4 easy steps to get advocacy marketing working for your event.
WANT TO SELL OUT YOUR NEXT EVENT?
👉🏼 Likes. Shares. Great reviews. Referrals. Whatever form it comes in, Advocacy Marketing is a key channel in your event marketing toolkit. ‘Word-of-mouth’ has taken on a new life in the digital world, so make sure every picture, post or promo video counts.
But what makes people write that above-and-beyond review? What makes your speaker share the details ahead of the event or registered delegates say to their colleagues and network ‘You’ve got to attend this event, it’s brilliant'? And what makes people come back year on year, again and again? One word: experience.
The How-To:
1️⃣ Have a brilliant programme and speaker line-up. And believe in it.
2️⃣ Deliver a great customer service in the lead up, during and after the event has taken place better than anyone else.
3️⃣ Consider the customer experience from the off. From the very first moment they see or hear about your event make sure every next step is simple but special.
4️⃣ Build relationships. Make them remember you. Make them like you. Give them interesting content that resonates with them and makes them want to come back to you for more.
Great! You’ve excelled yourself. The prospect is over-the-moon. Now what?
You need to make it as easy as possible for the partner, delegate, speaker or sponsor to talk about you. Make sure you’re active on relevant social channels. Post regularly, but well. Create sharable content that your speakers and delegates can easily post to their social accounts. Add a discount code for any referrals if that works for your brand. Actively ask for advocacy (see step four: build relationships). Use hashtags. Respond to reviews. Say thank you. Engage, engage, engage.
Sure, it’s not as structured as other marketing strategies but once you’ve got a customer that wants to talk about you (positively, of course), you’ve basically got your very own brand ambassador doing some of your work for you. It doesn’t get much better than that eh?
