Good work! You’ve just successfully hosted your marketing event and did a great job, but is the work really finished? You spent months pre-event on planning, plotting, arranging, and making sure people actually showed up, but now that it’s over, what do you do next? If your answer is “rest”, think again!
Your marketing event, whether online or in-person has given you momentum, what’s even more important is to keep the interest you’ve created going. Your focus now should be on boosting your membership and sales. With the help of a few post-event marketing tactics, we can show you how.
Post-event follow-up is, by far, the most critical part of your event planning. It gives you the opportunity to generate buzz around your event and to nurture your guests down the funnel. Whether your event was for prospecting new customers, upselling existing clients, entertaining, or all of the above, this is where the rubber meets the road!
The most exciting part is that your event attendees have already engaged with you – they are your warm market and you should be using this stage to build on the excitement you’ve generated! As you follow up, you’ll start to see who is really interested and whether you should prioritize their time to book a meeting or invite them to future events. We all know that following up can be a challenge, so we wanted to give you some ideas which will enable you to do it with confidence.
What is Post-Event Marketing?
Post-event marketing is the process of promoting your products or services after the event has taken place. This is typically used for content created in advance, such as a trade show promotional video, or to promote an event in the past. Having a post-event marketing strategy is typically used to increase exposure, drive search engine traffic, attract new leads and spend time nurturing them by promoting your company’s accomplishments over time.
Post-event promotion is also a great way to engage attendees and keep your brand front of mind with current customers while also creating a lasting impression on prospective clients. Case studies have shown that post-event marketing delivers 5x higher ROI than traditional pre-event strategies, so it’s no surprise that large and small companies continue to grow their post-event marketing strategies. Post-event follow-up is also an excellent strategy for companies who are hoping to build their brand through earned media. Posting digitally is one of the new marketing trends brand owners use especially they can schedule events such as schedule Instagram posts, schedule tweets, schedule LinkedIn posts etc. to make their road map easy in this digital world.
All of this means that now is the time to be taking advantage of the post-event engagement window to amplify your event’s social reach and drive additional views, likes, shares, and even some backlinks to increase search engine rankings.
Benefits of Post-Event Marketing
1- Creates Customer Engagement – Post-event marketing should be seen as an opportunity to engage with customers over time, rather than just closing the door on the event itself.
Post-event marketing should influence all other stages of your digital strategy – from pre-campaign planning to post-campaign analysis.
2- Builds Brand Awareness – Increase customer satisfaction and grow your search engine rankings for multiple keywords! A post-event strategy should be regarded as an extended part of your overall content calendar, not an afterthought.
3- Drives More Sales – It is easy to be blinded by the immediate revenue that comes with hosting an event. While many people are happy with doing good business during the course of the event itself, it would pay off even more if you used this opportunity for post-event promotions as well.
4- Ensures Customer Satisfaction – For any brand wanting to be taken seriously, customer satisfaction is their goal for any marketing campaign they undertake. However, few businesses understand just how important this is when it comes down to hosting an event. Getting things right the first time is essential because if your customers aren’t satisfied, they won’t be coming back to other events you organize in the future.
5– Boost Your Event’s Memory – Make your event memorable. Post-event marketing allows you to generate fun and engaging social media content to promote your next event.
6- Attract New Sponsors and Partners – By creating exciting content about your next event you will give sponsors and partners a teaser to what your event will be like, enticing them to join.
Now that you know some of the benefits to creating a post-event marketing strategy, you might be wondering how to take it to the next level?
Here Are Nine Unique Ways to Take Your Post-Event Marketing Strategy to the Next Level:
1- Provide Thank You Gifts, or Goodie Bags To Event Attendees – Keep guests that attended your event reminded of and engaged with your brand by sending them home with a token of appreciation. You can also include additional items for guests who attended the event online, so it’s easier to track responses
2- Create A Post-Event Survey – Conducting a post-event survey for lead generation will help you get valuable feedback from attendees and learn what worked well, what needs improvement, and how to make the next events even better. It is also a useful way for your sales team to get to know who the hot leads are! Getting feedback from your attendees allows you to improve your event processes, so be sure to ask them thoughtful questions about the speakers, panelists, and topics they attended. If you’re not sure what questions to ask, “How can we improve? What did you like? What didn’t you like?” are a good start. Everytale is the ideal place to create chats, interactive polls, and tests to help the audience engage with you and other participants.
3- Use Social Media For Engagement – Post-event, use social media updates, photos, and videos to social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Use a hashtag specific to the event and encourage attendees to use it throughout the conference and during any follow-up activities after the event is over. Another idea is to create a social media contest to see who took the best pictures, comes up with the best comments and more. You can also collaborate with influencers and bloggers to promote your next event with influencer discount codes or affiliate links with bonuses. Time to get creative with your social media lead generation! Time to get creative with your social media lead generation!
4- Hold Post-Event Follow Up Webinars or Live-Streaming Presentations – Offer follow-up educational webinars or live streaming presentations that attendees can view after the event. The webinar content should relate to the event’s topic, but not just rehash what was said in person. Provide a bit more detail and keep it interactive! Webinars are an excellent way to engage your audience by using popular sites like Everytale, Youtube, and Facebook Live while driving traffic to and from your social media. If you can do something in the webinar that is exclusive to the event, all the better! For example, you might have your speakers from the event on the webinar for Q&A or “webinar-only” offers for those that attend.
5- Send Out Post-Event Emails – Don’t forget that people have given their time to come to your event. Thank your guests for attending and for their support. Thank them if they brought guests and ask about what they enjoyed most. You can even offer your attendees a nice discount to come to your next event. Another idea is to send a “Sorry we missed you” email using email software like Sendgrid, Brevo, or Snov to those who could not attend. It will show them that they were thought about and that you cared enough to let them know.
6- Exclusive Post-Event Offers – Every event management partner wants to retain customers and draw them for a second or third visit. One way of retaining customers is by offering an exclusive post-event offer. This could be a discount on the entrance fee or free access to an exhibition after the event has finished, or a coupon or percentage off on their next purchase. If you have an event app, you can also have exclusive offers for the event attendees to download your app.
7- Post Testimonials and Quotes From Speakers and Presenters – Use them on social media and your website to promote the event and encourage attendees to share their experiences online. You can also use them on your event page for upsells and your next events to show how much everyone enjoyed it.
8- Send Out Email Newsletters – These should contain links to related blog posts, videos, photos, or other content after the event so you can use your signage, swag, and other brand materials again! You can even add a thank you note to the top of your email with a link back to your site for people to purchase, make an appointment, or donate to your cause. Remember, this is your warm market; again, these are your “peeps,” so they are looking forward to hearing from you! You have their personal information, why not use it?
9- Create Networking Events After The Event – Most people will stay longer to attend subsequent networking events. You can even create break-out sessions. Whether your event is in person or virtual, the “party after the party” is where you can obtain juicy tidbits and get to know your audience better. Your guests will also get the chance to mingle with “like-minded” people. In addition, it’s a great idea to have your speakers join the networking event as you never know what burning questions they might have. Another side of the coin is that if any people are not happy about something or have a complaint, this is a good time to solve any issues with them so it doesn’t reach your social media or the general public.
To Sum It Up
If you didn’t know it before, you should do now – having an event marketing strategy is a great way to continue to promote your brand without being too promotional.
Hopefully, we’ve got your creative juices flowing and are excited about the benefits of post-event publicity! The tips we’ve provided will help you get started on planning and executing some successful post-event strategies to promote your organization after an event. If you would like to know more, feel free to contact us at Everytale for information on our platform! Our team is here for both consultation and execution. Everytale provides the perfect infrastructure for after-event lifecycle management. With Everytale, hosts can create an afterlife for their events and monetize them even after they have ended.
Remember, it really doesn’t matter how large or small your company is –you deserve great marketing campaigns just as much as anyone else. Nurturing lead generation is an important part of the post-event process. Don’t waste the audience that you just spent your money, time, and effort on to get them to join your event; instead, “strike while the iron is hot ” and make them your biggest fans ever!