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4 Event Updates in Facebook that Event Holders Should Know in 2019

4 Event Updates in Facebook that Event Holders Should Know in 2019

by | Feb 19, 2019 | Attendee marketing

At this point, pretty much everyone is aware of the importance of utilizing social media channels for outreach, and with upwards of two billion users, Facebook claims dominance among social platforms.  As an event organizer or host, you want to do all you can to get your message to the right people.

This means promoting in smart ways that connect you to prospective event attendees that are most likely to already have an interest in your industry, subject matter, and so on.  Facebook can help, especially when used correctly.  For event holders, convention planners, and organizers of every stripe, this means using Facebook Events.

According to Facebook, 700 million people use the Events tool each month to market events and 35 million people view a public event on Facebook each day.  You definitely want to make sure you can cut through the noise and get your event in from of the right people.  Facebook is constantly improving, and every convention planner and event host can benefit from understanding updates.  Here are a few you’ll want to take advantage of in 2019.

Include a Ticket Sales Link

Spreading the word about your event to an interested audience is a great place to start, but from there you want to make sure follow-through on a purchase is as easy as possible.  The good news is that you can include a link to your ticket sales page as part of your event page, helping to drive purchases and attendance.

Best of all, you can use the data from click-through to improve your promotional efforts for future events.  As a convention planner or event host, you not only want to facilitate purchases but also gain the ability to market future events.  Linking to a ticket sales page is a great way to accomplish both goals.

Custom Event Audience for the Savvy Convention Planner

Creating custom audiences for Facebook ads is nothing new, but as an event organizer or host, you can probably guess the benefits of creating a custom audience based on events.  Now you can target anyone who has interacted with your event, whether they’ve expressed interest in your current events, attended past events, or even said “maybe” to a previous event.

Says Annie Fernandez, Director of Marketing at AMI, “You simply create custom ads for an event audience based on specific characteristics and timelines, such as people who expressed interested in last year’s event, but failed to attend.”

Have Your Event Organizer Integrate Facebook Live

Integrating other Facebook features into your event campaign can help you to improve outcomes.  In addition to creating correlations between Facebook Events and advertising, you and your convention planner can also use Facebook Live to stream video to your Event page.  Whether you show pre-recorded video from past events or your live stream setup, you can create a sense of FOMO using little more than your Facebook Mobile app.

Encourage Attendees to Post Stories

The event organizer and host need not do all the heavy lifting when it comes to promoting events through Facebook.  You can tap attendees by encouraging them to participate in collaborative stories that show up on your Event page.  This can help to boost engagement and attendance at your event.

Important Roadblocks to Avoid when Marketing a Global Event

Important Roadblocks to Avoid when Marketing a Global Event

by | Dec 12, 2018 | Attendee marketing

The world is shrinking as connections are more easily made.  We are increasingly becoming a global market in which the old boundaries between our worlds are blurred.  Certainly, the growth of online and mobile technologies over the last few decades has made it easier than ever before for people to connect on a global scale, and for businesses to reach consumers around the world.  At AMI we understand these global changes and have adjusted the planning of client events to be more successful.

Businesses such as yours who are interested in exploring new markets should absolutely consider global events as a way to make and solidify partnerships, better understand cultures and markets, and expand operations on an international scale.  That said, our project managers have learned there are hurdles to overcome when planning global events, starting with marketing.

Before you even begin to deal with the headaches of international travel and planning all the details from afar, you and your convention planner will have to figure out how to market the event to a culturally diverse audience. Says Annie Fernandez, Director of Marketing at AMI,

“It’s not easy to navigate the waters of a cultural differences.  You can make small but damaging errors with the words and images you choose if you fail to account for cultural context or poor translation.  These blunders can taint your marketing efforts and tank your event before it even begins.”

This is why it’s so important for you and your event organizer to take the time to ensure that you have every detail right.  If you want to avoid sparking an unfavorable climate leading up to your global event, here are a few common mistakes with marketing you should be aware of.

  • Not Letting Your Convention Planner Work with Locals

The price for global events can quickly skyrocket.  Even if you have a decent budget to work with, you may be looking to minimize costs wherever possible.  However, you cannot afford to skimp when it comes to overseas marketing for your global event, at least not if you want to entice international attendees.

You need to work with local consultants to craft marketing that speaks to an audience you’re unfamiliar with.  Unless you grew up in or spent significant time in the culture you’re marketing to, you might not understand nuances of linguistic and cultural norms that could make a difference in how your audience receives your message.  You might unintentionally end up insulting entire cultures with the words, images, or concepts you introduce through your marketing efforts.

At the very least, your efforts to localize language could read like a foreigner wrote them or they simply won’t have the same engagement factor as they do in your native language.  A local consultant can help you and your event organizer to craft marketing materials that translate appropriately and speak to the local audience.  The right professional may even be able to help you pinpoint the search terminology that will elevate SEO, coming up with effective, targeted keywords that you would never concoct on your own.

  • Urging Your Event Organizer to Stick with Generic Messaging

This may seem like a good strategy, but the truth is that an American market is very different from a French, Japanese, or Brazilian audience, just for example.  Even if all the people attending your event are in similar industries, they’re from different cultures, and they respond to different types of messaging because of that.  If you and your convention planner create a generic message instead of tweaking it to better connect with local audiences, you’re basically throwing money away.

  • Failing to Develop Mobile-Friendly Marketing Materials

It’s a mobile market, whether you’re in the U.S. or abroad.  Not only do individuals and professionals across the globe rely on mobile devices to conduct business, but Google has adopted a mobile-first mentality that means mobile-friendly content gets preferential placement.

You cannot afford to ignore these factors when planning your global marketing campaign, at least not if you want to cater to a modern audience.  Responsive design and consistency across platforms will ensure that every prospective attendee has the same incredible experience when interacting with your content.

  • Utilizing Unsecured or Limited Payment Platforms

Once you’ve effectively conveyed your message, you have to make it convenient for attendees to sign up and pay for your event.  In other words, you and your convention planner must account for a variety of secure payment methods.  This could mean using different platforms in different locations, so make sure to research options and choose the best ones for each international group you’re marketing to.

It’s easy to stumble when marketing a global event, but when you team up with a reputable global event organizer like American Meetings, Inc. (AMI) you can avoid these issues and create targeted messaging that speaks to diverse populations.

How to Utilize Social Media Influencers to Drive Attendance

How to Utilize Social Media Influencers to Drive Attendance

by | Nov 30, 2018 | Attendee marketing

Working with social media influencers is an intriguing prospect for any company or global meeting planner looking to tap into new networks of prospective patrons. As an event host, this can be a great way to expand your marketing strategy. With the right social influencers promoting your event, you and your corporate meeting planner could see a significant uptick in interest and sales. Of course, like any promotional strategy, you could also end up spending a lot of money and seeing very little ROI if you don’t have a solid plan in place to ensure successful outcomes.

What can you do to make sure you find the right social influencers for your brand and your event? How can you recruit them and create a message that will speak to their audience? Are you better off cultivating brand ambassadors or simply paying for the services of social media influencers? Here are a few things to consider if you want to properly utilize social media influencers to drive attendance at upcoming events.

Ask Your Corporate Meeting Planner to Help You Find The Right Influencers

The first step to adding social influencers to your marketing and promotional efforts is finding the right people for the job. Says Annie Fernandez, Director of Marketing at American Meetings, “While a Kardashian might be the ideal choice to hawk weight-loss waist cinchers, shiny lip gloss, or gummy vitamins, you’ll probably want to choose a popular influencer in your own wheelhouse when it comes to promoting your upcoming event and boosting interest and attendance.”

How can you and your global meeting planner find these ideal candidates and tap into their audiences of devoted followers? It could start simply enough by searching for popular accounts on social media platforms that fit in your industry, field, or niche.

For example, if you’re hosting a flower convention, look for popular Facebook accounts by individuals that love sharing gardening tips, tricks, and pics with their audience. If you’re in the food industry, seek out accounts that get a lot of attention for their many food-related postings, especially those that match your niche, whether your focus is fast food, organic products, or vegan fare, just for example.

You want to look for three main things when scouring social media for suitable influencers: accounts that are authoritative, high numbers of followers, and frequent posting that is in line with your own industry and ideals (in other words, relevance). This will give you and your corporate meeting planner the best chance to recruit a like-minded influencer to your cause and connect with an audience that already has an interest in what you’re offering. Don’t forget, tools like SocialRank and Scrunch can also help you to pinpoint suitable influencers to connect with.

Craft a Compelling Message

Once you have a platform in place to connect with new followers via a trusted influencer, you need to make sure the message you deliver has maximum impact and delivers positive results. Naturally, your goal is to encourage the audience to sign up for your upcoming event, but you don’t want to hit them with hard sell.

Keep in mind that your message will be delivered by the influencer, not directly by you, so insisting on a specific copy or messaging could be detrimental. You and your global meeting planner may be better off creating a general messaging strategy and then letting the influencer filter and deliver the message in his/her own words, making the final delivery more natural and compelling to a specific audience.

It can be difficult to hand over the reins, especially if you’re paying for social mentions. However, you have to remember that you’re tapping into someone else’s network of followers, and that audience follows, likes, and trusts the influencer – not you. If you want to make the most of this outreach opportunity, you’ll have to place some amount of trust in the influencer to deliver an appropriate message that speaks to his/her audience.

Work with Your Global Meeting Planner to Build Lasting Relationships

Many social media influencers are happy to hawk any product or service if the price is right, but this isn’t necessarily the route you want to go. It may be easier, but it’s also likely to deliver lukewarm results. What you and your corporate meeting planner should focus on instead is building long-term relationships with social influencers that are picky about who and what they promote.

Invite your top picks to your events (on your dime) to show them what it is you do and endear them to your brand and your events. This way, when they decide to work with you and promote your events to their followers, their messaging will be detailed and genuine, portraying you in the best light and helping you to meet both short-term and long-term goals.

Planning an Expo that Your Attendees Will Love

Planning an Expo that Your Attendees Will Love

by | Sep 13, 2018 | Attendee marketing, Technology

 

Expos draw big crowds thanks to the promise of access to industry advances and educational opportunities.  You and your corporate meeting planner are ahead of the game in that you’ve already got a wide audience of leads interested in the subject matter of your expo, but you can’t rest on your laurels.

You need to find ways to turn interest in to sign up to boost attendance, and then deliver a memorable experience that attendees will want to share and repeat.  How can you and your global meeting planner pull off an expo that attendees will love?

Work with Your Corporate Meeting Planner to Automate Registration

Check-in can be a major pain point for event attendees, thanks to long, boring waiting lines and poor organization.  What can you do to ease the transition into your expo?  Start by upgrading check-in technology.

Self-serve options can not only cut down on wait times but also reduce needed staff, so research your options and thoroughly test them before the event.  If you think there might be lines at traditionally heavy registration times, add entertainment to beat boredom and create share-worthy moments.

Consider Diverse Payment Options

Cash may be king, but the common people tend to prefer credit.  It’s no surprise when you think about it.  Cash that is lost or stolen is irretrievable, while a stolen credit or bank card can quickly be canceled, and fraudulent transactions are generally easy to recover.

Your options for sales don’t begin and end when people sign up and pay to attend the expo.  There are untold opportunities to sell them food, merchandise, and even experiences, but only if you make it easy for them to pay.

Accepting cash is a given, but you’ll also want to make sure vendors are able to take credit cards, and you should probably at least consider working with your global meeting planner to implement modern payment options like mobile payments or even RFID badges or wristbands.

Says Annie Fernandez, Director of Marketing at AMI, “People are a lot more likely to make impulse buys when they don’t have to think too hard about it.  When you run a cash-only operation, you’re seriously limiting sales.  Event attendees don’t want to have to find an ATM and return to make a purchase.  A simple swipe with a card, wristband, or mobile device makes purchasing easy and boosts event sales.”

Carefully Vet Vendors and Exhibits

When people attend an expo, it’s because they want to see the latest and greatest products and services the industry has to offer.  It’s your job to curate a lineup of vendors both beloved and novel to keep attendees interested and make sure they get their money’s worth from the experience.  Many attendees that come to the same event annually do so because they want to see specific vendors or they’re excited about new ones.

How can you gauge the vendors that are likely to draw returning crowds and entice new attendees from year to year?  The best way is to ask attendees what they like.  Cruise the floor to see where guests are gathering and ask them directly to name their favorite exhibitors or explain what they’re looking for.

You can also send out follow-up surveys and tap into social media to see what attendees are liking and sharing.  All of these efforts will give you and your corporate meeting planner clues to which exhibitors to invite back in the future, and how you can find new acts that are sure to please your audience.

Screen for Suitable Entertainment with Your Global Meeting Planner

Exhibitors are a large part of why attendees sign up for your event, but guests also expect entertainment, which is why you need to add speakers, panels, workshops, demos, and other entertainment options.  You and your global meeting planner should also consider live streaming from the event.  This will ensure that attendees have access to plenty of educational and entertainment opportunities and that they don’t miss a minute of the activities that interest them.

Focus on Layout but Don’t Forget Creature Comforts

Any expo is bound to feature a lot of walking and information gathering, which can strain both body and mind.  What can you do to help attendees rally?  Provide ample creature comforts.  Sustenance is a must, so make sure you and your corporate meeting planner incorporate plenty of coffee, juice, and snack bars throughout the venue and think about providing reusable water bottles in your welcome packets.

As for tired tootsies, you might bring in masseurs to set up foot massage stations around the venue, providing rejuvenating R&R sessions that will soon have attendees up and at ‘em, ready to explore more exhibits or attend lectures and panels.

Best of 2018: 5 Meeting Give-aways Attendees Will Love!

Best of 2018: 5 Meeting Give-aways Attendees Will Love!

by | Sep 12, 2018 | Attendee marketing, Promotions, Technology

What do your promotional items say about your company and brand? When an attendee takes home your give-a-way from your meeting or event, you want them to keep it and use it, and have a positive association with your brand every time they see it. The days of cheap promotional knick-knacks are gone, and an era of branded sustainable and high-tech items have has taken their place. Just make sure you pick something that’s useful to attendees, relevant to the event or topic, and high quality. You don’t want your logo on a dud!

Can’t stomach the cost of the tech gadgets? Try holding a raffle, or give the items to customers and warm prospects that engage with you. Including and planning for promotional items as part of your overall event strategy will ensure you get the best prices and that attendees walk away with an item they’re excited about. It’s marketing that has the potential to pay dividends down the road.

1- Bluetooth Item Tracker

This handy little tracker can be attached to a purse, keys, or anything else you might misplace frequently. With a free app, you can easily find it again. Lost your phone? Pressing a button on the tracker will prompt your phone to ring so you can track it down as well.

Bluetooth 1

2- Fitness Tracker

These wearable tech devices can track your steps, sleeping patterns, eating habits and more. Added benefits are tracking and photo-snapping remote features for your phone.

Fitness tracker 2

3- Wireless Earbuds

Give your customers a quality listening experience without getting caught up in all the wires.

Wireless earbuds 3

4- Virtual Reality Viewers

For a truly immersive experience, branded virtual reality viewers take it to the next level. It takes less than a minute to fold up the headset from a flat piece of cardboard—add in a phone, and presto.

Virtual Reality 4

5- Bluetooth Speakers

Speakers have long been a favorite promotional giveaway item, but this is the next generation. Not only can you stream music via Bluetooth, but it also has a noise-cancelling speakerphone feature.

Bluetooth speakers 5

What to elevate your next meeting or event? Your friends at AMI are here to help.
Contact us at (866) 337-7799 Ext 8877 or bd@AmericanMeetings.com.

5 Effective Offline Event Marketing Tactics

5 Effective Offline Event Marketing Tactics

by | Aug 24, 2018 | Attendee marketing

You’ve no doubt embraced the wealth of options available online for marketing your events.  You and your corporate meeting planner probably use a strategy that consists of online advertising, social media marketing, and a multitude of other clever promotions designed to garner attention for your upcoming event.  What you and your global meeting planner may be neglecting in the meantime are offline marketing tactics.

With the ease and reach of online marketing taking center stage, you may simply assume that traditional, offline marketing won’t deliver the same returns, or that results are simply too difficult to track without the aid of online tools.  However, you’re neglecting a major opportunity to reach potential event attendees, and approach them in a more personal and engaging way when you forgo offline marketing.

What can you and your corporate meeting planner do to utilize every possible avenue for marketing your event, including offline?  Here are a few of the most effective means of getting your message out in an offline capacity.

1. Old-school direct mail. 

Once upon a time, this email of yesteryear was the best way to reach prior and prospective event attendees in their personal space.  Today, it has fallen by the wayside, thanks to the fact that you can launch an email campaign and reach millions with the click of a button.  That said, you and your global meeting planner should at least consider the benefits of adding direct mailing to your overall marketing strategy.

Says Annie Fernandez, Director of Marketing at AMI, “There are a couple of great reasons to use direct mail campaigns to market your event.  For one thing, it’s a tangible way to connect with event attendees, giving them a physical, emotional, and mental interaction with your brand.  It’s also a tactic that many marketers forego, which means you’re competing with a lot fewer stimuli than in the digital marketing space.  In other words, you could have a more significant impact with direct mail than online marketing.”

2. Work with your global meeting planner on targeted print ads. 

The print has been declared dead so many times that it’s basically the Lazarus of the advertising world.  Although the popularity of print publications has waned, the industry as a whole is still going strong.  The trick with getting your money’s worth from print advertising is carefully choosing the platform and placement of your ads.

You can save some money by reusing the same ads you use online for printed publications, but you have to choose local newspapers and industry magazines that appeal to your particular audience if you want to gain attention and attendees for your event.  Make sure to focus on placement, as well.  If your ad is buried on the back page or in the wrong section, you might not get the same notice as with premium and thoughtful placement.

3. Clever promotional items from your corporate meeting planner. 

When people think of offline marketing, posting flyers is often at the top of the list.  This wide-net strategy isn’t particularly effective, though, and most of your ads are likely to end up in the trash.

A better idea is for you and your global meeting planner to get creative with swag that promotes your brand and your upcoming event.  Handing out freebies like refrigerator magnets, pens, totes, tees, and other desirable items is not only likely to produce more positive attention for your event but also carry your message a lot further since people are more likely to hang onto and use these items.

4. Networking at other events. 

There’s no denying that it’s easier to network online, where you can connect with new people and keep in touch with the minimal time commitment.  However, you also have to admit that meeting people in person tends to be a lot more engaging and memorable.

If you want to supplement your online efforts with a bit of hand-shaking, consider attending other industry events with similar demographics, where guests are likely to be interested in checking out your event, as well.  Spend time at meet-and-greets getting to know people and telling them about your event and you’re sure to see a positive response.

5. Public speaking engagements. 

Content marketing is a great way to endear people to your brand online, and it works because you engender goodwill by providing valuable information for free.  You can basically take the same tactic offline by booking public speaking engagements.  You can put your expertise on full display with a targeted audience and drum up some interest in your upcoming event at the same time.