Events and marketing go hand in hand, providing the perfect opportunity to tap into the emotions that influence consumer behaviors more than anything else. Whether you’re marketing for your event or using an event to market your business, you’re primed to appeal to new customers.
The question is, how should you tackle event marketing? Which marketing ideas for events are going to bring you the most success?
We’ve narrowed down the best cool marketing ideas for events to help you get started. With each of these ideas, you’ll capture the attention and imagination of your target consumer.
Read on for six great marketing ideas for events that are worth trying this year.
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Find Your Audience With Event Hashtags
Hashtags on social media make it much easier to create a temporary digital community. If you’re attending an event as a vendor or booth holder, using any event hashtags that already exist is crucial.
Why should you use event hashtags? Let’s take a look at an example of how this can be of use.
Let’s say you’re a company that markets to a national audience but you’re attending an in-person event that takes place in a particular city. While you want to let all of your consumers know about your attendance, there’s a key group that really needs to know. That key group consists of the people who live in that city and the people who are traveling to attend the event.
By using event hashtags, you’re creating geo-targeted social media content. In other words, anyone who is tracking that hashtag is going to see your related posts and know to look for you on the big day.
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Share the Details With an Event Website
If you’re hosting an event on your own, it’s worth creating an event website. Yes, you can still include a promotional landing page for your event on your business website. Nevertheless, you should still create a separate website to promote your event.
Why? Event-goers are going to have a lot of questions about the event. They’re going to want to know everything from the location and date to the itinerary and where to park.
Trying to include all of that information on your business website is going to get a little clunky and hard to navigate. By building a separate website, you can provide a clean, easy-to-navigate layout. Plus, when the event has passed, you can easily deactivate the event website, rather than having to pull tons of content from your business website.
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Build Anticipation With Interactive Social Media Posts
You don’t have to wait until the event, itself, to provide experiences for consumers. Interactive social media posts are a great way to start the conversation about your event. They can also help to boost your SEO, follower count, and ROI.
Create polls using the Instagram Story feature or the Twitter Poll feature. Ask your audience what they’re most excited about and what they’re hoping to see. You can even use polls to give your audience a bit of control over the attractions offered at your event.
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Host Giveaways Before, During, and After
Consumers attend events because they’re looking for an experience. One of the best ways to boost or commemorate that experience is by offering free goodies. When those goodies are branded, they’re doing double duty by spreading brand awareness!
You want to keep your audience engaged before, during, and after your event. Why not host giveaways all throughout?
Are you charging an entry fee for your event? Host a handful of ticket giveaways in the weeks leading up to your event. Encourage social media users to repost your content or tag friends in your comments section to enter.
On the day of your event, sprinkle giveaway opportunities throughout the event space. Make sure these in-person giveaways are engaging and experiential. For example, have event-goers play games for branded prizes.
How can you keep the giveaways going after the event is over? Ask event-goers and your wider online audience to enter into a digital raffle by providing a phone number and email address. Then, offer a handful of winners a substantial prize, like a free product or service offered by your business.
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Boast About the Benefits of Attending Your Event
No matter which cool marketing ideas for events you use, make sure to boast about the benefits of attending. Seriously, don’t be shy!
Are you sharing important industry information? Are you keeping guests entertained with live music from well-known artists? Advertise what event-goers can expect from your event.
There are plenty of ways that you can get the word out about the perks of attendance. For example, consider creating one of these inspiring and informative videos created by https://www.1minutemedia.com.au/. You can share these videos on your event website, social media, email campaigns, and more.
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Spread the Word In Person
Naturally, it’s important to take advantage of digital marketing ideas for events. However, it’s equally important to remember the power of word-of-mouth advertising.
Encourage your customer-facing employees to spread the word as they interact with customers. Remind your clients, business partners, and neighboring business owners that you’ve got a great event coming up. Oftentimes, word-of-mouth advertising has more staying power because it’s personal, memorable, and emotionally charged.
Which Marketing Ideas for Events Will You Use?
If you’re getting ready to host or join an event, you won’t want to sleep on these marketing ideas for events. Consumers are driven by emotions and experiences, and events–and event marketing–offer plenty of opportunities to tap into both.
Looking for more ways to market your business both online and off? Ready to tap into marketing opportunities that seamlessly combine branding and entertainment? Take a look around for more content that will propel your business into the future.
