Show notes

Episode 96 - Social media strategy you need for your event.‍

Esther

Good morning. And welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther

Melanie

and I'm Melanie.

Esther

And today we're talking about the social media strategy you need for your event.

Melanie

So as you may hopefully have realised, we have an event coming up fairly soon.

Esther

We do?

Melanie

Yes, we do.

Esther

Oh, yeah, that one.

Melanie

Your fault. We've flipping got this event.

Esther

It is, but it's going to be an amazing event.

Melanie

It's going to be a blast, actually. So, yes. Let's not go off tangent here for the people that are listening to today's podcast. If you are doing an event, whether it's face to face or just an online or even a hybrid, which seems to be the popular food of the day, where shall we start? How far out shall we start, Esther?

Esther

No, we don't go a year in advance. That would be far too much. Okay. Sorry. Have to be sensible. I have to be sensible.

Melanie

What is wrong with you today?

Esther

Too much caffeine. Too much caffeine. Just. Yeah, the hamster is definitely turning right. So about four to six weeks out. Think about the same as when you're planning your wedding. You want six weeks, give people notice to get them to save the date, get your invites back and know how many you're going to be catering for. So if you're having an in person event, especially, you have to figure out how many people you're going to be feeding. How many you're going to be seating. If it's an online event, will your platform hold the number of people that you're possibly going to have RSVPs from? Are you going to run an Early Bird? Are you going to announce all your speakers at the one time? What about sponsors? Are you going to have any sponsors? There's so many things you have to think about with your event. Some of these things will have to be done before you announce that you're actually having an event.

Melanie

Well, yes, speakers would be handy to have set down before you announce the date. But then you've got your existing audience that you can speak to as well. You can sort of say, Hi, guys. It's me. I've got this event coming up. Maybe you've got an email list. A lot of people have current either weekly or monthly email list that they can send an email to. And I like the idea of an early bird discount. That's a good idea. And especially for your members as well. You can sort of say, look, guys, for your loyalty, I'd love to offer you an early bird discount. First come, first serve. That's good.

Esther

Yeah. And the discount can have a cut off point. You don't have to run the discount until the very day before because you want people to buy the tickets so that you know how many to expect.

Melanie

We had a guess recently. He was saying that he didn't agree with the manipulation. That was Dan Holloway, wasn't it? And he was saying he didn't like the manipulation that people do where they offer the 10% or 20% discount and say, oh, it's only available for the next ten days

Esther

and then it's still available. I think it was May King actually.

Melanie

It was May King, may been both of them,

Esther

But yeah so. If you're going to be offering a discount, offer it, then remove it.

Melanie

Exactly.

Esther

You can offer a different discount for less off again, if you're going to be running a free event, then discounts don't matter anyway. You just want people to sign up early enough, so you know how many people you're going to be having, like I said, especially if it's going to be an in person event and you need to organise catering.

Melanie

So next up, that was like four to six weeks.

Esther

Yeah.

Melanie

So now we're going to be looking like three weeks and doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything in between. But you're not really forcing things. I can't speak for other nationalities and countries, but certainly when it comes over to the Republic of Ireland or Ireland in general, possibly they tend to be kind of last minute dot com over here.

Esther

Definitely.

Melanie

Okay. So from three weeks, that's when I would start talking about awareness and letting people know more about the event itself. And if you've got the facility to help people sign up to an email address to get more information, even better. So they can hear about new speakers that are being announced. They can hear about any offers that the speakers are doing that sort of thing. And you can also start announcing slowly but surely from the three week points, any suppliers. Again, if you're going to be an in person event and of course, sponsors as well, if you're going to get media partners or catering people or people who are going to gain if it's in person who's going to leave, like a welcome pack, that sort of thing. But this is the time when you get the BIOS or this is the time when you've actually already got the BIOS, the BIOS, the pictures, the topic name, the social media links and the correct social media handles

Esther

for your speakers and sponsors and media partners.

Esther

Exactly. And so that would all go out from three weeks onwoards.

Esther

Yes. Definitely. Because you don't want to start too soon. But you don't want to start too late either. With three weeks, you've got enough time to get through that and then you're really going to start wanting to really get the ball rolling for about two weeks. So from today, you're going to be seeing lots about our event because we're two weeks out and we're going to be sending out more posts and you're going to be seeing more anticipated outcomes and getting excited about the sessions and the speakers and what's in it for you guys who will be attending intent to get your ticket now you've got all the details that you requested from your speakers and your sponsors. You've put it all into an agenda who's going to be running at what time when they're going to be doing it? And you need to start scheduling out fresh images of the speakers and any even takeaways that they have. If you already have some of their information. If you've already received their Slideshow or their video, if it's going to be online, then you can start drip feeding some of the information and it will help with the FOMO.

Melanie

Well, it's consideration elements because we've talked about this before awareness, consideration and conversion, and this is the time where you're letting people know features, tell benefits, sell if you come along to this. If you listen to this, this is what you're going to learn. Why am I going to give up my time to attend this event? Maybe they've picked up on one speaker or one topic, but oh, I didn't know I was covering that as well. So it's a good time for it. And then as of next week, sorry, from the last week, we're going to be talking about the conversion elements, and that's where we're going to be going into when it's already up on your event website probably. Or if you're using a third party tool like "Hay Summit" or something like that. But you can then go into more greater detail about times and details about the agenda and going over more detail about what was previously mentioned in the past couple of weeks. Obviously, this is the time when you start putting down a time limit. This is when you're saying that, guys, this is only seven days off. You need to make a decision. And if you're doing early bird discounts or special offers or anything like that, then they obviously have to close off at the right time as well.

Esther

Yeah, definitely. You don't want to be leaving it to the very day before to get everything sorted, especially if you're having an in person event. You should be able to confirm with your caterers exactly how many people are going to be eating, how many people are maybe going to be staying at the venue.

Melanie

Table, chairs, tablecloths, drinks.

Esther

Oh, my goodness.

Melanie

And especially now because if people are running in person events now, they're going to be over consideration. Exactly, cleaning stations, spaces that people can get out. And so there's so many things to take into account. And this is going to be with us at least for another year.

Esther

I'd say I'd say so. Just having a parentheses there for a minute. I did see an event alive in person event recently had different lanyards for different people. So people that didn't feel comfortable hugging or shaking hands or being close contact had a red lanyard, others had a yellow one if they were comfortable getting closer, but maybe not hugging. And then green was basically I'll hug you and I'll say Hello and be really up close but it meant it took out that guessing of what do we do? How close can we get? It just made it more relaxed. So maybe think about something like that. That also would need to be thought of weeks in advance. All the printing is done, all the everything's done. Okay. So we're up to the day before the event, which in our case will be the 14 November. We'll be confirming ticket sales that they will end that day and

Melanie

free ticket sales for us.

Esther

Yes, for us. I mean, the free ticket sales will end that day. You can still buy your lifetime access or your three month access if you so desire on the day of the event. If you are doing an online event, make sure that you have all the recordings ready to hit play on the day. If you're doing an in person event, think about will you want to sell tickets at the door? Do you have that capability? What will the caters say?

Melanie

They'll probably lynch you.

Esther

Possibly.

Melanie

Okay, so we're now on the day and this is where we would love somebody like certain FOMO creator, whether it's live or whether it's pre recorded. It's always handy to have some sort of tweeting happening. So if it's pre recorded office, you can

Esther

change your mind.

Melanie

But then to be present to see what the feedback is and the speakers. If it's going to be an online event, make sure all the speakers are available on the day so they can respond to any questions or anything that crops up on the day as well. But remember to tag your sponsors and your partners and suppliers and the hotel if you're in person, of course. And again, if you're going to be there live, take images, take photos of people networking, wearing the lanyards, eating food and generate the old year old FOMO sensation. Pretty much. It makes common sense, really, doesn't it?

Esther

It does. Yeah. And you can also run competitions on the day, whether you are live or not. Whether you're online have selfie competitions of people taking a photograph of themselves with the computer if they're watching it online in the event itself, if they're there have a prize, whether it's even just a round of applause, but have a prize for people to take part, and that then will also generate more feedback online. Have a hashtag for your event.

Melanie

Oh yeah. Did we mention that right at the beginning?

Esther

No, we didn't. Ours is hashtag #DMAT21.

Melanie

And why is it #DMAT21?

Esther

Decision makers and action takers.

Melanie

There you go.

Esther

But just remember that the event and the build up and the tweeting and the publicity of for it does not end on the day of the event.

Melanie

No, because the day after it's worth going back and retweeting sharing and responding to any in all posts about the event, and obviously thank the sponsors, the partners, the staff, if you're in person or the staff that's actually helped to set up the event, all the attendees. And maybe this is the time when you've developed all this excitement and you've got hopefully very happy people from the event. You then ask them to sign up to hear first about the next event and then they can claim a loyalty discount for that.

Esther

Or if you're super organised or already have the deed in mind for that one, let them know when the date will be.

Melanie

You know,

Melanie

Don't say a word. You already dropped us in it this year. Don't do it again.

Esther

Tune in on the 15 November to see if we'll have another one. But in all seriousness, guys, running an event does take a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort. But if you put the sales strategy and the marketing strategy in place, it does not have to be an absolute hair pulling experience.

Melanie

It doesn't have to be. And I know we're talking here from past experience, but all the stuff we suggested here with a bit of time and building a strategy for yourself where you can set aside duties to other people. You don't have to do this all by yourself. We're certainly not doing it all by ourselves. So just plan ahead, build a strategy and anything is possible with a bit of teamwork.

Esther

Yeah, teamwork makes the dream work.

Melanie

Oh, God.

Esther

Thanks for joining us again today, guys. We'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing

Melanie

the week before our workshop,

Esther

Our workshop. And we'll see you in two weeks, for our workshop, which is an online event. So get your tickets. They are in the link and we will see you soon. Bye bye.

Melanie

Bye.