How’s your content? And by content, we mean your event content as part of your marketing strategy. If you’re not sure that what you’re putting out there is really attracting event clients and guests, it’s time for a pulse check. These are the nuggets of advice to get you back on track with content marketing for all your events.
Are you tapping into all the right types of event content?
As part of your event content audit, start with the channels and types of content you currently produce. Then use the metrics to determine if those avenues are working to land clients, generate leads, or appeal to event guests. If you have the capacity to add more content or need to make changes to your existing content platforms, consider all the ways you can reach and inspire your target event audience.
- Post content on your website.
- Add blogs to your website.
- Create promotional videos or vlogs.
- Use visual or text-led updates on social media.
- Pay for ad platforms on Google, Bing, X, and Facebook.
- Remarket those ads as other content.
- Develop graphics of your events for posting on social media.
- Send messaging, blogs, or vlogs via email campaigns.
- Create click funnel landing pages about events.
Check out these content marketing ideas for your events.
Once you feel confident about “where” you’re communicating, you can dig into the “what” about your messaging. Here are some ideas to help get your creative event planner juices flowing:
- Conduct an interview with past or upcoming keynote speakers. Turn those responses into a blog post, a video clip, or a quote to share on social media. You can also use those interview snippets as promotional content for future events.
- Consider writing a thought leadership piece about a topic from one of your past conferences. Expand on the topic, include your expertise on the subject, and share it on LinkedIn or via email.
- Build an event story on Instagram with highlights from your last curated event. Focus on the details, maybe the design, the food, or the entertainment. Inspire your Instagram followers to share your brilliant event execution ideas.
- Put together checklists, best practices, and event planning tips as a helpful guide and expert in the event planning space.
- Collaborate with other event professionals or team up with a few of your favorite event vendors for a live Q&A session or mastermind.
- Develop downloadable or shareable resources about local events or event planning insights.
- Celebrate your event planning business milestones, including anniversaries, new employees, and partners.
- Promote holidays and seasonal event ideas.
- Take interactive polls asking event guests (past or future) about what they appreciate most about attending events and conferences.
Don’t overlook the value of repurposing content.
The most effective event marketers no longer isolate their content and event marketing strategies. Instead, they integrate both approaches into a cohesive marketing plan. This means they share their best content at events and leverage their events to generate high-quality content. Why recreate the wheel every time you need to create new content? Instead, repurpose content from all your events and get mileage out of each engagement long after it’s over. From testimonials and videos to snapshots and quotes, there’s a LOT of opportunity for you to find great content marketing. And repurposing that content across multiple channels allows you to squeeze every drop of potential lead generation and trust-building in the events you plan.
Pain point-focused content works.
When you feel like you’re hitting content roadblocks in your business, consider your event clients’ pain points. Think about what challenges they might face and create content that positions events as the solutions. Debunk myths, rebut common misconceptions, and offer big ideas to dispel hesitations. Let the PASO framework (problem-agitate-solution-outcome) guide your event content in a way that solves problems, generates value, and makes the decision to work with you (or attend the event) a no-brainer decision.
Make all of your content CTAs compelling.
Of all the mistakes you could be making with your event content, not having any or compelling enough CTAs could be the biggest. Calls to action ask the user or audience to do something. In other words, “Now that you’ve consumed this great content, we want you to…” If you’re not prompting email recipients, website visitors, or content audiences to DO something, they’ll presume there’s nothing to do.
Keep them light, easy, and quick, like:
- Learn more here
- Get your tickets here
- Check out our speakers here
- Confirm your meal here
- Register now
- Read more here
- Share, like, or comment
Tools like these make event content a breeze.
You don’t have the time and energy to tackle event content management without a few shortcuts and helpful tools. Check out some of these event planning favorites and make content creation fun and easy to handle.
- Over – A free and easy-to-use app that allows you to edit images on the go. Overlaying text on your own images like Instagram offers, but Over is more flexible and has far more resizing options on board.
- Visual.ly– Create stunning event infographics using Visual.ly from their marketplace of experts and designers.
- Google Keyword Tool– Use the Google keyword tool so you’ll be able to search for relevant event and geographic keywords to use in the headers and body of your articles.
- Pixlr – Create stunning visuals for your event content using Pixlr. This website is really just a simplified Photoshop.
- Issuu– This is a super-easy to use tool for creating digital magazines and look-books with your event PDFs and images.
- Straw– Straw is a great event planning content tool to embed a simple web-based poll right into your content.
Discover the TOP marketing strategies for content and events this October.
Start generating leads, revenue, and RSVPs with your event content using these proven methods and marketing strategies. And to really level-up your marketing efforts, get in the room this October at The Event Planner Expo 2024 with thousands of top event professionals! Tickets are available now and going fast!