A conference is typically considered a gathering of multiple people to discuss a specific subject. It's frequently mistaken for a convention, a colloquium, or a symposium. Even if a conference is distinct from the others in terms of size and function, the time "conference" can apply to the concept as a whole. A convention is a gathering of representatives from various groups and is more significant than a conference.
The main goals of a conference are networking, in-depth studies on particular subjects, and idea exploration. These gatherings bring together experts in the field and people with related interests for mutual learning and interaction. No matter what kind of conference you are organizing, as the conference organizer, you know that the most crucial aspect of your conference planning is ensuring that participants participate in your events, workshops, and exhibitions. Your participants will be more likely to find their experience significant and desire to return for your subsequent conference if they are more engaged. However, it would help if you first advertised your talk to your target demographic before you could come up with ideas for how to provide your participants with a fantastic experience.
You need a well-thought-out marketing plan that makes your event stand out if you want to attract your ideal audience and provide them with a memorable experience. Planning a conference is a challenging endeavour to manage and carry out. The environment is building up to it, the months of planning and juggling the demands of the speakers and attendees on the day of the event. Nothing is more discouraging to a conference organizer than unsold conference tickets because they show how effectively you promoted the event. Before we get to how conference promotion can make or break your event, you should think about the following factors:
Make Your Goal and Target Market Clear
Why are you holding this conference? What is necessary for it to succeed? Finding out precisely what your target audience wants is critical in this situation. This must be taken care of for a conference and its promotion to be successful. Once this is decided, you should have a goal and an objective based on your audience’s requirements.
Agenda and Topics
Following clarifying your goal, you must determine the subjects and inquiries your speakers should cover. Which agenda will best enable them to connect with your target audience? Use these five essential components for effective conference promotion to avoid making a pointless effort to host an event.
Participants and Facilitators
The success of your sessions or seminars depends on a skilled facilitator. You'll need to find someone who can ask the right questions and is articulate, quick, and knowledgeable about the subject. Hiring people with an online presence for your guest speakers will be helpful. Choosing someone with the appropriate skills and expertise should go without saying, but the more reputable they are, the better, since this will raise interest in your event when you start to promote it (more on this later).
Produce Videos
Online advertising is currently growing in this manner. Higher, more responsive interaction will occur from including video in your online campaign. Don't worry; it can be done affordably. Make an interview-style film with your guest speakers highlighting your conference's goal and main subject. Make sure to emphasize the benefit of attending. Thankfully, free video editing programs can deliver results that appear professional and let you base your work on templates.
Email Marketing
Email marketing strategies are beneficial for promoting conferences. The ROI for email marketing is typically 38:1. Although some may argue that it is an ancient form of advertising, statistics and outcomes show otherwise. Once more, there are fantastic, user-friendly tools available for doing this. You can focus all of your attention on the content with Mail Chimp. The user of this program can manage subscriptions, track open rates, and submit a list of recipients. The only job required is to produce exciting content for the mailer. Announcing early bird tickets, contests, surprise speakers, and "preparing for the event" emails are just a few examples of emails you can send out in phases.
Invent a hashtag for the conference
Social media will be your most effective marketing tool, and Twitter is the most widely used social media platform for having meaningful conversations with your audience. You can make use of LinkedIn connections and interactions as well. Making a conference hashtag is an excellent place to start. People will be inspired to participate in online discussions as a result. Use a straightforward phrase, such as the year, followed by the abbreviation of your event's name. This is simple to keep an eye on. Include the hashtag in your online branding and during the conference's day or weekend. Delegates can then use the hashtag to post on social media after the event. Additionally, search for pertinent conversations in which your target audience may participate and join in. When you respond with value, people will pay attention to you. Search for hashtags associated with your conference on Twitter using terms related to your sector, then participate in the discussions. Even though it requires much work, this conference advertising approach is accessible.
Produce Useful Content
Why not provide your target audience with engaging material they can use and share rather than push marketing? Make an effort to position your brand as an authority on particular topics relating to your industry. Inform the audience about the influence of the speakers, the subjects they will be discussing, and the reasoning behind them. Be valuable and relatable. Don't just advertise the conference's cost and the deadline for submissions. Why are delegates interested in attending your conference? It's about networking in addition to providing industry expertise. Ask your keynote speaker and guest speakers to speak to their audiences about your meeting after introducing them. A credible speaker discussing your event can create priceless interest and boost ticket sales.
Points to Remember as a Checklist when Planning a Conference
A conference needs to be meticulously planned out in advance to operate smoothly. Keep a list to ensure that all conference-related essentials are covered. There should always be an emergency plan in place. When the planning and administrative committee members have well-defined roles and responsibilities, planning proceeds more smoothly.
First and foremost, it's essential to understand the conference's goal. It is necessary to specify the budget. Even though some businesses have large conference rooms to host the event, it is usually required to choose an outdoor location. Utilizing a conference room in a hotel has the benefit of perhaps offering decreased lodging costs. One must haggle for the best deal at various locations that satisfy the conference's requirements. For all kinds of events, particularly conferences, eVenues.com provides online search and booking capabilities.
Once the conference's date, time, and location have been determined, all presenters, vendors, participants, and special guests must confirm their availability. To achieve verified attendance, registration forms must be distributed, and as responses come in, they must be recorded. This is required to handle the conference's logistics, including reserving flights, lodging, and automobile pick-ups for significant attendees like the keynote speaker and unique visitors. The conference's topic must do the design of the invitations, agendas, and brochures. These leaflets must advertise sponsors by including their names and logos.
6 Ways to Promote Conference
Whether it is a physical or virtual conference, planning one requires much work, and if your conference is not effectively promoted, all of your efforts will be in vain. To make things simpler, we've gathered a few promotion suggestions that are certain to raise awareness of your event, which will result in increased ticket sales and registrations. You don't want to trip on the final step, given the considerable stress and work involved in planning your conference! To distinguish oneself in a crowded market and make sure the right people can find their way to your registration page, here are some of the finest techniques to advertise a conference:
Make Registration Easy
Keeping things straightforward is one of your top activities to market your conference and increase registrations. People are not interested in putting forth extra effort for your meeting. If registration is overly complicated, even the best conference planner in the world will experience a decline in conversions. Our daily activities are primarily conducted online. It expedites and simplifies things, right? Why not make registration straightforward and quick? Use online registration instead of paper registration forms. Make sure your online registration form isn't too lengthy.
For consistency, make sure you trademark your online registration form. You may prevent confusion by making your records consistent with the rest of your pages or messaging. People are more likely to fill out a form if they trust it. Additionally, it's a beautiful idea to keep your form mobile-friendly. Making it more difficult for someone to give you their money is the last thing you want to do.
Campaign for Email Marketing
Good email marketing is still highly effective in promoting your event. Vital, branded email marketing campaigns can not only encourage those who might be interested in going but have not yet registered to do so. Email marketing is inexpensive to implement and offers fantastic rewards. Look for an event ticketing system like Accelevents that offers branded email templates, enables you to add your contacts, or interfaces with third-party tools like Mail Chimp if you intend to utilize it to streamline sales and online registrations.
Publications and Industry Listings
Never ignore conventional print media or trade periodicals. For instance, if you have an academic conference, numerous journals are devoted to particular academic disciplines that might print your marketing materials or include your event in an events calendar. Find the publication(s) best suited for your topic and contact them. Find online event calendars that you may add to similarly. Use industry-specific calendars and listings without a doubt, but don't forget to publish them to calendars in the neighbourhood where the event will be held.
Optimize for SEO
Even if it may sound obvious, we'll say it anyway: if people can't locate information about your conference, they won't go. The essential part of any conference marketing strategy should be optimizing your internet efforts for search engine optimization (SEO). SEO makes it easier for search engines to find your content and increases the likelihood that users will see it in search results. Although keywords are the cornerstone of SEO, you may still help yourself and distinguish your content in other ways. Make a conference website first. A website gives you a platform from which to sell tickets and a location to write content that is search-engine friendly, but it also allows you the chance to brand your event thoroughly.
Use Influencers
Your event marketing toolkit should include influencers. In most cases, you would get in touch with someone with a large following among your target audience and use them to plug in and advertise a good or service. Influencer marketing ideas still hold even if you aren't selling a good or service directly. If appropriate, contact critical figures in your industry and request that they publicize your event on their social media profiles. Alternatively, using your keynote speakers as influencers is probably the best action. Keynote speakers will be compelling in the field and may resemble industry celebrities. So, request that they use your hashtag to promote your event.
Live Stream the Event
Live streaming is available across all of the leading social media platforms. This is a fantastic way to publicize your conference and create excitement for it. You can record all or a selection of the keynote speakers, a walkthrough of the event space, and a video of the location. Use your hashtag in your copy, please! This can help attendees stick around for the rest of the conference for multi-day events. Live streaming also allows those who can't attend to experience a small portion of their missing. You can almost certainly guarantee that those who watch will attend the conference the following year if you play your cards well and live to stream the appropriate portions of your meeting.
Conclusion
Promoting your conference is not a walk in the park! To be successful, you must appeal to the masses. Success in your event is not difficult if you have strong PR abilities. Some excellent marketing strategies can undoubtedly increase attendance at your event and make it more exciting. Some quick fixes don't require much thought to increase conference attendance.