So, you’ve got an event coming up but you have no idea on how to go about effectively spreading the word and generating ticket sales. No worries, we’ve all been there! Planning an event marketing strategy can be overwhelming and you want to be sure that the right people are being reached in order to get a good return on investment for your efforts. There is a lot to consider when creating an effective strategy for ramping up ticket sales so we are here to break it all down for you.
Start by considering the following:
- What are the goals of this campaign? (To bring in new customers? To build existing relationships?)
- What is your timeline?
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What geographic regions do you want to market to?
- What is your budget?
- What is your content creation plan?
- What promotional channels would you like to explore? (email, social media, PPC, content marketing, influencer marketing, etc)
- How can you leverage social media? What channels are most appropriate?
- How will you measure your event’s success?
Don’t let this list scare you. I promise you, answering all of these questions beforehand will only make the task at hand much easier! In order to ensure that your plan is focused and accurate, It is important to map out goals and objectives before you begin strategizing your marketing efforts. So, let’s dive into each of these questions and explain why they are important in your planning and how they tie into your overall success.
What are the goals of this campaign?
Whether you are hosting the event or organizing it for another company, it’s crucial to have your goals determined before you go any further with your planning process. There are so many different kinds of events like trade shows, seminars, launch parties, celebrations, and workshops. Every one of these events is structured differently and the one common goal of organizers is selling as many tickets as possible. While selling tickets should be your main objective, it should not be your only one! Ramping up your ticket sales is important, but how else can your business benefit from the event and surrounding campaign? in light of this, be sure to keep in mind that your efforts shouldn’t halt once the event is live. Set other goals and work toward them just as hard. Perhaps you’d like to improve customer relationships or bring in new customers? It’s not as simple as just getting them in the door. Once inside, how will you lock things down once the event kicks off?
What is your timeline?
Once your goals have been established it is time to map out your process. To avoid last-minute scrambling, sit down with your team and determine an effective and realistic timeline for the campaign process. This should cover everything from when you want your emails to go out to how you’re going to distribute your advertising efforts effectively. Of course things always change, but having a plan to go off of will relieve stress when you’re overwhelmed!
Who are you trying to reach?
Now we’re going to get into the core of your strategy, the WHO. Determine your target audience and examine their behaviors. Take a deep dive into the world of your customers to gain a better understanding of what they are looking for and the best way to grab and hold their attention. Every age bracket has different interests, preferred social platforms, and forms of communication. For example, a strategy for marketing to 18 – 25-year-olds would vastly differ from a strategy for marketing to a 65+ audience.
What geographic regions do you want to market to?
Is your event regionally specific? Or, are you trying to reach people across the country? Determine what radius you are going to cover and organize your efforts accordingly.
What is your budget?
Budgets are always daunting but if you plan ahead and allocate your funds appropriately you will avoid overspending and having to make last-minute unexpected cuts. If you’re aware of your budget far ahead of time, you can use that information to curate your strategy. You don’t want any surprises down the road!
What is your content creation plan?
Content can truly make or break a campaign. You may have a slew of amazing ideas but if you can’t articulate them in an effective manner you will not have much success in meeting your objective. If you have someone in-house that is skilled in design/ photography, then you’ve hit the jackpot! QUALITY content isn’t easy to create and should not be put on the back burner. We live in a very visual society so it’s important for your content to be eye-catching and consistent with your brand/event.
What promotional channels would you like to explore?
So far you should know:
• What your goals are
• What your timeline is
• Who you’re trying to reach
• Where you will be advertising (geographically)
• What your budget is (hopefully)
• Your plan for content creation
Now, what do you do with all of this? From here, you should determine what marketing routes you want to explore! Perhaps you want to implement some email marketing and landing pages, PPC ads or even influencer marketing? There are plenty of routes to go down so it’s really important to do your research before making any decisions. in all of this, recognize that your target audience, geographical location, and budget all play major roles in planning out your advertising efforts.
How can you leverage social media?
In today’s day and age, social media has become a major advertising channel and in recent years many social channels have adapted to facilitate this. Facebook specifically has really expanded it’s arsenal of tools to create paid advertising campaigns. You can create custom audiences, upload your own list of potential clients and fully customize your campaign down to the frequency of the ad. >> Check out how Facebook breaks everything down
While the social media advertising world can be daunting, it’s definitely something in which you should invest time exploring. Each social channel appeals to different demographics so pick your channel wisely to be sure you’re allocating your time appropriately.
Perhaps the most important aspect of promoting on social media is exposure. Get people sharing and interacting with your content to expand your event’s reach! Remember, this also comes back to the importance of quality content. If your photos and designs look good and your copy stands out then people will want to take the time to take in what you’re putting out.
How will you measure your event’s success?
After you have put in all of the hard work, how do you know that your goals have been achieved? In the marketing world, we use KPIs ( Key Performance Indicators) to prove success. KPIs are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively business objectives were achieved.
Here are some popular KPIs that measure event success:
• Registrations
• Gross revenue
• Attendee satisfaction
• Social media mentions
• Customers acquired
With all of these in mind, be sure you have determined the ways you plan on measuring the success of your event. Plus, you’re going to want to show off all of your hard work!
Everything we outlined above plays a big role in ramping up your ticket sales, so don’t forget to plan ahead, do your research, and have fun! Take our advice when planning your next event and you’ll be on the path for success! If you’re looking for some help developing or implementing your strategy, we would love to chat! Here at Marketing Tech, we are experts in marketing automation and campaign efficiency. Using direct mail, email campaigns, landing pages, and so much more we’re able to streamline your marketing plan for seamless execution – want to learn more?
