Pre- and Post-Event Marketing for Your Small Business

Whether you are hosting a small mixer, sponsoring a business workshop or exhibiting at an industry trade-show, a successful pre-event and post-event marketing plan will help you make the most of your event investment. If you’re looking for effective ways to promote an event, then look no further. In order to make the most of your events, it is important to use simple marketing tactics to get the word out and provide timely follow-up.

EMAIL:

Where to start: Telling your friends and creating flyers is a great start to event marketing, but in order to ensure high attendance, it is important to include email invitations as part of a your pre-event marketing plan. Your pre-event marketing email should announce event details and invite recipients to join you.

• Send targeted communications to your customers and prospects by segmenting your list according to geographic region or customer type.
• Make sure your email is relevant to the audience and includes benefits of attending your event.
• Tell guests what they will learn, who they will meet and if there are any free resources or prizes.
• Don’t forget to provide a link to register and mention the cost. If you can offer a special discount for registration, your email is a great way to promote this offer.

Before creating your email invitations, it’s important to consider how many reminders you will send. While this may change depending on the size of your invitation list, value and cost of your event, we suggest 2-3 announcements about your event and 1 reminder to registrants.

• Save the Date: First send a “Save-the-Date Announcement” informing your recipients of your upcoming event.
• Formal invite: Follow up with a formal invitation with more details and specifics.
• Re-send to non-responders: After you’ve sent the invitation, try changing the subject line and re-send it to people who did not open your first invite.
• Registrant reminder: Don’t forget to send an email reminder to registrants the day or week before an event.
• Also, include a list of all events you plan to host or attend in your newsletter so that your entire audience can see what you are up to and where you will be.

DIRECT MAIL:

If you want to reach a larger audience, consider sending a direct mail postcard invitation.

• What: Don’t forget to include all relevant event registration info and make it really easy for recipients to understand and sign-up for your event. Create a sense of urgency by reminding recipients that seats are limited. To track the success of a postcard campaign, offer a unique promo code or discount. Also invite recipients to opt-in to your email list and watch the size of your e-mail list grow!
• Who:Purchase or rent a list of postal addresses and target by city, industry, company size or any criteria that defines your customer base. Check out InfoUSA for postal mailing addresses - VerticalResponse customers receive 20% off (first-time customers only, now through Dec 31, 2009 – some restrictions apply).
• When: Once you have your list of targeted recipients, send an event invite at least four weeks prior to an event. Then plan on sending a second follow-up postcard with a “Last Chance” message to your recipients two weeks before the event to drive more registrations.

BLOG:

Now that you sent your pre-event emails and postcards, it’s time to promote your event across all online media. Start blogging about your event and ask subscribers to provide feedback or suggestions. A blog is the perfect forum to provide speaker updates and special incentives to register. Blogging is a great way to reach out to people outside your immediate list of contacts and can help your event gain visibility to a new audience. Include sponsor or exhibitor information if relevant and highlight your sponsors in your blog to provide added exposure.

FACEBOOK:

Create a Fan Page for your business and promote your business and event to your Facebook community. Post pictures and videos from past events or use Facebook to arrange meet-ups and facilitate discussions. With Facebook, you will be able to achieve great viral marketing and promote your event to your personal network and to people outside your network. Encourage employees and friends to invite others as well. To take your Facebook marketing to the next level, promote your event with a Facebook ad.

TWITTER:

As Twitter becomes increasingly popular, small businesses are jumping to Twitter to promote events. Broadcast your event details for free using Twitter. Use keywords, provide a registration link via a shortened URL and include event date to make the most impact. Ask sponsors, co-workers and customers to re-tweet your event for more impact. Also use Twitter to help boost your viral marketing and offer free tickets or a special giveaway for the first 5 people that re-tweet your post.

LOCAL PRESS, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & ASSOCIATIONS:

Tell your local press, chamber of commerce or industry association about your event and ask if they can put it on their event calendars. This can help you reach a broader community outside of your network. You can also reach out to your local city or town halls and online event sites to promote your event. Take advantage of any local resources you can find. Also issue a press release to announce your participation or pitch your event to the local news station.

ADDITIONAL PRE-EVENT MARKETING:

There are many ways to get the word out with various online direct marketing efforts. If you have the budget to support these channels, you can greatly increase event visibility.

• Create an online advertising campaign and run the ads on targeted sites where your customers are.
• Launch a search engine marketing campaign promoting the event or run some print ads in industry magazines or local newspapers.
• If you are co-sponsoring or co-hosting a large event, run a radio campaign to encourage people to show up or register.
• Sponsor a newsletter mailing. Find out if your customers have close relationships with local chambers or industry associations and purchase advertising in the newsletter.

When considering your marketing budget, it is important to determine who is your ideal attendee. Discover what publications or papers they read, blogs they subscribe to or newsletters they receive. Once you have an idea of your audience, you will be able to effectively promote your event through the many available online marketing mediums.

POST-EVENT MARKETING

After you have successfully driven attendees to your event and provided them with a great event, workshop or mixer, it is important to execute proper follow-up. The success of an event is largely contingent upon your follow-up marketing.

EMAIL:

Your first post-event task is to launch a follow-up email campaign. Not sure who you can email after an event? Send follow-up emails to anyone who opted in to receive your emails via business card, raffle or guest book. When meeting people at your event, be clear that you are going to add them to your mailing list. Only email those who wish to receive more information. Also, segment your list of attendees and mail separate messages to customers versus leads – that way you can have different offers or messaging.

Write your follow-up emails before the event so that you merely have to upload the attendee mailing list and launch your campaign. Send your first email as soon as possible – within a few days or a week if travel is required. In this follow-up email, include your offer or remind them about the next event. This is your chance to close the sale and provide additional reasons why they should take the next step with you. Send a second follow-up a week or two later.

What to include in your follow-up email:

• Provide an event re-cap with a new interesting fact or testimonial quote.
• Remind the recipient that you met at your event and thank them for attending.
• Be sure to include your special event offer to help boost sales.
• Make your follow-up emails personal by adding merge fields so you can address the emails directly to your recipients.
• If applicable, provide slides as a PDF or link to a recording.
• Invite attendees to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter and don’t forget to add them to your e-newsletter list. This will help you grow your online community and keep in touch with leads and new contacts.
• Also send personalized follow-up emails to sponsors and speakers.

SURVEY:

After your event is over, it is important to gain feedback from your attendees and participants through an online survey.

What to ask:

• Was the cost of the event fair?
• Which session was your favorite?
• Did you learn a lot?
• Would you attend again?
• What would you change?
• Would you recommend the event to a friend?

Questions such as these will help you gauge the success of your event and more importantly, plan for a better event next month or next year. If you find that customers thought the price was too high, find another speaker or provide a promo code for your next event. If people who take your survey feel that the event was too long, try hosting two shorter events or turning a presentation into a webinar. Take all customer feedback and apply it to your next event. Once you get positive feedback, turn the quotes into customer testimonials and leverage the responses to promote your business.

These proven pre- and post-event marketing strategies and tactics will help you grow your business and achieve new event success. Learn more event marketing tips and suggestions by joining our online small business community - VerticalResponse Marketing Lounge. Follow us on Twitter @VR4SmallBiz and connect with us on Facebook.

About the Author:
Alyssa Calonge is the Marketing & Events Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Alyssa manages VerticalResponse's events and sponsorships that drive new customer sign-ups and educate small business owners about the benefits of email marketing. She specializes in marketing tactics for small businesses including brand marketing, event marketing, online marketing and social media.

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