Top 6 Conference Marketing Strategies

Whether physical or virtual, planning a conference is hard work. And if you don’t correctly promote it, all that hard work will be a waste. Sometimes, you need to extend beyond your standard conference marketing strategy. Better do smart work to boost your event profile and get registrations. 

If you’re wondering how to promote a conference the smart way. Here are listed the top 10 conference marketing ideas to help you boost ticket sales and registrations. 

1. Start Posting on Social Media

However, gone are the days of distributing print posters and flyers to promote your conference. Today, everyone from kids to the aged ones uses social media platforms. Make your event a trend setter by following latest event trends. A whopping number of 4.62 billion people worldwide use social media. Moreover, this is exactly what you need to leverage. 

Simply start by creating a page in the name of your event or use the existing social media page of your brand. Furthermore, post all your conference details for the people who will want or need to see it. You can even create a specific hashtag for your conference. Then use it every time you upload a post. This is what your target audience can easily remember, search for and follow on social media for further updates.

Another way is to start with daily countdowns. Countdowns help keep the audience up-to-date. It generates a sense of missing out or urgency, leading them to take action.  Moreover, If you plan to use a conference ticketing system to simplify sales and online registrations. Then the best conference marketing strategy is to list your event on AllEvents. They get you maximum purchases through leveraging social media ads. Done using various targeting methods, management software and promotion tools.

2. Establish Audience Personas

You must develop audience personas to help reach out to potential attendees. For example, if you’re hosting an industry conference, who specifically do you want to attract? Marketing execs? Customer service teams? CEOs? Thought leaders?

Unless your conference is focused on a single niche. You’ll likely have several different audience personas. Outline each group with a special focus on the commonalities of a particular segment. Evoke the general attributes that people in that group share.

3. Market to Your Existing Customers

While you establish audience personas, don’t forget to market your conference to existing customers. The advantage here is that you know these people are interested in your brand. Hence, many registrations can come from this existing customer base. Above all here are a few effective conference event marketing strategies you can use to attract current customers:

1. You can offer an early-bird discount on registration.

2. Offer them early access to the conference area of stay reservations.

3. Moreover, you can include an ad creative for your conference in every email.

4. Send event details like date, venue, speakers, etc., followed by a registration CTA.

5. Offer a discount to customers who make a massive purchase within a specific time frame.

6. You can extend exclusive VIP access to long-time clients.

7. Plan a giveaway contest on social media, asking people to follow and sign up for your email list.

8. In exchange for a chance to win VIP access or free registration. Check out more event engagement ideas

4. Reach Out to Industry Influencers

Research the top industry influencers who could help you promote your conference and reach a vast audience. Event planning is a big part of your event so try to do it correctly. Make a list and reach out to around 10 influencers, as it’s not guaranteed that all 10 will accept your invitation.

You can either use their email or simply DM them to share your conference details and what you need them to do. Once they show interest, negotiate the price, and you can even offer them VIP access. Even if 5 out of the 10 influencers agree, you can spread the word about your conference.

Later can cover a massive audience including their social network, and get a bag full of registrations. Influencers are making a great impact on social media platforms like Instagram, Youtube, etc.

5. Introduce the Speakers

If you let the audience know the renowned speakers, they will be more convinced to register. You can use the ‘revealing soon’ strategy here if the people don’t already know them.

• Upload a post on social media saying that you will be revealing one speaker each week. 
• Set a reminder on posts and stories and drop introductory and invitation videos from each speaker on your page.
• Also, try to get the speakers to post videos speaking about your conference on their social media pages. This will get you more traction on your social media handles and a good number of registrations from the fans and followers of the speakers.

You can even provide marketing kits to the speakers for better conference event marketing. Results that include email templates, posts, digital flyers, videos, promos, etc.

Given that the speakers want to ensure maximum attendance at your conference. So, they can use these pre-designed marketing materials to promote the conference without spending too much time. 

6. Email Marketing

When it comes to your conference marketing plan, email marketing should definitely be a part of it. A conference marketing strategy is incomplete without email marketing.

• If you’re familiar with the power of emails, you probably know that a strong email marketing campaign can get you a considerable number of new registrations.
• Not just that, it can even help you nudge the people who’ve shown interest in attending your conference but are yet to register. 
• Just so you know, email marketing requires a little investment from your end. But the results and returns are commendable.
• Instead of mass mailing your entire email contact list, break it down into small segments. Which will more carefully target your audience.

Consider breaking it down into the following groups:

1. Attendees from the previous year.

2. Registrations from past conferences who did not attend.

3. Those who have shown interest but are yet to register. 

Conclusion

Suppose your conference marketing plan didn’t work the last time. And now you’ve been wondering how to promote a conference in better ways to get optimal results. In that case, we’re optimistic that our list of top 6 conference marketing ideas will help you with it.

You can even sign up at AllEvents to promote and sell last-minute tickets for your conference effectively. AllEvents offers you a place to list your event. Along with that, it is also the best conference marketing tool to promote it. Moreover, with a better conference marketing strategy and sell your tickets at a fast rate. Why wait? Sign up and list your event now!