How to plan an event from 0 to 1?

1. Cognition:

The first question to think about before organizing an event is why do you want to organize an event?

When a team starts planning an event, it is usually for one of four reasons:

1. Panic about traffic: Online traffic is drying up. In order to increase followers and acquire customers, we must rely on the potential of offline activities.
2. Brand PR, to promote new products
3. Commitment to fans, regularly provide some user benefits to maintain fan stickiness
4. I envy my peers. Another company has done an event that was very successful. We also want to do one...

The second question to think about is, do you position yourself as an event planner or an event operator?

What is the difference between the two? Event planning is short-term, emphasizes process and is not responsible for results; while event operation is long-term, result-oriented and emphasizes effectiveness.

The third question to think about is what is the core purpose of the event.

According to the different scales of the activities, I roughly divide them into the following categories:

• Activities with less than 50 people focus on participation and can provide some small group benefits
• For groups of less than 50 and less than 300 people, we should use practical information to unite everyone and highlight the sense of achievement of the participants.
• For a conference with thousands of people, the focus should be on creating a sense of ceremony to highlight everyone's identity.

Here we should emphasize:

As an event operator, you must clearly define the core purpose of the event and don't try to grasp all the points. New activities always try to find a lot of incremental gains and end up with a hodgepodge of plans, but such plans are either difficult to implement or not cost-effective. Do the most core things to the extreme, less is more.

The fourth question to think about is whether this activity is sustainable?

Is this event organized on a whim because of interference from competitors? Is this a one-off activity? Can it be sustained?

In this regard, my advice to everyone is: you must establish a long-term traffic acceptance and operation mechanism, and avoid playing one-time tricks .

Event operation is still an effective marketing method for enterprises to achieve both brand and effect. In addition to short-term and immediate goals, we must consider whether the current event mechanism is sustainable, whether it can provide subsequent sustainable services to the audience after the traffic comes, and whether the traffic can be used efficiently.

Design a set of traffic acceptance and service mechanisms in advance, and be wary of "one-time" operations - I work hard to recruit 500 people, they listen to a forum, and then nothing happens. When it comes to the next recruitment, I have to work hard to find 500 people again.

2. Activity operation pipeline

Next, we will focus on the thinking framework of event operations. For example:

Content operation is like planting trees, which requires painstaking cultivation year after year

Event operation is like fighting a war, you only have one chance to mobilize troops and generals

If you are a novice in activities, the process line of doing activities may be like this:

However, if you are an experienced event operator, your thinking framework for running an event is as follows:

The above activity framework is also the steps for Xinbang’s large-scale event operations. Next, I will explain and analyze them one by one.

1. About market research:

Regarding market research, there are still three questions to consider:

1. Who is the audience of the event?
2. What impresses them?
3. What are the similar activities and what are the data?

1) Who is the audience for my event? When thinking about this question, don’t trust your intuition, trust the data you see, and analyze who the audience of the activity is by checking past data, conducting questionnaires, comparing competing products, etc.

2) Why do I want them to participate in my activities? The reasons for being on the stage may be a big shot’s presence, valuable content, or scarce information (such as a new product launch)

The reasons behind the event may be fan-exclusive benefits, social networking, and identity recognition. Summarize the core factors of your event that can impress users, magnify them, and make full use of them.

3) What are the similar activities? How about the data. This question can be answered from four dimensions: event theme, event copy, number of registrants, and participant feedback, to examine the initiation, number of participants, and effects of similar events.

2. Activity project establishment

In this section, there are three basic and core items: event name, event highlights, time and location

1) Activity name

The name of the event is crucial. A catchy, concise and clear event name will attract people to sign up: for example, Xinbang has held two events: "New Media Meets the Forbidden City·New Media Salon" and "Don't Chase Hot Topics, Just Chase You·New Media Blind Date". The names of the two activities were simple and easy to remember, and they resonated with the industry, so it was very easy to complete the registration process.

So how can we improve our ability to come up with activity names? You can try the following 3 methods:

Low-profile version: simple and easy to remember, no additional explanation is needed (however, this is exactly what many teams cannot do. In order to make the words look cool, they come up with a lot of long names that are difficult to understand)

Medium version: Stimulate group resonance and stimulate dissemination within the circle

High-end version: cross-border, with its own topic attributes

2) Event Highlights

In this part, you need to find and strengthen the most attractive points of your event.

For example, in a blind date event, what attracts male guests the most is definitely the female guests, not the souvenirs; in a training session, what attracts trainees the most is definitely the instructors and useful information, not the lucky draw after the meeting.

3) Time and place

Regarding time, online activities should be scheduled on Wednesdays and Thursdays as much as possible, and offline activities should be held on weekends as much as possible, but the particularity of the industry should also be taken into consideration. For example, the catering industry may not be able to hold activities on weekends.

Regarding location, give priority to large cities when choosing a city. The specific address should be in the city center or close to a subway station. Do not let the location become a stumbling block for users to participate in the event.

3. Activity preparation

In this section, do not rely on individual talent, but on the strength of the team and establish an efficient and clear division of labor mechanism.

Clear division of labor: modular division of labor, avoid transfer, efficient collaboration

Schedule: Backward method, clear deadlines, dedicated person to remind schedule

SOP: Establish a self-check list and a library of commonly used tools (so that you can use them right away, reducing the cost of mentoring new employees)

4. Event promotion and recruitment

This is the second soul of an event

Promotion and recruitment are divided into two parts: attracting new customers and repeat purchases. The channels for attracting new customers are mainly official accounts, Weibo, and social networks.

How to increase the repurchase rate of users? Here are some suggestions:

• Set up photo spots on site to encourage users to take photos, share, and spread the information.
• Create a differentiated experience, give users a sudden surprise at some point during the event, and meet their expectations for the event (taking our offline classes at Xinbang Academy as an example, we will prepare breakfast and paper lesson plans for students. A student asked a question after the private domain operation class, and our course product manager patiently answered him. These services were not promised before, but they can give the other party a "wow" feeling)
• When doing private domain operations, every offline event is a good opportunity to meet friends. Don’t treat them as customers or guests, but make friends with them, ask them to help you, and help them as much as possible. There is a saying that goes "He who is close to water gets the moon first", which is one of the biggest advantages of event operation.

Tips:

Recommend two promotion tools:

1) Countdown posters for the sale in a wave of WeChat Moments (eye-catching countdown + industry pain points)

Through this kind of forwarding, we can continue to awaken user needs in the circle of friends, make everyone feel a sense of urgency and stimulate purchases. The last few days of the countdown are often when users are most willing to sign up.

2) One-to-one invitation letter

Several elements of the invitation letter: theme, name, agenda, time and place

Invitation letters with names can trigger a sense of belonging and exclusivity, and can stimulate users to forward them to their friends circle.

The left one is for the guests, and the right one is for the applicants and colleagues.

5. Activity Execution

As the event approaches, the team feels mobile and exhausted, but suddenly new demands and situations arise. Have you ever encountered the following situations?

Situation 1: The boss called me late at night and suggested that we make a batch of cultural T-shirts to improve the experience of the participants.

Situation 2: There is an industry leader who wants to come to the platform, but it means you have to readjust the agenda

Situation 3: The performer cannot participate in the originally scheduled performance for some reason

At this time, the activity organizer's ability to judge the overall situation is tested. In view of these situations, the following suggestions are given to everyone: - Focus on the big picture and let go of the small details, arrive at the venue early,

1) Focus on the big and let go of the small

First ensure that the original activities proceed smoothly. In the process of executing the activities, we will encounter some things that are icing on the cake, but this means that they will distract our attention.

In the face of the overall situation, you can consider giving up the details and the icing on the cake.

2) Arrive early

Arriving at rehearsal at least 2 hours in advance, or even a day in advance if conditions permit, can eliminate 90% of temporary situations. Lei Jun is a very busy man, but Xiaomi’s press conferences usually rent venues some time in advance and rehearse repeatedly. Is there anything wrong with that?

Remember, during the execution of an activity, there are two prerequisites for doing increments:

It can help you complete your original plan and serve your most core demands.

6. Review of the activity

There is no perfect activity, only activities that are constantly iterating and improving.

There are two aspects of activity review: collecting user feedback and executing team review

1) Collect user feedback: After the event, create a return visit form and ask users to fill it out on the spot. Remember, it must be filled out on the spot . When the user is still there, put the QR code on the big screen. In 1 minute, you can get their most intuitive feedback.

2) Review within the department: Hold a meeting, let everyone raise issues, brainstorm, and finally iterate the original SOP. The SOP can be used directly in the next activity.

It should be mentioned that you should print out the parts that you focus on iteration as much as possible and stick them on the wall . This can urge you to iterate. Electronic documents may not be remembered in a busy schedule.

Activity iteration, which is also team iteration, is a process of breaking out of your comfort zone. For example, I have run 10 events this year. We can stay at a low level and repeat ourselves, and we can get by with 70 points. But every time you actually make improvements, a year later, you look back at the first event and you’ll find a qualitative leap.

Putting aside the budget, this is also the reason why, when we watch some activities and press conferences organized by start-up teams, we can see the gap between them and established companies. It is the iterations in these processes that shine.

3. Q&A

1. It is difficult to invite KOL guests and the company has a small budget

A: When inviting guests, first of all, you should provide them with tangible benefits and tell them that you have awesome audiences and guests on the same stage who are even more awesome than them. (Constitute a positive cycle) The second is to show enough sincerity. In order to invite a guest, I once read all her books, courses, and public accounts, and I was able to answer questions fluently when I met her.

2. It’s hard to find creative ideas

A: We always pursue what is unique in an activity, but ignore what has remained unchanged in the activity.

First, I suggest you strengthen the core services of existing activities and set up a WeChat group for staff to store creative ideas. Whenever you see something new, post it in the group and then refine it when preparing for the event. Also, pay more attention to the posters in the circle of friends, and participate in other people's activities. When the Internet feels it, creativity will naturally come.

3. How to promote the event and how to obtain the precise audience group

It is difficult to accurately reach customer groups and it is difficult to recruit people for activities.

A: One is to attract new customers: find the corresponding channels, which can be Weibo or WeChat, social networks, or KOCs in the industry to discuss replacements. Second, repurchase and referral: Establish a mechanism for old customers to bring in new customers

4. User loss problem

A: User loss is inevitable in event operation. You can set up multiple layers of retention during the event: service account, community (event site group, improvement group), staff WeChat

5. How to combine branding and customer acquisition in activities

A: Brand and customer acquisition are not two opposites. Integrate your products and services into the event. (The premise is that it is intuitive and not obtrusive)

Mubu is a tool for mind mapping. They cooperate with many forums and provide participants with mind maps after the meeting.

6. The expected effect of the activity plan is very different from the actual situation

A: There are two reasons. First, are there any benchmarking activities in the preliminary research? Failure to conduct sufficient research led to misjudgment of expectations. Second, does the activity meet the user's real expectations?

7. Activities are usually rushed, and the final version of the plan is prepared almost a week before the event.

A: Plan ahead and add one to two weeks of preparation time to your estimated time. (When faced with a task assigned by a leader, the project leader cannot just say that the project will be launched in a week just for the sake of face)

Author: Yi Ge

Source: Activity Line