Correctly marketing your conference is key to ensuring the event is a sell-out success. There are a number of things you can do to spread the word about your conference, ensuring that the right audience is informed and prepared well in advance.
- Recognise and reward previous attendees. Attendees of previous conferences are likely to be interested and supportive of your next event. Inform past attendees of your latest conference as soon as possible and offer them an incentive to attend again. Rewards could include exclusive content or a discount on ticket prices for signing up early.
- ‘Early Bird’ pricing. Offering early bird pricing will create a sense of urgency amongst potential attendees, encouraging them to snap up tickets whilst they are at a lower rate. Many conference organisers offer different tiers of early bird pricing, gradually increasing the cost of tickets as the conference date gets closer.
- Social Media. Harness social media as a way of creating momentum around your event. Using specifically created hashtags begin tweeting and talking about the conference on all social media platforms. You could even invite carefully selected individuals to the event and strike up conversations using the conference as a starting point.
By creating a specific event page on Facebook you can invite people to your next conference and also use this as a medium to share any news or important information relating to the event.
Many social networks also offer advertising options which can be really useful when trying to target a specific audience segment.
- Develop a blogger outreach strategy. From past attendees to industry experts and speakers at the event, encourage as many people as you can to blog about your event. As this is not a form of paid advertising the return from this type of exposure is much greater; the key is to build good relationships with bloggers who in return will act as a trusted referrer to their loyal followers.
- Utilise sponsors. It is in your sponsors’ interests to promote the event to their own followers and marketing lists so make this as easy as possible for them. Provide them with email templates, discount codes and any other promotional materials they need to spread the word about your conference to their customer base.
- Distribute press releases. Send out a press release about your event to as many relevant media outlets as possible including; local and national newspapers, trade magazines, radio stations, industry related websites and social media accounts.
Often the venue that you are hosting your conference at will also have some great tried and tested ways of promoting your event. Ask the venue for ideas and help with promoting your next event.