

Measuring performance during stages of your event

Achievable or Agreed by the stakeholders in the organization

Realistic or Relevant to the brand tone and manner

Tracking progress of event activities

Integrating events into your marketing strategy

Budget

3

The idea of integrating marketing activities and channels is to compile a

holistic marketing strategy that takes into account the various ways in which

your intended audience receives your message. From here, it’s important to

map out the relevant activity – e.g. a mix of PR, social media, email, online and

offline events – and material to guide the buyer through the buying cycle in as

linear route as possible. At the same time make the cost of sale as optimized

as possible to make the process formulaic too. The great thing about including

an online event in your strategy is that it is cost effective, can involve one-to-

many, be recorded and reused, shared via social media, included in an email

campaign and, when added to your website, increase SEO focus. Importantly,

events help show a degree of investment from the prospect, are a great basis

of pre-qualification and should be integrated into your marketing strategy.

Once you have your goals outlined, you need to consider how much it will cost

to accomplish those goals. Make a checklist and start developing an overall

price tag.


Plan your event ROI

Shift to Participation Marketing

Measurement criteria for different stages of your event

One has to plan for the ROI from the beginning. Because events can result in

numerous outcomes, you will likely need to measure and improve. This very

fact can make it tricky to measure the ROI of events since they serve multiple

purposes such as lead generation, pipeline acceleration, deepening customer

relationships, etc. Clearly define goals you are trying to achieve and what

should you optimize for.

Events are truly multi-dimensional. Customer interest in events declines when

the purpose of attending is lost. Customers no longer need brands to deliver

product information given the mass proliferation of information available online.

Marketers that drift away from events tend to be those locked in the traditional

one-way conversation of expert opinion. Take a campaign-driven approach to

your digital events and layer in a diversity of online tactics such as webinars,

videos, live chat and virtual sales rooms. The hub of your digital event strategy

is always a compelling campaign site that allows you to add new content

throughout the event lifecycle. This website becomes the digital destination for

your event strategy and creates high value content that can blend into broader

marketing efforts. It is of vital importance that content created for digital events

have suitable production standards to engage the audience.

Measure pre-event activity

• Number of registrations

• Demographics of registrants

Post-event measurable

• Further engagement potential

• Enquiries

The amount of data could be overwhelming. Establish early in the proceedings

the point at which you regard your objectives achieved and the event a

success.


SMART WAYS TO BOOST YOUR EVENTS4

• Facilitate user defined content creation and publishing

• Make sharing and peer collaboration simple

• Create a brand experience that is consistent with your live events

• Entertain and inform with rich multimedia digital content

• Harness online capture tools to create advanced customer

intelligence

• Invest in production values, particularly video & audio quality

• Redefine how you measure digital events to include social media

mentions/linkage stats


THE EVENTPAGE 5

The foundation of all the promotion efforts is the event page or website. The

page or website specific to the event should have all details pertaining to the

event and the information should be presented in a format that is persuasive

e.g, inforgraphics, contest etc.

1. Description: Communicate the topic, time, place and target audience

clearly. Include specific benefits for each type of attendee. Make it brief. Use

an endorsements when possible, such as a quote from stakeholders who

have attended the previous event if need be.

2. Pre-Event Content: Tangible content leading up to and/or during the

event for event attendees as a takeaway from the event (this could be videos,

whitepaper, case study or just a summary of the event.) Done right, this can

add to the buzz leading up to the event. Content is about capturing great

memories!

3. Event Speakers: Great speakers draw crowds! Get an industry expert

to resonate the objective of your event and the requirements of your target

audience.

4. Videos: Create simple video interviews of the speakers and post them on

your event page. These can be produced using Google Hangouts or Skype.

5. Prominent “register now” button: A clear call-to-action copy is a must on

your event page which will get the user to take the intended action.


PRE-EVENT EMAIL6

Create a list and email marketing will be your best channel. Use these event

email marketing guidelines:

1. Subject line: Subject lines that inspire awe, anger, or anxiety lead to

higher open rates. Try a subject line such as ‘What you would miss if you

don’t attend this event’

2. Timing: Consider sending an email on Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday.

Since few companies do it, open and click through rates may be higher.

Anticipate when they are likely to feel less stressed out and more willing to

commit a few hours to your event. They may be in a social mood and even

invite a friend.

3. Image Thumbnail: Show a clickable image of a speaker in the email.

It will help improve clickthrough rates.

4. Social proof: Use positive feedback from stakeholders who previously

attended your event / Mention credentials of your speakers. Use them as

quotes in your emails.

5. Frequency: Send out an emailer every week for a month. You can choose

to announce the speaker lineup, topic and announce early-bird registration

rewards.


PRE-EVENT SOCIAL ACTIVITY7

Events are social occasions. Here’s how to promote the event with social media.

• Registration opens

• Early-bird registrations

• “ X days until the event!”

• Time and Venue

• Thank your partners

• Mention speakers and their credentials

• Mention registrants

• Testimonial quotes about a speaker

1) Hashtag: Pick an event hashtag that’s unique to your event. You’re going

to always use this hashtag in every tweet and post.

2). Links in social media bios: Usually your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

bios will link to your website. But when you’re promoting a big event,

consider changing these links so they send visitors directly to the event

page.

3). Find relevant audience: Find your target audience . Mention them in

tweets about the event.

4).Tweeting: Tweet early and often. Here’s a list you can consider


5) Follow people: Follow an expert / target audience in the space, you

might get their attention and they may notice the event. It’s best to follow

people when you have a compelling event promotion tweet at the top of

your stream.

6). Post the event on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+: Mention

speakers, encouraging them to share it with their network by running

contests, persuade the audience to attend / recommend the event by giving

them a gratification.

7) Thank you page: On the thank you page after registration process, offer

to let them share the event on social media.

8) Cross streams: If you find that you’re getting traction on one social

network move the conversation around. If someone shares something

on Facebook, thank them on Twitter. If someone mentions the event on

Google+, say hi to them on LinkedIn.

As you can see, we’re recommending a lot social media activity, taking

advantage of any excuse to connect, mention, post, tweet and link.


EVENT BLOG POSTS & MEDIA WEBCASTS8

1) Write a pre-event blog post: Could be an interview with one or more of

the speakers.

2) Invite speakers to write guest posts: Speakers will recognize that this is

time consuming; Persuade them and mention that there are SEO and social

media benefits to guest blogging. Encourage them to share that content

with their networks.

Submit to Media Websites

1) Submit to local media outlets: Search for event calendars on Google

in your city.

2). Submit to industry associations: If the event is relevant to their

audience, ask if they will accept, post or promote events by letting them

know that this help improve the audience’s learning curve.

3) Let the press know: There are likely journalists who cover local events.

Contact them with an invite or offer of a relevant article. This could be an

interview with a speaker or a guest blog post from you for their website.


SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION9

1) Target a keyword: Choose a relevant a keyword. The target keyword

should combine the event topic, the word “event,” and the name of your

city.

2) Title tags and headers: Use a title tag and header that include your

target keyword. This helps indicate relevance to Google.

3) Description: A detailed event description which includes the keyword.

Look at SEO checklists available online.

4) Linking: Links are important for search engine rankings, so make sure

to link to the event page from other pages on your site including older blog

posts. This will guide visitors to the page, but also help search engines

know that the page is relevant.

Regalix © Savvy Marketer’s Playbook to Event Marketing Success /16

PUTTING SOCIAL MEDIA TO WORK10

Social media adds value to events by extending their reach beyond the

physical space. However, cutting through the clutter of information and

content in social media is increasingly a concern for relationship centric

event marketers. The solution lies in delivering high quality events that

provide context for the virtual world. Marketers need to create memorable

experiences that people will want to share on sites such as Facebook,

YouTube and other social networking sites.

How to connect with people more effectively:

• The cost of delivering a message today is minimal, explore high-impact and

low-cost publishing platforms

• like WordPress to build your online event presence

• Twitter hashtags and other social sharing linkages are expected for every event

campaign

• Your role shifts from educator to knowledge-facilitators

• Immerse your audience in rich content


THE DIGITAL EVENT VALUE CHAIN11

Make sure you take a campaign-driven approach to your digital events and

layer in a diversity of online tactics such as webinars, videos, live chat and

virtual sales rooms. The hub of your digital event strategy should always be

a compelling campaign site that allows you to add new content throughout

the event lifecycle. It is vital that content created for digital events have

suitable production standards to engage the audience.

Webinars & Webcast

Virtual Spaces &Places

Leve

l of E

ngge

men

t

Level of Collaboration

Virtual Events


Digital Events Toolbox:

1. Enable user defined content creation and publishing

2. Make sharing simple

3. Craft brand experiences that is consistent with your live events

4. Educate your audience with digital content

5. Harness online capture tools to create advanced customer intelligence

6. Invest in production values, particularly video & audio quality

7. Redefine how you measure digital events

Try to create an event where you can engage your target audience directly

and educate them about your brand offerings and do so by interacting in

a quality way. A lot of the technologies that are potentially transformative

to events today are essentially invisible. Augmented reality is a great

technology you can use in the live space for project demonstrations.

A couple of years ago it would have felt a lot more awkward, forced,

and gives you a very Matrix /Minority Report feel. Samsung came up

with projection mapping on buildings in Europe. It’s experience in the

public domain that gets attention and really can have the potential to

get the attention online. Sometimes the target audience may just want

to experience the brand before they actually go for the brand offerings.

Events are a great way to do this!


MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EVENT12

The end goal is essentially establishing a yardstick to determine the

performance of your event and the tools to drive decision and action based

on that data. It all comes down to three big questions:

1. Did you achieve what you set out to do?

2. What hard data do you have to prove it?

3. What will you do with that data to improve your performance?


Process a Marketer Should Follow

Tools should be used judiciously to:

1. Coordinating with sales to define the process and criteria

2. Identifying key management benchmarks

3. Coordinating with sales to define the process and criteria

4. Simplifying metrics so they can be tracked across media

5. Planning your measurement across media

6. Applying process consistently and reviewing it frequently

1. Develop easy-to-use data capture methods that are “BANT” driven

(Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe)

2. Document the incremental revenue opportunity and likelihood to

purchase

3. Utilize technology to engage audiences

4. Ensure lead capture methods are easy and engaging


CREATE MEANINGFUL BRAND EXPERIENCES13

Brand Team Direction- Focus on authentic experiences- Involve your agency in the strategy- Specify measurable objectives- Set customer talking points- Integrate media, PR and interactive- Commit adequate staff and dollars

Agency Team Execution- Find ways to invest in your clients- Be transparent in planning and execution- Offer scalable, quantitative capabilities- Build a communication strategy- Integrate other functional support and initiatives- Have your employees on site at events

Use the template below to list some of the characteristics / techniques and then

speak to your audience to capture what was working well at that point and what

made the experience extraordinary.

Characteristics / Techniques What Worked What Was

Extraordinary1.

2.

3.


RISK ASSESSMENT14

Risk is anything with the Potential to cause harm

1. Risk is the likelihood of the hazard causin harm

2.Consider what you can do to minimize the risk

3. Prepare contingency plans to repond if preventive measures fail


CONCLUSION

CONTRIBUTORS

The fact is, real-life experiences like events

shape opinions and buying preferences

more profoundly than other facets of

marketing. Evens are the driving force

behind the new wave of experiential

marketing which brings customers

face-to-face with your brand to create

memorable experiences. It’s the difference

between telling people about the features

and benefits of your brand offerings and

allowing them to experience these benefits

for themselves.

Krithika Ramamurthy

Joshua Sisodia

Priscilla Selwine

PriyoKumar Singh


ABOUT REGALIX RESEARCHHeadquartered in Silicon Valley, we help the CMO organization leverage emerging digital practices for creating marketing leverage as they bring new products and innovation to market. Regalix Research helps marketers through research-based insights, consulting and peer-to-peer programs that guide marketing strategy development and execution. Our focus is helping Technology companies leverage innovation and best practices to create real differentiation. Our analysts are practitioners with a successful track record of delivering real marketing results for both leading Fortune 500 companies as well as venture backed firms.

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For more informationTo find out how Regalix can help you,

please contact our office, or visit us at www.regalix.com

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savvy marketer’s playbook to event marketing success · 2019-10-24 · foreword this event...

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