Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events Digital Marketing Solutions Summit | Forum Events

Posts Tagged :

Events

How to promote your online event

Corporate events are crucial for expanding your customer base and fortifying customer loyalty. Whether it’s a virtual webinar, an internal briefing, or a festive gathering, maximising the visibility of your events is paramount.

Understanding how you can promote your online events is the key to garnering more positive attention and increasing your audience reach.

Here are some tips on how to promote your online event…

  1. Implement SEO

Ensure you implement SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) when promoting your online event. Implementing SEO enhances its discoverability on search engines, driving increased traffic and participation.

By optimising event titles, descriptions, and keywords, you improve the likelihood of your event appearing prominently in relevant search results. The heightened visibility attracts a larger audience, boosting event attendance and engagement.

  1. Send Out Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are a critical tool for promoting online events, offering a direct and personalised approach to engage potential attendees. To ensure a successful email campaign, segment your audience based on interests and demographics for targeted messaging. Compelling subject lines are essential to capture attention and convey the value and urgency of attending the event.

Create engaging email content highlighting the event’s key benefits and speakers to entice participation. Integrate mobile optimisation to ensure seamless viewing across devices, maximising accessibility.

Personalise the email by addressing recipients by name and customising content based on past interactions, fostering a sense of connection. Finally, implement a follow-up strategy with reminder emails, updates, or post-event resources to maintain engagement and drive attendance.

  1. Create an Event Brochure

Utilise an event brochure when promoting an online event. The brochure should provide comprehensive information in an interactive format. It will serve as a centralised platform for detailing event agendas, key speakers, and registration links.

When creating an event brochure,  Integrate dynamic multimedia elements on your brochure to captivate audiences, foster excitement, and drive anticipation. Ensure the brochure is easily accessible online for easy sharing across various digital channels, amplifying reach and visibility.

  1. Build a Good Website

A well-built website is crucial for promoting an online event. It is where attendees can refer for information about the event and includes a link to register. The website will serve as a professional and credible platform to showcase event details and speakers, instilling confidence in potential attendees.

With intuitive navigation and responsive design, it ensures a seamless user experience across devices, encouraging them to register. Additionally, it facilitates SEO optimisation and integration with other promotional channels, maximising visibility and attracting a wider audience.

  1. Use Social Media

Social media is one of the most effective tools for promoting an online event due to its unparalleled reach and engagement potential. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram enable direct interaction with target audiences, facilitating the dissemination of event details, updates, and engaging content.

Leveraging social media enhances visibility, encourages audience participation through likes, shares, and comments, and fosters community-building around the event. Additionally, it allows for targeted advertising and influencer collaborations, amplifying promotional efforts and driving registration and attendance.

A people-first celebration – Register for ON Festival today!

ON Festival by Freshworks will host an exciting line-up of speakers who have pioneered the values that put people first in business. Coupled together with world-class entertainment, this event will leave you feeling energised, inspired and entertained.

Together with over 5,000 business leaders from across Europe, ON Festival will explore the role you and your organisation will play in embracing values such as happiness, empathy, well-being and the impact your organisation has in the local community. These values are now essential for building long-lasting customer and employee relationships.

Broadcasted live from London, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, this is your chance to switch ON positive values that put people first.

Join ON Festival online on June 24th, 2021 from 2 PM BST / 3 PM CET.

Over 3 hours starting at 2pm BST, we have an amazing lineup of speakers:-

· Girish Mathrubootham – CEO of Freshworks
· Tal Ben-Shahar – Top course of all times- Harvard University
· Marc Randolph – Co-Founder of Netflix
· Alex Dimiziani – Former Head of Global Comms AirBnB

Click Here To Register

Pinterest’s first Global Advertiser Summit announced

Pinterest will host its first ever advertiser summit, Pinterest Presents, on March 3rd, for advertisers in key markets including the UK, US, France, Germany, Canada and Australia.

It says the virtual summit is designed to inspire and spark creativity among its audience and provide marketers with an exclusive look at the company’s latest ad product updates.

Pinterest Presents will bring together a range of industry voices, celebrities and speakers as a part of a virtual experience. In addition to CEO Ben Silbermann, global Pinterest speakers will include Andréa Mallard, Chief Marketing Officer, Aya Kanai, Head of Content and Creators Partnerships, and Dan Lurie, Head of Growth and Shopping Product. 

The summit will feature customized content and speakers for each market, to give marketers a window onto local audience trends and ad opportunities. Sessions for each country will ignite conversations around diversity and inclusion, sustainability, scaling e-commerce, designing for accessibility, and entrepreneurship:

  • US: Jon Kaplan, Pinterest Chief Revenue Officer will host Walter Frye, Vice President of Global Brand Engagement & Design at American Express and Sarika Sangwan, Pinterest Global Strategy & Financial Services Marketing Lead, who will dive into American Express’support of small businesses. Sinéad Burke, Founder of Tilting the Lens, will be sharing her personal story on how she lives in a world not designed for her and address how accessibility needs to be better integrated in technology. Celestine Maddy, Global Head of Consumer & Brand Marketing at Pinterest will present the Future Trends. 
  • UK: Katherine Ryan, Comedian, Actress and Writer will host the UK show and even try her hand at some Pinterest Predicts trends. Elizabeth Day, Journalist and Broadcaster and Karen Blackett OBE, UK Country Manager, WPP and CEO, Group M, will discuss personal and professional stories of positive failure through the lens of inspiration, and Steven Bartlett, Founder of Social Chain will interview Alex Loizou, Founder of Trouva about being an entrepreneur and heading up a challenger brand. Sinéad Burke, Founder of Tilting the Lens, will be sharing her personal story on how she lives in a world not designed for her and address how accessibility needs to be better integrated in technology. Milka Kramer, UK & Ireland Country Manager at Pinterest will present the Future Trends. 
  • France: Anaïs Grangerac, TV Presenter and Pinterest creator will host. Alexandre Mars, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist fund founder will talk to Yannick Bolloré, Havas Group CEO in a fireside chat about entrepreneurship and the future of ecommerce in the advertising industry. Inès Leonarduzzi, CEO of NGO Digital and Emmanuelle Paille, Head of Comms, CSR & Public Affairs at Bel Group will explore what users are expecting from brands today and the impact of the COVID crisis. Adrien Boyer, France, Southern Europe and Benelux Country Manager at Pinterest will present the Future Trends. 
  • Germany: Sascha Vitzthum, SVP Marketing at Home24 and Philipp Westermeyer, OMR Founder, will explore the shop window of the future. Jens Raskop, Head of Digital Marketing at MINI will be interviewed about aspects of reinvention and Maike Abel, Head of Media Communication & Content at Nestlé and Tijen Onaran, Entrepreneur and Author, will be talking about brand reputation and sustainability. Philip Missler, Head of Europe at Pinterest will present the Future Trends. 
  • Canada: Erin Elofson, Head of Canada and Australia will host Alex Panousis, CEO, Carat Dentsu Aegis Network to discuss the death of the last click, agility in the pandemic age, and breaking through with creativity and brand safety. Sinéad Burke, Founder of Tilting the Lens, will be sharing her personal story on how she lives in a world not designed for her and address how accessibility needs to be better integrated in technology. Pascal Duffaut, Head of Partnerships, Automotive & Emerging at Pinterest will present the Future Trends. 
  • Australia: Ryan Goldsworthy, Australia Agency Lead at Pinterest will host Megan Brownlow, industry leader, who will speak about how self-actualized brands embrace conscious commerce and align with social good. Turia Pitt, author, speaker, coach, and ironman athlete, will discuss how she has overcome hardships and truly embraces inspiration. 

In addition, stars from the worlds of fashion and entertainment will be joining the line-up with exclusive advice for marketers. Pinterest will be announcing these special guests to registrants just before the event on March 3rd.

“In the past year, Pinterest’s long-held commitment to being a positive destination for inspiration has become more relevant than ever, and as a global brand, we have the opportunity to lead with our values and shape the future. Our partners and advertisers around the world play an incredible role in shaping this environment, and we’re excited to share our new ad tools and insights to make it easier to connect with our engaged audience around the world.”  – Visha Naul, Director of Business Marketing for Europe at Pinterest

Register for your free spot at EPIC 2020 – Returning speakers, different landscape

Over the course of two mornings, previous EPIC keynotes and speakers including; Peter Docker (Co-author, “Find your Why”), Mark Wright (Founder and Director, Climb Online, Winner 2014 BBC’s The Apprentice), Mark Davies (Whistl) and Scott Logie (REaD Group) will share their thoughts, research and lived experience in a 2020 marketing update – reviewing what worked when they spoke for EPIC last year, what still works now, what doesn’t and where efforts should be focussed now. 

The event will be broadcast live over two mornings

There will be additional video content, tips and advice, from Rory Sutherland (Ogilvy Group), Dee Blick (The Marketing Gym) and other EPIC supporters and speakers, including Olga Munroe (Retail Institute). You can watch the whole live event or keep your eye on the schedule and pick and choose when to join in.

Day 1 – 2nd December 2020 – 10:00am to 1:00pm

Takes a good look at marketing behaviour as we settle into a new normal and as people everywhere learn to live with the reality of COVID-19, including:

How should marketers respond to the five themes identified by McKinsey?

McKinsey reports that although the pandemic’s impact has varied on economies across regions, five themes have become evident among consumers across the globe:

1.         Shift to value and essentials

2.         Flight to digital and omnichannel

3.         Shock to loyalty

4.         Health and “caring” economy

5.         Homebody economy

Day 2 – 3rd December 10:00am to 1:00pm

EPIC will show marketers how they can address the evolving needs of customers, clients, and citizens by adapting, innovating and reinventing. Delegates will be introduced to the systems, processes, and technology that can make a massive difference to the way they work.

The take-away

Delegates will come away with:

1.         An updated idea as to what products and services will come to the fore to support integrated marketing post Covid-19.

2.         An understanding of what no longer works in marketing and why.

3.         How to create and deliver value in these ever-changing circumstances.

4.         An understanding of what now works that didn’t before, why it does, and importantly, how to implement it in their own campaigns.

Book now! www.epicthinking.net

2nd & 3rd December – 10:00am to 1:00pm

Register for these Vendorcom events for the Cards & Payments community

If you’re in payments or eCommerce and interested to not only keep abreast of new developments, but also influence and drive positive change and innovation in the way that merchants take payments from consumers, don’t miss this series of essential events from Vendorcom.

Vendorcom Europe is a multi-stakeholder business community that connects seekers, solvers and shapers in the European payments industry. It has helped shape the collaborative/competitive landscape in payments since launching in 2003 and has developed its reputation over the past 15 years by establishing itself as Europe’s definitive forum for keeping in touch with the what’s what and the who’s who in payments. It is the most trusted, independent forum for suppliers and users of payment systems in Europe.

Vendorcom does this through core activities such as Networking Events, Future of Payments Conferences, and Payments Forums.

All Vendorcom events are free for merchants to attend because the company saw in the roll-out of Chip & PIN over 10 years ago, the voice of the users of payment systems, particularly merchants and consumers, is vital to the development and rapid adoption of new payments initiatives. Having established Vendorcom initially as a forum for solutions providers, in the past eight years it has benefitted from the involvement and influence of merchants, from all market sectors, who have shaped the discussions and decisions made on a wide range of topics at both our Future of Payments Conferences and Payments Forums.

For many merchants, navigating the increasingly confusing range of ‘innovations’ that the payments industry promotes as self-evident ‘must-haves’ presents a huge challenge. Having access to a source of independent, authoritative, coherent information on the options you face and the opportunity to compare experiences with your peers will be invaluable as you seek to determine how payment systems can align with your business requirements.

Upcoming events include:-

eCommerce Payments Forum – 10th June (Online) – https://www.vendorcom.com/event.php?event_id=1254

Independent Merchant Payments Forum – 28th October – https://www.vendorcom.com/event.php?event_id=1276

eCommerce Payments Forum – 18th November  – https://www.vendorcom.com/event.php?event_id=1280

For more information, click here.

Local venues and hotels join forces to launch Meet Gloucester

Key venues, hotels and suppliers from have joined forces to launch a centralised, event focused destination marketingorganisation for Gloucester.

The organisation, which will officially launch at Meet South West on 31st January, creates a hub for domestic and international buyers looking to organise events in the city.

Created to support and target association, corporate and agency event business, Meet Gloucester has the full support of the wider Gloucester City Council, the DMO – Marketing Gloucester and funding from Gloucester Business Improvement District.

Marketing Gloucester is providing seed funding and digital support as Meet Gloucester is developed by key industry partners with a desire to see the city grow its presence on both a domestic and international level as a meetings and events destination.  Local partners volunteering their time to set up and launch Meet Gloucester are:

·       Hatton Court Hotel Gloucester

·       Bowden Hall Hotel

·       Gloucester Rugby

·       Soaring Worldwide

Councillor Richard Cook, Leader of Gloucester City Council said: ”Gloucester is a vibrant and fast developing city with huge potential for growth within the meetings and events industry.  Meet Gloucester will provide an ideal face for the city, bringing together its key suppliers, venues and hotels as we look to increase not just our offering but also the number of delegates coming to experience all we have to offer.”

Further information on Meet Gloucester will be available via www.meetgloucester.co.uk as well as social channels on 31st January, 2019.

Top tips on running a business conference

One of the surefire ways to put your company on the corporate map is to have a conference event that makes a statement. When it comes to planning a notable event it’s important to remember what kind of experience you want your guests to have, whether you’re a startup or a highly developed company.

To ensure you impress your attendees, we’ve teamed up with Wyboston Lakes, a conference centre in Milton Keynes, to create this guide…

Don’t underestimate collaboration

Taking the initiative of going alone is great if you’re a sizeable company with the means to do so, but don’t forget about the power of collaboration. One of the main focuses of conference events is bringing people together from the same or similar industries under roof to discuss trends, exchange business cards, and set up working relationships. Two hosts mean twice the brainpower, which could result in reaching out to a wider range of key influencers within a sector.

Selecting the theme

Setting a theme is paramount to achieving a more focused approach. If the theme is ‘grow’, for example, this may encourage many more smaller businesses to join. This could mean lots of new faces, which is an excellent way to encourage conversations.

Have a bit of fun with the wording of the theme too — you want to aim for something that’s relatable and resonates emotionally with the reader. In short, something catchy! Themes that are too ‘corporate’ may not go down as strongly.

Keep in mind that social media also plays an important part in the run up, during, and after the conference, as hosts and guests will be sharing news and information there. It is essential therefore to take advantage of any hashtags and utilize them as part of your theme throughout.

Location of the event

The location of the venue is as important as anything else within it. Consider the potential size of your event and compare this with the size of the venue. Booking a stadium for a handful of guests probably isn’t going to go down well with your finance team, for example.

Accessibility is important too — is it near train stations, airports, or any main motorways? If many are arriving by car then plenty parking is a small factor that goes a long way, keep it professionally thought out and not sloppy.

Picking a secluded area of the building is important also for the guests to feel they have privacy away from the main areas to allow them to focus more on the on the conference itself.

Do all the necessary facilities come with the venue of your choice? Plenty seating, smaller rooms for breakout sessions, and modern technical aspects such as video equipment, projectors and suitable audio are all essentials if you’re planning on delivering a seminar or require a PowerPoint to go alongside a speaking slot.

Caring for the environment

Businesses have a duty to the environment, and with more attention than ever on ‘going green’, it’s vital for your event and your brand to maintain an eco-friendly image. Being ecological should be one of the underlying factors of your event, making sure wherever possible the green alternative is being deployed rather than using too much plastic.

Refreshments

No matter the size of the event, it’s important to have a selection of refreshments on offer. A few pastries and hot drinks are suitable for smaller events, whereas larger events would require pre-paid catering companies to provide a larger range of options. Make sure that your catering options include some alternative offerings too, such as gluten or dairy-free.

Influential speakers

People like to come away from a conference event feeling like they have learned something new, something they can take home with them that they did not arrive. So, take advantage of your connections and include some influential speakers that you know will create an atmosphere and deliver some useful tips for all businesses.

Agenda

Arranging and setting up an itinerary prior is a no-brainer if you want to guarantee the event runs smoothly. Planning activities that have the guests engage with each other is always a positive way to break ice, as well as allowing plenty of time for refreshments if it runs throughout the day.

You can overdo it though, planning everything to the smallest detail can make it seem not natural, keep it organized but let the networking parts guide themselves, allowing some flexibility over the course of the day of hours that it runs for.

There are many aspects to consider when planning the perfect conference. By following the tips above, you’ll be sure to have all areas covered!

Sources:

https://www.senatehouseevents.co.uk/features/how-plan-conference-your-guide-planning-perfect-conference

https://www.creativebloq.com/business/how-organize-conference-21619080

https://billetto.co.uk/l/how-to-organise-a-conference

Forum News: 10 ways to succeed at networking events…

Walking into an event room full of people you don’t know can be a scary experience. However, there are proven ways to conquer this fear and make networking an enjoyable and a useful process to do business. Here, we share 10 of the best practices to eradicate those networking nerves.

1. Plan ahead: Try to obtain the attendee list in advance and highlight the people you would like to meet. On arrival, contact the event organiser and say who you are trying to connect with. If they get the chance, an introduction between yourself and the other party will be made upon arrival. It might also be beneficial to go to the registration area to ask if one of your selected visitors has arrived.

2. Get there early: If you are one of the first to arrive, it is much easier to strike up a conversation with a small group of people.

3. Most people are in the same position: If you do not know anyone else attending, it’s good to prepare a few opening questions: ‘Any particular presentation you’re looking forward to hearing today?’; ‘What brought you to this event?’

4. Join a group: Approaching a group of attendees already in full conversation is a daunting prospect. So be bold, confident, and simply ask: “May I join the conversation? I’ve just arrived and I’m keen to learn what’s going on.”

5. Build interesting conversation: Ask topical and relevant questions to the specific event. Be a good listener and don’t dominate the conversation with your own stories and business ideas.

6. Be helpful: Share your knowledge of the industry, your contacts and sources of information. If people perceive you as an experienced and knowledgeable professional, they will want to keep in contact and maintain a relationship.

7. Use your business card as a tactical weapon: I have a friend who renovates old wooden floors, so his business card is made of a thin piece of wood and has proven to be a guaranteed conversation starter. Be imaginative with the design and the job title displayed. Anything that says ‘sales’ or ‘business development’ could cause people to fear a sales pitch is on the way. So try and think of a job title that encourages a productive conversation.

8. Receiving business cards: Be sure to make notes on the back to remind you of the conversation and the person. This could become much use in future interactions.

9. Following up: If you engaged in constructive conversation with an attendee and have agreed to follow up after the event, then set a preferred method of contact and make sure to do so promptly.

10. What not to do: Sales pitches, even if you’re asked ‘what does your company do’, keep your answer to a very brief explanation. Don’t ‘work the room’ rushing from group to group as this is not the way to form business relationships. It’s better to have had four good conversations than a dozen meaningless chats.

 

Words by Paul Rowney, Director at Forum Events Ltd.