How to plan an event? You will understand everything after reading this!

Organizing an event is actually a very tedious and meticulous job. I have heard many complaints from event operators: "The boss didn't even approve the budget, and a good cook can't cook without rice!"; "During the execution, I didn't expect that the materials that had been prepared long ago had problems, and I missed the best promotion time"; "Although there is nothing to criticize about the event itself, it just has no effect, and it's a waste of time" and so on...

In the final analysis, you may have problems in the following places (according to the high probability analysis) -

• The boss does not approve the budget:
• Insufficient creativity/incoherent activity ideas/too high budget, people cannot imagine the possible effects of the activity or think you are a bug. If you give this activity to others, it will probably fail.
• Material leakage:
• The preliminary confirmation work was not perfect. The corresponding person in charge not only failed to strictly control the details, but also had no plan B to replace it.
• The rhythm of activities is chaotic:
• The division of labor among personnel has not been implemented, and there is no clear time node.
• Activity has no effect:
• Lack of preliminary research, insufficient understanding of users and the market, wrong activity strategy, and not putting the right effort in the right place

So how can we make a high-scoring planning proposal and effectively avoid the above problems? Before sharing, let me first take you through the necessary abilities or traits that an excellent event planner needs:

• Able to write various forms of copywriting:
• This is the basic skill. You must be able to write brand-style, story-style, conversion-style, long or short articles.
• Basic data analysis:
• It can be used to disassemble indicators, evaluate budgets, and review summaries.
• Have some insight:
• Fully analyze the market environment and target users to formulate reasonable activity strategies
• Have ideas and some creativity:
• A good idea can have a great effect, and the planner must be smart.
• Have good communication skills:
• Event planning involves coordinating with various departments and seeking support. Being able to clearly express your needs is the key to progress.
• Have good organizational and coordination skills:
• A simple overview is project management, allocating the human and material resources required by the organization to ensure the smooth progress of the activities.

Next, we come to the issue that everyone is most concerned about. Let’s go directly to the reusable event planning steps that even a novice can easily get started with.

1. Determination of the content of the activity

Having the right direction is much more important than just working hard. There is no need to repeat the story of going in the wrong direction, as everyone understands the truth. So before writing the plan, use the 5W+2H analysis method to clarify the overall idea -

What: What is the event promoting?

Who: Who is the target audience? Who is the potential audience?

Why: Why do we do this and what are the highlights?

When: What is the time rhythm for event promotion execution?

Where: What channels can be used to expand the influence of the event?

How: In what way or creativity?

How much: How much will it cost overall and how much will be budgeted for each step?

To simplify it, it means: goals, users, reasons, cycles, channels, methods, and budget . Once you have a preliminary idea, you can then refine each step or process.

1. Market analysis

Here, I would like to recommend a model to you - the SWOT model , which you should all be familiar with.

S=Strength, advantage analysis ; W=Weakness, disadvantage analysis ; O=Opportunities, opportunity analysis ; T=Threats, threat analysis .

So what exactly is the analysis? Here are a few items for reference only: brand positioning, what is the difference with other brands in product segmentation, brand image or story; what is the portrait, size and market share of the target audience, etc.

This model is an analytical tool that helps to understand one's own products and competing products, perceive each other's value, and find marketing breakthroughs. Of course, you may know that you should analyze it this way, but the actual analysis results are too rough and basically nonsense, lacking granularity and depth.

The most likely reason for this is that you lack the data/information to support your analysis, so here are some useful market demand and market share analysis websites:

• Baidu Index
• New List
• Octopus
• iResearch Data
• Analysys Data

2. Activity elements

After the market analysis is completed, it is time to draft a preliminary plan. A complete plan generally includes the purpose of the event, theme, time, location, form, promotion channel, scale, participants, and cost budget .

The event location, event scale and budget are easy to understand, so I won’t go into details, but it is worth mentioning the others.

• Purpose:
• Generally, it includes attracting new users (authorized users, such as obtaining mobile phone numbers), promoting activation (such as increasing the frequency of users using the product), retaining users (such as increasing user loyalty through core functions), and converting users (such as increasing the number of user purchases through promotions).
• Activity theme:
• After clarifying the purpose of the activity, summarize it in one sentence so that users can directly understand what the activity is for and attract users to participate, so the copywriting must be concise.
• Event time:
• This includes the dual rhythm of early publicity and later dissemination.
• Activity form:
• Activities can be conducted both online and offline and in a variety of forms. To give a simple example, online gameplay can be red envelopes, group buying, check-in, support, points, likes, distribution, lottery, mini-games, tests, collection, guessing, etc. Offline gameplay can be forum salons, lectures, experience halls, music festivals, exhibitions, carnivals, press conferences, sports games, etc.
• Promotion channels:
• Online, you can use Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, Douyin, Toutiao and other content distribution platforms; offline, you can choose outdoor advertising on bus stations, buses, radio stations, subways and other carriers (the promotion channels should refer to the active places of the target audience)
• Participants:
• If it is offline, the personnel may include on-site layout personnel, event hosts, invited guests and general audiences; if it is online, the personnel may include lecturers, Internet users, media communication personnel and general users.

2. Arrange the framework and make an activity Gantt chart

The purpose of making a Gantt chart is to more intuitively confirm the time nodes of each link , so that the entire activity can proceed in an orderly manner and avoid chaos.

To give you an example, suppose your boss asks you to organize a departmental team-building tour. When to set off, do you have to consider the longest journey time to reach the station and the preparation time for ticket checking? When planning the travel route, do you have to consider weather factors, make preparations for both situations, change plans in time, consider the arrangement and combination of team building attractions, avoid going south and north at the same time, confirm the bus/subway route for each stop, so as not to delay the next stop? How to solve the accommodation problem, do you have to select suitable hotels for reservation, etc.

Share two event planning schedules, I suggest you learn and collect them (Picture source: shared by netizens):

3. Event rehearsal/online testing to confirm that the path is smooth

Whether it is an online or offline activity, in order to ensure that there are no mistakes when it is officially carried out, rehearsals will be conducted in advance , but the names are different. The offline one is called rehearsal, and the online one is called testing.

For example, when rehearsing an offline sharing salon, the people who should be present to set up the exhibition must come, and the sharing guests must give trial lectures, to ensure that the on-site sound transmission system, lighting, seating arrangement, decoration instructions, presentation PPT content or other materials, sharing time, etc. are all as planned and correct.

For example, when testing the channel for an online support activity, it is necessary to confirm in turn whether the system can obtain user authorization, whether the user can initiate support invitations normally, whether the invitation link/poster can be entered normally, whether the page display is normal after the user agrees to support, and whether the benefits can be obtained normally after the support is completed.

4. Implement activities and grasp the time rhythm

Now it’s time for the execution phase. As mentioned above, the channels must be launched as planned, and the materials and personnel should have been in place long ago. Taking offline activities as an example, here are the things you may deal with during the execution of the activity.

• On-site reception: including on-site route guidance, scheduled delivery of tea and snacks, host’s atmosphere creation, etc.
• Personnel sign-in: Use the invitation card/badge/electronic code and other credentials to sign in at the designated location and enter the venue in an orderly manner
• Guest sharing: determine the order of guest appearances, remind/control the speaking time during sharing, and avoid overtime
• Shooting and promotion: Use photos/videos to record the layout of the venue or wonderful moments, which can be broadcast live or convenient for later promotion

5. Monitor key data and optimize results in a timely manner

How to make the event run better? It is important to identify key indicators for observation and optimize the feedback in a timely manner . Of course, if some activities do not support ongoing optimization, you must remember to review and follow up, and strive to do better in the next activity.

Let's use an example to explain it briefly. Suppose you planned a social network fission activity. During the campaign, you found that channel A brought in more new users than channel B. Then you should increase the deployment of channel A. Or you found that the opening rate of version C of the poster was much higher than that of version D. In that case, you should choose poster C. Furthermore, you found that when people were faced with versions E and F of the promotional language, they were more receptive to version E and more willing to interact. In that case, you should decisively choose version E, and so on.

If you are planning an internal annual meeting of your company, and the effect cannot be reflected in the data in time, the first thing you can do is to observe everyone's enthusiasm for participation, look at their expressions, actions, and language. If it's a dull occasion, you have to ask the "Football Fan" to warm up the atmosphere. I believe every company has such enthusiastic people. Secondly, after the annual meeting, collect extensive information from everyone about the event experience, satisfaction level, whether there are any relevant suggestions for improvement, etc. I wish each time will be better than the last!

Finally, I would like to add one more point: Success or failure depends on details. Only careful people can sail a long and secure ship!

Author: Wei Si Dun Mobile Marketing

Source: Weishidun Mobile Marketing