Written by Jason Romain asked Carrie Simon, (Marketing Manager, New York) what were her secrets when yielding staggering results on her events when she is very new to the IQPC business.
Want to know more??? Well Carrie has been very open and has shared her tricks. I think there is a lot to be learned here.
So Carrie, you’re new to the business, what is your secret for having such successful marketing campaigns on your events?
I really want my events to not only meet their goals, but to surpass them.
I found that it’s really important to work closely with your team to find solutions to challenges. For example, when it was unclear if we would reach 100 delegates for Lightweight Tactical Vehicles Summit, I met with the event producer, Brian, to discuss what we could do to generate more awareness. During the past week and a half we decided to push speaker discounts, extend the early bird special and do LinkedIn posts on both of our accounts. Brian’s LinkedIn posts generated 15 additional downloads, and we had two delegates come in from the speaker discount.
I worked closely with Oksana too. She put me in touch with a speaker who gave me a whitepaper that was one of our highest downloaded pieces of content for Auto Cyber Security (we’re doing the same for Cyber Security for Healthcare). We also worked together to push speaker discounts throughout the campaign, which brought in 6 delegates.
Media partner outreach is one of my favorite parts about the job. I think it’s important to spend time researching which ones will be most relevant for each event, and then pitching them the value of a partnership. The way I look at it, is that if an event can generate 40 delegates from our internal database, imagine how many more delegates we can reach with spot on media partners.
The past seven months have definitely been a learning process for me—Luckily I’m surrounded by a great team! Maria, Dionne and Katrina have given me a lot of great tips and new ideas. I’m really excited about the events that I’m working on. Hopefully, next next month I will have another event reaching 100 delegates!
Why is Media Partner outreach one of your favourite parts of your job – what did you do so differently?
I like to find a direct tie into why a media partner is perfect fit for an event. For example, if they’ve recently published an article on the topic, I will use that to leverage why they should partner with us (plus it’s a great way to get content).
I also like to pitch how our event is unique and different from competitor events.
When I’m pitching a prospective media partner, I like to open with a statistic or an interesting fact. These editors get many emails each day, and I want my email to stand out. It also shows that you’ve done your research on the topic.
You seem to have a good relationship with your production team – do you think this is important?
I think that working with producers is vital to the success of an event. It’s a great way to brainstorm new ideas and connect with speakers. When it was unclear if we would reach 100 delegates for Lightweight Tactical Vehicles Summit, I met with the event producer, Brian, to discuss what we could do to generate more awareness. For the Automotive Cyber Security Summit, I worked closely with Oksana who put me in touch with a speaker where I secured our highest downloaded piece of content.
You seem to have a lot of success in terms of content, what did you execute?
In terms of content, I’ve had a lot of success with the “Top 10 Automotive Cyber Security Stories Report” that was created for the Automotive Cyber Security Summit. This piece of content highlighted automotive cyber security articles from Forbes, Infosecurity Magazine, SAE & more, and was then connected back to the event. This brought in 104 downloads. We also compiled a speaker interview Q&A piece, which highlighted three different speakers and their industry perspectives. This brought in 87 downloads.
Tell me more about your social media outreach.
In terms of social media outreach, I’ve found that LinkedIn promotion works the best. When I’m reaching out to a perspective LinkedIn media partner, I pitch them on the value that the information will have for their member base. I also show them how I can help them grow their group (logo inclusions in marketing emails/logo & LinkedIn profile listed on website/etc.)
Congratulations Carrie (and team) on the outstanding results!!!