by jonc | May 7, 2019 | Promote
If you’re not currently using video as part of your marketing strategy then you aren’t alone.
We understand that the thought of creating video content can be an intimidating one, but video is one of the most effective tools in driving customer engagement. 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support and 43% of B2C marketers said that pre-produced video is the most successful type of content for marketing purposes. So now’s the time to start prioritizing creating amazing video content!
Video creation doesn’t have to be expensive
It can be expensive to hire out a videographer to film your event and turn that raw footage into perfected final videos. But you don’t always need to hire a videographer to achieve that professional level of video.
High-quality video production has never been cheaper. The camera quality of the latest smartphones has been getting better with each new release, so shooting your own footage is now a far more available option. With a high-quality smartphone camera and a gimbal (non-essential), you can take your shots and edit them in a variety of free video editing programmes.
Only a small number of smaller business and events go to agencies for freelancers to produce their videos. More and more people are turning to DIY techniques to produce great video content on a budget.
Video creation doesn’t have to be time-consuming
Producing professional level video may seem like a huge task, especially if you don’t have a huge marketing team behind you as support. But if you’re already attending your event why not get your phone out and start filming?
As previously mentioned, most modern smartphones have incredible cameras and with an image stabilizing device such as a gimbal, you can easily produce high-quality video content.
Even if you don’t have enough time to film your whole event, it’s always worth filming short clips to capture the energy of your event to share with attendees and potential future attendees.
If your event day is looking a little hectic, consider taking on a volunteer or a delegate to do some of the filming work or share your event live on social media (e.g. Instagram stories). This footage can be uploaded immediately with little to no editing needed.
Video has a great and tangible return on investment (ROI)
If you want to really see the power of film you need to look into the numbers. When asked which type of content sees the best return on investment (ROI) on social media, the top response in a survey found that it was video marketing. 88% of marketers said that they were satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing on social media.
Adding video to your website as well as your event listing can increase your chances of being the first page on a Google search by a factor of 53, according to MarTech. Forbes also reported that the majority (51.9%) of marketing experts agree that video has the best return on investment of any type of marketing tactic.
Your competitors may already be using video marketing to promote their events and may already be seeing an ROI. If you want to get in on the action and make your event stand out from the rest you can upload a video into your event listing on Helm.
by jonc | Apr 24, 2019 | Promote
91% of consumers check their email every day. But if you’re looking to convert potential attendees from just opening your email to buying a ticket to your event, you’ll need to stand out and highlight exactly why they should buy a ticket from you.
To start making email your most influential advertising tool is to understand how you rank against your competition in several key metrics.
To make your event email marketing more effective, there are 3 key metrics you’ll need to pay attention to. The open rate, click-through rate, and the unsubscribe rate. The average stats for event emails are:
- 26% of recipients open their event emails
- 4.95% of recipients click links in their event emails
- 0.8% of recipients unsubscribe to their event emails
There are several ways you can use these metrics to optimize your event email marketing campaign.
Open rate
The open rate of your emails is the percentage of recipients that opened your email. With an average of 26%, it means out of the number of emails you send marketing your event, only 26% will actually open that email. The common range of opens can be between 21-30 %. Music events tend to have a higher rate of opening at around 29%, and professional events such as conferences have an open rate of just 23%.
If your current email open rate is below these averages, there are several things you can look at to increase the rate of people opening your email.
A good place to look is the subject line of your email. You need to be specific in your message with a sense of urgency. You should use 50 characters or less in your event email subject line. If you’re sharing promotional codes or a save the date email with a time limit set to it, make sure that’s included in the subject line. For example, “25% off ticket price for 24 hours with this code!” If you have the opportunity to include the recipient’s name or city in the subject line, this kind of personalization can see an extra 20% in open rates!
It may also be worth looking into the name of the sender of your emails. It might be worth testing sending emails from your company name, from your own name, or maybe even the name of a popular speaker at your event (if applicable and with permission), as well as looking into what time you send your email.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
A normal average click-through rate (CTR, the percentage of people who click a link in your email) for an event email is 4.95% — so just under 5% of people who receive event emails will click on a link in that email. Music events tend to have the best results, with an average CTR of 5.43%, while classes and workshops have just an average of 4.08% CTR.
One of the most effective ways you might be able to increase your click-through rate is to add more links in your event emails and ensure your links are as close to the top of the email as possible. For example, if you have a “Buy Tickets” link at the bottom of your email, add it to the top, or include an alternative link to find out more details on the event.
The best way to develop your CTR is to be more specific with your targeting — with your email list or your content. A good example is segmenting your email list by geography to reach a more local audience or send a discount to previous event attendees. (If you’re like many Helm Tickets event organizers and use MailChimp for your email marketing campaigns, you can sync your account with Helm to automatically transfer attendee email addresses and other data between systems. Find out more here.
If you don’t want to narrow down your email lists, it’s worth testing your content to see if one kind is more responsive than another. You can create two versions of your email (version “A” and version “B”). Send version A to one set of subscribers and version B to another more restricted set. Then you can send the better-performing email to the remainder of your email list.
Unsubscribe Rates
The average event email has a rough unsubscribe rate of around 0.8% — so just under 1% of people who receive your event email would unsubscribe from your database. If your rate is above the 1% average, the top of the median range for event emails, it’s worth looking to become more targeted in who you’re sending your emails out to, as well as asking for feedback in a prompt on your unsubscribe page. It’s essential also to be sure to include another communication option on your unsubscribe page. Just because someone doesn’t want to receive your emails doesn’t mean they don’t want to hear from you on Facebook or another channel.
Having great email marketing is just one of the many ways to increase your ticket sales to your next event. Helm Tickets’ promotional tools and integrations are all there to make the process that little bit easier!
by jonc | Apr 18, 2019 | Promote
Your event’s website – specifically the landing page/homepage – is the most critical tool for converting event awareness into converted event attendees. Your pages’ design should help achieve this goal with a clear identity and message, and organized information hierarchy and stunning visual imagery. The following tips can help you maximize your event page’s effectiveness using the Helm Tickets event widget.
Brand Identity
Your events landing page (homepage) should embody your brand by showing your brand’s unique identity. The most effective event ticket pages express this identity with both visual and verbal aspects. By pairing typefaces with simple and clear layouts that help close a sale with a natural registration process, you create a hierarchy. A design hierarchy is a design that guides a user along a specific path towards a single goal.
Having a good visual hierarchy arranges content into whatever you want the viewer to see first, second, third, etc. You can do this with powerful imagery, contrasting colors, or even each element’s relative size on a page. Verbal hierarchies work similarly in that you can funnel your information available towards the desired outcome. For example, you could present your essential information first, such as event name, date/time/location, and cost, then follow on with further engaging event details such as any speakers, activities or logistics.
Ensuring a good usability level is essential when putting together all of these elements on your event ticket page. Be flexible with your layouts and make sure your site loads quickly and is easy to use, especially mobile. Whilst design is important; it shouldn’t lose any usability.
Brand Message
An events ticketing page messaging works alongside its information hierarchy. Attendees are increasingly searching for greater levels of interactivity, entertainment, and engagement. By creating an effective event page messaging, you should support a user-defined experience based on trust, which is a key factor in building return and new attendees.
Your page’s design is essential when you look to develop trust levels between your attendees and the whole event experience. Defining what that experience is with a combination of visual cues and descriptive text can help define what your brand message is.
Keeping your brand message consistent throughout the experience, from buying a ticket to the event itself, is immensely important. It will help fuel future purchases with a clear message when being referred by word of mouth or social media, as well as then hopefully leading to a more significant conversion rate.
Consistent messaging creates a level of interest by focusing on the event’s brand promise (an incredible experience), which can feed word-of-mouth advertising (social proof, recommendations) and increase conversions (registration, ticket purchases). Delivering on that promise converts attendees into advocates for your brand, developing future engagement and reinforcing the brand, particularly for recurring events.
Brand Colors
Event ticket pages seek to spark meaningful, tangible, and comprehensive event experiences. They should depend on a palette of three to five emotionally associated colors. Shades of crimson, navy blue, bright gold, deep orange, vivid magenta, or (more frequently) royal or ultraviolet purple are still commanding palettes both in print and on-screen.
Vibrant colors provoke an intense experience, but colors associated with specific emotions (cool for precision or tradition, warm for innovation, neon for excitement) can also emphasize that experience. Contrasting colors for body copy, like black text on a white background, make it easy for potential attendees to skim, read and get a quick feel for your event without having to struggle to find information.
Brand Type/Fonts
Most educational event ticket pages use copy that’s understandable regardless of its surrounding (literal or figurative) noise. Simple typography and iconography allow convenient navigation, and consistently applied type supports the brand’s visual signals in any environment. On-screen that means it needs to be highly functional – mostly sans-serif font sets for subheads, body copy, and buttons – followed by heavier display typefaces or even hand-lettered type for headlines.
As for copy in general, using fewer words (but correct words) is still the practice. Properly layered typography (progressively darkening color shades or descending weights for headers, subheads, body copy, etc.) will contrast well for more important content like detailed programme descriptions or guest speaker information.
Brand Images
Captivating brand imagery will strengthen any event tickets page’s brand, message, and call to action. Professional photography fairly dominates a significant amount of large conferences, concerts, and festival pages—but many events of varying sizes may also use interchangeable imagery. These illustrations or icons may arise throughout the site, either as a latent wallpaper or overtly associated with particular event features or actions.
Several brands are dialling back their aesthetic imagery for banners or other hero-level imagery in favor of more dynamic and engaging content (social media walls or video reels). Visually, that means simpler logos with fewer colors (if not completely all-one color) and subtler placement are becoming key. This is the most common occurrence of white logos (or text or icons) overlaying wildly colorful imagery or video.
Whether your event ticket page uses photography or illustration, it’s always best to hire a professional. This will help you stand out from thousands of amateur Facebook banners or badly lit photographs of surprised or unprepared people. Creative professionals can always make the most of less-than-ideal conditions, so your next events imagery can be more engaging and shareable!
Keeping track of the latest and most valuable event ticket page trends and designs isn’t always at the forefront of many event professionals’ minds when they’re busy with the event’s logistics. Your event ticket page may not even be the first point of contact for any potential attendees. Still, it should 100% be the most informative and have a clear narrative leading to your desired outcome regardless of where they came from (a social or email link).
Perceptive event professionals know the best events where attendees participate in an engaging experience before attending the event. Successful event professionals understand how critically important their event ticket page is as a component to reach those conversion goals.
by jonc | Apr 12, 2019 | Promote
Having great event photography can take your event promotion to the next level.
Whilst the added time and effort may not initially seem like the wisest investment, having amazing quality images will make advertising and promoting your next event a thousand times easier in the long run.
Despite camera phones upping their game over the last few years, to really capture the feel of your event and to have professional-level advertising content, it’s still essential to hire an experienced professional if you want to have clear, compelling images.
Here are a few of our top tips to ensure your next event has the best images possible.
Booking a photographer
Hiring an experienced event photographer is incredibly important. If you Google event photographers in your area, you’re sure to find hundreds of photographers, so it may be worth reaching out to people you know and seeing if they have any recommendations. If you’re using a venue, they also may be able to supply you with several suppliers they’ve used in the past. Give yourself plenty of time to find the right photographer for your event.
Take a deeper look into their work through their website: for example, galleries, testimonials, experience, if they have any specialities, and their pricing. If they’ve frequently worked on events similar to yours or previously worked at the venue, they’d be able to provide you with the most effective images.
Try and find a photographer whose style would suit your event’s promotional needs as well as your budget. Always ensure you agree on a fee upfront and what exactly that fee will cover in terms of time, scope, editing and supply of the images.
Once you’ve found a photographer you’re happy with, you’ll need to ensure they’re fully briefed on exactly what you need from them. Ensure there’s a safe place for them to leave their equipment, such as a lockable cupboard or office space, and make sure they have appropriate access to the part of your venue you need photographing.
Also, make sure they’re easily identifiable as the official event photographer(s). This makes sure you know what you’re paying for and ensures they don’t get too hijacked by guests looking for photos!
Writing an appropriate brief
Writing a brief can seem a daunting and time-consuming task. However, the long term payoff of having a clearly written brief ensures your photographer will be able to do the best job they can for you. Make sure you take the time to discuss what you want from them before the event and arrival – this way, you can deal with any last-minute opportunities or concerns.
The images from your event should have a clear narrative and tell the story of your event. Include pre-event shots to show your event’s set up and build hype for it, followed by plenty of images of attendees arriving and people interacting with your event. Depending on your event, you may want to include images of people watching a demonstration or presentation, your attendees sampling something, or talking to others at the event. The key sentiments you want to convey are your attendees enjoying themselves, celebrating, learning, and interacting. This will grow the levels of trust and engagement for possible future attendees.
Have a good mixture of close-up and broader shots and a mix of candid and posed shots. This is necessary to ensure you have a good variety of material to work with in the future. Some of these shots will be more appropriate for social media use, and some may be more appropriate for use on marketing and promotional materials. Having images that convey emotion can sometimes be more effective than getting action shots, aiming to get a good level of reaction shots to your event. Put together a list of essential shots and some that are more abstract and allow your photographer to be creative on the day too!
The brief itself should include:
- Audience and purpose: it’s essential to get images of your audience interacting with your event, but it’s also a good idea to think about who you’ll be putting that image in front of and what they’d want to see to encourage them to buy a ticket to your next event. Are the images for social media? Are they for a press release? Are they for stakeholders? Or maybe for your next brochure or advert? There can sometimes be several audiences you want to target, so it’s important to remember this when writing out your image list.
- Branding: if you have a set of brand guidelines, it may be worth supplying those to your photographer, so they get a good feel and understanding of your brand and are better able to create images that accurately reflect it.
- Know the event: the more information your event you can supply your photographer, the better. If you have an event programme or guide, it may be worth sending this to them in advance so that they can plan out their time to make sure they’re able to get all the shots you need in the allotted time. Once arriving at the event, it may be worth showing them around to know where they’re going and can be more effective in how they spend their time at your event. If there are any VIPs or specific people you need plenty of photos of, make sure you introduce them in advance, so there’s no confusion, and it makes it easier for both the photographer and the person of interest.
- Key moments: let your photographer know the key moments of your event that you want to capture in advance. Creating a timetable of these moments may be really useful in timings for your photographer and make it easier to create a shortlist.
- Timings: before your event, it’s important to agree on both how and when they will supply you with the images. It’d be useful if, at some point during the event, you receive a few images to be used across all communications whilst the event is still live, and enough to use immediately after the event for ‘round up’ emails and press releases. The remaining images can then be scheduled to be delivered depending on when you need them.
Permissions
Generally, you don’t need to get permission to photograph large groups of people at public events, provided the images won’t be used out of context or aren’t likely to cause distress or harm. However, if minors are present, you’ll need to get parental consent for the child to be photographed.
Despite the fact you generally need permission, it’s advised that you highlight that there will be a photographer present at your event and have a procedure in place for those who are unhappy having their photo taken. Many events include opting into having the attendees’ photo taken as a condition of admission into the event, depending on the type of event and audience.
At Helm Tickets, we want to make sure you make the most out of your event and set yourself up to have even greater success at your next event. Finding a great event photographer and using the images to promote and share your event is incredibly important, and we hope these tips will make the process that little bit easier!
by jonc | Feb 14, 2019 | Promote
Intro
If you’re like most event organisers, one of the biggest challenges you probably face when running an event is creating an effective marketing strategy. Most events have small teams, and everyone in that team ends up doing a little bit of everything.
Like most event organisers, you probably don’t have the luxury of having a dedicated social media team religiously going through various channels ensuring plenty of engagement. Nor do you have huge budgets to spend on adverts and campaigns.
Instead, you have to get creative in making the most out of what budget you have and ensure you maximise the return on your spending. The end goal is usually the same — to spend as little as possible yet still sell more tickets for as little effort.
It can be a tricky one to get right, but not impossible! Here are some of our top low budget marketing tips for your event.
Collect and Understand Your Data
You’re likely marketing on several different channels, whether that’s email, digital advertising or various social media platforms. All these channels can provide you with essential data that tells you who’s looking at your event and what’s working.
Reviewing that data as frequently as possible is essential in building an understanding of who you’re marketing to and who your potential attendees might be. Understanding which marketing channels are working best and who’s engaging with that marketing means that you can tailor your marketing budget to where you see the biggest return on investment (ROI).
To learn how to be more efficient with your budget, to work out who to target and where to target them, do the following:
- Set up tracking links to your post. Tracking links are the best way to see where people came from when they found your event listing/website. Bitly offer a great free service where you can customise the link and track not only how many people have clicked on the link but which social channel they came from and where in the world they’ve clicked from. They offer a paid service which offers more features, but for basic link tracking their free service is perfect!
- Look at how your social media is performing. All social media channels offer ‘insights’ into how people engage with your posts. You can look at views, likes and shares which tend to come as standard. Some platforms also offer you insights into link clicks as well as profile clicks. If you run a business account on some social media channels you can even check the ages, gender and time of day when your posts receive the most engagement.
Refine Which Social Media Channels Are Used
There are several social media channels available for you to market your event. Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest — the list goes on. Every one of these channels is both time and cost consuming. Once you’ve gathered your data, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision about which social media channels work best for your event.
The best way to make your event marketing budget go further is to the only fund in the channels that will work best for you. For example, if you’re running a music event, you should probably throw marketing on Linkedin out the window! Or, if you’re running a fashion event, Instagram is the best platform to showcase all of your great visual content.
Suppose your budget is limited; just pick a couple of social media channels – where you’re already seeing greater engagement and focus on those. If you’re unsure which platform is working best for you, go back to step one and look at the data from the platform you’re already using. Look back over time to see if your engagement on some platforms has grown or dropped.
Automate Your Social Media Post
A great way to save you time and money with your social media posts is using automation tools. Automating your marketing posts for your events will help you reduce the amount of time spent manually managing your campaigns, meaning you can be more productive and improve the content that goes out.
There are plenty of free tools that can help you with this:
- Buffer – With Buffer’s free service, you can schedule multiple posts to be automatically posted when you decide across multiple platforms. It works across Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram. There is a pro version of Buffer; however, if you’re looking to save those pennies to reinvest in your event, the free version can offer you everything you need.
- Planoly – Planoly is purely an Instagram automation tool, but it does have some other powerful free features. You can plan and schedule your posts and look at basic stats from the previous week or 30 days. Another cool feature of Planoly is that you can grab stock images or other accounts images directly through the platform to share on your own feed. So if you’re running low on the content, you have the option of ‘regramming’ others’ content to bolster yours. There are multiple paid–for accounts, but the free version should be more than enough to get you going.
Reach Out To Partners and Influencers
Sponsors, vendors and even your attendees all can be a part of your marketing team. Discover ways to engage with them on social media and reach out to their fans and followers. This way, you can expand your reach to those who may also be interested in your event.
The best people to reach out to build engagement are influencers — these guys are the pros of social media. We aren’t saying to reach out to huge celebrities who can be incredibly expensive to have promote you. Look out for ‘micro-influencers: those that fit your niche and have a smaller yet more targeted following. These are the influencers that are perfect to market your event to and get behind you.
Conclusion
Marketing budgets can be a nightmare, especially when you’re running a small event, and you’d rather be spending the money investing in your event. Whilst you can’t eliminate all marketing costs, we hope these tips will help you save a bit of money and make your budget go that little bit further.
by jonc | Feb 7, 2019 | Promote
The use of influencer marketing has grown exponentially over the last few years due to the ever-increasing growth of social media. Influencers are common users to promote brands and products through sponsored posts across social media. Influencer marketing can involve anything from product placements to brand mentions. These influencers are generally paid per promotional post.
However, more and more brands are beginning to use influencers to promote events.
An incredible example of the power of influencer marketing for events is Fyre Festival. Despite the festival itself being a complete disaster, without the influencers creating such a large hype before the festival it may never have spiralled out of control as quickly as it did.
Rohan Midha, managing director of the PMYB influencer agency, says that while Fyre itself was a failure, the marketing choices behind it were not. He told the BBC:
It just shows how powerful influencers can be. Influencers can reproduce the largest return on investment…That’s across the board.
Werner Geyser, the founder of the Influencer Marketing Hub, agrees, saying since the release of the documentaries his web traffic has spiked a curiosity in the industry has increased.
If anything [the Fyre Festival documentary] was showing utilising influencer marketing was part of its success in terms of marketing the event…It’s all publicity at the end of the day. I think brand managers and influencers will be more cautious and that can only be a good thing.
Influencers’ primary purpose is to boost visibility and engagement around the brand and event. Read on to discover the best practices when using influencer marketing.
Create Great Visual Content
The main reason to use influencers for events is it can promote it for you on various social media channels. But you always need to keep in mind that influencers won’t share posts of your event if it doesn’t look good. Influencers have an image to maintain, so they need to constantly be sharing visually appealing content (images/videos).
If the lighting or decor is n’t up to standard and they can’t create good content, they may not be as keen to share your event with their followers.
It is crucial that the event is ‘Instagramable’. There needs to be plenty of opportunities throughout the event to take good pictures. Whether it be something as simple as good lighting or even event accessories such as place cards, food, banners and table settings. From there they will proactively share Instagram Stories, photos and live feeds to show their followers how ‘awesome’ your event is.
Understand Your Guest List
You can’t get just any influencers to promote your product through sponsored posts. This works the same for events. You cannot just invite any influencer to your event. You need to ensure that you invite influencers that appeal to your target market, audience and attendees. This means you should really study your guest list and your social media audience.
Take a look at the various demographics and identify which influencers would be the most effective for your event. Asking your audience directly is even an option through polls and surveys on social media. This again brings greater engagement to your event. By gathering this information from their responses you should be able to gauge exactly what kind of influencers your audience would like to see at your event.
If your guest list includes any non-paid influential people within your community it’s worth checking their social media accounts see if there are any specific influencers they follow. This should give you a better idea of whom to invite and whom to avoid.
Generate Buzz Before Your Event
In many cases, you want influencers to talk about your event before it even begins. They can share pictures of an invite or even what they plan on wearing! The most important thing is to share details about the event to inform and remind followers about it. This helps generate a buzz around the event and encourage people to keep an eye out for more event-related content.
Creating this buzz before your event is especially important if your event involves some kind of audience involvement, such as product launches, concerts, etc. Generating pre-event buzz is great if you’re looking to drive higher audience attendance or if you need your attendees to take some kind of action before the event itself.
Have your influencer share plenty of event content
The whole point of having influencers at your event is to get their audience and reach to engage with your event. Briefing the influencers before the event is also essential, as you’ll need to encourage them to share as much photo and video content with their followers, along with a relevant event hashtag.
Sharing a live feed or stories from the event to document their experience is another useful tool. They shouldn’t just share content after the event is over, but share content throughout the event itself to let their followers get a real feel for the experience of the event.
Live content from events is a great way to build authenticity around your event. As everything is captured in real time there’s less risk of audiences thinking the content has been edited in any way. It makes audiences feel involved and makes them feel closer to your brand and event.
Share content after the event finishes
Using influencers to create content about your event is a fantastic way to expand your reach and potentially bring new audiences to your event. Keeping the momentum going after your event is over is also a great way to keep that audience engaged, especially if your event is recurring. It brings another level of credibility and keeps your current audience engaged.
If you had professional photography at the event, sharing those images on social media and creating blogs will give your profiles and brands a professional image. The images will look exciting and aid in creating the “fear of missing out” (FOMO) when alongside a line of plans for your next event.
This may drive attendance at your next event as well as encourage other influencers to potentially reach out to you and join your next campaign.
Sharing the influencer’s direct content is an amazing way to build engagement with your current audience; it can lead to growth in both your own and the influencer’s following. Just ensure you get their permission before sharing their content.
Conclusion
These are a few of the best practices when using influencer marketing to promote your event. Planning is key with this, so plan your campaign carefully and ensure you have plenty of time to build that hype and organise what elements of your event you want to highlight, capture and share. Influencers can be incredibly busy, so make sure you give them plenty of time so they can execute your carefully designed plan. If the influencer you have in mind can’t make your event make sure you have a list of backups to invite, so you can carry out your plan as efficiently as possible.
