Whether you are hosting an event or attending an industry trade show, event marketing needs to be an integral part of your outbound marketing strategy as it is one of the most powerful community marketing tools to use in your Qualicare business.
Goal
Have one event a month considering all target audiences (clients, caregivers and professionals)
Definition
Event Marketing
The process of developing a themed presentation to promote your franchise location’s home care services leveraging in-person engagement. An event is anywhere you set up a table/tent with branded material within your community and interact with people.
Value:
- Events will allow you to generate leads, recruit Caregivers, fuel your PPC, increase branding awareness, and visibility within your community and gather leads to help build your database.
- Offers you the chance to define your brand, clarify the solutions you provide
- Direct marketing (events) has a 60% higher success rate than indirect marketing (ads).
- Trade shows, conferences, and community events offer you the chance to engage directly with your prospects and create relationships face-to-face
- Client and Caregiver prospects can experience and interact with your team and get a sense of your brand personality
Process
Prior to the Event
1. Plan
- Write down all the events you would like to participate for the quarter.
- Book a high profile event such as a festival in your community
- Be part of a free or lower cost community event such as a farmer’s market or community
fundraiser
- Show up at a larger event as a paid guest: walk around with flyers and business cards
- Visit libraries, community centers, etc. for event information happening in your
community
- Keep up to date on what is going on in your community through local community websites and
newspapers. Use your Event Marketing Library to track your results so you will know what events to
re-book for the following year based on your success.
- Make sure to plan and book your events in advance. One to three months out is typically best
practice.
- If you find a national event, where several franchisees can benefit from, send information and
pricing to marketing@qualicare.com. Funding for suggested events can be taken from the brand
fund if more than 50% of the franchisees can benefit from said event.
- Always plan your follow-up strategy before the event begins—email follow-ups should be
written and designed, offers should be decided on, and any follow-up calls should be planned.
2. Set realistic and targeted goals
- The goal should be to get the highest number of quality leads rather than focusing on the
highest number of registrants and attendance
3. Promote your event using multiple tactics
- Communicating with your audience early will result in a better turnout as your event will be top
of mind for your attendees - use a mix of email, social, public relations tactics
- Create an announcement checklist so you don’t miss important communications. For example:
- Event:
- Event Description:
- Promotional Timeline: Email invitation or flyer
- Announcement:
- 2 weeks prior:
- 1 week prior:
- 2 days prior:
- 1 day prior:
- 1 hour prior:
Include Email Reminders
● If appropriate, kick off your event with a press release
●Schedule a series of emails (the third email usually drives the most registrations!)
● Include a calendar invite in the email, so registrants can add the event to their calendars
● Create your confirmation process:
○ Send a confirmation email immediately after registration
○ Send a reminder email two days prior to the event
○ Send a final reminder email one hour before the event
Include Social Media in Your Event Plans
Being active on social networks before, during, and after your event is crucial for success. Here are a few
channels you should think about engaging attendees through:
● Twitter: Twitter is a powerful tool for not only marketing and promoting your events, but also
engaging and connecting with the attendees in real-time.
○ Set up a hashtag,
○ Schedule a series of tweets,
○ Build twitter lists, and
○ Live tweet.
● Facebook: Because Facebook is so visual, it is a great place to promote your events using
eye-catching graphics.
○ Begin posting 2-3 weeks before events
○ Use a mix of custom graphics, and images taken at the event to encourage attendees
to register or to stop by and pay you a visit
● Google+: The Google+ events feature allows users to send out customized invitations and syncs
with Google calendar when a user confirms.
○ Use Google Hangouts to get influencers, prospects, customers, and other attendees in
the same place discussing event highlights.
● LinkedIn: Use LinkedIn to promote your registration page and use LinkedIn groups to get some
additional traction.
At the Event
1. Be Visible and Engaging
● The key is to get out there and meet people. Use your elevator pitch and tell people about your
business. Collect prospective leads to add to your database and don't be scared to BOOK! Event
leads are just like calls. They are in front of you and interested. Get them while they're hot!
2. Incorporate a strong theme and be creative
● Deliver a cohesive look and feel to create a seamless brand experience.
● Attention to detail is key here. Think about how your booth looks, how you present your
collateral and what sort of contests you want to incorporate.
● Hold a brainstorming session with your staff to come up with ideas.
3. Use the planning prior to the event to set a target for the number of consults you want to book.
● Always know the estimated amount of traffic for each event so you have enough materials and
promotional items.
● Make sure that you have a sign-up sheet or tracking sheet to enter leads in your database and
follow-up.
● Have a calendar on hand with your availability to booking consults right away.
4. Segment your promotions to reach the right audience
● During the event, evaluate which marketing collateral respond better with your audience.
● Make a note of the number of collateral you brought to see which resonated best, whether it
was an educational piece, a overall services brochure or contest information. You can then
begin to reuse these items in the future.
● Segment your pieces based on potential demographics attending the event:
○ Location
○ Gender
○ Age
○ Background
○ Job title (Professional)
After the Event
1. Be the first to follow-up with attendees and non-attendees.
● Following up with prospects will set you apart from the competition and keep you fresh in the
minds of your prospects.
○ A one-third attendance rate is typical, so follow up with attendees and those who
registered but didn’t attend.
○ For the highest possible click-to-open rates, follow up within a couple of days after the
event
Here are the steps you should consider when designing your follow-up campaigns:
● Lead List and Qualification:
○ Lead lists should be created directly after the show
○ Make sure to tag each lead (professional, client referral, caregiver, etc.)
● Email Follow-up:
○ All email follow-ups should be written before the event takes place. Reading event
synopsis, session descriptions, and blog posts will help you craft the email messaging.
○ Send a thank you email immediately after the event
○ Send slides or photos, if applicable, within 45 minutes of the event
○ Send video recordings, if applicable, as soon as they’re available— ideally by the next day
● Phone Follow-up:
○ Consider a phone call to those who meet your lead criteria
○ Your follow-up call should happen within a few days after the event
● Lead Nurturing and Scoring:
○ Continue engaging event attendees through lead nurturing, and score new leads
appropriately after events.
○ Invite them to future events.
2. Eventing ROI
● Measure the progression statuses of your attendees, if nothing else:
● # of those invited,
● # of those registered,
● # of those attended, and
● # of those that did not show.
● Of the people who attended your show, you ideally want to determine:
■ How many opportunities were created,
■ How many bookings were closed/won, and
■ Cost per opportunity (CPO).
● The event should only get credit for quality leads if the opportunities were created after the
event attendance dates. Consults should only count if it was booked after the event.
● The ultimate event marketing success measurement is lead-to-spend—how many leads were
generated from the event divided by what you invested in the event.
Materials
Eventing material can include:
● Branded tent/banner stand
● Branded table cloth
● Branded promotional items for prizes such as water bottles, pens, umbrellas, etc.
Candles (flameless LED) and flowers with vase
● Collateral: Flyers, promotional material
● Ballot box for contest*/sign-up sheet to collect prospect info
● Calendar with availability for booking consults
● Staff with Qualicare uniforms
Contest
● A contest builds brand buzz, but it can also build your database with qualified contact information
before the show even starts. Use a sweepstakes during an event to drive booth traffic.
● This contest lets us know who will be attending the event, and also gets us new leads.
● Contests can humanize your brand, but they can backfire if you don’t take two aspects seriously:
the terms and conditions, and the fulfillment process. Make sure the terms comply with legal
standards, are completely transparent, and have a solid plan for fulfillment in mind.
● It’s not enough to just have a presence at an event. In a sea of vendors, how do you make your
booth a smashing success? You want to create a presence that compels someone to stop, not just
walk by.
○ Consider using games or interactive tools as a way to pique the interest of attendees.
○ Cool swag giveaways are also a great way to entice someone to enter such as a fitbit,
movie tickets, coffee shop gift cards, etc.
Unique Collateral
● Provide one or two items that attendees can take home
● A best practise is to provide one asset that explains what your franchise does and one piece of
thought leadership
○ This can be a fun, visual ebook or a printed infographic
○ Note: Stay away from basic whitepapers—if it isn’t visually appealing, it’s likely to be
thrown away