From the Desk of Mary
Event Manager - Entrepreneur - Adventurer
Recently, I had the honor to be a Discussion Roundtable Leader for The George Washington University School of Business Roundtable Discussion. One very talented and wonderfully ambitious student who is interested in pursuing a career in digital event marketing asked if this career path would be sustainable. I thought this would be a great topic to chat about here in my blog to share my thoughts and findings and to get feedback from my community.
As an event planner and marketer, I know that in order to reach a targeted audience for my clients, I have to go where that audience is. Nowadays, my job is slightly easier because I can find the majority of every target audience in the digital space. From social media to online calendars and blogs, the digital world has become indispensable to most of the world's population. According to wearesocial.com, as of January 2020, nearly 60% of the world's population is online and 49% are on social media, and that number is set to rise.
So not only is digital event marketing here to stay, but it’s rapidly evolving. Event planners can’t just know about these platforms; they have to stay updated and adapt as the platforms do to stay ahead of the game.
So why digital event marketing?
Traditional Marketing
Hard-copy invitations, flyers, and other promotional materials are pretty much obsolete. When was the last time you received a hard copy invitation to a public event? If you did receive one, the information would inevitably end up in a digital calendar or stored online. I'm all about saving our planet, so let's not use up our trees unnecessarily.
Cost Savings and Mass Distribution
Let's keep more money in our clients’ pockets. No more purchasing mailing lists and racking up print costs. With social media advertising, pay-per-click advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO), event planners and marketers can reach a wider audience across different demographics with much less legwork. Social media is by far the most cost-effective advertising avenue.
Audience Engagement
Social media and other digital platforms allow us to customize content and engage with our target audience more easily than ever before.
The global average for daily time spent on social media in 2019 was 2 hours and 24 minutes, according to broadbandsearch.net. That’s just the average per day! This number continues to grow, so knowing how to create an effective social media advertising strategy is critical in marketing events. Through the ease of the various platforms, content can be customized and targeted, and your audience can more easily share and provide feedback on new events. Setting up unique hashtags and promoting online prizes or giveaways will increase engagement and spread awareness of the event. Through a solid social media strategy, you can engage and get feedback from your audience during every stage of the event.
Brand Awareness
As we’ve mentioned, social media is critical in today’s world, and your client’s online image matters. Brand awareness online is a huge part of any company’s path to success. Digital marketing for an event builds that long-term awareness by sharing event information, directing people to the website, tying it to a blog post, creating a hashtag, and/or connecting it with a promotion or other incentive.
Don’t miss out on the great potential - learn to effectively use social media and other digital marketing for your next event!
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