The Easiest Way to Increase Your Engagement Rate with Event Marketing
Photo by Teemu Paananen on Unsplash
Procuring quality and qualified sales leads is an integral part of any business venture and the events industry is no exception. No matter the type of event, you need attendees in order to cover costs, make your profits and build potential business and/or buzz for the next event. And as we know, event sales and marketing go hand in hand.
If you were lucky enough to have hosted past events where you used event technology to heighten the event experience - like an integrated guest list app that delivers valuable ROI on your event - then half the battle has already been won. However, after an event, you’ll have a multitude of qualified contacts/leads ready to be marketed to for your next event. Herein comes the question of how to use these leads in a manner that will reach and intrigue your audience.
A common misconception about marketing campaigns is that every campaign needs to deliver sales. While a great goal to have, it is simply not realistic. There needs to be a special balance to engage with your target audience in order to generate desirable engagement numbers.
According to conventionindustry.org, “205 million people in the United States attend the 1.8M conventions, conferences, congresses, trade shows and exhibitions, incentive events and corporate/business meetings“ annually. This rather daunting statistic casts a wide net over the fact that, as event marketers, we have a large audience that is most assuredly being inundated with marketing material.
So how do you separate your event from 1.8 million other events out there?
• Narrow your focus.
• Segment your leads.
• Derive marketing content focused on the needs of each individual segment.
By narrowing your focus and catering your marketing content to the needs of each segment, you will increase your engagement rate.
Approximately 75% of marketers say that personalized content is important, yet only 49% are learning to align their content with the buyer’s journey. With only 49% of marketers admitting to “learning” to align their marketing efforts to their buyer’s journey, this leaves an enormous opportunity for event marketers to begin increasing their awareness and ultimately their sales by directing and personalizing their marketing efforts. Simply by segmenting your leads and personalizing your marketing material to these segments, you will very quickly begin to see higher engagement with your content, giving you more opportunities to bring in more attendees.
Take a real-life case with an event transportation company, TBR Global Chauffeuring. The targeted audience is slightly different than that of an event host but after implementing these segmentation practices over the course of the last year, the company has seen a massive improvement in their lead response:
• an average increase of 400 impressions per campaign
• a 2% increase in engagement per campaign
The steady growth is proof that these audience segmentation tactics work. As the company continues to innovate and improve upon their marketing practices and branding in the industry, the future of success rates growing looks bright.
Have you recently implemented any segmentation for your event audience? Share what your experience has been below!
Guest Author Bio: Nick Marotta is a US Navy veteran and recent college graduate of Bridgewater State University where he finished with a degree in Business Management. Upon completion of his naval service, he dove right into the marketing community, and for the past year, has been heading up the marketing efforts for TBR Global Chauffeuring’s North America offices.
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