Multi-Source Event Marketing

Marketing an upcoming event for your business can be problematic and confusing with multiple online outlets and platforms. The most important thing to remember is that if you are going to spend time and effort you need to be able to measure your results as well. Your website Google Analytics can tell you exactly where traffic came from, helping you to understand what worked and what did not work as well. So that means that your website should also be your starting point for any event marketing. ​

Your Blog:
1. Create a page/blog on your website about the event. If you have a series of annual events that keep on repeating themselves, these can be easily structured and built on separate blog entries to be recycled and re-dated as your event gets closer. This approach saves a lot of time and would only need a few minor updates before you can publish and promote.
2. It is useful to create a neat link to your blog using a link shortener such a Bitly to include in event tabs. Bitly also measures the ‘clicks’; you can compare with your Google Analytic results. All other sites such as your Social Media, Third Party Directories, Online News sites, and related industry sites should be used in a manner to drive traffic back to the original page/blog.  This means that when you create an event tab, only include a few words in the event description with a “Read More” and your Bitly link.

Social Media:
3. On Social Media Sites such as Facebook, Google Plus, and Linkedin use your personal profile, business page, and groups, all to help you market your event.
4. Create Event Tabs on your public business page and invite your personal profile friends to the event.
5. Share the event to your personal profile timeline, business page, and local/related groups.
6. Schedule at least 10 postings on your business page to the event blog on your website. Each business page posting should be about different features of the event such as menu, music, discounts, etc. 
7. Space the postings out over at least a 20 day period before the event depending on the size and audience. As your scheduled posts publish, try to re-share them immediately to related groups as a human. For Example: menu posting to local groups, bands posting to music groups, discounts to target related groups, etc.
8. Message business pages that are industry related networks/hubs with bigger audiences and ask them to kindly also re-share your event to their following.
9. If you are feeding your Facebook page to Twitter, remember to include your #hashtags for additional leads in #Geo #Brand #Related social searches.

Third Party Sites:
10. On Third Party sites such as Chamber of Commerce directory listings, Yelp and Angie's List (review sites) add local events if they allow it. If you have industry related online networks/hubpages that you could utilize, do so! Local news outlets also allow you to post events or submit press releases online. Follow up on these and when published live, make sure you share and schedule these events to your social media pages including @tags and spacing out postings.

Email Marketing:
​11. If you have a Newsletter that you send out you can include all of the above. If not then remember that a few of the above options also sends out emails such as Social Media Groups, Third Party sites, and News outlets.

Traditional Marketing:
​12. Banners and all images used to market your business event inbound online should also be used in your outbound marketing efforts in displayed banners/stands and printed flyers/postcards that you distribute.

When your event is past you can look at your Google Analytics. As all marketing efforts drove traffic back to your website you should see a spike or increase in activity to your website. The words and the sentences in your blog posting to your website helped with organic search results, sorting your website into related queries.  Your social traffic makes up most of your social media efforts, while your referral traffic generally comes from third party events, press releases, and emails. Banners, flyers, and all other traditional print marketing contributes to your branding and direct traffic. ​

And there you have it! The cherry on the cake is that every ‘click’ you generated back to your website counted towards SEO or Search Engine Optimization. That is the thing that sets you apart from your competitors…

Here is my Multi-Source Event Marketing “Roadmap”. ​

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If you need help navigating it, I look forward to assisting! To book a Skype Session for guidance in my virtual classroom, Contact Me.