If you want to do a good job in conference marketing activities, you need to pay attention to these 3 key points?

As an important part of marketing , conference marketing is often widely used in marketing activities, especially in the field of B2B corporate marketing.

The essence of conference marketing is to lock in the target customer group, present a professional corporate image through all-round forms such as space, speeches, displays, and experiences, and to explore sales intentions and conduct hidden sales through contact and interaction with the target group.

At a time when operations work is becoming increasingly subdivided, conference marketing falls under the category of event operations , and usually takes several forms: salons, conferences, and exhibitions. This requires operations personnel to be able to develop corresponding event plans based on the company's marketing goals. Next, I will use several examples to illustrate the key points that should be grasped in different forms of conference marketing activities !

Key points of conference marketing activities

1. Communicate effectively and truly understand the leader’s intentions

Leaders are actually the ones who know the company’s strategy and future product direction best, so repeated communication and confirmation before the event is very important.

For example, the CEO of a mobile medical startup I was working for said that the company’s health cloud platform was about to be launched, so he invited several media outlets to hold a press conference to increase the exposure of the hardware + web platform + APP products and quickly bring them to market.

So, I thought, the leader said that the location should be Shanghai, and if it needs to be high-end, then let's choose a five-star hotel to hold a high-end press conference. So we quickly made appointments with several suppliers to start event planning, and made a comparison plan among 4 suppliers.

The result is predictable, I hit a wall. The CEO does not want a luxurious stage. After all, in the start-up phase, the boss hopes that every penny will be spent to the fullest. A startup cafe invites some potential investors , companies, and industry media to have an in-depth face-to-face exchange to see how the market responds to this product. This is the effect the boss wants.

Therefore, before the event planning begins, the operations staff needs to communicate with the leaders repeatedly. Before the communication, they need to prepare Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. Different venues, different themes, different presentation forms, and different levels of budgets. The people that each plan is expected to cover and the effects to be achieved need to be clearly listed. Only by having in-depth communication with the leader and determining the direction can you achieve twice the result with half the effort.

2. Clarify the purpose and present the core content in the best form

This section takes exhibitions as an example. Currently, industry summits and forums are important forms for peers to showcase their brands and communicate within the industry.

Usually, a group of manufacturers and service manufacturers will gather to give keynote speeches on a certain topic, set up corresponding sponsor booths, and invite target customer groups to visit and communicate on site.

Therefore, as an exhibitor, the focus of planning is on: exhibition hall, speech, booth interaction, and media exposure.

From the perspective of exhibition hall design, the core is to highlight the slogan + promote the main products. Take the Alibaba Cloud exhibition hall as an example. The exhibition hall is fully customized and open on three sides with the logo exposed. At the same time, the slogan "For incalculable value" is highlighted. Different product partitions are set up in the exhibition hall, and a demonstration experience area is set up for visiting customers to experience.

Alibaba Cloud Booth

For big brands, because they have sufficient budget, they generally choose customized exhibition halls to design unique booths that fit the product positioning and characteristics. Usually, such customized booths will be particularly "stunning" among a number of standard exhibitions and very eye-catching, and naturally the flow of people in the exhibition hall will be much more prosperous.

However, for ordinary enterprises, especially those in the start-up stage, they may not have enough budget to customize the booth. So when choosing a standard booth, you should pay attention to several details:

1. Make plans in advance. Usually the exhibition is based on the contract signing date. The earlier the exhibition is, the more priority it has:

As an operator, you can make plans in advance. If you decide to participate, communicate with the organizer as early as possible and reserve a location. Usually entrances and exits and three-way intersections are better than corners and single-channel locations. Follow the crowd guidance map and choose a superior location as much as possible.

2. Standard exhibitions can also be innovative:

Usually, if you choose a standard booth, you can save the work of exhibition hall design and construction. At this time, the background display board is very important.

Usually the background board display content + roll-up banner + brochure are a complete set of materials. The theme and style must be unified. The display board is a summary in one sentence, the roll-up banner is a display of key content, and the brochure is a complete introduction to the company's products as a whole.

The background board display can choose the main brand, or new products, new functions, or comprehensive solutions. It can be combined with the nature of the exhibition. If the visiting customers are all from a specific industry, corresponding solutions can be formulated for customers in this industry, and the display style can be determined based on the characteristics of industry customers. This will further deepen the impression of customers in this industry.

Usually, an exhibition is also a good opportunity for the company’s WeChat official account to increase its followers, so you can work with new media operations colleagues to create a small booth interactive activity called “Follow for a surprise”. After scanning the code to follow, you can enter an H5 animation and share it on social media to get a beautiful gift. The setting of the interactive session and the choice of gifts determine the customer's favorability and sense of participation in the interaction, so they need to be prepared very carefully.

Standard booth

3. Keynote speeches enhance customer awareness:

Currently, industry exhibitions or summits are usually a combination of booths and forums. If the budget is sufficient, or there are people with IP effects in the company's leadership, it is recommended to choose the corresponding branch venue to deliver a keynote speech. Because on one hand, the speech can give customers the impression that the company is strong and has valuable information to share; on the other hand, after listening to the sharing, potential customers can increase their awareness of the product.

The content of the speech is also something that operations need to participate in planning. Try to include useful information, such as industry insights or the company's in-depth research results in a certain field. It is best to use a large amount of data, because data is the most persuasive. The company's newly launched products can be naturally introduced during the sharing, and the benefits and business value that can be created for the company can be elaborated in detail. Excellent presentation skills, stories, jokes, and product recommendations can gain great recognition from customers present. After the presentation, it can also attract a wave of people to the booth to experience the products.

3. Grasp the key processes and formulate emergency plans

Develop a conference marketing schedule, divided into three stages: before, during, and after. Different types of activities have different requirements for the three stages of work. This section uses a self-organized salon event as an example to illustrate:

1. Preliminary preparation

theme:

What are the purpose and expectations of holding a salon? Customer appreciation meetings, fan meetings, or offline sharing sessions by big names, etc., formulate corresponding themes based on the nature of the event. Who is usually highlighted in the theme when hosting it? Brand exposure, what is the theme of sharing? Who will tell the story? The celebrity effect of the sharer.

time:

Weekdays or weekends? When we held salons before, we were once struggling with the issue of time. It depends on the nature of the event. For example, the sharing session on the six modules of human resources held by HR experts before was scheduled for a working day. We sent a very formal invitation email to the HRs who registered and listed the key points of the sharing. As an industry exchange, they could apply to the company for field work.

If it is a fan meeting or a micro-course by a celebrity to improve personal skills, it is recommended to choose a weekend, accompanied by tea and snacks, and the attendance rate is generally quite high.

Place:

Small salons, entrepreneurial cafes, joint entrepreneurial spaces, incubators, etc. are currently more suitable choices. The cost is not high and it is easy to create an atmosphere on site. Choose a suitable venue according to the scale of the event. At the same time, you can leverage the popularity and resources accumulated by the venue over a long period of time to jointly promote the event. Inviting speakers or audiences is a very reliable cooperation.

figure:

Hold the thigh. Try to mobilize resources to find big names. You can find them through introductions from acquaintances, communities , circles, etc. Clarify the purpose and direction of the salon and the benefits it can bring to the big names, such as getting to know a group of big names in the industry. The big names' practical knowledge and excellent speeches can greatly improve the level of the event.

process:

How to arrange the opening, climax and finale of the event, how to insert some small episodes in between, the time control and content structure of each speaker must be carefully arranged so that the audience can maintain a high level of mental concentration. Choosing an experienced host with strong control ability is very important for handling emergencies during the event.

materials:

Sign-in and personal gifts, H5, posters, long pictures for Moments , invitation letters, venue guide maps, EDM, text messages, and telephone invitation terms all need to be carefully prepared and designed and designed as early as possible, leaving a certain amount of flexible time in case of any accidents and time for adjustment.

Preparation of gifts. Some companies will have customized mascots or peripherals that can be given as gifts. They can also cooperate with other companies depending on the situation. This operation can be decided based on the budget and nature of the event.

Registration channels :

Relevant information can be released through the company's WeChat and Weibo, social groups, event channels, interactive bars, 31 conferences, Xinge and other third-party channels. However, it is recommended to use the same registration portal, such as adding the company's WeChat customer service MM, forwarding to friends, and inviting others to follow. You can also submit the registration information directly, preferably including key information such as company, name, position, phone number, email, etc., to facilitate subsequent tracking and contact.

Budget:

As an operator, you need to be fully aware of the expenses of general activities and make a budget. If it is too little, it will be difficult to make additional expenses later. If the budget is too high, the leader may cut a large portion of it. Reasonable market quotations and appropriate surpluses are prerequisites for ensuring that the event proceeds as scheduled.

2. Activity Execution

The division of labor and responsibilities of staff are clear:

Make a clear work division table and assign responsibilities to individuals. Don't just say vaguely who is responsible for a certain module and call it a day. Instead, every work detail must be clearly listed and confirmed. Have another face-to-face communication before the start to check whether the work tasks are clear and whether the backup plan for emergencies is prepared, so as to avoid execution deviation due to insufficient understanding of the tasks.

Grasp the details:

Details are the key to the success or failure of the entire event, such as typos and homophonic characters in the PPT. Baidu's PPT is still impressive to this day, so whether every detail is implemented in place is related to the audience's evaluation of the event.

3. Post-promotion, next issue preview

On-site shorthand is the key to publishing a report after the event, and many audiences hope to get useful information after the meeting, so the summary of the event after the meeting depends on the completeness of the shorthand.

Post-conference publicity is best released on the day the event ends. If there is a shortage of manpower, it can be arranged to be released on the second day. This is the principle of striking while the iron is hot.

If the salon is continuous, you can also take this opportunity to preview the next issue and inform the audience to continue paying attention to the latest developments.

Activity Execution Summary

The above summary is based on many years of conference marketing experience. An outstanding event operator needs to have a global perspective, excellent communication skills, and excellent coordination and execution capabilities.