So now it’s worth writing about and sharing – especially because at the time of writing it’s not possible to host an in-person event and everything needs to be adapted and run online.
I’ve been running events for well over 15 years now and there are lots of ways you can use Events in your b2b marketing strategy.
You can promote an event using this feature using your personal profile or your company page too, which gives you great flexibility and freedom.
- Online and In Person Events
- Free and Paid Events
- Public and Private Events
- Webinars and Online Training
- Networking Events and Meet-ups
- Pre and Post Event Parties and Mixers
- Workshops and Training Events
- Product Launches
- Conferences and Summits
- Alumni Meeting
How to get your event in front of your target audience
Once you’ve created your event and set up the page you need to get it in front of your target audience because there’s no point in organising an event if no one is going to be there.
Here are three ways you can promote your event:
Create a post to share with your LinkedIn network
When you do this make sure to include reasons WHY people would want to come to your event as well as WHAT’S in it for them if they attend. Don’t presume that your audience will know what to expect, you need to give them a reason to sign up.
Invite specific people in your network to come
There’s a nifty little feature that allows you to specifically search for people in your network and send them a direct invite – you can filter by company, industry, location and school
Copy the link to your event and share it across your other social networks and email list
You can copy the link to your event and include it in your other social media posts and/or send it out to your email list – the benefit of doing this is that you can see who has confirmed they are attending your event and follow-up and engage with them directly on LinkedIn.
You’ve told people about your event so how do you get them to register and then turn up
There’s a big difference between organising and marketing an event and actually getting people to show up.
When you organise a free event set your expectations at the start – at least 50% of people who register or tell you they will come will not show up!
This is a depressing statistic and sometimes it’s a lot higher. I speak to so many event organisers who get excited about registration numbers and then find themselves feeling disappointed when they have lots of empty seats or a poor online attendance rate. Always overbook your free events! The first time i hosted a LinkedIn Local event in Nottingham I decided to run it as a free event, over 140 people booked their ticket and many people spoke to me directly to tell me how excited they were about attending. On the day of the event we checked in 73 people, just over 50% of people who registered showed up! Luckily this wasn’t my first event so I expected this but a lot of people were surprised by this.
Here are a few tips around how to get more people to show up for your event:
- Charge for attendance – even if it’s a small fee people are much more likely to show up if they have paid for their ticket.
- Ask for a deposit – If you’re organising a conference or in person event where you need to control costs then charge a small deposit for attendance – those who show up get their deposit back and those that don’t show up don’t and you don’t end up out of pocket.
- Make it crystal clear WHY people should come to your event and what they will get out of being there – never presume people will show up just because they know or like you and your company – the more explicit you are around the ‘What’s in it for me’ you can be the more people will show up.
- Follow-up directly with people that have registered – send a direct email or LinkedIn message to everyone that has registered – don’t just confirm they can come but instead engage with them – ask them questions about what’s going on in their world, be curious about how you can tailor your event more towards them and their specific needs and challenges.
- Make the event all about your target audience and not about you
Events are a great way to engage with your target market, demonstrate your credibility and generate high quality, targeted and engaged leads.
There are many ways you can use events in your marketing strategy and LinkedIn has just made it easier to help you promote your event and expand your reach. I hope this article has been useful and if you’d like any further support or guidance around running events for your business please get in touch! You can book a free call with me here.
FREE RESOURCES:
- Blog articles here on this website including the LinkedIn for Lead Generation Blueprint which you can download here
- Regular posts and Articles on my LinkedIn Profile
- Podcast Episodes specifically focussed around using LinkedIn as a key business development and lead gen tool – I’ve been invited on many podcasts to speak about LinkedIn – you can see the list here and listen at your leisure
- My Podcast: The Curiosity Key – although this is not focussed on LinkedIn many of my guests have seen huge results from using it so it’s a great place to hear case studies and get inspiration
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