Inspiration Hub

The streaming feed of PlanetIMEX last week was both more and less than the massive industry gathering that traditionally descends on Las Vegas each fall. The immersive platform built on the 3D experience built in May to relieve the withdrawal symptoms of those missing IMEX Frankfurt. The October edition featured education, community and interactive undersea graphics.

Among the sessions that will take place during the PlanetIMEX, October 12-16 online gathering is a keynote presentation by Brian Fanzo, digital futurist and creator of social-media channel iSocialFanz. His topic for the audience of meeting and event planners: Finding speakers who fully reinvent their keynotes for the virtual medium rather than trying to deliver their keynote mostly as they would in-person, which is bound to disappoint.

As event professionals know, even the best-planned gathering can fall flat without the right marketing. To maximize the impact of and business results from your online or real-world event at a time when some people might be hesitant to travel, it’s vital to start with a comprehensive event marketing plan. This plan outlines the different components your event marketing will need (like a website and content strategy that addresses any concerns prospective attendees might have) and enables you to build a marketing timeline that will attract the maximum number of guests to your event.

If speakers contribute to the draw of your event, then their bios are essential components of your promotion. Fact is, it’s not enough to simply include educational and background information and point people toward your speaker’s latest projects. Truly impactful bios have a certain je ne sais quoi that captures the reader’s attention and leaves them intrigued. Here are a few tips for crafting a fantastic one for you or a speaker at your event.

Marketing an event is all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time, and if there’s a medium that has withstood the test of time—it’s definitely email. While it’s among the oldest channels out there, almost half of marketing specialists consider it is still the most powerful channel to hype up your event.

As an event organiser, you are always looking for ways to add that extra wow factor to your event. A brand activation might just hold the answer. We share ideas that will boost your attendee’s experience.

Your event description is often the first (and only) chance you get to grab potential attendee’s attention online. And thanks to modern consumer behavior, you have only 5.59 seconds to do it before they abandon your webpage and move on to the next thing.

So how can you make the most of those five seconds you have to spark readers’ attention and turn them into attendees? Here are our top tips for writing ones that drive attendance.

The key to a great marketing strategy is understanding the needs of your target audience. When it comes to B2C vs B2B marketing, businesses are aiming to capture the attention of two very different audiences: consumers vs other businesses, and therefore need to adopt different approaches to succeed. In this post, we’ll discuss the main differences and similarities between B2C and B2B marketing, as well as our top tips for successfully engaging with your customers at events.

You’ve just wrapped a major event. You’re exhausted, you’re happy — and you’re curious. What did your attendees think about your event? How about sponsors? Are they likely to support your event next year? Surveys tell you exactly what attendees, sponsors, and stakeholders loved about your event and what you can do to make it even better next time. So how do you ensure that they’re worthwhile for the respondents too?

Raise your hand if you get (what seems like) a million emails per day? Yup, we can ALL relate.  And your members are in the same boat. So when they’re receiving email after email after email, how can you make sure yours stand out? 

Uber-novelist Stephen King once offered some deep insight into hype and buzz. He said when the message lands, and there then becomes a groundswell of genuine interest, that becomes “buzz.” It almost always portends good things (the success of your product launch, new feature rollout, etc.)—and creating that spark is what marketers live for. Marketers should pay attention to this insight because it goes straight to the heart of why consumers get excited about certain things.

In 2018, 281 billion emails were sent and received. That causes a problem for event creators trying to compete for attention in event-goers’ cluttered inboxes.

There are many email marketing strategies you can use to stand out in event-goers’ inboxes, but the most important is your email copy. Here’s what you need to know to stand out with your event invitation email copy.

Conference-goers are a discerning lot. Sure, they’re looking for great content to further their career development—but at a good price. And like 88 percent of savvy consumers today, the first place they’re going to look for more information about your event is online: your event website.

But just because a potential attendee finds your conference website doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. You’ve only got 10 seconds to capture their interest, so your site needs to present the right information to capitalize on that window, especially by providing a seamless checkout.

When a curious event-goer lands on your website, you’ve only got 10 seconds to capture their attention. Will your event website grab someone’s attention in such a short amount of time?

If it’s not, that might be because event websites are very different from every other website. And if you don’t understand why your site should be different, your event attendance may suffer as a result.

As anyone who’s ever sent a professional email knows all too well, figuring out what to say and how to say it is hard work. There’s a fine line between being assertive and being passive aggressive and finding that line can be a tricky feat. There’s nothing more tempting than throwing a “per my last email” when the person you’re corresponding with clearly ignored your last message or a “moving forward” when someone on your team screws something up,” but all those phrases do is ignite annoyance on the receiving end. 

You’ve heard the saying, “What you say is not as important as how you say it.” Well, what you say is certainly important, but when it comes to marketing - and particularly, marketing to young professionals - how you say things is key.  

In 2019, it’s harder than ever to get consumers’ attention. For that reason alone, it’s easy to see why brands are falling in love with experiential marketing. Immersive, live, and memorable, experiential campaigns help deliver your message without distractions. But the strategy lacks a standard definition, which can be confusing when you’re new to it. So, what, exactly, does experiential marketing mean?  Are there different types of experiential marketing? How does it differ from traditional marketing, or from live events more generally? And when is it a good idea to use an experiential strategy over other tactics?

You’ve heard it (and probably seen it) time and time again: Video content is growing in popularity. Now that may either excite you or terrify you, depending on your comfort level with filming video. But the good news is, you really don’t have to have ANY videography experience to put together a top-notch video. All you need is your phone, a vision, and a few best practices in hand.

Is your life hectic? It seems that everyone I talk with laments their frenzied life. Have you ever considered that your customer or client is also frenzied? You can add to their frenzy with uncertainty or create an oasis of calm certainty through proactive communication. Proactive communication is a simple technique that will set you apart because of the calming response of the customer’s brain to certainty.

With all the logistics you have to manage for your company’s trade show program, you might feel justified in skipping trade show promotional activities. But that would be like planning a party and not sending out all the invitations. Sure, the show organizer will get people to the show floor.  But it’s up to you to get them to your booth space.

I hear it all the time. “How do I effectively market my events?” This is one of the greatest challenges meeting planners face. They want to improve app adoption, engage attendees with content and on social media, and increase visibility for their sponsors and exhibitors.

Honest feedback is the secret to planning a successful event. While you can follow trends in events, there’s nothing quite like getting information directly from the source—your attendees. Well-designed surveys are crucial to improving your product. Only attendees can provide you with real insight. So, consider incorporating surveys throughout the event timeline.

Doing social but not doing video? Then you’re missing a huge opportunity to promote your events to a wider audience. According to our recent Pulse Report, video is the most effective social promotion tactic of all. Only 3% of those who used video to promote their events last year didn’t find it effective as a promotional solution. If you’ve not produced video content before, it can certainly seem daunting. However, it needn’t mean giving up masses of time and money – you can produce effective content in minutes, utilising free or low-cost tools.

As social media has grown, so has the power of influencers and the buzz around the benefits of influencer marketing. This tactic offers a lot of potential for event marketers. It can expand your event brand’s reach, open up new audiences and push people who have been on the fence to jump in. If you haven’t delved into the world of influencer marketing yet or are knee deep in building a campaign, here are eight dos and don’ts for making your influencer campaign successful.