4 Tips for Marketing Global Events In Your PJs
Picture it. You’re lounging at home watching Netflix, when suddenly — ding! — an email comes in. The subject line is: NEED MARKETING FOR CLOWN EVENT IN BELARUS. Interest is perked. One, you have a lot of knowledge about clown events, and two, you hear that Minsk is beautiful this time of year. But, there’s a slight problem. You live in Toledo, Ohio and there’s no way you can travel to Minsk with the holidays coming up (obviously). How can you successfully help promote an event on the other side of the planet without leaving your bedroom? Easy.
1. Start Early and Collect as Much Data as Possible
You need to start as early as you possibly can to collect information from your client. Has your client ever held a similar event before? In that location? How did that event go? Since you’re working all this from Ohio, you need to get all the data up front so you can make educated marketing decisions. The more you can understand about the event, your audience, and how they interact with advertising, the better.
The more you can understand about the event, your audience, and how they interact with advertising, the better.
If this is the first time that you’ve worked with your client, it’s vital to identify a target cost per conversion. How much is your client willing to pay in order to get a qualified clown to sign up in Belarus? It can be any amount of money, but it’s important to clarify, so you can understand your client’s expectations of your marketing efforts and shape your campaign accordingly.
Don’t miss out on opportunities to use data on previous events and attendants as well. If previous events have been done properly, you should be able to see information such as emails, place of work, postal codes and more. Compiling and analyzing this data could provide insight to help dial down your marketing strategy when you don’t have boots on the ground in Belarus.
2. Monitor Using Digital Tools
With the due diligence done, it’s important to set up your promotion so that you record all the important information you’ll need while the campaign is running — and for your next event in Belarus. Create and use online tools to learn data that will be useful in the future. One of my favorite tools is Facebook’s Audience Insights. Input an audience of your choice and it will give you a plethora of details about your audience including age range, education level, income level, and even purchase behavior. Tools like this are accessible from the comforts of your PJs and give you the power to enhance your marketing prowess.
If you’re using an online event booking system, like Eventbrite, make sure you’re asking people the right questions upon point-of-purchase. Collect useful information like email addresses, postal codes, industries of work, and more. Was there any information that you didn’t have during the planning phase that you could use now? Take this chance to collect it so marketing the Belarus clown event next time will go even better.
3. Be Prepared to Make Real-Time Changes
Event promotions have started. You’ve sent out an email blast, partnered with local press, and started your social media campaign. Good work! However, you are not yet done. Now it’s time to do what I do best, obsess over the details. Monitor your RSVPs and your data, and be prepared to make real-time changes. Sometimes all the planning you did, didn’t pan out. Maybe your audience wasn’t a perfect fit. Maybe your email blast didn’t convert the way you expected. That’s okay. It happens. Be light on your feet and be prepared to adapt.
Monitor your RSVPs and your data, and be prepared to make real-time changes.
One time, we centered an event completely around a client’s VIP list. This meant we built our campaign for brand awareness. When the VIP list fell through and didn’t convert, we had to adapt and radically change our digital strategy for conversions. Staying on your toes and being in touch with the real-time data will make a big difference for your clients and the overall results of the event.
4. Learn from Your Data and Surveys
Congrats! You’ve had a successful event in Belarus. I’ve heard that people are calling it the “Clown CES of Eastern Europe.” That’s very high praise. Now, if you haven’t figured it out by now, data is important. It’s time to use that data to learn. Dive into your closest data pool, whether it’s Facebook, Eventbrite, Data Studio, or your client’s CMS. Figure out timing. When were people more likely to RSVP? What kind of people were more likely to RSVP? What was your no-show rate? What of your marketing efforts worked best? What things could you do to improve? There are many things that could provide value when marketing your next event.
Surveying can be an incredibly powerful way to learn things about your event as well — and good news, you don’t have to leave your bed for that either. Use SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to put together a free survey and send it out to your attendees. Write questions that are quantifiable and meaningful to the event. Oftentimes, people at the events experience them in completely different ways than event staff and marketers do.
Successfully marketing an event when you’re not local depends on good data. The more data you have as a marketer, the more effectively you can make decisions. Even though you may not know the colors of the banner or what conditions the bathrooms are in, you can still be a valuable asset to a marketing team in Belarus, all the way from your bedroom in Toledo.
BREAKDOWN
- Start early and gather as much information as possible before promotions begin.
- Create tools that will enable you to manage data and define campaign success.
- Be dynamic. Be invested in your promotions and prepare for split-second decisions based on your data.
- Once the event is over and done, review the data you’ve collected. Identify spaces for improvement and prepare for your next big event.
Love,
Austin
