Event marketing can be challenging. Once the planning and logistics of the event itself are complete, the hard work of getting people to the event begins. Attracting new attendees and finding ways to keep attendees engaged are critical factors to a successful event, but it can be difficult to know where to start.
One solution is leveraging the power of connections. It can be easy to take this factor for granted and assume it will happen naturally at the event or through networking. But the reality is that cultivating connections should be an intentional part of any event marketing strategy. Connections can boost event attendance, squash no-shows, and keep people coming back to future events. At InGo, we’ve built our platform around the power of connections and have figured out how to leverage this easily and quickly to get real results from your event.
Keep reading to learn more about why connections are so important and how you can leverage them to make your next event a success.
What do we mean by connections?
The word connections can mean different things to different people but when we talk about it in the context of event marketing, we’re referring to the spider web of connections that every individual (and prospective attendee) has. LinkedIn provides a perfect example of this. Visit your LinkedIn page and click on your connections. You can see all the people you know, and all of the people they know, and all of the people they know, and so on. You can also see people you have in common.
Those are the types of connections that can be invaluable in marketing your event and boosting attendance. In just one social media post that gets amplified through connections, one person can reach potentially hundreds of individuals who might be interested in attending your event. And then they post about it, and even more people learn about the event. With minimal effort, you can boost your reach by thousands, just by leveraging the connections of your attendees. Imagine that your keynote speaker has 1,000 connections on LinkedIn. If you ask that person to post that they’re speaking at your event, and invite them to attend, you could exponentially expand your reach through one person.
The challenges of connections
While the social media example above makes this all sound easy, the reality is that it’s not. It can take a lot of time to research the target audience for your event and find out what platforms they use. While most speakers are happy to help promote the event, that often involves writing social media posts and promotional language for them and hoping they actually do it. That’s all time that may end up being wasted with no return on investment. Additionally, speakers and attendees probably have no idea who else is already coming to the event and may not see the benefit of using their social media to promote it.
But the truth is, your current event attendees and speakers know dozens of other industry contacts who should be attending your event. The key is figuring out how to enable them to influence others to attend your event.
Making connections easier
At InGo, we know that your speakers, sponsors, and VIPs are your best marketers and with our platform, we make it easier to leverage their networks to your benefit. Simply put, we can make invites happen.
The power of social media lies in the innate desire to share and communicate with like-minded friends and colleagues. If we’re attending an event that sounds exciting, it’s almost human nature to want to show it off to everyone we know. That’s what the InGo platform is all about. Let’s say Jane is the keynote speaker at your upcoming event. Using InGo, she can easily share that she’s speaking, include details about the event, and share a registration link. From there, Jane’s connections see that she’s speaking. Odds are her connections respect and admire her and are interested in similar topics and won’t want to miss it. So they register. Jane has potentially reached hundreds of future attendees quickly and easily. And Jane will get notifications about every attendee that registers, enabling her to connect even further with them before and at the event. That level of community before the event can also help minimize no-shows. It’s easy to blow off an event when only the organizers know you committed to it. But when you’ve shared it with hundreds of people on social media, and encouraged them to go, keeping that commitment becomes important.
But it’s not just speakers who can make connections happen. Attendees and event sponsors can both do the same. Current attendees can also let their networks know they’re attending and see the registrations grow, which can create buzz and excitement as they think about connecting with old acquaintances and colleagues at the event. At the same time, sponsors can let their networks know they’re proud to be part of your event and encourage them to attend and learn more about their product.
Conclusion
Event marketing can be difficult and time consuming but the power of connections can make it all easier. Enabling your speakers, sponsors, and attendees to invite their networks to your next event can have an enormous impact on your success and help you grow attendance for your next event, and beyond.
Find out more about how you can leverage connections to get three times more attendees with InGo, the #1 tool for community referral marketing. Schedule a demo today.
