How to Get the Best Results for Your Client’s Events
For PR agencies with clients in the startup and entrepreneur space, it is imperative we are constantly thinking about their bottom line, as budgets tend to be conservative to maximize growth and scaling of their business.
With that in mind, well executed events are effective to get the news out about new products and initiatives and and keep your brand in front of your wanted audience, through the power of media and influencers. With a strategic social media plan and event strategy, PR agencies have the ability to take their clients events from blah to WOW overnight.
Identifying your brand goals, see below, is the first step to event success and keeping your agency and brand in sync.
- Increase brand awareness
- Increase sales
- Promote product knowledge
- Customer education
- Lead generation
- Media impressions and press coverage
- Increase website traffic
- Increase social media engagement
- Develop relationships with influencers and brand ambassadors
EXAMPLE
1. Increase Brand Awareness
If you have to learn just one thing about brand awareness, learn this one – consistency matters. Presuming that you have a clearly outlined brand voice, a memorable slogan, and of course your brand’s logo and all the recognizable colors – always remember to have them present as on the spot, so online. Facebook covers, Instagram stories, Twitter background, email headers, the homepage of your website – let those colors show!
In average, people need 5 to 7 impressions before they get familiar with a brand. So make sure your presence is cleary standing out throughout all platforms and assets you have control of.
Implementing a strong social media profile prior to your event, during the event, and post, by using social media resources such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube can be incredibly valuable and ultimately spell success for client and agency by maximizing the ROI of events.
Use the Power of Social Media
First off, if the agency has been tasked with selling tickets, Facebook and Instagram are solid choices to help stimulate sales.
Couri Hay recently hosted the first leg of Peruvian culinary charity event in New York City, Tour Paraqay and the first stop to get the word out about tickets was Facebook advertising. With a minimum spend on this platform, Facebook’s advertising team created an event profile of the desired guest by geotargeting and directing opt-in to the event page.
We also used the massive celebrity social following of participating chefs, Aaron Sanchez, Mitsuharu Tsumura and Cesar Gonzalez, to ultimately sell out the event by creating targeted Instagram videos to their followers, and tagging their various restaurants Facebook pages. By tapping into their vast international social network, we managed to spread buzz for subsequent legs of the charity tour. The beauty in employing this strategy is the access of an engaged following who are excited to hear about new promotions and spread the word to their network willingly.
Right before the events, make sure to share the designated hashtag # with attendees including press, social influencers and VIP’s. All attendees who engage will see your posts and your content and by re-posting and sharing will help spread the word about your client by creating content on their pages.
Stay Engaged – Stay Visible.
In our agency’s experience, effective social media posting never happens by chance. Before the event, make sure to designate a team member who will be responsible for taking photos and video to share on social.
As well as taking pictures and sharing relevant updates from the event, your designated social media person should also be keeping an eye out for other people’s comments about the event and sharing with the community. And remember, real time engagement is key!
When it comes to events, brands generally get out what they put in. Spend time planning, and creating a buzz around your event, and you’re much more likely to see your hard work paid off.