12 Best Content Marketing Tactics for Events to Stay Ahead of the Game

Are you planning to start content marketing activities to promote your event but don’t know how? We’ll walk you through the 12 best content marketing tactics to make your next event successful. Content marketing for events requires creative brainstorming to establish a positive reputation to promote an event.

The State of Marketing Report revealed that 82% of marketers actively use content marketing, and 70% are further planning to invest in this. While more than 24% of marketers plan to invest further in content marketing. Implementing a winning content strategy adds a new dynamic to your event with a lasting impact.

Ready? Let’s jump into it straight!

How do you Develop an Event Content Strategy?

1. Identifying Unique Selling Propositions for Successful Content Creation

Start your content journey with three key elements, goals, audience, and message. Then, seek inspiration, and identify truly original areas that are likely to succeed. A strong, unique selling point (USP) articulates specific features, benefits, or element that distinguishes your event from others.

Moreover, identifying a USP enables you to align your content promotion strategies with an event to communicate benefits to the right audiences. Therefore, developing your USP from the beginning is very important.

Think about it, focus on that one defining benefit that makes you different, and work on your USP to inhabit the mind space of your target audience.

Here are some USPs for content marketing ideas for events:

• High-regarded speaker. This could be the main highlight of your event and the distinguishing factor to attract more audience.
• Specific topic. Are you the first one to cover a particular topic in your region? Reveal facts never shared with the audience to demonstrate your event’s USP.
• New learning opportunities. Are you unveiling a new learning opportunity or concept for your audience? Something has never been done in a way you’re offering or something completely unique.

Still not convinced why you need a USP? That’s okay. USPs can help you create attractive and compelling content for your event and help you gain new target audiences. A USP will keep your event focused, aligned with your goal, and relevant for your audience.

2. Creating Accurate Audience Personas for Targeting

How could you curate the right content for the event when you don’t know your target audience persona? Personas are important to help you understand your customers (or prospective customers), as marketers base their content on them.

We must realize that personas are not just a pile of demographics and information but realistic characters with passion, flaws, and strengths. The craft of character and building a detailed buyer persona helps you create powerful content and tailor your message and tone of voice to resonate with them. The trick is not to flesh out too much from these characters and make them specific enough to base the rest of your content marketing strategy for events.

Once you have the personas, it’s time to test it. For example, if your audience comes to you, rather than you reaching them out, you have successfully crafted the more accurate audience personas for your event content marketing.

3. Identify the Most High-Value Content

Marketing content that delivers value for the target audience creates necessary engagement and gets you noticed.

A granular analysis of the most successful content that created valuable engagement is more important than the content that now exploits it. There are many factors to consider when identifying the most high-value content for hosting an event.

• Content that teaches your audience about your event and not just what it is about but why you need it.
• Content that drives the conversation forward allows the target audience to reflect and speak up in your space. Something compelling that strategically solidifies the subject matter.
• Most importantly, map your content for the event planner with the customer journey at each step. Meet their needs at every stage and move them to the next level of the funnel.

4. Creating Engaging Video Content for Event Promotion

You can engage more people with videos, as it is one of the growing aspects of social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Today, people are more willing to watch videos. According to research published by Forbes, online content consumption has doubled since the pandemic, and users spend more than 3 hours consuming content. You can increase engagement and conversions by following some of the event-based content creation best practices regarding video content.

• Live Video through Social Media

Live videos significantly boost an event, and it is the fastest way to create engagement that is more likely to be shared on social media.

• Video Endorsements from Satisfied Customers

Short-form endorsement video from satisfied customer adds credibility to your event and provides honest opinion and review about what to expect from the event. 

• Visual Insights from Industry Experts

Insights at the event from industry experts can assist the decision-makers, convey information, and build an emotional connection.

• Visual representations of Event Participants

Easing apprehension about the event can have more people join in, as it creates connections with stories.

• Exclusive Look through Behind-The-Scene Footage

BTS videos give a feel of inclusion. It adds authenticity and offers a sneak peek of the magic behind the event.

• Capture the Passing of Time with a Time-Lapse Video

It can bolster marketing campaigns and engage followers by showing all the work put into setting up an event.

• Create Short and Creative Video Clips with Vine Recordings

Churn out a steady stream of short vine video recordings at the right timings, and be quirky.

5. Maximize your Content Marketing Potential with Event Photos

Regarding creative content ideas for events, driving hype and engagement with event photos is another great way. Show sneak peek photos of the attendees, speakers, ambiance, set-up, and surrounding areas. 

• Post Candid Pictures

People make a great subject and take candid shots. Make sure you don’t make people the center of the picture; use the rule of thirds to create visually appealing images.

• Create a Collection of Images

If you aim to get full coverage, create a collection of images to share with everyone on social media about your event.

• Preview Photos from Upcoming Events

Upcoming event photos can be repurposed to support marketing efforts and boost interest in future events. This way, you can gauge the event’s excitement level and get feedback for future events.

• Gather Self-Portrait Photos

Unlike a selfie, a self-portrait photo captures the people at the event capturing a photo of themselves. This will document the attendees and participants at the event and draw the attention of others on social media.

6. Maximizing the Impact of your Event through Strategic CTAs

CTAs are an essential component of virtual event marketing, providing a clear and concise way to encourage attendees to take action and engage with your event. A targeted CTA about the event will increase conversion, and sales, facilitating event promotion. It must be clear and concise. And must be different from the rest of the content, highlighted, and preferably at the end of the content.

The CTA’s text must indicate the value and make the audience click, presenting the urgency of the offer. Effective call-to-action examples include ‘Find out more here, ‘Buy tickets here, or ‘Book your tickets’.

And not necessarily a CTA must make the user click on the highlighted text. A CTA can even make the audience perform actions such as ‘Share, Like, or Leave a comment.

When it comes to creating compelling, creative, and relevant CTAs for event content marketing, you must keep in mind that it has to be short, actionable, and simpler. Let’s take a closer look at how to make CTA more effective:

• Use actionable words such as ‘Now, today, and join us.
• To create a sense of urgency, FOMO acts as a psychological trigger and drives people to seize the opportunity presented instantly.
• Build curiosity by encouraging them to click and find out what comes next. Creative curiosity increases sales and click-through rates. To spark curiosity, you can ask the audience to learn more, learn more, or Learn about speakers.

7. Disseminate Presentation Materials from the Speakers

Engage your audience with the materials from the speaker’s presentation. Share relevant parts that can drive engagement and increase excitement while leaving the audience curious about what’s next.

It’s always great to spark curiosity by sharing tit bits from the speakers’ notes and giving them an idea about what they can expect to listen to at the event.

You can leave the audience with questions in mind in such a way that they have to attend the event to get them answered. However, ensure you don’t reveal too much information from the presentation material and ask for permission from the speaker.

8. Post-event FAQs 

The content that you create before, during, and after an event should reflect the USP of your event and elevate your brand. Post-event FAQs will allow the audience to learn from the event and make decisions in the future about attending the event.

By providing the answers to relevant questions, you can make the audience talk about the event staying relevant and focused. Also, post-event FAQs can get the audience talking about your event long after it has ended, and it is the real measure of success.

9. Request that delegates submit their blog articles

Amplify a truly shareable moment, and get your delegates talking about the event on social media through blog posts/articles. Putting a little thought into maintaining post-event engagement will add more value to your event and give your brand the right amount of boost.

You can request the delegates to share insights, and stories from the event, main takeaways, and learning points. Increase your engagement through word of mouth and social media chatter, and retain the relationship with delegates.

10. Create User-Generated Content for your audience

Ask yourself. Which are you more likely to respond positively to, a photo shared by the event organizer or a post shared by an attendee/participant at the event? User-generated content is the treasure that boosts social media engagement.

• Relevance – The audience benefits from the content as it directly speaks for their interest, wants, and needs.
• Compelling storytelling: As the attendee/participant shares the content or short video, the audience automatically becomes interested in the narrative.
• Personalization: User-generated content makes the audience feel relevant and able to reflect on the content. Strengthening their emotional connection.

11. Submit Press Releases for Brand Awareness

Press releases play a vital role in social media marketing campaigns. They are great for branding and enhancing credibility for the event. Press releases can help event content marketers reach an audience that they aren’t targeting with their advertisement.

The press release can help create awareness via content strategy and establish trust with the brand. You can implement tactics to attract potential customers, investors, and attendees.

12. Find the Question Your Audience is Asking

If you’re wondering what to include in your next post, you must discover questions within your industry on different communities and platforms with real value to their readers. Provide your target audience with high-value content about FAQs and queries they are asking on Quora and Reddit. These questions lead you to an untapped goldmine of content ideas.

Summing Up

Developing an effective event content strategy requires some time and focus, but if you break it down into different steps, it’ll become easier to run smoothly. Brainstorm content ideas based on the objective that you want to accomplish through event content marketing strategy.

Ensure it’s informative, inspiring, and distributed using the proper channels. Always look for what your target audience is searching for, information, and relevant questions. Include that in your content for events to fulfill their needs and establish a connection.

Finally, you can get help from an event marketing agency to create content that gives fills the gap between your event and your audience.