Plan Your Meetings

Develop an event marketing strategy

 Send to a friend

The best-planned event will not be considered a success if attendance is low. Therefore, event marketing strategy is a key part of success. Unfortunately, there is no set formula that always works. Marketing strategies may include print ads, television ads, electronic brochures, Web sites, billboards, Internet ads, radio ads, public service announcements, direct mail, e-mail, formal invitations, electronic invitations, blogs and other new media. Before you determine your plan, here are some important questions to consider:

• Who is your target audience? Are they social media-savvy (MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life) or more comfortable with printed invitations and traditional forms of communication? Knowing who you are trying to reach will help you discover the best way to reach them.
• Do you have more than one target audience? Different market segments may include association members, employees, exhibitors, sponsors, general public, college students or professionals from a specific industry.
• How are you going to reach each one of your target market segments? Each group will respond differently to different communication and marketing strategies. Determine which will be most effective strategy for each segment of your audience and make it a part of your marketing plan.
• How are you going to measure the success of your efforts? It’s important to track metrics. Don’t be shy about asking how attendees heard about the event during on-line registration or at the sign-in desk, and make sure the information is recorded. A simple way to track marketing effectiveness is to include codes specific to each marketing effort; when attendees enter their code at registration, you know instantly what method brought them to you. If you begin tracking early, and something isn’t working the way you thought, it frees you up to create a new strategy before it’s too late.

Next month, we’ll talk about viral marketing: an event marketing strategy that doesn’t cost you anything, but can help you exceed attendance goals.

– Jackie Thornton, M.S., CMP

Jackie Thornton, M.S., CMP, is president of Global Marketing and PR Inc., which offers event planning, marketing and public relations services. She also teaches event planning certificate courses.