Digital Trends Series – Content

People are digesting more and more media through the internet, so providing interesting and valuable insight on your website that’s relevant to your customers’ needs is an effective way of increasing engagement.

It also drives web traffic, builds kudos through the knowledge and expertise it demonstrates, and boosts loyalty by adding value to the online customer experience. Growing the customer-focused content on your website also helps increase search engine optimisation as it confirms relevance to search engines like Google, which view it as an online resource.

The first lesson for anyone planning a digital content strategy is that the information must be engaging and relevant to their target market and not just sales focused. For many marketers, this may require a shift in mindset.

Why do you need a content strategy?

Having a content strategy helps brands focus on what’s important to them and their target market. It means avoiding wasting valuable time and resources on content that may or may not appeal to internet users and customers. To do this, it’s important to study the target audience in question to determine what information it finds important and valuable. This can be done through a range of activities, from trial-and-error (publishing content and then tracking how many people read it), to audience surveys/focus groups and feedback through existing social media channels.

As well as making sure digital content is appropriate, a good strategy can also help with audience conversion (transforming people from being simply website visitors to customers) and so drive sales. By understanding and catering for the needs of its target audience, a website becomes relevant and appealing to customers and prospects. What’s more, using keywords that relate directly to a website’s digital content creates a more targeted resource that will optimise the visitor-to-customer conversion rate.

Understanding customers is nothing new, but being able to drive them directly to the information they want and answer their questions quickly and easily is a key benefit of digital communications. But doing this requires marketers to learn more about their target audiences than simply basic demographic data. The aim should be to develop a comprehensive picture of their interests and desires to inform the creation of a key online resource. Howard Schultz, Chief Executive at Starbucks, which has been extremely successful in social media, describes this as “breaking a code”, in order to give people opportunities to feel good about themselves. He also considers the experience of ‘discovery’ to be very important for communicating content (Harvard Business Manager Special, Oct 2010, “Managers need to reveal weaknesses”). This suggests that people are likely to be more loyal when the make their own ‘discoveries’ on the internet during the process of searching for information using a search engine like Google, than simply being directed to it.

Importantly, if a brand or business is already active in a range of social media channels, then any relevant digital content it produces – from written articles to applications and video – should be used to feed this activity, increasing and broadening audience engagement and driving more web traffic.

How can marketers do this?

Producing this kind of customer-focused digital content is not something that marketers are traditionally accustomed to. But to really engage customers and drive brand awareness, it’s important to create regular new content that promotes and encourages two-way dialogue with your audience. Doing this successfully requires techniques more usually associated with journalism. Indeed social media makes it possible for organisations to become publishers and so the line between these disciplines is becoming increasingly blurred.

It’s crucial that any content produced must also be tailored for publishing on the required channel – whether that’s a blog, Facebook page or Twitter. Employing a one-size-fits-all approach will not work in this situation, as each channel requires a different approach. Furthermore, the relevance of the topics will be a deciding factor in whether information will be shared further, or disappear without being noticed.

Tone and style also need to be clearly defined. It’s not about broadcasting advertising slogans. Building a successful content strategy revolves around creating an entertaining form of brand and sector-related reporting. It is important to remember not everyone will react to a brand, so in many cases it is better not to appear too polished and corporate.

Beyond simply generating the content, the brand’s ‘editors’ also need to ensure that they encourage community members to participate in groups and social media channels, promoting feedback. After all, the whole purpose of modern communication channels is to encourage discussion and interaction. From this feedback, brands can not only gain valuable customer thoughts and opinions about their existing products and services, but also use obtain key information that can drive future product development.

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

Five Tips to Increase Audience Engagement with Events – Part 3

This week we will look at  two more marketing channels which help event organizers  increase the engagement with their audience before, during and after the physical event takes place.

In the first post, we examined how social media can be used strategically to connect attendees and to start discussions which can provide useful insight and feedback for the creation of relevant content.

In the second post, we looked at how more ‘traditional’ tools such as email and websites allow an organization to communicate more personalized messages and to provide the visitor a year-around knowledge-hub.

Here we examine the pivotal role mobile devices and virtual events will increasingly play within the events industry.

4. Mobile and tablet apps – Take engagement to the next level

For those attendees who have signed up for your event, the mobile phone provides a quick and easy way to distribute key information before, during and after the event, as well as encouraging interaction with key social media and web channels.

You can now deliver your event information directly to any smartphone – of which there are now more than 170 million users across the globe – or any internet-enabled device through web-based or native applications. The Active Network Events mobile apps are not only a way to plan and administer the personal journey for your delegates with program agendas, interactive site maps and session schedules, but they are also the natural extension of the online engagement provided by social media websites.

Today’s mobile and tablet apps give delegates the opportunity to build personal profiles, join communities, send direct messages to other attendees and connect to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Furthermore, with our technology attendees can give their feedback in real time through online surveys and audience polling, which will be automatically stored and ready to use for insightful reports.

What’s more, by creating a unique hash tag for your event and using a moderator, your delegates can tweet comments and questions during sessions to increase interaction, involvement and therefore, engagement. Organizers can even commission bespoke mobile and tablet applications to do the same, but in a more controlled and functional environment.

5. Virtual events – Grow your audience and sustain the conversation

Not everyone will be able to make it to your event. By adding a virtual element to your live experience you can share it online with those who cannot attend. Using virtual event technology has shown that creating a virtual component to a live event does not reduce audience numbers, but widens the audience, and shows people what they’re missing.

With the latest technology innovations, virtual experiences are becoming more and more rewarding. However, rather than replacing the live element, these virtual platforms should enhance it.

Virtual events, like webinars and podcasts, can be used to turn live events into 24/7/365 audience engagement experiences by making keynote speeches and seminars available on demand online once the venue has closed its doors and delegates have returned home. This allows attendees to reacquaint themselves with the content after the event, and those who couldn’t make it can enjoy it for the first time at their leisure. You can also produce new content tailored to the demands of your target audience, keeping them involved, engaged and ready to be informed of your next live event.

Conclusions

There is no doubt that the digital event is and will continue to grow its symbiotic relationship with the live event. It is critical, though, that this relationship is considered at a strategic level to ensure appropriate and targeted audience engagement to deliver the ROI demanded of every part of the modern day marketing and communications mix.

Although our channels to communicate have diversified through technology it is essential that today’s event organizer seeks to converge communications with their audience through technology with the live event being the focal point or even, one might say crucible, for fundamental one-to-one personal interaction.

Filippo Ciampini
Marketing Specialist
Active Network | Events

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

See Real Life Event Marketing Strategies & Technologies in Action

We’re happy to announce that we will be exhibiting at the 2011 Event Marketing Summit in Chicago (May 16 – 18), one of the world’s leading experiential marketing conferences.

Here is where you can find us – and if you haven’t signed up yet, register today as our VIP Guest with the code “AseVIP”:

• Technology & Events Workshop presented by Anthony Miller, Strategic Director, Active Network, Events: Monday, May 16th at 8:30 am
• Event Technology Roundtable – Wednesday, May 18 at 8:00 am – Open Discussion
• Exhibit Floor, Booth #415 – Schedule an Event Technology Audit with us, and stop by to enter to win a Microsoft Kinect in person! Click here to request a technology audit.

Hope to see you in Chicago!

Lindsay Nayer
Enterprise Marketing Manager
Active Network | Events

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

Five Tips to Increase Audience Engagement with Events – Part 1

In 2010, the mainstream event industry started to embrace the idea of enlarging the scope and reach of an event. Events are planned and delivered through a combination of physical and virtual elements, often known as the ‘hybrid approach’. When marketing budgets were slashed, communication technology became a powerful tool in the event marketing industry because they offered cost-effective solutions to maximize the value of the event. Mobile apps and social networks are examples of “virtual elements” used before, during, and after the event.

The biggest challenge for the industry this year is how to combine these trends with our traditional event management solutions in order to reach and engage the audience, while guaranteeing tangible business results. Today, the communication between event organizers and their audience helps develop the event content and ensures the attendees’ positive impression. Event organizers need to listen, engage and understand the needs of the event stakeholders to deliver relevant content and generate further interaction between the delegates.

There are two key factors relating to your audience that are critical to the success of any event and, therefore, the return on investment of the event. First is the number of attendees it attracts, and second, is how engaged those delegates are.

These two factors are also directly related, because the more engaged your prospective attendees are, the more likely they are to attend. However, the key to effective engagement is not simply sending out one-way messages, such as invitations or direct mail, but striking up a two-way conversation with your target audience, before, during and after your event.

This not only helps you maintain persistent and regular contact with your audience, but also allows you to carry out research into what they want, which can help to make the content of your event more relevant and therefore more attractive. Indeed, the more in-depth the engagement with your audience, the more receptive they will be and, therefore, the more they are likely to absorb your content.

The good news is that the latest online innovations mean it’s easier than ever to engage with your audience. The key is to look at all the tools at your disposal and take a strategic approach. Here is the first tip that you can use to increase the audience engagement – in the next days we will post all the other four tips!

1. Social media – Drive consistent, ongoing awareness for your community

If you want to raise awareness of your event beyond your current attendee community, then social media holds the key. Facebook passed the 600 million user mark last year, while 200 million Twitter members are sending 110 million tweets a day and LinkedIn hit the 100 million sign-up mark in March this year. This gives you a vast community in which to spread your message, and developing and maintaining a presence on one or more of these platforms well before your event can really build awareness. The key, however, is not to sell your event through these channels, but to instead to share relevant insight relating to the content to attract interest from the right people.

Regular and consistent tweets will build a Twitter following, while including links for more details on the insight you’re tweeting will direct users to where you want them to go – ideally to your event’s website. A regularly updated knowledge base on your website with key insight into your sector, provides not only a good source for tweets, but also a point of interest for Twitter users when they are directed to your site.

Twitter can also be used to guide people to a Facebook page or LinkedIn group dedicated to your event, where they can interact and debate issues related to the content. Meanwhile, you can interact with Facebook and LinkedIn group members through these respective channels, and post up key information about your event. The result is a growing, active online community around your event, which you can maintain before, during and after the event takes place.

Filippo Ciampini
Marketing Specialist
Active Network | Events

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

For Earth Day: The Business Case for a Technology-Focused, Sustainable Event Strategy

Sustainability is not just an add-on to satisfy your more socially and environmentally aware customers and stakeholders, it’s also fast becoming a business imperative. That’s because whether you’re a large or small organization, sustainable practices can directly affect your bottom line.

As one of our clients, Shirley Chick from sustainable events experts CT Live, pointed out recently:

“It is no longer a case of people seeing sustainability as costing more. All our clients understand it saves you money; whether that be in designing your branded materials so they are reusable or benefiting from the efficiencies that online registrations system bring beyond the benefits of cutting out paper usage.”

Of course, Shirley’s right. Sustainable practices are a great way to save costs as well as the planet. Consider some of your costs – travel and accommodation, business meetings and events, and training. By strategically using technology, not only can you make these activities greener, but you can also reduce your spend.

The more frequently and the further your team travels and the longer they stay out of the office, the bigger their carbon footprint and the larger their expenses claim. They are also losing valuable work time, and so reducing their productivity. Introducing virtual meetings technology can maintain direct client contact, while reducing the need to travel and cutting the consequent time demands. The result? A winning combination of cost and carbon reduction.

If you’re concerned about investing in virtual events technology, rest assured that while the sophistication and quality has increased considerably, the cost has come down. Furthermore, rather than simply maintaining your level of direct client contact, with the system in place the chances are that this will actually increase, helping to strengthen your business relationships at a crucial time when the global economy is recovering.

Of course, adding value to your client and employee relationships through strategic meetings and events is also vital in an increasingly competitive business environment. Here, too, technology can help you to create more environmentally friendly activities that are also more efficiently run and more engaging for your audiences.

As Shirley pointed out earlier, online registration systems, for example, make it easier for delegates and attendees to sign up, while reducing the administrative burden on your staff, freeing them up for more productive work. Environmentally, they also reduce paper usage, not to mention the expense of designing and printing the related collateral. Such systems are increasingly user friendly and allow for branded delegate interfaces.

However, it is in the area of mobile technology where businesses can really benefit. Applications are now available that enable all delegate materials to be stored on mobile phones and updated in real time. This means there is not only less waste, but also more accurate information available at every delegate’s fingertips. Your event organization team can also gain from apps tailored to their needs, freeing them having to carry around burdensome printed information, while helping them better manage both delegates and the event overall.

So green really can equal “lean and mean” business operations – thanks to technology, of course!

For more information about mobile technology and other sustainable practices, check out our latest white paper, Five Ways Mobile Technology is Reshaping Events.

Lindsay Nayer
Enterprise Marketing Manager
Active Network | Events

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee

The Theory of [Engagement Marketing] Evolution

As a Marketing professional, I’m always looking to refine how I do things: change my processes, evolve my practices, and improve my results. Whether you’re a Darwinist or not, there’s no doubt that, in marketing, evolution is a step forward. Marketers thrive by adapting to change in our environment, so with nearly 2,000 million people across the globe now using the internet¹ (that’s nearly a third of the world’s population), it should be no surprise that events are evolving, and so is event marketing. Online and virtual technologies are extending the reach of events. We’re evolving from a single, live activity taking place in a moment in time, to hybrid events without boundaries.

But this is just the beginning. In addition to the pressure for organizations to go online and create hybrid events, there is also a demand from customers to be engaged by the businesses and the brands they choose to buy from. Bombarded with more marketing messages than ever, they have become tired of the “sell.” They want to be understood, valued, informed, treated with respect, and engaged in a two-way conversation rather than a traditional marketer’s one-way monologue. And so a select few companies are responding to this pressure by evolving their event marketing strategies even beyond hybrid events, and into something called engagement marketing – the creation of a persistent, mutually beneficial relationship between a brand and its audience through digital and live interaction.

This involves using traditional marketing channels, as well as online and virtual technology, social media and mobile communications (let’s not forget that 5.2 billion people (77% of the world’s population) now have mobile phone subscriptions²) to launch an ongoing conversation with your target audience. With respect to a live event, this starts well in advance by engaging the target audience through traditional channels, the internet, social media and mobile communications. This conversation continues during the event, where mobile technology can enhance the attendee & delegate experience and the audience can be extended virtually. Post-event engagement carries on through (for example) elements of the event being available on demand, online for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with key content or who missed it live. This continuous dialogue provides customer feedback and data on preferences, which can help inform future event content and even overall product development.

Although engagement marketing is not a new concept, the new global marketplace and the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies mean its time has come for event marketing specifically. Understanding the engagement marketing evolution puts any marketer or business leader ahead of their competition. But the next evolutionary step in this discipline is harnessing the new rules of customer engagement for mutual benefit. Using tools that encourage customers to interact with each other and creating a collaborative community around an event gives customers – and organizations – the power to influence and evolve a brand together, provides a real sense of mutual ‘ownership’, which in turn drives stronger advocacy and continuous engagement.

If you want to know more about Engagement Marketing please read the white paper: “New world, new rules of engagement”

Lindsay Nayer
Enterprise Marketing Manager (& Engagement Marketing Advocate)
Active Network | Events

NOTES:

1 www.internetworldstats.com

2 International Telecommunications Union (October 2010)

Written By: Cece Salomon-Lee