how associations can build pre-engagement

Building Pre-Event

Engagement

Maneesha Sharma

Director of Marketing & Business Development

Engagement – What is it?

• Comprehensive, often

weighted score, that

is used to determine

which individuals are

most invested /

attentive to your

brand / product /

offerings

• Transactions

($, frequency, duration,

periodicity) + behavioral

metrics = engagement

score

Possible Engagement Factors

• # Comments

• Times Attended

• # Posts to

discussions/ blogs

• # Referrals

• # Click throughs

• # Opens

• # Submitted help

tickets

• # Forwards

• # Likes

• # Shares

• # Direct links

• # Visits

• # Calls

• # Views

• # Retweets

Creating Engagement Scores

Greater weight based on:

– Monetary criteria

– Clout / level of influence

– Number of connections / followers / years of

service

– Source of engagement

Decide what is the right engagement score

mix for your organization

So when it comes to events…

How do we move to this?

What’s so challenging about

events?

• Measurements aren’t standardized

• Not used within context of greater

campaigns

• Never seen as strategic and therefore

don’t add towards the Engagement Index

But in reality…

Events are a Marketer’s dream:

• Content

• Demographics, psychographics, preferences

• Transactions

• Isolated population to study

• Multichannel opportunities

• Actionable

• Measurable

• Multi-touch point

Is pre-event interaction a

challenge?

In your world right now? Probably…

• No time

• No plan

• No call to action

• No continuity

• No emotional reinforcement

• **No time**

What could we do to offset?

• Start earlier

• Continuous touch points

• “Mini” events to build demand

• More creative, more content

• Increased touch points / visibility for

groups that wish to reach your target

audience

• More points to analyze and adjust

So again – how do we do this?

Make technology work for you:

• EMS (Event Management System)

• Email Marketing

• Website / Landing Pages

• QR codes

• eSocial

• Social Media

Build a communication plan that leverages all these tools and start …just start somewhere!

A Sample Plan…

What can you do with your EMS?

• Content, content, content!

• Treat it like your website: analytics, branding, messaging

• Create opportunities for IWT aka “I Want That!” – exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, members…

What can you do with Email?

• Move from paper to email-based daily news during event

• Increase in banner ad placement & sponsor inclusion with tracking mechanisms

• Completely tied into social media outlets

• Content

What can you do with Landing

Pages?

What’s a QR Code?

• Trademark for type of matrix barcode –

fast readability and large storage capacity

compared to standard UPC barcodes.

The New Landing Page….

What can you do with eSocial?

• Real time attendee registration lists

• List of appointments of people that show similar interests

• Ability for attendees to set appointments and message one another

• Reports that provide hard data on who is actively networking

• Get the small talk/introductions done BEFORE your face-to-face event

Why does this matter?

• So people walk into your event already

knowing people

• So they can find the right people

• So they can have meaningful

conversations

• So they can strive to solve a problem /

gain insight on an issue

What can you do with Social

Media?

• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube –

choose your tool

• Sponsorship recognition

• Award nominee recognition

• Keynote speaker promotions

• Be the distribution hub and point

attendees to resources.

So to Recap…

Remember – make technology work for you!