It's a new month, therefore, we have a new topic. Keeping in mind there's not much time left till the end of the year, in this 4-week period, we are going to think outside of the box and see how we can add other marketing channels and tools to our arsenal of business promotion weapons. Let's start with events!
The first thought of most people would be events have nothing to do with content marketing. The two are delivered in very different ways and provide different customer value. While this last sentence is true, events have a lot to do with content and after reading this article you will know a lot more about the correlation between events and content marketing and how to include them under one strategy.
Talk About the Event Before, During and After
Planning an event gives you a strong material base for your content schedule for quite a lot of time. Experienced business people and every event planner know that the minimum time for a successful promotion of an event is 6 weeks prior to its launch. That means, you have 6 weeks to send out a press release, spread the word on your social media and really blow the whistle as much as you can, on as many places as possible. Don't forget catchy emails! All this is attractive content that has to be created, optimised and delivered.
During the event, make use of any live broadcasting tool you have at hands -Facebook Live, Twitter Live, Instagram Live, YouTube Live, Snapchat, Periscope and list goes on. As you may remember, we previously talked about how important live video is in content marketing and it will continue to be in 2018.
Your content creation and distribution doesn't stop with the end of the event. Write a blog post after it has taken place and summarise the key points, put an emphasis on its success and maybe, create a little anticipation with a promise of similar or even better event coming soon to those who attended and enjoyed and those who missed on a great time.
Make Use of Content Created by Your Customers
Engage tirelessly on social media with people who are planning to come, are there during the event or have been in the past. Respond to their questions and comments and embrace the reviews, even though some of them may not be glowing. As they say "all publicity is good publicity" but the catch here is that only a good content creator can spin a negative customer feedback into a positive for the brand.
Be open to user suggestions and allow them to be posted on your event calendar. Ultimately, this will lead to more views and quite possible, more attendees to your event.
Apply SEO Practices to Your Event Listings
Treat the event description for the listing the same way you treat your blog posts in terms of SEO. This means, analyse the keywords related to what you are preparing and use them frequently, but sensibly in your event listings. Research relevant hashtags that can be used on social media to fuel the performance of your promotion posts. Create a unique hashtag for your event and aim to make it viral. If you are collaborating with another brand or have high profile sponsors, add links to their websites in your event listing. It's a great SEO boost. If you want to know what else you can do to optimise the content for your event, read this article.
Create an App for the Event
Again, in relation to delivering real time content, you should consider developing an app for your planned event. Apart from that, most people get really impressed when they are presented with the opportunity to use a free app through every stage of the event they are interested in. More channels for your content, greater value for your customers.
Stay tuned for more ideas how to diversify your marketing and increase your reach. The subscribe button is just below the post!
Before I leave you to go and plan your most successful marketing strategy, I can't miss the opportunity to celebrate our very own Brand Expert Temmie, who has birthday today. Join me in wishing him a never ending flow of creativity and energy to continue helping hundreds of businesses around the world find their true brand identity! Happy Birthday, Temmie!
