Event Marketing has become important since all events to be virtual now. The new trend After the spread of the corona and in order to keep up with the measures to reduce the spread of the epidemic everything turned into the virtual world, and the Internet became the main gateway _ and almost the only _ to access some industries and branding, and from industries that turned almost 90% to take a virtual form in the online world, the conference industry and events both public and personal. The term Virtual Event/Conference, known as virtual events, has recently been widely coined; it means doing an event entirely by default online through a virtual event platform such as Eventtus or other platforms. 

Virtual events are a rather new trend for business owners, marketers, and personal users. As is always known, it is not always easy to adapt to new things quickly.

Therefore, if you want to do a successful virtual event, you should follow a marketing plan for a well-controlled event in order to achieve the desired objectives of the event.

Some beginners in this field are always confused by the phrase “marketing plan for an event” when you hear it, because the first thing that comes to mind is a complex file of ten pages above, right?!

But here you have to, the marketing plan doesn’t have to be dozens of pages, quite the opposite of a page, two or three, which is important to contain the basic and important elements to clarify the roadmap you’re going to go on, to achieve your goals of effectiveness.

Isn’t the best talk to say and say?!

How about we start from the beginning, I’ll consider you a beginner in this field, or you’re organizing an event for your company or organization where you work for the first time, whether online or on the ground, and I’ll explain everything from the beginning.

What is event marketing plan?

It is the road map you are on to reach the specific goals you hope will be effective. For example, these goals can be to sell a certain number of tickets, raise awareness of your brand, do charity work for the community or anything else altogether.

Marketing events or events is a promotional strategy that includes face-to-face contact between brands and their customers at events such as conferences, trade fairs and seminars.

Each event is different, has different audiences, different content and a different culture. So treat it likewise, it deserves to be marketed in its own unique way.

For these events to succeed, the marketer of these events must always be the one who leads and directs. 

Why do we need a marketing plan for events?

According to aventri’s report on the importance of promoting different events and events, 95% of marketing providers agree that live events provide attendees with a valuable opportunity to form personal contacts in a growing digital world.

Additional statistics in the report include:

• 31% of most marketers believe that event marketing is the most effective marketing channel.
• The vast majority of C-Suite executives (87%) believe with the power of live events and plan to invest more in them in the future.
• 84% of attendees said they had a more positive opinion about the company, brand, product or service promoted after the event.

How do you start marketing events online?

But before making any marketing plan for any event whatsoever, you should ask yourself several questions, the most important of which are:

• Why is this event important?

Answering this question is the main objective that will determine the success or failure of the event.

• Why should people attend this event for me or your company? What benefit will they have to do?

• How will the event meet the needs of the attendees?
• What are their needs in the first place?
• Why are they exactly? Other questions can show you the vision and help you easily identify your goals.
• If you can answer these questions smoothly and clearly, then start putting in place the basics of your event’s marketing plan.

Contents of the event marketing plan

Once you’ve set your goals for this event, you should know the basics of your marketing plan before you start writing it, as follows:

1. Product definition

The first step in writing a marketing plan is to identify and define the product, and in this case the product for you is the event you organize, but how are you going to define it?!

In this case, you can define and determine your event by answering these questions; And other experiences that will be presented at this event? You must fully understand what you offer consumers before you can market it to them.

2. Market definition

The second step in your plan is to “define the market” and this part should describe the market in which the event will take place, and what is the current event environment? In other words, is the event presented online or on the ground (offline), or both? How will these different channels affect your product and audience? If you don’t understand the environment in which you work well, you’ll find yourself developing a marketing plan that doesn’t meet the needs of consumers.

3. Analyze competitors

Analyzing competitors is a very important step in your marketing plan, which you should do carefully and give them enough time to do, because it will help you determine your competitive advantage. 

In this step, try to find out the following: such as what events compete with you. If your target customer doesn’t buy a ticket to your event, then what can he do at the time of the event instead of attending?!

What are your competitors’ weaknesses and strengths; what do they offer? What kind of marketing investments do they make to increase ticket sales?, and more importantly, what can you offer better than any other event? If you can answer these questions, use the information you’ll get to determine how your event will compete with other events, find gaps or opportunities that your competitors haven’t already filled, and fill them with your event.

4. Select the target group

Who is your target audience and what do they want from an event like yours? What other events do they attend? What do they love and what they don’t like?, do some research and determine what’s most important to your ideal audience, and how your event can make their lives better or easier.

In addition to finding out who your target audience is, you need to know where to find them. Do they spend time on specific sites or applications? What do they read and watch and what do they like to listen to? You must identify your target audience in as many details as possible so you can invest in marketing methods that your target audience already sees or hears.

5. Brand definition

At this point, you’ll explain almost everything about your brand; what promise can you make to your customers, what is your added value and competitive advantage? Your answer to these questions will enable you to determine your brand promise and the image you see in customers’ minds when you hear the name.

Even brand messages… So develop the Logo logo as an event that embodies your brand promise, and use it and other elements (that belong to the brand) that you mentioned earlier in all your contacts and designs.

Important note:

Don’t forget that the harmony between using brand elements is the first step to building a brand. Here are examples of brand harmony.

6. Pricing pricing strategy

Pricing is an important part of your marketing strategy plan, so you need to define it well in your marketing plan. You should know: What prices will you charge for event tickets, will discounts or a variety of tickets be offered at different prices, or will early Birds theory of setting special rates and discounts for first buyers be followed? What are the limits of your ticket, will people be able to use it to buy food inside the event? Or will you provide them with free attendance for some workshops within the event?…. Wherewill these tickets be sold online or through outlets in certain places or will all channels be used, and what will the impact of sales channels on ticket prices?

7. Sales strategy

Elements of the sales strategy are somewhat associated with pricing, as they discuss the places and channels of ticket sales, and the ways in which they are sold. Will you sell them online or specialized outlets as I mentioned earlier. How will you deal with purchase payments, and for refund requests, how will you deal with them? Will the funds be returned in full if the ticket returns or will part of the money be deducted? These are just some of the questions about your ticket sales strategy that you need to answer before you start promoting your event.

advice:

Work with experienced and reputable online ticket management providers because it will make a big difference to the success of your ticket sales. 

8. Marketing Strategy

How are you going to promote your event to increase ticket sales as well as raise awareness of the event itself? Will you do it yourself or work with an experienced event marketing agency? You can advertise online and offline, invest in email marketing, and use social media marketing…

and other different marketing strategies.

Select the marketing methods you’ll use, and include them in this section of the event marketing plan.

Here are examples of some marketing channels you can think of:

• • Facebook ads.
  • Pay-per-click ads through Google Adwords, ADRoll, and other digital ad channels.
  • Content marketing (blogging, guest blogging, advertising articles, etc.).
  • Ads on specific websites that your target audience constantly visits.
  • TV ads.
  • Radio ads.
  • Printed ads.
  • Billboards, buses and other external and site ads.
  • Social media marketing (Facebook_Twitter_Instagram and LinkedIn)
  • Public relations and social networking.
  • E-mail marketing.

9. The government’s budget

In this part you explain, how much money do you have to invest in promoting your event? Will you need sponsors to help offset marketing costs? Use this section of your marketing plan to determine how much money you should work on, and what it will be used for.

10. Implementation schedule

The tactical execution schedule should include a daily or weekly schedule for each marketing tactic you will use to promote your event.

Of course, your schedule must be in line with the budget you created in Part 9 of this plan.

Also make sure to include not only execution tasks in the table but also KPIs to monitor and measure performance.

Having learned how to explain the basic elements of the marketing plan, let me tell you now the different types of events so that you know what is happening around you in that area and can choose the right type for you and your business knowledge.

Virtual Events and Virtual Events

2020 saw a dramatic shift in offline events (on the ground) coming to the digital ecosystem. But there is a bigger jump in the number of communities and organizations launching their virtual events for the first time.

The virtual event is a large multi-session event held online through a platform that specializes in hosting digital events, often featuring seminars and live webcasts.

The basic definition of a virtual event is: an online event that involves people interacting in a virtual environment, rather than a physical location.

What is wonderful about virtual events is that they are very interactive and give a look and feel similar to a physical event.

These are the events where people meet face to face on the ground, whether it be seminars or conferences… Or other events, and are in a certain place known to all attendees determined by the organizers before them, and sometimes personal events impose a certain number of attendees based on the narrow or spacious place where the event is held, unlike virtual events that can be attended by thousands and not negatively affected by the number; on the contrary, this becomes a source of strength for them.

Differences between virtual events (online) and traditional events:

• Traditional events, despite their own charm, but most of the time people sometimes find it difficult to reach their places of residence, quite the opposite of virtual events, it was your location or the location of the event that you could easily attend. Traditional events force you to be content with a certain number of attendees because of where they are held, unlike virtual events, they can accommodate an infinite number of attendees as long as the servers and servers of the platform on which the event is held are steadfast and good.
• Virtual events save a lot of money unlike personal events that can sometimes exceed the budget set to cover the event. Virtual events provide easy access to speaker and attendee information easily and quickly, unlike personal events where you’ll find it fairly difficult to access speakers and their information.
• Despite the above, in personal events you will be able to form stronger and stronger relationships than you will through virtual events, and I think you know the reason well, it is impossible to talk to someone face to face, while talking to them from behind a screen even if you see him as a voice and a picture.

But despite the benefits of virtual events, they won’t be able to take the profile of personal events, enough that video meetings are filled with disconnects and technical errors. 

 Tips for organizing a successful online event

Once you’ve identified the main idea of the event, and the goals you want to achieve from this event, here are some tips that will help you succeed:

• Choose speakers related to the theme of the event or the industry around it, and do not choose someone just because he is socially famous and has a large number of followers, believe me the disadvantages of this act will be greater than its advantages.
• You should choose your event time carefully based on the target group, because not all times are suitable for all people, especially if you are targeting the maternal or working group.
• Always keep in mind that there are emergencies, so don’t panic about developing strategies to address such situations, such as in the absence of a speaker, there could be a workshop at the time. And so on.
• Check the platform on which your event will take place and make sure the servers and servers of the platform.
• Make sure that your event’s marketing channels are frequently used by your customers and not just channels they frequent from time to time.

Now that you know all about the marketing plan and what goes into it, it’s time to create your own plan. Give yourself enough time and don’t rush, and include your marketing plan in the general review list for event planning.

You’ll sell more tickets and your event will be more successful if you have a written plan to keep you on track to achieve your goals.

Are you looking for lead generation for your events? contact us!