In the last three articles, there was so much to uncover. I’ve shared my strategies to help you optimize your event marketing campaigns. Many of these tips, I’ve used in my plans. I was happy to be your guinea pig so that you can quickly adapt those tips into your plans knowing that there’s a light at the other end of the tunnel. But I also encourage you to be creative and develop your own ideas so that your marketing efforts don’t become stale.
To finish off this series of blogs, I would like to talk about some follow-up strategies. When building an event, the full scope of the plan should include a follow-up strategy. Basically, how do you reengage with those who were targeted for this event? In a video posted on LinkedIn, I discussed the three types of post-event audiences: attendees, no shows, and everyone else you targeted but didn’t register. Then I mentioned three areas where you’ll need to make decisions based on the audience which are 1) the channels you will leverage, 2) the messaging/personalization in your follow-up, and 3) the CTA or goal. I covered the first two areas in my video. So if you missed it, I suggest you go back and watch it before reading ahead.
Channel Selection
As mentioned in the video, selecting the channels where you will reach your audiences will be based on where this audience tends to linger in the online world. To do so, data will lead you to the right path. For instance, you can check GA(Google Analytics), or if you don’t have that synced to your website, your website may have a built-in analytics dashboard. There, you will find the demographics of your audience, keywords that they search, websites that they visit, and more.
In addition to the above, my approach is to categorize the three audiences mentioned above in the funnel stages:
Top of funnel(TOFU)
Middle of funnel(MOFU)
Bottom of funnel(BOFU)
Your non-registrants will likely be in the TOFU stage where they are the correct target titles or companies. Those who signed up but didn’t attend will likely be in the MOFU stage since they signed up showing interest in your brand but were not ready to dedicate time to learning about it. Finally, your attendees will fall under the BOFU stage as they are showing the most interest in having attended your event and likely will want to learn more.
Once I categorize the audiences, I categorize the types of channels per funnel stage as well. Here’s an example of what that may look like:
TOFU - Display Ads, Social Media Ads
MOFU - LinkedIn InMail, Email Marketing Campaign
BOFU - Email sales campaign, Calls
Keep in mind where your audiences spend the most time on the net. You will want to allocate budget accordingly ensuring that you have a return on your spend. How you allocate budget is another story but I would suggest using past data to determine how much budget you will put towards a specific channel. Also, don’t forget to run a test, monitor, and optimize for a week or so before using your whole budget.
Tailored and Personalized Messaging
As part of your follow-up strategy, you need to personalize the messaging for each audience. Again, my approach is to base your messaging on the funnel stages and your audience type.
Those in the TOFU stage who didn’t register will want more content focused on thought leadership messaging rather than the product you sell. For this audience, you will want to avoid any messaging that has any asks. Since this audience did not choose to sign up for your event, they are likely not ready to offer their time or attention.
For those in the MOFU stage, who registered and didn’t show up for the event, you don’t want to get “salesy” just yet. Instead, focus on delivering valuable content that helps solve a problem. Next, gate these resources so your audience is required to subscribe and now you have a lead. Messaging at this stage and for this audience can be more product-based focusing on the value of your product versus the cost. Avoid mentioning pricing at this stage. Here, case studies are wonderful stories to share. You can also invite them to the next event to re-engage and push them further down the funnel.
Finally, for those in the BOFU stage who attended the event, here’s where you don’t have to be shy. You may start talking about products but tailoring that message with the conversations you had on-site. Mention solutions for pain points that they may have talked about. Reminiscence about personal conversations you may have had to show that you were having candid conversations at the event. At this stage, you are building a relationship with this audience. Therefore, it is important to be genuine in your messaging at this stage personalizing it as much as possible.
That being said, other ways to tailor your messaging are by industry, location, seniority, age group, most visited page, keywords, intent data, and more.
Selecting a CTA based on your goal
It’s important that in your follow-up messaging, whether that is through emails, calls, ads, etc., you always have a call-to-action(CTA). Or else you’ll be left empty-handed after your follow-up efforts. This can be as simple as “Sign Up” or “Book A Meeting”. To determine what that CTA will be, think about your goal. Depending on the funnel stage each of your audience types falls under, your goal will vary. Here’s how I’ve planned it out in the past:
TOFU - The goal for those in the early stages of the funnel is to push them further down the funnel and to build a bond with your audience. Convince them that you are the leaders in your industry. So to reach that goal, feeding them content is key. The CTA for such an audience would be “Read more”, “Learn more”, “Discover more”, etc. You can get a little more fancier with the CTA but the idea is to ask them to explore your brand without needing them to submit their information.
MOFU - At this stage, we should aim to capture lead information. It’s a sign that your audience trusts your brand and would like to learn more about your offerings. So some basic CTAs that would work at this stage would be “Sign Up”, “Register Now”, “Download Now”, etc. As mentioned, get creative with your CTA but not too lengthy.
BOFU - For any leads at this stage, the goal is to get real personal and book a meeting or make a sale. Here, offerings such as free trials, coupons, free demos or samples, and “lunch on me” works well. And your audience is ready for this somewhat aggressive, persuasive outreach. At this stage, you want your CTA to be clear. No fancy messaging that suggests otherwise.
At last, your follow-up strategy is key to having a successful event. Many will end the campaign after hosting the event. Some will hand it over to sales. Instead, marketing and sales should work together to double down on efforts and build a plan that delivers results. At the end of the day, marketers and sales teams share the same goal. So, take the advice above and apply it to your event marketing strategy. See where that goes and learn from those results. From those results, take your strategy further.
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