Posts Tagged: marketing

kchopson

How Tracking Your Live and Virtual Conference Attendees Can Help Your Bottom Line

Conference Attendees

In the mad rush to get ready for a conference, it is easy to ignore one of the most important metrics of show – namely, who actually attended. Planners often overlook this metric because the registration revenue is already in the bank so, in their overworked mind, it is not particularly important knowing who actually showed up. This is a major mistake because knowing your attendees from your no-shows is very important for your planning, marketing and bottom line. There are two things you should take into account when getting ready to verify your attendees. Know the difference between Attendance... Read more »

kchopson

What to Look for in the Best Event Management Software

What to Look for in the Best Event Management Software

  Planning a large-scale event? You need event management software. Designed to handle various aspects of event planning with easy-to-use digital tools, event management software allows event planners to plan better events with less headaches and hassles. However, not all event management software platforms are created equal. Some are geared toward specific aspects of event planning, while others focus on entirely different areas. Some are easy to use; some are not. Some are expensive; some are not. In this guide, we break down what to look for when choosing the best event management software for your needs. Choosing the Best... Read more »

kchopson

13 Ways to Get Attendees to use Your Mobile Event App – Infographic

13 Ways to Get Attendees to use Your Mobile Event App

So, you’ve created a great mobile event app packed with useful features—but the number of times the app has been downloaded is disappointingly low. What do you do to increase the rate of usage? Here are some useful tips to get more attendees to download and use your mobile event app. Pre-Promote. Event, app, product, media moment—none of these things reach peak engagement without promotion. To get as many people as possible interested in your mobile event app, it’s best to start promoting as early as possible. A year out is probably the earliest you’ll want to start building hype,... Read more »

kchopson

Why Your Online Conference Registration Form Should Look Like Your Web Site

Dollar Sign Skeleton Key

It happens all too often. An organization creates a beautiful web site for their conference or trade show, only to have their brand obscured by an online registration form that looks like a cheap invitation. Apparently someone thought that the idea of a consistent marketing message ends at the time of registration. This, of course, is a big mistake. Here is why: It breaks the fundamental rule of a consistent marketing message. The site builds up the notion that you are going to have a great conference, but the registration form has the appearance of a second-rate operation. Your brand... Read more »

kchopson

Trade Show Lead Retrieval App for Apple & Android Phones and Tablets!

https://www.eventrebels.com

EventRebels is continuing to improve ERLead, a lead retrieval app designed to allow exhibitors and sponsors the ability to scan leads directly with their iPhone or Android smartphone, at a fraction of the cost of traditional lead retrieval hardware rental. Using QR code and smartphone technology, ERLead provides an integrated solution for exhibitors’ lead retrieval app needs. Attendee badges include a QR code that allows exhibitors to scan and access only the contact information that the meeting planner wants to share. No Hardware Onsite! Free downloadable app works on Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. The solution provides significant savings... Read more »

kchopson

How Verifying Your Conference Attendees Can Help Your Bottom Line

Conference Attendees

In the mad rush to get ready for a conference, it is easy to ignore one of the most important metrics of show – namely, who actually attended. Planners often overlook this metric because the registration revenue is already in the bank so, in their overworked mind, it is not particularly important knowing who actually showed up. This is a major mistake because knowing your attendees from your no-shows is very important for your planning, marketing and bottom line. There are two things you should take into account when getting ready to verify your attendees. Know the difference between Attendance... Read more »

kchopson

Ten Ways to Use Facebook Live & Periscope Streaming Apps for Your Conference

Live Streaming Phone Apps

Live streaming apps have quickly been recognized as a terrific way to extend your meeting’s brand beyond in-person attendees. Twitter’s Periscope was the first to show the possibilities of live streaming events. However, the arrival of Facebook Live offers a chance to expand your show’s reach to Facebook’s giant ecosystem of over a billion users. The good news is you do not need to pick just one of these apps – you can use both! Since these free apps are a particularly good way to reduce expensive A/V costs, they will be particularly attractive to smaller meetings. Here are some... Read more »

kchopson

Use FOMO to Promote Your Conference!

Have you ever experienced FOMO, aka the Fear of Missing Out? You may have gone through FOMO if your peers are about to have a great experience – and you may not be there. In fact, some studies have shown that millennials, in particular, are susceptible to FOMO. Largely as a result of social media, FOMO has become a widely discussed phenomenon. FOMO is not just about having fun. Fear of being left behind professionally by missing a great conference, for example, can have the same effect. The funny thing is that high quality face-to-face meetings, rather than being hurt... Read more »

kchopson

How New Twitter Changes Can Help Your Event Marketing

Twitter

Of all the social media channels, Twitter is one that is best suited for reporting live happenings and news-worthy items. In fact, breaking television newscasts often consist of journalists reading the Twitter feed on their phone. Because of this ability of Twitter to function as a news feed, the social media product has become a channel of choice for events. Many meetings now feature live social media posts, often tied to the event’s mobile app and social wall. Besides being a key part of the onsite portion of an event, Twitter is now a major part of the pre-marketing of... Read more »

kchopson

5 Ways to Generate Revenue with Your Mobile Event App

A variety of studies confirm that we are looking at our smartphones all day long. One metric says the average person checks their phone 150 times a day! When someone is at your conference, these numbers do not change much. In fact, if you have a great mobile event app, the smartphone becomes a great way to increase audience engagement at your conference. One of the fantastic side effects of mobile apps is that you can track this interaction with tools like Google Analytics. For example, you can see how often attendees look at a page and how much time... Read more »

Recognizing Your Event’s Influencer Network

Event Rebels: Recognizing Event Influencer Network

Your event is a representation of your brand. Whether you’re an association, corporation, or non-profit, the way you interact with your stakeholders and members is through your live events. Influencers are everywhere, and they are talking about your brand. When your social media managers (if you have them), are talking about “influencers”, they are really talking in terms of the valuable relationships your brand has on social media. Influence can be broken down into three pillars: Relevance, Reach, and Resonance. Relevance: The creation of content that is relevant to your brand, or relevant to a topic that’s important to your brand.... Read more »

kchopson

QR Codes, Not Just For Your Website!

https://www.eventrebels.com

As you probably know, QR Codes are a great way to promote your event. The most common use of these codes is to have a smartphone scan the code which redirects the user to a web page. For a meeting, this might be a link to the meeting web site or your organization. Lost in the standard use of QR codes are a couple of other novel ways to use QR codes to promote your organization or event. A great use of QR codes is for SMS marketing – i.e. text messaging. Your QR code can be setup so when... Read more »

kchopson

How to Promote your Meeting with LinkedIn

LinkedIn is now the premier social media web site for business. If your conference is targeting professionals in business, education and government, LinkedIn is not to be ignored, although they have discontinued the app for creating events. There are still many great ways for your meeting to be promoted on LinkedIn. Post updates on your personal and organization page that link to your online registration form. Use headline terminology, such as registration for your conference “is now open!” Post status updates about meeting news such as speaker updates, the venue, and so forth. Have a LinkedIn icon on your online... Read more »

kchopson

Why Your Online Registration Form Should Look Like Your Web Site

Dollar Sign Skeleton Key

It happens all too often. An organization creates a beautiful web site for their conference or special event, only to have their brand obscured by an online registration form that looks like a cheap invitation. Apparently someone thought that the idea of a consistent marketing message ends at the time of registration. This, of course, is a big mistake. Here is why: It breaks the fundamental rule of a consistent marketing message. The site builds up the notion that you are going to have a great conference, but the registration form has the appearance of a second-rate operation. Your brand... Read more »

kchopson

Why Email Open Rates are Unreliable

Email marketers love to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. From unique Emails sent to bounce-backs to click-thrus, metrics form the backbone of evaluating the success of your marketing campaign. One metric, generally considered to be very important, but actually is extremely suspect, is the metric called “Open Rate.” The rate’s goal is to track how many people opened your Email. Why it is important is obvious. Opening your Email is like opening a letter. It indicates that some or part of the message will be read and points that the reader is at least somewhat interested in what you... Read more »

kchopson

Use Images In Email to Increase Online Registration!

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to encourage people to register online for your conference or event. When used properly images can greatly complement your message and improve the success of your effort. However, when used incorrectly an image can actually destroy your hard work! Still, images sell and they can improve your registration conversion rates. It’s important to remember that today’s Internet readers scan and are very visual. A good image can be the difference between someone reading your Email or throwing it in the trash. If you follow some good practices, you are more likely... Read more »

kchopson

What is the Deal with All These Codes on My Badge?

There has been a lot of talk in the last few years about using various codes on attendee badges to expedite the exchange of information between attendees, exhibitors, or both. These “codes” take the form of some image that has no meaning to a person but are meant to be read by a device (“machine readable.”) These codes not only differ visually, but they also function in quite different ways. Here is a break-down of the most popular codes used on badges at meetings and events. A 1D Bar Code (i.e. One Dimensional) is a simple code typically representing a... Read more »

lbradford

Three Reasons You Should Start Text Messaging Your Attendees

1.Text messages have a high open rate Text messages are simply read more often than e-mail messages. According to a Nielsen study, 97% of text messages are read within 15 minutes of being sent. Even the most successful e-mail marketing campaigns fall far short of this number. A Silverpop study reports that the top email marketing campaigns have an open rate of around 35.7%. For the average email campaign, the open rate is only 19.7%. If you have an important message to deliver to your attendees, send it through a text message. It’s much more likely to be read. 2.Text... Read more »

kchopson

Use Twitter After Your Conference To Keep It Alive

Twitter

In a previous article Use Twitter at Your Conference we discussed how to use Twitter to increase attendee engagement. Assuming you have created a great hashtag, the general idea is to use this Twitter hashtag to create the “go to” place to get information about the conference. Continuing this idea, the conference does not need to stop being an important resource once the show is over. In fact, you can continue your attendee engagement long after everyone has gone home. Following the principles set forth in our previous articles, here are some simple things you can do with Twitter to... Read more »

kchopson

Write a Great Email Subject Line

Looking for help with email? If your planning a trade show or conference don’t miss out on an outstanding email marketing tool that will make your show that much better.  We have spent a lot of time doing and helping with email marketing. Don’t overlook these simple things that will help your open rates significantly. Most composers of Email focus all their energy on writing an exciting message that will grab the attention of the reader.After the text is written, the writer develops the subject line in a matter of seconds and then sends the Email off to the awaiting... Read more »

kchopson

Using Twitter at Your Conference

In a previous article Use Twitter to Promote Your Conference we discussed how to use Twitter for generating buzz about your conference. Because Twitter posts (called a “Tweet”) are restricted to text messages of 140 characters or less, the tool is perfect for generating headlines and small news stories. While this is tremendous to promote your conference, Tweets can be used with great effectiveness to increase attendee engagement and enthusiasm at the conference itself. This, in turn, will make the meeting more memorable and help build your brand. Before reviewing techniques you can use, a couple of general issues should... Read more »

kchopson

Create QR Codes That Work

https://www.eventrebels.com

QR codes have become one of the hottest marketing tools around. Because of the emergence of the smartphone and free, easy to use scanning apps, QR codes can now be found everywhere from online sites to stickers to tattoos(!) to lampposts. Popular smartphone readers such as Red Laser, ScanLife and ShopSavvy make it easy to scan the codes with your phone camera. For the vast majority of cases, scanning a QR code with a smartphone will result in a website appearing in your default mobile browser. However, QR codes can be created to serve other purposes. For example, scanning the... Read more »

kchopson

Four Huge Email Marketing Mistakes

In you are reading this article, your organization probably communicates with its members, followers and interested parties via Email. (We will call them subscribers for the purposes of this article.) If not find out what you need to do to plan an effective email marketing campaign.  While social media is starting to overtake Email as the most effective way to communicate, Email has the advantage of being around for a long time. Consequently, many organizations (hopefully yours) have built up large and relatively accurate Email lists.  Email is still the best method for high access communication with your subscribers. Regardless... Read more »

kchopson

Attracting Event Sponsorships as a Salesperson: Getting Qualified Leads

Dollar Sign Skeleton Key

In this economy it is tougher than ever to get sponsorships for your event. Every corporation has many more sponsorship opportunities than it can support.  Landing a sponsor now demands new levels of planning, diligence, and perseverance.  Unfortunately, those selling sponsorships often miss some basic, but critical, steps that are needed to reach their goals.  Perhaps the key step lies in the understanding that the process is a “selling” one. Because the sale is for a non-profit, the seller does not like to think of him or herself as a salesperson, but that is precisely what the job is.  If... Read more »

kchopson

How to Use Technology to Green Your Meetings Before It Even Starts!

In case you didn’t already know, the meetings industry is considered the second most wasteful. Because of this, the industry has made a great deal of effort in the last few years to become more environmentally sustainable. A meeting that implements sustainable practices is called a “green meeting.” This phrase leaves some room for interpretation, but the upshot is clear – consider the environmental impacts through all stages of a meeting and seek to reduce negative consequences. Greening your meeting can be very complicated and difficult to understand especially in regards to things like travel, building usage, food and beverage,... Read more »