How to run successful marketing and event campaigns

Monday’s #EventPlannersTalk Twitter chat was about marketing and event campaigns. We often read in industry press that x company is launching a campaign, and y company winning an award for a campaign. But, with all social media channels available and audience’s attention span getting shorter, what really makes a good campaign?

Everyone had a different opinion on each of the questions below, but what a great exchange of ideas and inspiration!

Thank you to all chat participants @JamesTCaldwell @AmandaThurlow @CaycelEvents @Melgaffney14 @ChurchStEvents @DetailsQuinn @LDNEventsGirl @Copylines @StaceyKoks @this_is_cecilia @racj25 @AssnExecs

Which channels can you use for event & marketing campaigns?

All social media channels and emails. But not all at the same time, which can be a turn-off.

On and offline – web, social, eventbrite, event apps, print advertising, direct mail etc.

Blog, social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), email, live events and social ambassadors.

Important to have a dedicated landing page – website or blog.

Use your location. Have your DMC or CVB engage your audience via all types of social media.

Newsletters and word of mouth.

Media relations – press release.

Sharing content is not enough; engage your followers and give them something interesting to share and discuss.

How to ensure the message is consistent on all channels?

Keep all content relevant, and designed specifically for each communication channel.

Have a campaign plan at the outset setting out the channels to be used along with the content for each.

Sites like Fatsoma and socials Twitter, Snapchat and others according to target audience.

Have very clear objectives from the beginning and then design/develop messaging. Agree with client before disseminating.

Plan ahead so you know which messages you are delivering to which channel and when.

Create an online persona. An actual person who has a personality that all your team understand. Each member of the team then thinks How would *** reply/ communicate.

Have strong visual impact and identity and dedicated hashtag, have an online moderator to engage with the audience.

Planning, scheduling and live engagement all leading back to the same place i.e. – website! Clear and regular messaging are key!

The content has to be appropriate to the audience of that channel in order for it to be consistent. e.g. – content posted on Facebook might not be appropriate for LinkedIn and vice versa.

If your campaign landing page is not clear and concise – an announcement does not make sense.

Seeding timely marketing efforts to build momentum is key.

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Example: #SwissFormula Campaign. Great visual impact and high attendee engagement. 

How to announce that you’re running a campaign?

Varies – different campaigns require different styles. Some will work better in different formats e.g. – video or photo.

A campaign launch is essential! Announce on all relevant event social pages. It should be a ‘real’ thing.

Use online and offline communities to spread the word. Nothing more effective than word of mouth and endorsement!

Don’t need to announce a campaign, content will speak for itself it is what you do with the content next that counts.

Video teaser, live event, mailing, press release.

You need to have an engaged community that you are talking to constantly. Rather than announce.

How to generate leads from the campaign?

Leads take time so first focus on profile rising, brand awareness, developing relationships that hopefully turn into leads.

Remember to include ‘call to action’ options in all the channels used for the campaign.

Track all your traffic to your website. Should be an easy way for people to engage with your event.

Yes, any sort of engagement tool to capture data is important, for feedback and analytics, not just lead generation.

There must be a clear call to action but you can still measure all channels separately.

Important to grow a list of influencers and work on influencer engagement.

What’s the ideal campaign length?

It depends on the campaign. Has to be best suited to the style of the campaign.

There isn’t one it just depends, but you need enough time to engage your audience before the event and get them bought in.

Depends on event/its objectives, some may require a short burst of activity, others may need to nurture longevity.

I think 8 weeks is a good length for a campaign, long enough to build enough short enough to keep engagement.

Sometimes short campaigns work well in attracting engagement e.g. – today only/ competition/ask our expert between set hour. Only problem is that with the sheer amount of info out there, some short campaigns can be missed!

Ask yourself: Did you fired all your publicity bullets; or when you should move onto other marketing targets?

Can be between 1.5 – 6 months.

By determining how much effort will it take to get the job done effectively.

How to measure campaign’s success?

Whether you are on a campaign or not you need a way for people to engage with you.

Measure the ROI and track attendee enjoyment.

It all comes back to the objectives you agreed at the beginning. You need to measure against a baseline.

Software analytics, customer feedback, PR activity, on/offline conversations, client satisfaction!

Follow up opportunities, client Intel gathered, click through rates, social media mentions and leads converted to business.

Clicks on links, spikes in bookings during campaign activity, social media engagement.

Need to decide your campaign goals, set and measure KPI’s based on this.

Looking at your eventdata. Review what generate new leads & engagement.

Major indicator is sales. More sales means campaign was successful.

Campaigns have different goals, brand awareness, community engagement etc…not always just sales.

Definitely set a target 4 your different methods. Track and engage everything. What works do it more.

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