Are you struggling to generate buzz around your upcoming B2B event? Start promoting it through an integrated campaign with these event marketing tips.
Boost the success of your B2B event. Hosting an impactful event is only a piece of the pie—there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes groundwork that needs to be done first to ensure you have a successful event. Your marketing can make or break your event. Optimize your outreach and you will generate buzz and drive registrations. On the other hand, if you aren’t strategic with your promotion, you could be faced with low attendance and a costly event with little ROI to show for it.
An integrated campaign approach to event marketing
To maximize your outreach, I suggest taking an integrated campaign approach. We’ve seen success when layering tactics to drive higher engagement around events. A multichannel strategy can be largely beneficial because it allows you to:
- Expand your reach: B2B decision-makers are spread across various platforms, and your internal database may not have the optimal coverage and reach.
- Optimize engagement: Different professionals prefer different communication channels. Omnichannel outreach ensures catering to these preferences to keep your B2B audience engaged.
- Gain data-driven insights: Each marketing channel yields valuable data. Analyze the success of each channel and use these insights to optimize your approach and refine your overall event marketing strategy.
Identify your event audience
Everything starts with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). From the content of your event to how you promote it, you should always keep your ICP in mind. If you don’t already have your ICP identified, start building one out by outlining key characteristics including:
- Firmographic data
- Behavioral data
- Intent data
- Technographic data
- Buying group data
You may be able to start building one with your in-house data, but working with a trusted data partner, like Anteriad, can help you identify important data you may be missing and get the complete picture. Once you have your ICP, build an audience and activate it across channels to get the best results.
My biggest piece of advice is that you don’t just need a data provider, you need a data partner. A data partner will not only make sure you have all the information you need to reach your ideal customers but also help activate the data to drive the results you need. You can lean on their expertise and know that they’ll help maximize your efforts to reach your goals.
Choose the right channels for event marketing
Targeting your audience over a variety of channels increases the chance that they will notice your outreach and register for your event. Once a prospect registers for your event you know they’re a more engaged contact and can nurture them down your funnel until they are ready to convert.
With seemingly endless options, how do you know which channels you should start with? Here are 4 we recommend to get you started:
Email campaigns
Email is a great starting point for event promotion. It’s a widely used, and engaged with channel, so you can be confident you’ll be able to reach your audience this way. It’s critical that you make sure you are adhering to privacy regulations like GDPR and Can-Spam.
While email can be incredibly effective, there are a lot of small details to optimize in order to get the best results. Consider using a managed email service to get expert guidance on the best email cadence, messaging, and compliance factors.
Programmatic Display
With the right data to activate programmatic audiences, you can run display advertising to promote your event, enhance an attendee’s experience, and encourage engagement after the event is over. Run programmatic display ads to prospects promoting your event to increase registrations.
Then you can deploy a geo-fencing display campaign to target attendees while they’re in or around your event space. This can be used to drive traffic to your booth at larger events or increase brand awareness.
Paid Social
Social media is an important layer to omnichannel event outreach. Get your messaging in front of the right people where they spend their time. Depending on your ICP, certain social channels may make more sense than others. For example, your audience may be more active on LinkedIn than they are on Facebook.
Working with a data partner to run your paid social campaigns can help you understand the best place to target your ICP, amplify your message to get more event sign-ups, and spread brand awareness.
Direct Mail
Direct mail works! The key is to layer it on top of other digital strategies. When used in a multichannel strategy, direct mail is still a proven winner when it comes to ROI and helps break through the clutter of crowded inboxes.
Think about how many emails you get a day. It can be easy to forget about and abandon an event email invite (no matter how engaging it is) if your attention is pulled away by an urgent work-related message. But getting a piece of direct mail can be the push needed to remind you to come back and register. Work with a data partner to identify the prospects most likely to respond to your event invite and add direct mail to your strategy.
Ready to take your B2B event marketing to the next level?
We can help you do all of this and more. Anteriad is a full-funnel marketing solutions provider with the data you need to drive demand and convert your audiences. Reach out today to explore how we can help you leverage the full spectrum of marketing channels and propel your B2B event to the top of industry agendas. Contact us.
