Hyping Up Your Conferences: A Step-By-Step Guide
Major conferences can be big ticket items, involving a sizeable commitment from attendees who may have to pay for fights, accommodation and other expenses – in addition to the cost of the conference tickets.
And while the majority of the conference organisers are experts at planning and logistics, the best conference in the world wouldn’t make an impact with an audience.
The crucial ingredient to getting attendees to your conference? Hype. Need some help getting started? Here’s a quick step-by-step guide.
Step 1: Know your audience
This is the first and most important step – know your audience. Put your brand aside for a moment and really understand what their needs and wants are. Step into their shoes and assume their roles in life and work.
Once you truly know your audience on a personal level, then you’re ready to move on to the following steps.
Step 2: Shape your brand
Now that you know what your audience wants, and more importantly, why they need it – you’re in a position to fill that gap with your brand story, products and services.
When selling your conference to your prospective audience, don’t simply “push” it to them. Instead, “attract” them by positioning your conference as a solution to specific wants, needs or problems they’re currently facing.
Step 3: Know where they hang out
Regardless of how big (or small) your promotional budget is, you’ll want to maximise it for optimal returns. Rather than “covering your bases” by throwing your budget into a wide variety of channels, you can optimise results by only targeting the media platforms that your target audience not only reside in – but will most likely take action at.
Whether this means hyping up your event over casual social media spaces like Facebook and Instagram, or business-oriented platforms like LinkedIn, or perhaps traditional media, or even through direct marketing methods such as email – you’ll greatly increase your promotional ROI (return on investment) if you know where your audiences lives and breathes in.
Step 4: Choose a communication style that works for your audience
As in previous steps, you’ll only get this right if you’ve taken the time to get step 1 done well. These are many strategies you can use to hype up your conference, including:
Focusing on your key speakers: If your audience will be attending for “superstar” speakers (instead of your conference’s brand), then you may want to focus your promotional efforts on getting these big names out there to your target audience.
Telling stories: These can be inspirational stories, successful case studies and testimonials, or more.
Photos and videos: Does your audience respond more enthusiastically visual and aural cues? If so, you could use a visual-heavy promotional campaign to hype up your event. Or simply share photos and videos from previous events to get your prospective attendees hyped up to attend your upcoming conference.
Need assistance or ideas with hyping up your conference and maximising your ROI with a good promotional strategy and cutting-edge technology? Chat with your local Angage team, who will be delighted to help.
