PPC for B2B virtual events – a step-by-step guide by MPG BO Team, on 01/12/2020 PPC in virtual event marketing – how well does it work? From our experience, PPC is a worthwhile investment for virtual events. But only when used in the right way. When used to generate direct registrations, convert registrants to attendees or encourage form completions for lead generation and database building (or all of the above) – PPC can be a powerful and cost-effective channel within your digital event marketing mix. In this post, we outline the six key steps you should take to maximise the effectiveness of your PPC for virtual events. Step #1: Understand what you need PPC to achieve PPC can be used to achieve a number of different things for virtual events, including: Generating direct registrants for your virtual event – with PPC campaigns pushing your target audience to your virtual event website and online registration form Encouraging conversions from registrant to attendee Generating leads via web form completions, so that you can then email individuals to nurture and convert leads to registrants Increasing awareness and influencing consideration in your target audience, thus supporting the performance of your other channels Depending on your virtual event targets, marketing budget and overall objectives – you may use PPC to achieve some, or all of the above. The important thing is to know what you’re aiming to achieve and what success looks like when it comes to PPC for your virtual event. If your PPC approach is not informed by well thought through objectives, it can be very easy to spend a large portion of your budget ineffectively. Step #2: Create a solid strategy Once you know your objectives, you need to formalise a high-level PPC strategy. The aim of this strategy is to provide direction for the more detailed campaign plans that will come next. In this PPC strategy, include: The objectives: it’s important to detail these in your strategy to ensure the decisions you make on specific campaigns are directed by your overall goals. The channels and campaign types: based on what you want to achieve and your target audience, be clear what channels and campaign types are likely to work best. In the below table we’ve listed the most common channels, campaign types and targeting methods based on level of engagement of audience groups. But every event is different, so consider this a starting point: Reaching new contacts Reaching website visitors Reaching existing data Google Ads Paid Search (keywords) Google Display LinkedIn LinkedIn (professional attributes/groups) LinkedIn Facebook Facebook (lookalike audiences) Facebook Twitter Twitter (follower lookalikes) Twitter Google The budget: split your budget by channel and campaign type based on your priorities and where you are in the campaign timeline. PPC is very scalable when it comes to budgeting, so you can commit a small amount at first (£100-200 per channel) to test the waters. The timeline: map out when your campaigns will start and finish. Due to a sense of urgency and FOMO, virtual event PPC campaigns tend to be at their most effective in the final 2 weeks before the event – so allocating more of your budget to this period is a sensible move. It is also important to hold some budget back for after the event to encourage people to engage with the content on demand, especially if the number of people who watch the replays are important for your event model. The campaigns: briefly outline the role each campaign needs to play in your timeline. Consider your whole marketing funnel and targeting of contacts at various stages of engagement with your event. Step #3: Create detailed campaign plans Using your PPC strategy from step #2 as a guide, lay out specific campaign plans by channel. This is where you get more tactical and detailed with your planning. These plans should include – in detail: Campaign objective(s) Targeting Campaign budget Ad content (text and images/videos) Any ad modifiers/extensions When creating these campaigns, your primary consideration should be relevancy. To achieve relevancy, ask yourself these three questions, in this order: Are we targeting people who are very relevant to our virtual event, or is there a risk we include too many irrelevant or ‘not relevant enough’ people with our targeting options? Are the ads we’re running relevant to challenges and/or opportunities this audience is facing right now? Are the ads considerate of where the audience is in our marketing funnel? Is this the first time they’re seeing our virtual event information? Or are they likely to already know about our event (e.g. if they have already visited the event website) It’s best to complete these detailed plans just before setting up each campaign so they are as current and relevant as possible. You’ll then want to factor in and apply any learnings from your results as you go (more on this in step #5). Step #4: Set up and set live campaigns This step seems the most straightforward, but there are two important things to consider. There are numerous settings to get right when setting up every campaign. The potential issues an error in setup can cause range from a campaign running for more days than you have planned or budgeted, to an ad group targeting completely the wrong people. It’s vital to get a second pair of eyes on your campaign setups to ensure your campaigns are pushing the right people to the right places at the right time (MPG has this baked into our internal process checklists so that a campaign one of our team sets up cannot go live without someone else checking every detail of the setup first). Every PPC channel offers varying levels of automation. These can be simple start and end date triggers and budget caps, but can also include more complex elements like auto-populating audiences that exclude registrants and smart bidding strategies that maximise conversion rates. Make use of these systems to free up marketing resource and reduce the possibility of human error in campaign changes. Step #5: Monitor and optimise your campaigns – every day! While the strategy and planning elements of PPC are vital, do not be afraid to adjust your approach as you go. You’re very unlikely to formulate the perfect plan and set up the best performing campaign first time. For PPC, assuming you’ll need to improve on what you initially set up is part of the process. In practical terms, this means re-allocating budgets to the channels and campaigns that are performing best, adding and updating ads to campaigns that are performing well, as well as the myriad of other tweaking options that PPC platforms provide around locations, devices, demographics and bidding strategies. It’s often easier to further improve winning campaigns than it is to fix underperforming ones. While you shouldn’t abandon your struggling campaigns immediately, the real ROI growth often lies in maximising your star performers. Paying close attention to what is and isn’t working will allow you to uncover the optimal formula for your PPC. The importance of this step cannot be understated. Step #6: Measure and analyse results – feed this intelligence into your marketing strategies Right from the first campaign going live, PPC should be included in your marketing performance reporting and analysis. Key metrics to track are: Cost-per-conversion (CPC): the amount you pay for each conversion (registrant, form completion) per channel. This should trend down as a result of your ongoing optimisations. Conversion rate (CR): the percentage of people who click on your ad and then convert to a registrant, attendee or lead. This should trend upward. Click-through-rate (CTR): the percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it. Higher CTR indicates high relevance. It’s not enough to just report on the raw data. A layer of analysis needs to be applied to pull out insights that enable intelligent, data-led decision making and create actionable steps to further improve the campaign ROI. A winning formula This article shares MPG’s winning approach to PPC campaigns for virtual events. Follow these 6 steps with consistency and rigour and we’re confident you’ll see a good return on your PPC investment! MPG have taken our PPC to another level with their strategic approach and excellent customer service. PPC is an important area of investment for us as we expand our global reach and launch new products. We’re very pleased to have Team MPG on board and recommend them highly as a safe pair of hands. Roy Maybury, Global Head of Event Marketing, PEI Alternative Insight Interested in learning more about how PPC can work for events? Commission an in-house, tailored PPC training programme for your team where our PPC experts will create and deliver a bespoke course that meets your exact requirements, and exclusively for your in-house team. Enquire about MPG Academy’s in-house training here. Or…do you need to outsource PPC for your events? MPG can create the strategy and detailed plan for your event PPC, and we can manage and measure it for you too. If you want direct support from our team of PPC specialists, please get in touch about your requirements. Continue Reading Topics: Digital marketingEvent marketingMarketing operationsPaid advertising
10 tips for growing revenue from sponsors and clients by Helen Coetzee, on 25/09/2020 Digitised events are here to stay. For all the challenges this year has brought event organisers, virtual events do provide some unique opportunities in terms of sponsorship revenue generation in the coming months. Sponsorships that are overall lower in cost for sponsors, coupled with global audiences, have expanded many events’ potential sponsor pools significantly. The challenge now is working out how best to capitalise on this opportunity to achieve strong event sponsorship revenues going forward. In our recent webinar, Marketing to Grow Revenue from Sponsors and Clients: MPG’s Top 10 Tips, I outlined the 10 simple marketing moves event organisers should make to maximise the generation, nurturing and conversion of sponsorship leads. GET WEBINAR REPLAY & INSIGHTS Here is a summary of the top 10 tips shared, to hear and read more – including attendee poll responses and our Q&A answers – access the full content package. Tip 1 – Know your market of potential sponsors Analyse your target market of potential sponsors. As we enter a season of digital events, re-consider who that market is. The potential pool of sponsors may now be more global and may contain a larger pool of smaller companies. Tip 2 – Set KPIs for lead generation, conversion rate and value of conversions You need to know what you’re aiming to achieve. Create specific and measurable indicators of success, such as a number of sponsor leads generated or the average yield from converted leads. Tip 3 – Measure and analyse results regularly to improve Put in place a marketing measurement dashboard before any activity starts – to measure the performance of different marketing channels and tactics used. Review the full dashboard on a weekly basis to understand where improvements can be made. Tip 4 – Grow your database so you can reach more potential sponsors If you want to reach more potential sponsors, you need more potential sponsors in your database. Conduct data research either in-house or via a 3rd party to grow your database quickly in a short space of time (ensuring you comply with data protection and direct marketing regulations, depending on country). You can also grow your database daily and compliantly by having lead generation forms on your website and doing inbound marketing to push potential sponsors to these forms. Tip 5 – Manage and nurture leads well to achieve a strong conversion rate Your job doesn’t end when someone fills in a form on your website to become a lead. Properly managing your leads means continuing to engage with them and move them down the funnel, warming them up via targeting comms and making sure they don’t get forgotten! Tip 6 – Define the USP & benefits of your sponsorship value proposition Articulate your event’s unique selling point and key benefits for potential sponsors. Why should a company choose to sponsor your event rather than a competitor’s event, or choose a different channel for investing their marketing budget? What justifies the investment they will make? Tip 7 – Make sure you have a ‘become a sponsor’ page on your event website Your website is your most important marketing channel – both to attract your core audience and potential sponsors. You need a ‘become a sponsor’ page on your website and dedicated ‘enquire about sponsorship’ lead generation forms, plus ideally also a downloadable piece of collateral like a sponsorship brochure (behind a lead generation form). Tip 8 – Run dedicated email campaigns to attract new sponsors Still the champion of outbound B2B; email can be used in several ways to effectively engage, nurture and convert potential sponsors. Create autoresponders that are triggered by web form completions to provide an instant opportunity for interested potential sponsors to further engage. Schedule in dedicated sponsorship campaigns that outline your USP and key benefits for sponsors and encourage them to visit your website complete forms. You can also feed in sponsorship messaging to your delegate emails – perhaps by including a dedicated sponsorship banner ad. Many B2B communities have a degree of cross-over between the buy and sell side, so there’s no harm in pitching your sponsorship opportunities to your potential delegates. Tip 9 – Use social media to attract sponsors As with your website, weaving in sponsorship messaging to your social media will provide extra opportunities to reach interested parties. These posts should be focused on pushing potential sponsors to relevant information on the website (ideally on a dedicated ‘become a sponsor’ page). Your salespeople should also be constantly connecting with potential sponsors on LinkedIn, so make sure they share the relevant, sponsorship specific posts with their network. Tip 10 – Make interested potential sponsors get in touch to find out more While marketing can play an influential role in generating more sponsorship interest (leads) – as well as keeping them ‘warm’ (nurtured) – it’s your sales teams who are ultimately responsible for selling the opportunity and closing the deal. Marketing must not steal sales’ thunder by giving too much away, or having potential sponsors make up their mind before a salesperson has even had a chance to speak to them. Key examples of this are package pricing details. A ‘value based’ sales process, rather than price-based, should result in higher average order values. Want to know more? Commercial Marketing Masterclass – get practical training on using marketing to convert new clients or retain and upsell existing clients Send your team to a masterclass in commercial acquisition, nurturing and conversion, delivered by MPG’s team of expert marketing practitioners. In this interactive session you will learn how to: Analyse your commercial opportunity Create a commercial marketing strategy Execute impactful commercial marketing communications Measure ROI & improve your lead generation performance – to drive a stronger sales performance and grow revenue FIND OUT MORE Get a team of B2B commercial marketing experts on your side From comprehensive marketing strategies to campaign management and delivery, MPG is a full-service consultancy and agency with a strong track record in helping B2B organisations grow their commercial revenue. To find out more about our work and how we can support you, get in touch: FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP YOU Continue Reading Topics: Database developmentDigital marketingLead generationMarketing strategySponsor acquisition
Creating a robust, sustainable marketing function: a strategic, hybrid approach by Helen Coetzee, on 19/06/2020 Marketing is on the chopping block. As businesses seek cost savings, marketing spend is reduced (once again) in favour of what are often seen as more ‘core’ areas like sales and product development. Although marketing is a vital driver of both short and long term performance, it can be frustratingly nebulous in various ways: how much resource is needed, what skills are most valuable, and most importantly – what ROI can be expected. It is no surprise that Finance Directors usually look at reducing fixed costs on marketing before looking elsewhere. Building more flexibility into marketing investment is the way forward for most organisations. External partners, such as marketing agencies, are an attractive alternative to build in this flexibility. But how do you balance and integrate internal expertise with 3rd party support? Do the benefits of working with external partners outweigh the risks? How do you select and integrate an external partner (or more than one partner), effectively, for short and long term gain? In-house vs (and) outsourced: the structure of a winning marketing function If you can’t only afford a single marketer (or FTEs) and no – or very limited – agency spend, then a mostly outsourced marketing approach is likely best. A single marketer will not have both the breadth and depth of knowledge that is needed in modern marketing. Expecting one person to handle all strategic, tactical, digital and technical responsibilities is a recipe for failure. If you can’t afford multiple in-house marketers (or FTE) and/or have a decent budget for agency spend, a hybrid model is probably your best option. Appoint an internal ‘generalist marketer’ (or have someone in your team take this on as part of their role) and then bring on board external marketing expertise and muscle. This should enable you to extract maximum value from your marketing function (as long as it is done in the right way of course!). This will allow you to ramp up resources when needed, assuming your external partner has a team of a decent size. Larger agency teams (10+ people) should have the flexibility, breadth and depth you’ll need. Agencies are most effectively deployed when their skills complement what you have in-house, so make sure have access to both extra (flexible) capacity as well as expertise or skills that don’t exist within the business. The hidden costs of in-house marketing While you may feel having a fully in-house marketing team is a less risky and possibly more cost-effective solution, consider the myriad of hidden costs involved. Recruitment processes are often lengthy and costly, and ‘maintenance and overhead’ costs like IT equipment, HR, training, management, holidays/sick days, PAYE etc. must all be covered. Consider the risk of a new hire under-performing, and how draining and distracting this could become on the business. Agencies can remove, or at least simplify these issues. Agencies carry all the recruitment, training, management and overhead costs themselves. They also have to make sure the people working on your marketing are performing well – and if they aren’t, the ‘people management’ issues will not be yours to deal with. A good agency will be able to offer tangible evidence of past performance, often spanning various industries, geographies and specialisms, and will also hold themselves accountable for marketing ROI. Perhaps most valuable of all is that full-service agencies are the ‘perfect’ marketing team. They can expertly deliver all elements of marketing, constantly honing their skills by being involved in so many projects with a range of clients. Small, in-house and mostly ‘generalist’ marketing teams often can’t match this level of experience and expertise, as they’re usually stretched too thin to develop deeper knowledge and better skills. Some businesses can afford to support these marketers with in-house specialists in more technical areas like data and digital – but this is quite rare. The case for a hybrid approach The issue is not binary. You do not have to choose between in-house marketers and external partners; the best approach is probably hybrid. Even if you favour a fully-outsourced model, you will still need some level of oversight of, and support for, the agency’s delivery. The demand for marketing resources within most businesses tend to vary over time, with some periods where internal teams are not paying their way due to being over-resourced, and other times where they can’t keep up with demand and become over-burdened. A hybrid approach is the best way to maintain the ‘minimum viable’ internal resource while having the option to ramp up capacity and expertise when needed. The best kind of external partner will work in a transparent and collaborative way, enabling your internal team to gain valuable marketing knowledge and skills while working in an integrated way with your agency. How to make outsourced marketing work Employing external resources is not simply a case of signing a contract, throwing some money across the table and watching the results coming in. Careful selection and diligent support for, and management of, your partner will ensure optimal returns. Here are 4 things to always do when outsourcing some or all of your marketing: Look for expertise and a proven track record. Don’t fall for flashy sales pitches and hollow promises. Look for the proven substance in a track record and clear approach to make an astute decision on who you should work with. Onboard your outsourced team as strategic partners. A big mistake is to think of, or position, your agency as ‘a supplier’. From day one, treat them as part of your team, enabling them with the same kind of support you would give an internal marketer. Make sure everyone in your business understands their purpose, their skills and how to utilise them. A good strategic partner will see your business goals as their own goals, and will strive to help you achieve them by playing an active role in your business. Give an internal person overall responsibility for ensuring the partnership is successful. This does not mean this person is the main or only point of contact for the agency. The role of ‘partner relationship owner’ is ensuring the required outcomes are achieved from the partnership. This is achieved via strong, open communication and ensuring each party is delivering according to their role and responsibilities. Both sides need to be collaborative and accountable. Insist on transparency and accountability. As you would with an internal marketer, make your expectations clear from the start. Set clear objectives and agree specific deliverables to align on desired outcomes. Ask for weekly reports and hold weekly meetings to ensure the required progress is being made and good, visible results are being achieved. This weekly meeting is also essential to ensure the project team is working well together. In these financially stressed times, the question should not be ‘should we use internal or outsourced marketing’, but rather ‘what does the most effective and cost-efficient marketing composition look like for us?’. A hybrid solution is – in most cases – the answer. This offers the flexibility of external resource, while maintaining the baseline internal marketing function required. Marketing is a critical function. Maintaining your marketing strength now, and being able to scale up when opportunity knocks, may just give you the competitive edge! Continue Reading Topics: Digital marketingMarketing operationsMarketing strategySkills training
The Marketing Mix | Monthly Newsletter by Helen Coetzee, on 17/06/2020 Newsletter • June 2020 #SMWONE Case Study • Subscriptions Marketing • ROI Measurement In these tumultuous times, we’ve been heeding the very same advice we give to our clients: listen to your community. Every industry, and every business, is bearing the brunt of their own unique set of challenges right now. Those that see the other side of Covid-19 will have faced these head on and embraced change and new opportunities – taking on short term financial pain, or making previously unplanned investments in the process. MPG has been no exception. We are investing in transforming and upgrading our value proposition to meet our customers’ new needs in a new way. In today and tomorrow’s world, having a relevant value proposition is essential, and having an essential value proposition is the ultimate goal! This monthly newsletter is one of our new initiatives – to share with our community a digest of the most recent and relevant case studies, insights and product updates. MPG Academy and MPG’s Analytics & Intelligence Dashboards are two new offerings we’re excited to share – both designed to help you drive more revenue with smart marketing investments. SIGN UP TO NEWSLETTER INSIGHTS A smart strategic play: growing subs revenue It’s been a fascinating time for the MPG Insights team as we’ve worked with marketing practitioners to get to grips with how marketing can make the best impact in these times. In May’s expert-led webinar we focused on marketing to grow revenue by acquiring new subscribers. About 25% of organisations that tuned in don’t currently have a subscriptions product but are looking to create a subscriptions model for their digital events. Achieving strong audience engagement – in a very crowded space We’re heading into a time like no other: the world will be awash with virtual events. In Standing out from the virtual conference crowd: MPG’s top 10 tips we’ve shared our guide to achieving what is essential: getting a great audience for your events. If you aren’t measuring it, you can’t improve it You sprint towards your next virtual event. You breathe a sigh of relief when it’s done. But what have you learnt? Apart from how the tech worked, did you gather the data you needed to work out the marketing formula that will drive good attendance to your next virtual event? How to get more intelligence into your marketing for a stronger ROI is a must-read for every business leader. One of MPG’s biggest investments over the years has been in developing a marketing measurement dashboard ‘like no other’. It draws together key data points and delivers the kinds of insights that these days you cannot do without when marketing events, subscriptions and delivering lead generation campaigns for clients. Read our blog to see why we’ve done this. STORIES MPG Stories will continue to share real-world marketing case studies in what seems to be an ever-popular webinar format. Our next big MPG Story will be livestreamed in July 2020 – stay tuned! SEE ALL EVENTS CASE STUDY Social Media Week’s Virtually Unstoppable As you may know, MPG is the marketing partner for Social Media Week. As such, we worked with the Social Media Week team to develop the marketing strategy for their ground-breaking virtual event: #SMWONE. In executing this strategy together, we learnt some valuable lessons we’re happy to share here. Content marketing was more important than ever. The audience needed familiarity with the new virtual format to truly understand its benefits. The #SMWONE Show achieved just that. Hosted weekly in the run up to the main event, the show helped the event community know what to expect. Previews of content via speaker interviews provided real value, and the show doubled as a chance for the Social Media Week team to iron out any technical kinks. The #SMWONE Show was a top generator of leads and proved that content really is king. Ensuring a strong attendance relies on ‘heavy’ conversion marketing. The online nature of the event (which means no commitments like travel and accommodation) meant a big effort was needed to encourage registrants to attend. MPG focused on a dedicated conversion strategy, with a multi-armed approach that included email, social, PPC and SMS and various automated notifications (like session reminders). This activity ran throughout the event and was critical in keeping the audience engaged, the discussions energised – and sponsors happy! Selling tickets during a virtual event delivers incremental revenue. The extended timeline of the event, and on-demand nature of the content, created the opportunity for ticket sales to continue far into – and even beyond – the event date. The price point was reduced at intervals throughout the event to encourage these late ticket sales, with dedicated email and PPC campaigns highlighting the chance to buy these tickets and the savings available. FOMO kicked in and the ticket revenue kept coming.. Marketing measurement is essential. The marketing approach was adjusted regularly based on learnings gathered from MPG’s data-rich marketing performance reports. Having a strong grip on this intelligence helped boost the tactics to achieve a successful outcome. HEAR THE FULL STORY We look forward to continuing our journey with the Social Media Week team and hope to share more of what we learn as we go along! VOICES “MPG has done a great job introducing and embedding better digital and data-led marketing practices into our business, meaning we can now target and engage our audience much more effectively. We really like MPG’s transparent and ROI-focused approach. Their regular analysis and intelligence reporting on marketing activity and performance is quite unique and has delivered a lot of value to our business.” Alex Williamson, Co-Founder & CEO, Bio Market Insights There is great hardship in the world today. We are in a unique time where revival, reconfiguration and reinvention of almost every industry and institution is underway. The positivity, dedication, creativity and innovation MPG’s clients and wider community have demonstrated is truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing this journey with us. Enjoy the sunny summer days. Remember to breathe – deeply. And let’s crack on! Continue Reading Topics: Analytics and intelligenceContent marketingDigital marketingEvent marketingSubscriptions marketing
B2B event marketers: for now, digital content is your product by Helen Coetzee, on 07/04/2020 Q2 is here and things are looking… interesting. We’re taking a step back to think about the #1 priority event marketers should have for the next couple of months. Events have been postponed or cancelled. Virtual and hyrbid events and digital ‘add-ons’ are being created and launched at lightning speed. But budgets are frozen. Many B2B event marketers are feeling uncertain about what they should focus on in the coming weeks to deliver value to their business and prove their worth. They are so used to be being pushed every day to deliver results in the form of revenue or ‘hot leads’ for the sales team. The job they may feel they have been hired to do cannot be done. So, they’re sitting at home, probably feeling quite anxious, in a makeshift – yet now permanent-feeling – home office, wondering what do to. For marketers looking for something to get their teeth into, that will deliver great value for their businesses in the next few weeks and over the longer term, content marketing via digital channels is the one true path. Digital content’s new role The value of content marketing to drive growth in B2B events and subscriptions has long been known, but until a few weeks ago seldom properly thought about or invested in. For years, speaker interviews, industry reports and podcasts have been a powerful way to grow engagement, reach new people and capture data of individuals who find most value in our products. B2B community marketers now need to get very comfortable with the process around creating and distributing strong, engaging digital content to their communities. This will not only solve the short-term problems around maintaining engagement of valuable communities – but more importantly, will prove to be a great asset that can continue to be leveraged as we push ourselves into recovery mode in a few months’ time. Digital content, and the marketing of this content, is an asset that needs investment – now more than ever. And this investment should pay off in the short, medium and long term. Who wouldn’t see that as an attractive place to put their money right now? What makes content so valuable At its core, content solves problems. People watch webinars not because of a flashy social post or catchy name, but because the subject addresses a challenge they face in their working lives. It’s fair to say nearly every worker in every field is facing a myriad of challenges in our working lives right now! When community members ‘purchase’ our content, they pay with us three valuable things: 1. Their time 2. Their attention 3. Their data These three things are the currencies we’re trading in right now when dollars, pounds and euros are being kept firmly in companies and investors’ zipped-up pockets. What does good content look like? Now is the time for producers and event content specialists to use their knowledge of the most pressing pain points and burning needs of their community. At a time when people cannot gather together at events, or their companies may be limiting how much they can spend on the most valuable information sources, your content is a life raft. Faced with huge uncertainty over their flagship events series Money20/20, industry titan Ascential put their community’s needs first. The Moneypot addresses the issues the fintech community faces right now in short, engaging pieces. Frequently updated content incentivises community members to subscribe while also referencing their event series to keep their conferences top of mind in a smart, customer-friendly way. Social Media Week has always been a leader in content marketing. Their latest #5Things podcast covering some incredible work being done by some of the giants in the world of marketing in response to the Covid-19 challenges the world is facing. How should marketers promote & amplify content? For optimal results – marketers need to treat their digital content as their product. That means deploying all the usual marketing strategies and tactics in promoting it: Use your audience personas and map out your community to understand who the content best serves and how it solves challenges they are currently facing. Create a messaging strategy that communicates the USP and benefits of your content consistently across channels. Deploy a multi-channel comms plan to achieve strong reach within your community. Host the content in a dedicated spot on your website, announce new pieces via email and social media and re-target past users to pull them back to your site. Collect data and segment accordingly to create the most relevant and welcome communications. The data you collect now can also be used later to push subscriptions and events sales – so make sure it is collected, stored and structured in the right way. Thinking of digital content as a product may feel strange to many event marketers, especially those used to be focused on revenue. But this new mindset is absolutely essential in maintaining your brand & position, and in ensuring you are doing all you need to for your community right now. If you look after your community now, they will look after you when things get back to the new normal – however that may look. You can read more about our advice on winning in the new world here. Continue Reading Topics: Content marketingDigital marketingEvent marketingMessaging
Running a conference or exhibition in 2020? Your event marketers must do these 5 things by Dominic Bird, on 12/03/2020 In our previous blog post, we covered what B2B event marketers should do in the wake of an event postponement due to Covid-19. In this post we explain the actions needed for an event scheduled to run this year. Whether you’ve postponed a spring event, or you’re preparing for your annual Q4 conference/exhibiton; revisiting your approach to marketing is essential. In this tumultuous period, a spotlight has been shone on the events industry. Sponsors, exhibitors, suppliers and – of course – delegates look to their favoured conferences and exhibitions for a response to the Coronavirus outbreak that now dominates headlines. If you have an event scheduled to run in 2020 there are several key considerations for your event marketers who play such a key role in event success. We’ve put together a list of the top actions event marketers need to take now: 1- Release a statement to your entire community Your event community wants to see that you are responding to the situation. As your top priority – directly communicate an update of your position via email to your key event stakeholders. These are individuals who have in some way invested in or made a commitment to your event, including delegates, sponsors, partners, speakers and suppliers. Add a clear statement to your event website homepage. Also add a dedicated web page about your decision to run the event this year and include information and links that support your position e.g. official government advice. Consider adding a pop-up to appear to anyone visiting any page of your website to maximise visibility. If you have a FAQ section on your website, add Covid-19 related questions to the top of the list. Share this news on all channels, ensuring you reach as many people in your community as possible. Consider producing a video alongside your statement to condense it into something easily digestible and engaging, and to add a trustworthy face to the decision. Here is a great example from Money20/20. 2 – Share your contingency plan With a global situation that’s changing almost hourly, showing you have a robust back-up plan will give attendees, speakers and sponsors alike the confidence to plan to be part of your event. Explain how and when (provide a specific date) stakeholders will be informed of a possible postponement. Include when the postponed event is likely to take place if a postponement becomes necessary. At a minimum, state the likely month or date range, even if the specific date is not yet known. Be as specific as you can about where the postponed event will take place, especially if you’re considering a different venue. Take inspiration from this example, and other events’ contingency plans to ensure you’re covering all bases. This coronavirus response guide for event organisers from professional networking platform GUILD also includes some great examples of ‘going ahead’ statements. 3 – Make it clear how you are ensuring visitor safety With health concerns top of mind in the public consciousness, sharing how you plan to reduce the risk to attendees is vital. Share what measures your venue is taking, e.g. more frequent cleaning and the installation of hand sanitizers Explain how, as the event organisers, you are further mitigating the risks. This could be by: Advising against handshakes Adjusting session formats Providing on-site medical facilities 4 – Adjust your marketing communications strategy and campaign plan It may be tempting to stick to the original, familiar plan. But considering a slightly different approach to your marcomms to take in to account the new coronavirus shaded world could be beneficial to campaign performance. Review your channel approaches, considering how the situation may require them to change: Is it worth investing more in re-engaging past visitors over trying to generate new ones if your returning visitor rate could drop? Consider investing more in retaining booked delegates and revenue, instead of purely focusing on acquisition. Exclude your digital advertising (PPC) from appearing on news sites. You don’t want your banners alongside an announcement advising people to avoid gatherings. Does your wider messaging strategy need re-orienting? If your industry is feeling unease, should you focus on how your event addresses challenges instead of opportunities? Don’t feel the need to completely tear up your existing strategy. Doing so will only cause unnecessary disruption when simple tweaks and diligence can keep you on the path to success. Place more emphasis on lead generation and digital content creation until you are confident your event will go ahead as planned. Doing so will also allow prospective visitors to receive updates while they decide whether to commit to attending. Think about how you can communicate any existing or newly built in digital elements (livestreaming, video content, networking app) to show that your event has a strong presence in the digital space, as well as the physical event itself. Avoid messaging that states how many people you are expecting to attract, as you can’t be certain how many will turn up. Be wary of ‘over-promising and under-delivering’ Avoid using imagery that shows numerous people interacting closely or shaking hands. Consider adding coronavirus related content to your event agenda – e.g. a breakfast briefing – as well as event content to your site (speaker interviews, news updates) to ‘own the conversation’ in your industry. Make sure you build this new content into your comms, sharing via email and social as an agenda update, showing how you are responding to the crisis by making it a key discussion point. 5 – Provide frequent updates As the situation evolves, your community will expect you to respond in a responsible and transparent manner. Update your statement as soon as your plan or the situation changes and more clarity is needed. Include a date for when information was last updated. If a significant update is made, push this out on all channels as you did when the statement was initially released. Consider providing an update when a relevant news story breaks (e.g. a ban on gatherings of a certain scale) to quell any fresh concerns. Above all, don’t be silent about Covid-19. Taking responsibility and providing clear communications is vital in times of uncertainty. We recently published a blog with our advice and predictions on how to win in this new world and what the ‘new normal’ could look like – this is a must-read to ensure your business is taking the right community-led approach – read the full article here. If you have any thoughts on how our industry should react and how the marketing approach should adjust, we would love to hear from you! To find out more about short-term marketing considerations & tactics for postponed events, view the webinar outputs from our recent webinar which answered those all important questions. Continue Reading Topics: Content marketingDigital marketingEvent marketingMarketing strategyMessaging
Email Marketing Performance Benchmarks for B2B Events by Heather Whitman, on 02/07/2018 We have a dizzying array of channels and tools available to today’s B2B community marketers, and the humble email is still one of the most effective. Deployed smartly, email marketing remains critically important when marketing events. GDPR meansB2B community marketers are likely to be sending fewer emails to data subjects in the EU than they did previously, so it is even more important than ever that campaigns are designed for complete relevance, maximum impact and constantly measured against the industry benchmarks. (more…) Continue Reading Topics: Analytics and intelligenceDigital marketingLead generationMarketing technologyMessaging
Why we are beating the drum with The Drum for marketing to change the world. by Helen Coetzee, on 08/02/2017 As MPG begins work with globally renowned marketing brand The Drum, Helen Coetzee looks at the need for marketing to play its role as the ‘conscience’ of a company. With a history stretching back over three decades, The Drum is rightly considered one of the premium resources for the marketing industry. (more…) Continue Reading Topics: Analytics and intelligenceBrand strategyCommunity marketingContent marketingDigital marketing
Where there is uncertainty, let there be focus by Helen Coetzee, on 29/01/2017 “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. When John Wannamaker said this over 100 years ago, he had a really good excuse! In 2017, with all the knowledge and tools at our disposal, there is no excuse. I cannot think of a senior executive team or company board that would be prepared to accept, let alone listen to, ‘alternative facts’ from their head of marketing! (more…) Continue Reading Topics: Analytics and intelligenceDigital marketingMarketing strategy
Enough of meek marketers, we need geek marketers shouting about ROI by Helen Coetzee, on 29/11/2016 For far too long the marketing function has danced and side-stepped around the issue of return on investment (ROI) on marketing spend. A scenario played out countless times over the ages is one of CEOs asking what the ROI on their marketing spend will be and marketers arguing it isn’t an exact science. “You need to trust us this is working,” is the oft repeated answer. This needs to end. In fact, CEOs shouldn’t even have the chance to ask what the ROI will be. Marketers should be insisting from the very start they are measured on it and proactively communicate to the business exactly how they are delivering value. (more…) Continue Reading Topics: Analytics and intelligenceCommunity marketingDigital marketingMarketing strategy
Modern CEOs know that today’s marketing is driven by data and insight by Helen Coetzee, on 17/10/2016 This week’s guest blogger is Alex Martinez. Alex is CEO and co-founder of Procurement Leaders, an award winning global membership community serving senior procurement and supply chain executives from major worldwide corporations. The marketing function, ironically, hasn’t always been the best at marketing itself. Many CEOs still harbour significant doubts over what they get back from their marketing spend. (more…) Continue Reading Topics: Analytics and intelligenceDatabase developmentDigital marketingMarketing strategyMarketing technology
What Makes a Successful B2B Marketer? by Helen Coetzee, on 05/08/2016 Everyone, no matter what industry they’re in, will ponder at some time what the successful do in their field that sets them apart from the competition. Many may naturally think that the best of the best were either just born gifted, showed up for the right opportunity, or are simply magicians in what they do. While true in a few cases, being gifted or a magician in what one does is usually not the reason for the vast difference between the best and the average. It is not easy to attain the status of being in the top of one’s field, but it’s definitely not impossible. (more…) Continue Reading Topics: Community marketingDigital marketingSkills training
