In our previous post, we discussed how event marketers can attract attention of prospects and lead them to the first stage of the funnel. In this, we will talk about various marketing strategies to lead them further through the funnel.
Stage 2 – Consideration
This is when you have successfully engaged your prospects, and they are keen to know more about your event. The content you offer at this stage is crucial as that will decide whether your prospects are willing to take the online conversation offline.
Your marketing efforts at this stage should evaluate the needs of your prospects and give them an overview of what they can gain from attending your event. Here are 4 ways to do that.
PR – Regular PR pieces, digitally distributed on both paid and free channels, increase event awareness while providing SEO benefits. PR pieces, being long-form content, allow marketers to go into detail about aspects of the event, and thus work well at the consideration stage, where prospects are more likely to pay attention. Any major development or content produced under the event banner deserves a PR piece. Some ideas:
- Announcement of keynote speakers
- Event agenda
- Promotion of a whitepaper or ebook
Gated Content – Instead of just telling your audience about the value proposition of your event, give them a taste for free. Create in-depth content, like templates, whitepapers, infographics and ebooks for download behind a gated landing page.
Not only is this an effective conversion strategy (because you are showing your audience why your event is valuable), it also builds your prospects database. Of course, it’s important to promote this content on all possible platforms, including social, blogs and even content amplification, to make the most of them.
Webinars/AMAs – 61% B2B Marketers use webinars/webcasts as a content marketing tactic. 30 to 45 minutes are ideal for webinars, while AMA sessions obviously have no time limit. In the webinars, you can showcase your speakers and trainers and highlight what they have to offer during the event itself.
Webinars and AMAs help connect with prospects on a personal level, provide insights, and build trust, which is crucial for the conversion process.
Testimonials (video if possible) – Testimonials from speakers and attendees of previous events go a long way towards building the trust we were talking about. Use video to put faces to the names and the trust factor goes even higher.
These are some of the ways in which you can put your event in front of your target audience without being overtly pushy. In our next blog, we are going to talk about critical Bottom-of-the-Funnel (BOFU) event marketing strategies that can help you convert your leads to customers. Watch this space for more!
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