Event turnout isn’t always easy, especially if you’re relying solely on organic reach. But we’ve got your back! Continue reading for our strategies and tips on top marketing channels to increase event attendance in Thailand.
But before we go any further, let’s look at the factors that make Thailand the perfect country for paid advertising. This is one of the driving factors of why we created this blog post about how to increase event attendance in Thailand
Digital Trends in Thailand
- Thailand’s consumers score the highest in the ‘percentage of people within the region who spontaneously look up events or locations.
- Thai consumers also have high expectations for their information to be delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible.
- In 2016, 70% of Thai people owned smartphones compared to 64% from the previous year, while up to 98% own a mobile phone of some kind.
- According to Global Digital Report 2019, Thailand is ranked No.1 for mobile banking users and third in mobile commerce.
Furthermore, Research conducted by Hootsuite and WeAreSocial shows there are:
- 49 million mobile social media users in Thailand
- 51 million active internet social media users.
With the global spending time on social media on average being 2.16 hours, Thailand scored eighth at 3.11 hours per day. - Facebook has a total of 50 million users while there are 13 million on Instagram, 4.7 million on Twitter and 2.4 million users on LinkedIn. Even if you consider LinkedIn which has considerably less users compared to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, promoting on LinkedIn can still benefit your business significantly.
Read the full report here: Digital Thailand
We’d like to provide some tried and tested advertising platforms and strategies we as an event marketing firm know will increase event attendance in Thailand.
Facebook: The Best Advertising Platform in the World
To maximize your Facebook marketing impact, you should ensure that your content for the event description gives clear information on what to expect. In our current times, people’s attention spans have fallen precipitously. Therefore, it is essential to have updated strategies to connect with your target audiences and inspire them to take action!
Facebook makes this effort possible through an innovative, marketer-friendly toolset/ This includes the ability to sift through mountains of data and precisely target the intended consumer group for each piece of content.
Make sure you create an event page
Keeping people informed about upcoming events is a vital part of your Facebook marketing strategy. The right way to get started is to create an event page. This can be done by giving a name to your event with a preferred image and a short description. The description should identify the where, the what, the who and the why of your event.
Before promoting the event using paid ads, it’s a good idea to invite friends and co-workers to share and invite their friends to the event. This gives you a quick boost and a push on the organic side of things.
When you’re targeting new audiences as part of your event marketing strategy, you can go into Ads Manager and click event responses as your ad objective. This is effectively the same as “boost” your event. We recommend using Ads manager for this vs using the “Boost” button on the event page. By doing this, you have many more options in terms of targeting, audiences, placements and creativity.
Depending on your audience, you can choose to target audiences who like your page or new audiences based on interests/demographics. You may even choose to retarget people who have previously landed on your website.
Website visitors who are re-targeted are most likely to convert by 70%. All you need is a Facebook pixel placed on the website!
Video is King
A HubSpot study showed that 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support. Thailand’s average daily video viewing time (broadcast, streaming, and video-on-demand) is 3.44 hours. Naturally, the most effective way to create effective content for your event is video. Followed by Spreading the word for your event through Facebook Video Ads.
Content that works well includes testimonials, action shots from previous events, showcasing who will be present at your next event. Additionally, general ambiance shots from previous events also prove to be very effective
Chatbot for Event Marketing
A chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) software that can simulate a conversation (or a chat) with your audience in natural language through messaging applications, websites, and mobile applications. In fact it is expected that AI marketing will grow by 30.5% in 2022.
A chatbot can be perfect and highly effective in answering the most frequently asked questions. You can place it on your website as well as your Facebook page. The benefits are numerous, especially if you have a small team that has little time to deal with redundant customer inquiries.
See also: What is Omnichannel and How to Use it for Your Event?
Instagram for Event Marketing
Facebook’s organic reach is dead. The only way you can effectively utilize it is through paid advertisements. Although Instagram is owned by Facebook, it is still very relevant for organic marketing.
Instagram is also popular with younger audiences, as well as events that have very visual content. If your event is focused on these aspects, Instagram is a channel that should never be ignored.
Influencers for Event Marketing
Influencer marketing is a trend worldwide. However, if I had to choose a country where it is more effective than others, Thailand would definitely be one of them.
Influential marketing has become a top trend in Thailand because these influencers create credibility and persuade users to make purchase. According to research, 75% of consumer purchases are made after the review.
You can invite micro and macro-influencers to promote your event. They can do this by sharing a post on their story or Instagram feed. Messaging that works well includes endorsements or sharing the fact that they will be attending. This helps build credibility for the event and usually pushes more attendees. Ideally, these influencers should have at least 20,000 followers on Instagram with high engagement.
Broadcast your message via LINE
LINE is the largest chatting application in Thailand. Naturally, it is also one of the most effective to get your message out to the public. With a monthly cost of $5.99, you really can’t lose by trying it out.
LINE helps push updates to your subscribers about upcoming events through customized messages with images and text. These customized messages can also be scheduled and linked to your Facebook event, Instagram, or sign up page on your website.
Event Ticketing & Payment Platforms
Event listing platforms are popular the world over. Thailand is no exception!
While people can sometimes click ‘attending’ on the Facebook event page, it can be difficult to tell who will show up to your event. Therefore, partnering up with digital payment services and Ticketing platforms to provide a “surround sound” mobile experience by offering them an option to purchase the event ticket via ticketing platforms such as Ticketmelon, MegaTix, RedTix, and countless others.
These platforms also provide the Trust factor, which is very important to the Thai public.
To conclude, there are many channels you can use to promote your event, including social media, email marketing, PPC advertising, and more. The key is to create great content and use a multi-channel approach to reach a wide spectrum of people.
If you need help with your event marketing, consider working with an events marketing agency that can help you develop a comprehensive strategy and execute your marketing plan. With the right agency partner, you can leverage their expertise and experience to ensure that your event marketing efforts are as effective as possible. Interested in learning more?
Drop us a line via email or the chatbot on the bottom right and we would be happy to help you out.
