Last time we took a look at how to how to report on all the efforts you’ve put into your email marketing campaign, from what metrics to look out for, to how to A/B test your content. If you missed the blog, check it out here.
This time we’re taking a look at how to use email marketing for SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses). Email marketing changes depending on who you’re marketing to, your industry, and whether it’s B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customer). You’ll have to look at your current audience and who you want to attend your events to decide which bracket you’ll fall into.
We’ll also look at the best email marketing services to help you choose which would work best for your needs.
Below are some key stats to consider when putting together a campaign that’s either B2B or B2C specific.
B2B key email marketing stats:
Emails that are triggered by an action perform 3X better than nurture emails or drip campaigns
Email is the preferred communication channel for 86% of professionals
60% of marketers believe that email marketing produces a positive ROI
Click-through rates are 47% higher for B2B emails than B2C
Subject-line emojis accounted for increased open rates for 56% of brands
B2C key email marketing stats:
78% of consumers have unsubscribed from lists because a brand was sending too many emails
Over 90% of consumers check their emails daily
Video increases CTR by 64.8%
Email subscribers are 3X more likely to share social content than others
Best email marketing services
Hopefully, you should have a pretty good understanding of email marketing campaigns in their entirety, so the next step is to pick an email marketing company that works for you. When choosing an email service provider (ESP), make sure it offers the following services:
CRM platform with segmentation capabilities
Good standing with Internet Service Providers
A positive reputation as an email service provider (ESP)
Easy-to-build forms, landing pages, and CTAs
Automation
Simple ways to comply with email regulations
Ability to split test your emails
Built-in analytics
Downloadable reports
These features generally come as standard with most ESPs, but it’s always worth double-checking to ensure you get the most for your money.
Email marketing templates
Templates take the design, coding and UX (user experience) work out of crafting your emails. Unless you’re a designer or developer, templates will save you lots of time when it comes to putting together a beautiful email to send out to your audience.
When making your choice remember to choose templates that are proven to be effective; high-quality templates come from reputable ESPs that have tested them against many alternatives. Do your research, and you’re sure to find one that works for your needs.
Email marketing examples
One of the first steps you can take is to look at your own inbox. Which marketing emails have you opened lately? Think why you opened them. What did they do that made you open that email or click on that link? There are plenty of online resources to help you gather ideas and seek inspiration, so we recommend finding some examples you like and building from there.
Whilst it may seem there are many rules when putting together an email marketing campaign, as long as you keep this key rule in mind, you won’t go far wrong: Treat your subscribers like humans.You can achieve all your email marketing goals if you keep this golden rule in mind regarding every subject line or call to action (CTA).
Your subscribers have chosen to hear from you, and they want to relate to you. So be genuine, informative, and valuable to them, and they will look forward to hearing from you.
In Part 2 we took a look at the best practices when it comes to email marketing as well as the regulations such as GDPR, if you missed part 2 and are looking for more information on best practices and regulations check it out here.
This time we are going to be taking a look at how to analyse your email marketing results to help you make informed decisions regarding your marketing campaigns.
Here are some of the best ways to track the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
A/B Testing
Not all email lists are the same, some audiences prefer personalisation and some will think it’s spammy. Some audiences enjoy big bright CTA buttons and some prefer something more subtle.
You’ll never know what type of people make up your email list until you test the variables. This is where A/B testing comes into play.
A/B testing or split testing is a way to see what type of email performs best with your audience by analysing the results of email A again email B.
Here is a quick walkthrough in how to set up an A/B test:
Select one variable at a time, for example, subject line, CTA or images
Create 2 versions of the email, one with and one without the variable
Allow your emails to be sent out simultaneously for a period of time
Analyse your results and keep the version that worked best for you
Test a new variable and repeat the process
Most email marketing providers have A/B testing built into their software, which will make it easier for you to compare email results without too much work.
Email marketing KPI’s
There are 4 key metrics to keep an eye on when evaluating the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
Deliverability – measures the rate at which emails reach your subscriber’s inbox
Open rate – the percentage of people that open your email once it reaches their inbox
Click-through rate (CTR) – the percentage of people that click on your CTA’s
Unsubscribes – measures the number of people who opt-out of your email list once they receive an email from you
Improve your email results
There are many factors that can impact your KPI’s, it will take a bit of experimentation to work out and what works best for your emails and your audience.
If you aren’t reaching your targets it’s worth playing around with the variables to see what improves your email results.
Deliverability
Make sure you are following best practices to avoid spam filters
Remove inactive people from your email list and keep only subscribers that are engaged
Check which emails bounced and remove those from your email list
Open rate
Experiment with the language in your subject line to engage with people to open your email
Try sending your emails at different times of day to see what works best for you
Click-through rate (CTR)
Make sure your offer holds value to your audience
Rewrite your copy to make it clear to your audience what you want them to do
Try different CTA’s whether it’s visual graphics or written copy, bold vs subtle
Unsubscribes
Secretly a good thing as you are losing uninterested audience members automatically and making your list more relevant
Ensure your email aligns with your brand
Make sure you haven’t promised one thing with your offer and delivered another
Double-check you have provided value to your audience before you try and upsell
Email marketing report
Collecting all this data is no good if you don’t put together a report you can form future decisions from.An email marketing report is a spreadsheet where you can record your results in one place to help you make inferences from your KPI’s and take action to improve them.
Here’s how we would recommend you organise your report:
Metrics:
Total number of emails sent
Number of emails delivered
Deliverability rate
Bounce rate
Open rate
Click-through rate
Unsubscribe rate
Data:
Subject line
Length of the email body
Offer
CTA
List segment
Questions to ask:
Was your deliverability rate high in comparison to previous periods?
How did your CTR compare to your open rate?
Were your unsubscribe numbers consistent with other emails?
Did a certain subject line perform better than others?
Does the length of the email make a difference in CTR?
Could another style of CTA perform better?
Was the offer appropriate for the list segment?
Keeping track of your results is an essential part of any marketing campaign as it works as guideposts to help you navigate future decisions to help grow your events and ticket sales.
Next time we will be taking a look at email marketing for small and medium-sized businesses, whether you are B2B or B2C we are going to take a look at how to make the most out of your campaigns so you see great results. Keep up to date with our feature updates and event marketing advice via our blog as well as on Linkedin!
Last time we looked at how to get started with an email marketing campaign, including how to create an email marketing strategy and how to build up your email list. If you missed the first part of this series you can find it here. This time we’re taking a look at email marketing best practices and some regulations we recommend you follow.
Email marketing best practices
Once you’ve built up your email list full of loyal subscribers it’s important to make sure your emails don’t end up in a spam folder or worse, on a blocked list.
Here are a few important things to keep in mind before you start sending out information to your email list:
Email marketing tips
While you probably wouldn’t think twice about the formatting or subject line of an email you send to a friend, email marketing requires a lot more thought and consideration. Everything from the time you send to your email to the devices which your email could be opened on the matter, and should be planned.
The goal of email marketing is to generate more leads and increase ticket sales. This is what makes creating marketing emails a far more involved process than your average one.
The components of a successful marketing email include:
Copy: The copy in the body of your email should be consistent with your voice and stick to only one topic.
Images: Choose images that are eye-catching and relevant and optimised for all devices.
CTA: Your call to action should lead to a relevant offer and stand out from the rest of your email.
Timing: Based on various studies the best time apparently to email is 11 am on a Tuesday.
Responsiveness: On average, around 55% of emails are opened on mobile, so your email should be optimised for this as well as other devices
Personalisation: You should write every email as if you’re writing it to a friend. Be personable and address your reader in a familiar tone.
Subject line: Your subject line should be clear, actionable, and use enticing language that’s personalised and aligned with the body copy of the email.
Email segmentation
Segmentation means breaking up your email list into subcategories that relate to your subscribers’ unique characteristics, interests and preferences.
You need to remember that your audience and your subscribers are human and you should always do your best to treat them as such. (That means not sending out generic email blasts!)
The reason email segmentation is important is without it you can run the risk of sending the wrong kind of content to the wrong people and potentially lose subscribers.
Why you should segment your email list
Each person who signs up to your emails is at a different stage of readiness to convert into ticket buyers (which we’re assuming is your goal).
If you send a discount code for your tickets to subscribers that aren’t interested in attending your latest event due to location/previous commitments etc. you’ll probably lose them. This is because you have skipped the part where you build trust and develop the relationship between you and your audience.
Every email you send should treat your subscribers like humans that you want to connect with, instead of a group of leads you’re trying to fit into the same box.
The greater the level of segmentation in your list, the greater the level of trust you’ll be able to build with your leads, and the easier it’ll be to convert them at a later date.
How to segment your email list
To begin to segment your email list you’ll need to create a variety of lead magnets and opt-in forms (click here for more information on these) that cover each part of the ticket buyers’ journey. This means your contacts will automatically be divided into separate lists.
The majority of email marketing platforms allow you to segment your email list by contact data and behaviour that will help you send the right emails to the right people.
There are several ways you could break up your list including:[Text Wrapping Break]
Geographical location
Lifecycle stage
Awareness, consideration and decision stage
Industry
Previous engagement with your brand
Language
Job title
In most cases, you can segment your list in any way you wish, but it’s important to be as exclusive as possible when sending emails to each individual subgroup.
Personalisation
Now you’ve established who you’re emailing and what’s important to them, it will be far easier to send emails with plenty of personalised touches.You’ll know you’re speaking to potentially hundreds and thousands of people, but your subscribers don’t need to know or feel that.Studies have shown that personalised emails have a 26% higher open rate and an improved click-through rate of 14% when compared to non-personalised.
Once you have all your personalised data and you’ve set your email marketing platform that allows for personalisation, there’s no excuse to send out generic emails that don’t make your leads and audience feel special.
A few great ways to personalise your emails include:
Adding in their first name into the subject line or intro greeting
Include region-specific information (great for running local events)
Only send emails that are relevant to the last engagement the lead has had with your brand
Information about personal events like public holidays or birthdays
Ending your emails with a personal signature from a human, not your business
A relevant call to action for an offer your audience may find useful
Email Regulations
Email regulations are consistent with consumers’ desires to know how and why their information is being used. One of the most important factors in email marketing is complying with what your audience wants and is looking for.
CAN-SPAM Compliance
CAN-SPAM stands for ‘Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (because sometimes the two go together).It’s the way to protect your subscribers’ right to only receive emails they’ve requested.The law was passed in 2003 and applies to any commercial emails used for business purposes.
To ensure your emails are CAN-SPAM compliant you need to make sure you:
Include your company/event name in the address of every email
Place visible unsubscribe link within your emails
Use real email addresses in the “from” and “reply to” fields
Write subject lines that indicate the contents of the email
If you’re still unsure about CAN-SPAM there are plenty of resources online for further information.
GDPR Compliance
While there was some controversy when GDPR was first brought in, it actually moves you closer to building long-lasting and trusting relationships with your audience.
GDPR is about giving your audience the right to choose. They choose your emails. They choose to hear updates from you. They choose to buy your event tickets. This is exactly what inbound marketing is about: your customers coming to you because they believe your business and event hold value to them.
GDPR only applies to businesses that operate in the European Union and market to EU citizens. Non-compliance will result in large fees that aren’t worth the risk, so it’s best to read up on GDPR to ensure you are fully compliant.
Here’s a brief overview of how you can comply with GDPR laws:
Use explicit and clear language when requesting consent to store personal information.
Only collect contact data that’s necessary for and relevant to your business.
Store contact data in a secure manner and only use it for the agreed-upon purpose.
Retain data for justifiable business purposes only.
Delete contact data on request.
Make it easy for contacts to unsubscribe from your list or update their preferences.
Comply promptly to a contact’s request for access to their data.
Keep company records to prove GDPR compliance.
These regulations should be taken seriously, so it’s a good idea to create a GDPR-compliant strategy for your business before you begin sending out emails.
How to avoid spam filters
After spending your time creating your perfect email and adhering to regulations, the last thing you want is to end up in a spam folder!
You want to avoid the spam folder because:
It will hurt your deliverability across the board
Your contacts will miss your emails
You won’t be able to accurately measure your marketing effectiveness
Your analytics will be wrong
Some of the best ways to avoid being sent to the spam filter are:
Getting whitelisted: A whitelist is the opposite of a blacklist, meaning it’s a list of approved senders that are allowed to reach a subscriber’s inbox. The best way to do this is to ask your new subscriber to add your email address to their address book. Include directions on how to do this in your welcome email.
Watch your copy: Avoid using all capital letters and multiple exclamation points, as well as spam trigger words, like ‘opt in’, ‘click below’ and ‘order’. These words are easily detected and marked down by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Use a reliable email service provider: Your email service provider’s reputation affects how your emails are delivered, so it’s always best to stick to established and well-known companies for an added level of legitimacy.
Implement a double opt-in: After someone opts into your email list, send an email asking them to confirm. This ensures that your new subscriber is genuinely interested in your emails and will likely be more engaged.
These are essential steps to making sure your emails are trusted and compliant and will help your audience build trust with your business and your event.
Next time we’ll be looking at how you can keep track and analyse your email marketing results to help make your campaigns as efficient as possible. Keep up to date via our blog as well as on LinkedIn!
Email marketing may seem a fairly old school method of marketing your next event in a world full of messaging and social media channels. However, it’s still one of the most effective ways to get in front of your target audience and get results.
Email marketing is one of the few ways you can build up an authentic connection with your audience to keep your event alive. It doesn’t need to be spam or come across as a personal note between friends. It has its own unique identity. Your audience won’t have given you their contact details lightly. If you manage to create the right tone, you’ll build up a relationship between you and your attendees and build a great profit creation tool.
You can build on any existing relationships with your audience, subscribers, and leads by providing them with relevant and valuable information to help them with their ticket buying process.
The most important thing to remember with email marketing is that it isn’t about you; it’s about your audience.
If you always keep this rule in your head when writing your messages to your subscribers, they’ll not only be more likely to open your emails but will look forward to receiving your updates.
How to get started
Creating an email marketing campaign can be broken down into a few key steps.
Define your audience: If you want to create an effective email, it needs to be relevant. Like all marketing, you need to start with your buyer persona. Think about what your attendees and audience are looking for from you and tailor your message from there.
Set your goals: There’s plenty of information out there about industry averages for setting goals for your campaign. You can set goals for open rates (where they open your email) or even click-through rates (if they click on a relevant link in your email). Once you’ve picked your goal, you’ll now have something to work towards.
Create a way to sign-up: You’ll need to create an email list. If you need help doing this, or even if you’re starting from scratch, you can find out more details here. If you have an email list ready to go, you’ll still need to create several ways for new people to subscribe to your emails. Email lists can take a while to build up, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see a huge amount of sign-ups straight away. Treat every subscriber like gold, and you’ll soon see your email list grow.
Choose an email campaign type: There are many options you can choose from, whether you want to send out a weekly update or just announcements for your event. It’s best to have a campaign type in mind so you can plan out what you’re looking to share with your audience.
Make a schedule: After selecting your campaign type, it’s important to put together a schedule of when you want to contact your audience. This will depend on the campaign type you’ve chosen. Inform your audience upfront about what to expect and stick to a consistent schedule, as this will help build trust and make sure they don’t forget about you!
Measure your results: When marketing anything, you’ll also need to measure everything. This is how you’ll know what’s working and what isn’t. Keeping an eye on all these small details will ensure that you can make the most out of your efforts and see great results.
Build up that email list
You can build up your email list in many creative ways – check out our previous blog here to build up your list effectively. Traditionally, there are two key ways to build up your email list: lead magnets and opt-in forms.
Lead magnets: A lead magnet is pretty much as it sounds. It attracts potential email subscribers to your email list, usually in the form of an offer. The offer can be anything relevant to your event and should be valuable to your audience.In recent years people have been increasingly protective over their personal information, so you’ll need to make sure your offer is super relevant and valuable, as their personal information is just as valuable to you.
Your lead magnet should be actionable, easy to consume, relevant to any future content you wish to publish, and a stepping stone to ticket purchase.
Opt-in forms: Your opt-in form will need to be attention-grabbing if you’re looking to get your audience to give you their personal information. It’s the gate between you and your future leads and can be an incredible asset to your marketing toolkit.The form should be simple and set up to offer double confirmation of your intent to market to that person. Don’t set up too many fields to fill in – generally, just a name and email will be enough.
Make sure the process flows. Take yourself through the experience several times, so you get a real feel for your users’ experience. This is one of the first impressions you’ll give your audience, so it’s important to make sure it’s a positive one.
Email marketing can be highly effective when done right, and we at Helm are here to help you through the process. In our next blog, we’ll be taking a look at best practice for email marketing, as well as the regulations you should follow. Keep up to date via our blog as well as on LinkedIn!
Market your event via email more effectively with Helm Tickets
For many businesses and events, digital marketing is key. Online ads and social media marketing have become incredibly accurate and act as a measurable tool for reaching your event’s target audience.
But what if you want to create something real? Something more tangible?
To keep your event and its brand at the front of your audience’s mind, you can cover an entire spectrum of marketing techniques, including complimenting your digital marketing efforts with offline marketing campaigns.
There’s still an abundance of ways to engage with your local audience and regional fans in a tangible way. Here are a few great ways to start:
Be where your fans are
When creating a physical offline marketing campaign, it’s always important to think about not just how you’re going to reach your fans and audience but also where you’ll reach them.
For example, if you’re running a punk rock gig, are there any shops or bars you think your audience might go to? You could consider targeting tattoo parlours or skate shops or anywhere that might play music similar to yours. It’s about hitting the locations that suit your niche.
By doing a bit of research, you’ll be able to get in front of your potential audience organically. You won’t just be reaching out to their existing customers; they’ll also be reaching yours.
Great design creates excitement
Creating posters and flyers has always been an essential part of event promotion, and they can still be incredibly effective alongside a digital campaign. Having a well-designed poster can set the tone of your event and is a great tool to communicate with your potential audience visually.
They can inform and motivate ticket buyers and become a part of your event’s physical history.
There are 2 things you’ll need to consider when creating your flyers and posters:
Design: What kind of emotion and message do you want to convey? Punk? Corporate? Professional? Handmade? You can use this design on all your physical marketing materials as well as your online campaigns. This ensures your event branding is consistent and instantly recognisable.
Distribution: Posting your flyers on telephones poles won’t quite be enough. It would be best to have your posters and flyers exactly where your potential audience will be.
You can even use social media to reach out to brands or businesses that share an audience with you and ask if they’d be happy sharing your posters and flyers on your behalf, creating a partnership with them.
Offer meet and greets
If you have a well-known speaker or artist performing at your event, you have the potential to hold VIP meet and greet experiences at your venue. It’s great to do this in advance of your event, as it acts as an effective way to reach and engage your audience and generate excitement for your event. It’s also a great opportunity to sell tickets!
If you manage to secure a partnership with any local businesses, you could reach out to them and see if they’d be interested in holding the meet and greet at their location. This way, you’re where your fans are, and it’s mutually beneficial to both you and your partner.
Create a contest with ticket giveaways
Nothing gets people quite as excited as a freebie does! Contests are a great way to promote your event and act as a great way to engage with your audience.
You can use your potential partners by doing ticket giveaways that require visiting their place of business. Or create a prize that’s a combination of your tickets and maybe a gift card (or similar) prize from your partner. Once again, creating a mutually beneficial deal.
Offer tickets to your local radio station for giveaways. Radios may charge for the promotional privilege, but if you choose a station whose audience would match yours, it can be a great way to reach that specific audience in your local area. Spending that money could be a great investment to increase your ticket sales.
You can combine physical and offline promotions. Create a social media contest where they have the opportunity to win tickets by posting a photo of themselves with your physical poster in the wild.
In an increasingly digital world, there are still plenty of options when it comes to marketing your event offline. All of the best marketing strategies combine multiple marketing techniques, advertising your event online and in the real world.
A “brand’s story” has become a huge marketing buzz-phrase in recent years. But how clear are you on what that means? And how you can use it to elevate your event?
When you harness the power of brand storytelling you’ll be able to engage more effectively with your attendees – developing an emotional response to your brand and building a greater level of community.
What does brand storytelling mean?
In basic terms, brand storytelling is about helping your attendees connect emotionally with your event’s brand. It’s about creating a narrative that humanises what you do and communicates with your audience on a deeper level instead of a purely transactional one.
Brand stories bring your brand to life and give it character. They make it a living, breathing entity with its own ideas and beliefs. They give it its own voice and a distinct way of communicating and set the tone through which your brand sees the world.
Why should brand storytelling be an important part of your event?
You may be thinking that your tickets have been selling just fine without any real thought towards your brand’s story, so why bother making the effort now? It may be that you have without trying, and created a brand story organically, which is a great start. The next step is to get this down into a written document so you can clarify all the details of your brand and its ethos. This will ensure consistency across your marketing channels as well as providing an easier onboarding process for any new staff.
If you fall into the category where you feel like you don’t have a distinct brand personality yet, putting the work into developing one can help you stand out within your niche. By creating a clear idea of who you are and what you stand for, it makes it easier for your attendees to understand if you are what they’re looking for.
It goes far beyond just writing a great ‘about us’ section on your website. You have to connect with people’s imaginations when you sell to them and brand storytelling is the perfect tool to allow you to do that.
So where do you start when creating your brand story?
Every brand and event has its own individual story. Below is a list of questions that act as a great starting point for you to think about. You can either write your answers down or if you’re not the event’s creator maybe work on getting an interview with them to get the details of how the event came to be.
What led to the creation of the event?
When and where was your event launched?
What were you doing previously to the event being created?
What goals did you set out when you first created the event?
Were there any challenges along the way? How did you overcome them?
Has your event changed or developed from its creation? If so, how?
Who are your event attendees and why do you think they choose your event?
Have you reached the goals you previously set out?
What would you like to achieve with your event in the future?
Do you have any wider values that you consider to be essential to your event?
Creating a clear narrative and timeline gives you an idea of where you’ve been and where you’re heading. It can also help you define your audience more clearly.
A “brand’s story” has become a huge marketing buzz-phrase in recent years. But how clear are you on what that means? And how you can use it to elevate your event?
When you harness the power of brand storytelling you’ll be able to engage more effectively with your attendees – developing an emotional response to your brand and building a greater level of community.
What does brand storytelling mean?
In basic terms, brand storytelling is about helping your attendees connect emotionally with your event’s brand. It’s about creating a narrative that humanizes what you do and communicates with your audience on a deeper level instead of a purely transactional one.
Brand stories bring your brand to life and give it character. They make it a living, breathing entity with its own ideas and beliefs. They give it its own voice and a distinct way of communicating, and set the tone through which your brand sees the world.
Why should brand storytelling be an important part of your event?
You may be thinking that your tickets have been selling just fine without any real thought towards your brand’s story, so why bother making the effort now? It may be that you have without trying, and created a brand story organically, which is a great start. The next step is to get this down into a written document so you can clarify all the details of your brand and its ethos. This will ensure consistency across your marketing channels as well as providing an easier onboarding process for any new staff.
If you fall into the category where you feel like you don’t have a distinct brand personality yet, putting the work into developing one can help you stand out within your niche. By creating a clear idea of who you are and what you stand for, it makes it easier for your attendees to understand if you are what they’re looking for.
It goes far beyond just writing a great ‘about us’ section on your website. You have to connect with people’s imaginations when you sell to them and brand storytelling is the perfect tool to allow you to do that.
So where do you start when creating your brand story?
Every brand and event has its own individual story. Below is a list of questions that act as a great starting point for you to think about. You can either write your answers down or if you’re not the event’s creator maybe work on getting an interview with them to get the details of how the event came to be.
What led to the creation of the event?
When and where was your event launched?
What were you doing previously to the event being created?
What goals did you set out when you first created the event?
Were there any challenges along the way? How did you overcome them?
Has your event changed or developed from its creation? If so, how?
Who are your event attendees and why do you think they choose your event?
Have you reached the goals you previously set out?
What would you like to achieve with your event in the future?
Do you have any wider values that you consider to be essential to your event?
Creating a clear narrative and timeline gives you an idea of where you’ve been and where you’re heading. It can also help you define your audience more clearly.
How can brand storytelling help you better communicate with your audience?
One of the most important parts of brand storytelling is understanding your audience. For example, the language you’d use to write a children’s book would be completely different from the language you’d use to write a crime novel.
This works the same way when writing a copy for your event so it speaks directly and clearly to your attendees. To understand what will get them excited about your event, you need to look past mere demographics – you need to know and understand them as people. To do this you’ll need to create target personas.
Identifying the key ‘types’ who attend your event and the underlying needs of that individual are key to understanding how to communicate more effectively with them. Take a greater interest in what makes them tick. What bothers and irritates them? What challenges are they facing in their daily lives? What are they worried about and scared of? What do they dream about?
The more you know and understand about your attendees, the better you can reach out and communicate more effectively with them. Create different stories for each persona about who you think they might be as people, and from there you can tailor your message to be more appropriate for each persona.
How do you identify your events persona?
When you have identified the personas of your attendees, it’s time to take that approach to identify the persona of your event. You have to imagine your event as an actual person, and build a description of that ‘person’ in the same way you would any other persona.
Ask yourself the same questions you’ve previously used to identify who your attendees are, to help you build the image of a real person. Whilst this may seem a bit ridiculous, it can help you build a tangible personality for your event’s brand story. From there it becomes far easier to work out your brand’s tone and how it should express itself.
How can this affect your day-to-day communications?
You should aim to communicate your brand’s and event’s story through every step your attendees will take whilst interacting with your event brand on and off-site. Whether that be through your website, social channels, advertising, or even your event registration, customer service and post-event thank you a message.
It goes beyond just ensuring your brand has a consistent tone of voice: it’s about consistently stimulating people and continually communicating the values of your event. Brand storytelling is about always expanding the narrative you’ve created. By telling personal stories you’ll be able to trigger an emotional response from the attendee. It’s about reinforcing that human element in an ever-digital world.
How are you able to keep your brand story original?
When making sure you keep your story and narrative original, it may be best to turn to the stories of your attendees. They are the crucial element when it comes to running an event and they can be a fantastic source of inspiration.
Sharing their stories and their experiences with you builds confidence and loyalty and it’s the best way to demonstrate the impact your event has on your attendees. Making your attendees a part of your brand story and your communications will ensure that your event and its values will always seem authentic.
Everyone loves a good story, especially one that’s organic and authentic, so if you want your attendees to be more engaged with your events, give them a narrative they can engage with. Put your event attendees at the centre of your brand’s story and you will have their attention.
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Everyone loves a good story, especially one that’s organic and authentic, so if you want your attendees to be more engaged with your events, give them a narrative they can engage with. Put your event attendees at the centre of your brand’s story and you will have their attention.
