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hana-bean · 3 years

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#ayumix2020

I spent half of yesterday trying to get all my favorite YouTube rips of #ayumix2020 songs on some of my Spotify playlists. Why it took so long is because I have a MacBook from 2010 and it runs on coal. These missing songs were a bunch of my top favs so I decided to put in the time yesterday to re-rip them from YouTube and re-add them to Spotify.

I had already added these songs a couple of months ago, but then I dared to move some into other playlists and then boom, they disappeared from my phone. They played and showed up on my laptop, but for whatever reason, would not on my phone. Of course, as a lot of Spotify FAQ answers go, I was screwed. Thanks for nothing, Spotify Desktop.

I know I’m like a year late on this but some of these remixes are so freaking creative and amazing. Like you can tell when people have such an ear for music and it feeds the soul.

It was also super refreshing to hear some of Ayu’s songs with a more modern sound. While ayu-mi-x 7 aged pretty well, if you listen to any of her old ayu-mi-xes, you can really pick up on that early 2000s sound. And then some of them (especially the ones released on singles) sound like absolute noise; it makes me wonder if we even had ears back then. For some old remixes, the sound is super nostalgic and still vibe-able, but when that’s all we had for 10+ years, it’s SO NICE to hear some new takes.

I realized I tend to be partial to the remixes that aren’t techno in nature but of course I always appreciate a good house/trance/EDM remix! Below are some of my favorites, and you just might understand why I worked for 12 hours trying so hard to make these songs accessible ;)

1. LOVE ~Destiny~ (Alonso Montero Remix) - Alonso Montero This remix turns this sleeper into a cute and simple techno track, and not in a bad way at all!

2. SEASONS (Aura Qualic Remix) [Uplifting Trance] - Aura Qualic I’ll admit, I would groan anytime I saw any song from Duty or I am... show up in the hashtag, only because there are already 8294739 remixes of those songs, and I’m craving some remixes of her more obscure and overlooked albums/tracks. But this one of SEASONS is pretty damn good and well-produced.

3. kanariya - beamgame a.k.a. 8LY [éitli] This version gives this song a sultry touch. kanariya is already sexy in its OG form, but this is a different sexy.

4. evolution (PHUNKSTAR Remix) - Bentley Jones Modern, well-produced, and just plain good :)

5. HANABI ~episode II~ (REMIX) - DJ cha-p I might be biased because HANABI ~episode II~ is my most favorite Ayu song ever, but damn this remix slaps.

Real Me (80′s lover remix) - DJ cha-p I’m DJ cha-p’s number-one fan, I swear. I did notice the ‘80s sound was a trend among a lot of the remixes in general.

6. HANABI (Orchestra Version) - DJ 秀吉 That beginning piano is just so haunting and gives me chills. So beautiful T_T

7. SEASONS - DODOWAKA This version is so fresh and summery and such a bop!

8. Moments (Dominant Space Future House Remix) - Dominant Space I go so hard to this remix, I wish it was 7 minutes long.

9. INSPIRE (Rockabilly remix) - Hidetaka Suga OMG like I love how much this works!!!! I kind of hate it too but I LOVE IT!!!! He has a bunch of other good bluesy rock remixes, but INSPIRE is my most favorite.

teddy bear (Rock Ballad Remix)

ANGEL’S SONG (Rockabilly remix)

10. INSPIRE "KAZUKI's 90's Inspired Remix" - Kazuki Shintaku This seriously takes me back to LA Gears and Zubaz pants.

11. LyxKP

Just.... just listen.

blossom (Nostalgic 80′s Italo Disco)

I am... (Flute, Piano, Strings)

Duty (Bass, String Section & Guitar)

Pride (piano sonata + choir)

vogue (Acoustic Mood)

HANABI ~episode II~ (Cello, Guitar & Piano Trio)

12. kanariya 〜おしゃれピアノリミックス〜 - Michisuke-P Another slow and sexy version.

13. BLUE BIRD (Otak’s Flashback Remix) - otak11 Out of all the throwback remixes of this song, this one is the best. I love the beginning.

14. Terminal (Orchestra) Demo - S W This version is so fucking evocative and beautiful, it works too well and drives you crazy. Ayu needs to re-record this song just like this.

15. Sean North Hearing stuff like this makes me so impressed with people. I love how someone can hear Ayu and be like, this needs Celtic flutes. It’s so creative and brings a sound to Ayu you never would hear officially.

BLUE BIRD [Celtic arrange]

fairyland [Celtic arrange]

16. M -takamatt remix- - takamatt Again: simple, modern... something nice to bob your head to.

17. is this LOVE? (Terusik Piano Remix) - Terusik I’m just happy to see this song get some love.

18. M (TTSYa REMIX) - TTSYa This was one of the first remixes I heard right after Ayu announced the campaign. It reminds me of the first part of quarantine when it was fun. So good!

19. vogue (Xelakad 20th Anniversary Remix) - Xelakad The strings part reminds me of the music on the sand levels on Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. I love it :) I also am partial to Xelakad remixes; I love his Reggaeton remix of ourselves and his Ambient mix to Two of us—oldies but such goodies!!!

20. evolution 〜祭〜 (和風 EPIC TAIKO REMIX) - 김대석SAMSARIDER This remix is just plain cool!

21. Voyage - 林勇太郎 I read on AHS someone saying this sounds like an anime opening and now I can only imagine it opening to some coming-of-age epic journey anime, like Demon Slayer or something.

22. Days (Lo-Fi Reggae.Ver) - 音楽学校バンブースタジオ It’s just so sweet!

Honestly there are more I love, and everyone who participated did such a great job, but I’m tired LOL. I hope Ayu blesses us with ayu-mi-x 8 soon and we see some of these awesome tracks.

#ayumi hamasaki #浜崎あゆ��#ayumix2020 #list

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caeows · 4 years

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jeon jeongguk . cis male . he/him ／ graeme bae just pulled up by blasting dirty little secret by all american rejects --- that song is so them ! you know , for a twenty three year old actor , i’ve heard they’re really gullible , but that they make up for it by being so tenacious . if i had to choose three things to describe them , i’d probably say tousled hair , triple dog dares and a closet full of black . here’s to hoping they don’t cause too much trouble !

hello ! i’m deni ( she/her pronouns , gmt+9 timezone ) . i’m best reached on discord at gayfairy#6371 for plotting . below the cut is ... a ridiculous amount of keyboard smashing but it was a holiday and i was feeling inspired so !! i included a few TLDRs for some quick scanning . there’s also some plots at the bottom i’d LOVE to see . looking forward to writing with you all !

* ☆ ·˚ background.

you could say he was destined for the spotlight .

an only child , he grew up watching his parents performances on the stage , accepting their kisses and gentle smiles before they set off for tours around the country and left him with his cousins . sure , they were absent --- but they tried --- and graeme knew he wanted to be just like them . when his parents delighted in his little home-staged sets he presented , they quickly enrolled him in acting classes and coached him through first auditions , even moved back to korea when it was clear some american roles wanted to confine him to one note . after gaining exposure , graeme shared the screen with one of the biggest names in the american industry in a dramatic hit that led to some ridiculous fanmail being sent to him as a kid , then excitedly landed a role in a revamped science fiction film he was stoked af abouy !!! unfortunately , the film was met with an absolute brutal blowback from fans , some of that hot , petty anger taken out on graeme , and at thirteen years old , his parents made the decision for him to step back and focus on school . ( he still holds onto those spiteful letters------ all that hate from grown ass adults thrown at a child )

performing arts high school , but graeme stayed away from the public stage for a bit . worked on some sets as a tech to get a better idea of the film making process . kept a low profile occasionally caught by curious paparazzi at a basketball court or baseball game . recognizable , but not to the point where he couldn’t be seminormal . there were a few bumps in the road :: leaked photos of a beer at a high school party , couple of fake friends sliding in for clout , people pushing questions like when are you returning ?? how does it feel to ruin one of the most important films of all time ??? shitty . but , with the help of his parents , friends and coaches , graeme returned to student films to grow more comfortable in front of a camera . his official comeback was in the background of a friend's directorial debut , a lady-love drama critics salivated over but failed to earn is’ nominations . still , graeme’s name was back and out there . jumping headfirst into the thing that scares him , graeme’s slated for teen flicks , romantic dramas , action films . a diverse portfolio . people love a comeback . ------as if there was something wrong with what he did before .

TLDR. former international child star who took a break after experiencing a massive fan-driven backlash . pseudo retired , did the performing arts school thing . popped back on the screen about a year ago and working his ass off since . early career inspiration : jake lloyd , natalie portman , yeo jingoo

* ☆ ·˚ current.

suddenly getting all this praise and earning cash , living on his own in a sprawling city of work and sin . hasn’t stop busting his ass , no , but maybe he’s found outlets for all his stress in . . . less than healthy outlets . some of the headlines are way off the mark , some a little too close to home . either way , it’s not something his parents or his management company are thrilled about ( doesn’t he want to be taken seriously as an actor , they say ) and he does . of course he does . but what else does he have to sacrifice to be taken seriously ? and how serious does any twenty-something year old wanna get ?

late hours on dance floors , strips of things he doesn’t know the name of on his tongue , lips on any pretty , wanting pair he can find . he’s young , virile and at the top of his game . who can blame him ? it starts with a string of tabloid images , a rumpled and sleepy-eyed graeme leaving apartments that aren’t his in clothes he was spotted in the night before . zoomed-in , fan-cropped photos on twitter of hickeys and swollen mouths and unbuttoned shirts . america’s sweetheart ? maybe , but clearly not around the clock . him , scaling rails of hotels and dancing on top of cars . grabbing mics at clubs and taking over DJ boots at parties . twitter explodes when he moonwalks through the airport one time and baristas trend his insane coffee orders .

and even though he’s got his own name --- and a variety of different spellings , hashtags , and whatevers --- blacklisted on social media , every now and then he’ll run along a stream of grueling comments , petty nitpicks about his performances , his looks , his voice , his goddamn smile and it’s----- it’s rough , even for someone who grew up in that environment . there’s days where he’ll hole up in his apartment and refuse to see anyone , refuse to leave . the guy in the interviews with the wide smile and sparkle eyes is so , so far away and people almost forget that he’s human , too . he pushes himself out of that mindset , sometimes with help , but it’s always a shadow on his back , waiting to catch him at his weakest .

TLDR. tabloids gossip about speculated hookups and strange behavior . potential alcohol abuse . pushback from management and parents . anxiety towards social media . current career inspiration : ansel elgort

* ☆ ·˚ tidbits.

sporty as fuck —— basketball , soccer , skateboard , swimming , climbing . says he would’ve been an athlete if not for movies . fit as fuck despite a steady diet of ramen and pizza . claims to like horror movies the most , but he’s a total schmaltz snob . can hold a pretty tune well enough to pass . has a private twitter account for the memes , public accounts are all operated by a social media manager so he doesn’t have to read comments . watches college basketball championships religiously . has very strong opinions about scented candles . likes sugary drinks more than coffee but claims to be a connoisseur . loves biopics . punk and 2000s emo rock fan . gets anxious easily , suffers through interviews and avoids personal topics as best as he can . is rumored to be difficult to work with , but keeps to himself on sets save for a few opinions about blocking and lighting . pan as fuck and fairly open about it . mom and dad are chill , but don’t understand much of anything past bi . they get on to him more for his diet and job . when not on the court or working , spends free time rewatching anime in the safety of his bed in an threadbare pair of boxers , eating Doritos by the fistful and leaving his manager on read .

even his underwear is black . occasionally, he’ll change it up with a screen printed vintage t-shirt and wears whatever kind of fancy thing his stylist squeezes him into . otherwise wears by a black or white t-shirt , black pants and combat boots . seventy percent of his sneakers have sharpie drawings on them and he’s got a lot of holes in his ears and another in a place you’d be lucky ( or unlucky ) to see . loves dangy earrings and wearing his hair loose , a bit long with a mild perm . silver on his wrists and friendship bracelets from yesteryear but no rings . tattooed up ! recently collaborated to design a line of temporary tattoos . extensive collection of sunglasses . hit up a lot of music festivals in the past but that’s died down in recent months due to a busy schedule . swung his way into VIP passes before . he was a total Warped kid in the past , no shame . no longer does fan conventions because of a negative experience a few years back , and even fan meets are a little awkward , but he manages to push through . can’t drive worth a damn but he’ll kick your ass at any arcade game . occasionally , he’ll stream over twitch but that’s becoming less and less common . was banned from several dave & busters before he made it back on the screen . moody as fuck .

* ☆ ·˚ plots.

so . bonds . there’s a best friend who may not have been there since the beginning , but they’ve been there when it matters . the friendship is new , fresh , and maybe graeme shouldn’t be as dependent on it as he is , but he can’t help it . clinging to them like crazy --- let’s hope it doesn’t fall to the wayside . ( ? / 1 ) there’s several of his idiot friends who , after being stranded on too many red carpets , a hundred hotel rooms , and hours of press junkets , have learned to survive by snapchatting each other random dares throughout the day . ( 1 / unlimited ) there’s a few childhood friends who , like him , grew up either in or close to the spotlight and they have this , like . . . support group kind of situation . i don’t know . graeme checks on them from time to time , even as they’ve grown apart . ( 2 / unlimited ) he’s got some partying buddies who may not have his best interest at heart --- who may or may not stop him when he’s slurred out and whining about twitter trolls . some gaming partners he teams up with over stream , but lately they’ve drifted apart .

it’s such a cliche that his management’s set him up for a fake dating situation . if graeme wants the dramatic , serious roles , then he needs to show he’s a mature and capable young man . how else to do that than jump headfirst into a few awkwardly orchestrated dates with another hotshot on the radar ? ( ? / 1 ) but they’re not serious . so , he hasn’t stopped hooking up , or thinking about a one night stand that totally rocked his world . ( ? / 5 ) and ( ? / 1 ) media and fans definitely know about a few of these . the jury’s out for how they feel about it . then there’s his competition , actors in the same demographic targeting the same roles . it’s a tough business and they know it , but the press picks up on all these weird quotes and posts that twist shit into beefs . what other misunderstanding will cause the casket to blow ? ( ? / unlimited ) there’s some co stars on old and upcoming films . people who see how hard he works and how much effort he puts into what’s seen on the screen . they tough out hard days on set and the press circuits during promotion . see him at his worst and best . ( ? / unlimited )

#excess:intro #tw flashing gif #tw anxiety mention #going back to SLEEP c u l8r

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ruinsofxerxes · 5 years

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Hey nikki did you head the allegations against McNasty? What do u think about it?

ooooh boyyy hooo boy i have been waITING FOR THIS for sIX YEARS. Every day since this story broke I check the twitter hashtag for updates like it’s the goddamn newspaper. I’m LIVING that McNugget is fINALLY facing consequences after these accusations have been going on for Y E A R S. I’m super mad it’s taken this long and that victims are being threatened and brushed off by his fans and that he’S ALSO done it to his coworkers, like Monica just came forward recently and im sO MAD I LOVE HER AND IM SO MAD HASDKLJASDLJALDJASLHD so yeah......I uh...........I’ve been watching this story unfold for a few weeks and god i sound horrible but watching him get dropped from eVERY convention (except one) and losing gigs has been.................cathartic. And very relieving. He got dropped from the con I always attend so like thank god. i’ve met him before, and like he was nothing but nice and non-creepy to me, but still, that one interaction is not indicative of his entire character and I’ve never liked him regardless, so I hate the people saying “oh well i met him and he was so nice so these people are lying” like LMAO NO YOU DON’T KNOW HIM also they’re just....not believing other VAs??? Like the people who ACTUALLY know and work with him??? And have stories and have been witnessing this shit since the early 2000s??? bYE

but yeah, like I said, I’ve never liked the dude. We run in the same circles because you know, fma, and so i’ve been to a lot of panels and stuff with him and i just.....well, I’d heard the gross rumors (not to the extent i’m hearing them now) but he’s always just seemed so full of himself and acts like he’s God’s Gift to Anime Fans Everywhere and every time i knew he’d be there i’d be like ugh

That being said tho, he and ed are completely separate in my mind, even tho I do watch the dub (i just prefer them, they’re easier for me to understand and watch and get into) this definitely doesn’t impact how much i love ed or fma or anything, especially considering, like i said, i never liked McNugget to begin with, i feel bad for the people who liked him and are just now finding out about all this

#the McNugget who must not be named #so we don't get threatened and doxxed by his stans #ashdklajsdlasjdlajsd #g OD #ask #Anonymous #anonymous

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darlingnisi · 6 years

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Prince....from the outside world

I was very curious to know perceptions of P outside of the fandom so I polled some people on Facebook. I feel like Prince's image/brand is WAY more beloved and known than his actual music, and that bothers me more than I care to admit most days. Is he a legend to you because you heard he was or because you experienced it through his work, you know? That annoyance was a big reason for the mixcloud/soundcloud thing. Yes the enigma that is Prince is fascinating, and beautiful and sexy and all of those things, but THE MUSIC! THE MUSIC. THE POINT (To me anyway...) Anyway...here’s how I posed the question : Thoughts/question for the day...would love your input. I'm obviously pretty entrenched in the Prince fandom, and most of the people I associate with daily are also. I do recognize though that outside of the purple bubble, (ha and sometimes inside) not a lot is known about who he was, what he did, or how much music he actually made. For those of you who have a passive interest, are a casual fan, or generally know who he is but don't know much about him, what do you know or what have you heard music wise? What's your impression of him? Be honest no hurt feelings if you've heard negative things! I'm trying to see something...

And the responses : I know what you've told me, posted, or sent me to read. Immediately following his passing, I was slightly obsessed with watching Youtube videos of other celebs sharing stories about his great sense of humor. Before that...*thinks* only stuff that made major news outlets. I didn’t realize until recently (last few years) what level he was on musically. I knew he was talented, but what he has goes beyond that, into otherworldly. As far as specific music, I only knew his popular stuff before. *** I didn't become a Prince fan until an ex-gf exposed me to him. Michael Jackson claimed my interest growing up, and that developing brain didn't have enough room for both of them. As an adult and musician I came to realize that not only was he a genius, he wrote for and inspired so many other geniuses. He's like if Stevie Wonder had the astronomical performance abilities of James Brown. *** Honestly I wasn't a fan at all. I thought his musicianship was pretty good. There's a few songs I liked, but overall nah-- I only like a few songs like Kiss. I didn't really like his performance style. It was good to hear how philanthropic he was behind closed doors after the fact. Every time I see him perform or watch an old video I cringe a little bit. People always hate me when I tell them that lol *** I haven't delved into his personal, as I don't normally do that with any artist. For impressions, I remember way back as a child I thinking he was some form of gay. Not that actually fully understood what that was but this was like in the early 90s and the whole symbol as a name thing. I kow enjoyed his music and found the imagery in the videos interesting. Wasn’t until the last decade or so that I heard about him as a person. You can thank Chappelle and Charlie Murphy for that. *** I know very little...my parents weren't big Prince fans so I didn't grow up with his music, just a few hits like Raspberry Beret. What I know I know from Chappelle Show, mega fans, and news reports after he passed. *** My 1st impressions of him was WHOA he's different but as I got older,I can identify with him more than MJ or Barry White *** I just got watching the episode of New Girl that he was in It’s so great *** I grew up in his era. I became a fan post passing. Prior to this, I thought he was talented but stand offish, weird, unrelatable. He did so many strange things in the 90's that I just drifted away from anything P related as he disappeared from mainstream and went underground. I saw him here in ATL at Musicology and he blew me away but then he didn't come back...so, out of sight, out of mind. Since 2016, out of curiosity, I have educated myself on the man and the music and have found I love the music of the 90's and 2000's but never heard it until now. I've come to realize he was much deeper than I thought and I had no idea of his compassion. I'm not a huge fan of the 80's. It's too over played. I also think that I didn't purchase a lot of his music from the 80's because I was constantly having to censor it to be respectful of who was in earshot and might be offended. (kid's, parents, family, strangers) MJ was more mainstream and Prince seemed to be more into the shock value. In the 80's he came across to me as all sex and very little depth. Now that I am more into the fandom, I am amazed at his use of words, double entendre's and just the genius and mystery in lyrical meanings and complicated arrangements. I still have a ton of questions regarding him but I believe I'm understanding more of the man and his music since he's passed. I'm pleasantly surprised. Earlier, I wasn't impressed. That's my truth.

************************************************ So...interesting perspectives, huh? Just something to keep in mind as we think about how to make P accessible to others...and how he fits into the larger scheme of things. People tend to be interested when he’s in an easily accessible place so...maybe something on ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/PBS for the widest visibility? Can we get him on the radio more than whatever is being currently promoted? Dream : Issa Rae, Donald Glover, and Janelle Moane host a remastered 3 Chains of Gold on FX. They provide commentary during commercial breaks...and there’s an associated hashtag for Twitter..... Can you imagine how big that would be to bridge him to younger people?

#Prince #Prince in the wild

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siliconwebx · 5 years

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Marketing to Millennials: What You Need to Know to Close the Sale

Despite the perception that millennials are young, bratty and self-centered, they cover a broad range of age groups, personality traits and interests. Millennial birth years aren’t defined, ranging from 1977 to 2000 depending on who you ask. That means they make up 25% of the population, and that marketing to millennials isn’t as clear-cut as you may think.

Young millennials are in college; older millennials are parents of college students. They’re do-gooders and adventurous travelers, creators and intentional decision-makers. They’re tech-savvy, creative and purpose-driven.

Most importantly, at least for our purposes, they’re buyers, and they’re also influencing other buyers.

Before we continue, two quick things to understand about this article:

1. I didn’t include stats about marketing to millennials. There are a bazillion* millennial-related articles and studies with hard numbers. Since they’re so easy to find on your own, I opted to leave them out.

*not an actual stat

2. While I briefly mention social media, I’ve skipped the obvious, “Here’s why your brand should be on social media” speech. It’s 2019 and I trust you get it.

Here’s what you need to know to market to millennials:

Brands need to entertain millennials.

Millennials may be buying, but they’re not impulse buyers. Even if you sell physical products, it’s more important to sell an experience and to make that experience something they have to have right now. In our article about four psychological tricks to boost conversions, we discuss how brands can play up FOMO (fear of missing out).

In this Instagram post, Pura Vida shows photos of its gorgeous offices, appealing to potential employees in the comment. This immediately makes the grass look greener on their side of the fence…or beach.

Here’s another great example: I recently had lunch at a restaurant where reps from Don Julio were promoting their tequila. They offered me a refreshing, full-sized hibiscus margarita for free, no pressure to order another one after. I got a literal taste of what a balmy afternoon could be like at that restaurant, and I’ve already decided I’ll be going back specifically for that drink.

One of the most obvious examples of how much millennials love to explore even if it doesn’t lead to a purchase is Pinterest. Users add endless aspirational images and items to their virtual bucket lists, vision boards and wish lists. Your job is to figure out how to convert those customers so they go a step beyond collecting your Pins. We have a few articles about adding Pinterest to your marketing to millennials strategy:

All You Need to Know About Pinterest Buyable Pins

How To Drive Massive Referral Traffic From Pinterest

Growing Your Blog’s Reach with Pinterest Group Boards

You can also create polls for your website or social media to interact with your audience, like BuzzFeed News does with their fake news quiz on Instagram:

P.S. We have an article about how to create fun polls on WordPress.

Millennials want to be brand participants, not just spectators.

Sharing content from your audience shows your appreciation for them and support for how they use your products or services in their lives. It also provides brand content that you don’t have to spend time creating.

When I ran social media marketing for a boutique guitar company, I had to find a way to stretch their teeny budget. I noticed that a lot of people were posting photos and videos of themselves using the guitars, so I created a successful Instagram account entirely populated with UGC (user-generated content). People loved it, and the branded hashtags I created grew more popular each month.

You don’t have to go all-out like I did; UGC can be cleverly sprinkled into your marketing campaigns instead of overtaking them. Photography-focused Instagram accounts do this frequently by holding themed challenges.

You can also use crowdsourcing to come up with new product or marketing ideas. For example, LEGO lets you submit a product idea through their website, and you can also vote on other submitted ideas. Some of the submissions are turned into actual toys.

Here’s the best part about getting your audience involved: you’ll know early on if there’s a market for the new product or service you plan on rolling out.

Brands have to create authentic, intriguing content.

Great content is a must-have for inbound marketing. Content creation is its own, huge topic that I encourage you to explore more, but here are four tips that’ll get you started:

One word: help. Help your customers use your product, help your subscribers get more out of your newsletter content, etc. Help them. Beauty brands excel at this:

Source: YouTube

Don’t create an SEO-rich article for SEO purposes alone. Your SEO should align with your authority and experience. It has to be valuable along with being optimized. Finding expert-level content is the next best thing to getting a personal recommendation; think of yourself as a mentor to your customers.

Your CTAs should reflect where the customer is in the journey. For example, don’t put “Buy Now” on an article that’s targeted to potential subscribers – “Learn More” is less intimidating.

“Write how you speak” isn’t the best advice. This is business, not a lax conversation. Think of how you’d explain something to a pal (hint: jargon-free), but then polish it up.

We’ve written more about this topic in the past – check out our article about defining quality content and delivering it to your audience, or this one about refreshing your WordPress content.

Millennials want to use, not own.

Millennials may prefer to access something (borrow, lease, rent) rather than own it. This is why subscription services like Spotify are so popular. This is an interesting trend, because millennials earn less and save more than generations before them – and subscription services can cost more over time, which makes them an odd choice for financially-careful millennials.

For example, if you listen to the same 50 songs on Spotify, it would cost less to purchase each song from iTunes than to pay $9.99 each month for a Spotify subscription. However, the value is in not having to own the music, store it or decide what to do with it when you’re sick of those songs.

Millennials strongly grasp the concept of declining value (and foresee trends shifting in the near future), which is why paying now even if you won’t own later is attractive. Case in point: I spent far too many months researching which fitness watch to buy. I ultimately went with a FitBit Charge 2, but if I’d had the option to rent it or if I knew I could trade it in when they came out with a new model, I would’ve moved forward with the purchase much sooner.

Here’s what you can do, whether your brand lends itself to renting or you only offer the option to buy: incorporate financial guidance into your marketing. Furthermore, frame that guidance to promote financial security, self-reliance and long-lasting value. Rent the Runway nailed it with this pop-up, but you can create long-form content, too.

Millennials feel a responsibility to provide feedback.

I’m going to focus on positive feedback and how you can harness it to build social proof, but since negative feedback is a given, this article talks about how to handle customer complaints.

Positive feedback is free publicity for your brand, especially if it’s recent – new reviews from the past 1-3 months are better than older reviews. There are a number of ways to use social proof to increase conversions. Here are four of them:

1. Show real-time stats of how many people are viewing a page, making purchases or subscribe to a newsletter. On our website, we have the number of our users at the top of the homepage.

2. Leverage social proof – referrals are much more credible than ads. Put together a case study of an actual client and use real numbers. Take positive reviews that customers leave on Facebook, Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc., then display them on your product or service pages. Slack has an entire page dedicated to testimonials, including successful user stories and quotes from customers.

Bonus Tip: This landing page from Grammarly also displays the logos of the media outlets that have given the company love.

3. Mark items as best sellers or list additional products as, “Other customers bought…” At first, this looks like a basic cross-sell tactic. What it’s actually doing, though, is proving to your audience that other people have already moved forward with their purchase.

4. Create an affiliate marketing or brand advocate program. You can turn your biggest fans and loyal customers into a dispersed sales team.

Brands have to stand for something.

Millennials are tuned in to societal issues, with eco-friendliness and health as two of their top priorities. Moreover, millennials are happy to spend more money if it means supporting a brand that supports a cause. The bottom line is that you have to stand for something.

Here’s where it gets tricky: the cause(s) you choose have to stay true to your brand while also appealing to your audience. Don’t pick just any charity to support; put some thought into it.

My favorite example of this is BoxLunch and their Get Some Give Back initiative, which provides a meal to someone in need for every $10 spent. BoxLunch sells unique pop culture clothing and gifts, with bright colors and cartoon characters kids would love. You only have to spend $10 to have that meal donated, and being surrounded by so much fun makes me think of all the families that don’t even have that much to spare. Without fail, I make a purchase every time.

Wrapping Up

Defining your audience as “millennials” isn’t enough – millennials are a huge group! By starting with strategies that are specifically targeted to millennials, though, you can try different ones until you land on the ones that work. Many of these techniques have crossover appeal, too. For example, you can entertain audiences as you get them involved in the product-choosing process. Further defining your audience to discover their specific characteristics and values will guide your custom “marketing to millennials” process.

In the spirit of finding your own marketing to millennials path, check out this article about embracing the motto “you do you” to grow your business.

The post Marketing to Millennials: What You Need to Know to Close the Sale appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐ElegantThemes

#Silicon Web Design #Ahmedabad #India #Web Development #WPBeginner #Silicon URL #Web Site #Cloud Host

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cameronwjones · 5 years

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Event Strategy: The 2018 Guide

Event organizing ain’t easy. In this guide you’ll find what you need to know about event strategy in 2019—from planning an event, to promoting an event and more!

Event professionals have a million and one things on their plate. There’s determining event goals, building the event website, sending out email blasts, deciding on what type of event planning software to use (if any), making sure event goals are hit—and that’s just the beginning.

The thing is, events are more important than ever. Leading organizations like Apple, Microsoft, The Wall Street Journal, HubSpot and Target all consider events to be absolutely essential to their event strategy. Meanwhile, the average B2B CMO allocates 24% of their event planning budget to events. Organizations who aspire to be at the top of their industry need to invest in their event strategy.

To help you keep track of every stage of the event organizing process, we’ve put together this event strategy guide. In this guide, we’ll focus on 5 critical aspects of the event strategy timeline:

(click below to jump to a section)

Planning the Event

Launching the Event

Promoting the Event

Managing the Event

Wrapping up the Event

Although this guide is intended for those organizing events, those attending and exhibiting at events will find it too be useful, as well. If you have any feedback or would like to see a section added, leave us a comment at the bottom of the page.

Why You Need an Event Strategy

As we mentioned above, events have never been more important. According to the Event Marketing 2019: Benchmarks and Trends Report, most marketers believe that events comprise the single-most important channel for accomplishing key business goals.

What’s more, the most successful organizations plan on increasing their event budgets in the future, and they plan on increasing their budgets by more than the average organization.

Why? While there’s no simple answer, two trends loom large.

First, the majority of interactions between people and organizations has moved to the internet. While email, digital advertising and social media have made far-reaching communication more possible than ever, they’ve also created a real desire for face-to-face interactions.

In-person events provide the solution.

Second, organizing events has never before been easier. In the early 2000s CRM software (like Salesforce and Sugar) made managing relationships between organizations and contacts easier than ever before. Then, marketing automation software (like HubSpot and Marketo) made nurturing those relationships easier than ever before. Today, these platforms work seamlessly with event management software to make measuring, organizing and growing events easier than ever before.

Bottom-line: Your event strategy is critical to your organization’s growth—and it’s never been easier to tackle. Let’s dive into the how.

Planning the Event

The planning stage is arguably the most important. It’s the foundation on which the rest of the event will lie. In this section we’ll look at how you can make the soundest foundation possible—from the event types to the event budget to early event promotion.

Event Goals

The first and most important step of your event strategy is determining why you are organizing an event in the first place. What are your event goals? To increase brand awareness? To generate leads? To improve customer/organization relationships? To educate prospects or employees? To generate qualified leads?

There are any number of reasons to organize events. It’s up to you and your leadership team to determine what your purpose will be. While events can succeed with multiple goals in mind, having a clear prioritization of goals will help you to better organize, measure and market your event.

Once you’ve identified a specific event goal (or goals), it’s time to make sure that they are S.M.A.R.T. That is, specific, measurable, achievable and results-oriented. For more information on setting goals, check out the SMART Event Marketing Playbook.

Event Success KPIs

Your event goals will then inform how you measure your event. Just as there are many types of event goals, so are there many number of event KPIs with which to measure them. Here's a list of some of the most popular event KPIs:

Registrations

Gross revenue

Attendee satisfaction

Attendee engagement

Cost-to-revenue ratio

Number of qualified sales leads

Sales pipeline created

For a more extensive list of event metrics, check out this post on event success KPIs.

Event Budget

Next in your event strategy is determining what sort of resources you have at your disposal to make those goals a reality. It’s time to draft an event budget.

Align with your leadership to see what sort of funds are available to you. Then create a rough event budget— list of each item you think you will need along with a description, estimated cost and actual cost.

Your rough event budget could look something like this:

Item

Amount

Description

Estimated Cost

Actual Cost

Microphone

Cordless microphones, rental

$400

$600

Once you have a better idea of the particulars of the event vendors and suppliers that you’ll need you can create an advanced event budget that might look something like this:

Item

Description

Cost

Vendor

Name

Email Address

Microphone

Cordless microphones, rental

$600

Mics..com

Frederick Microphone

[email protected]

Strapped for cash? You may be interested in what Lloyed Lobo, Co-founder of Traction Conf, has to say about growth hacking an event with no budget.

Understanding your event budget will help you determine the best channels for promoting your event and the best tools for managing it.

Event Tools

Event planning is difficult. Event planning tools make everything much easier. Depending on your goals, KPIs, budget and team size you may be interested in adopting one of the below tools:

Event Registration Software

Event Planning and Analytics Software

Event Marketing Software

Mobile Event App (for attendees)

All-in-One Event Management Software (includes all of the above)

Whether you decide to use a collection of platforms or an all-in-one event management solution, make sure that your event stack offers integrations with other platforms. For instance, you may want to seamlessly send data from your event platform to Salesforce or HubSpot. In this case, having event software integrations will be key.

Event Branding

We’ve covered a lot of the preliminary groundwork that goes into planning an event. The final thing we have to cover before building out the infrastructure of your event is your event brand. Everything about your event—from the website, to the promotional emails, to the on-site decor and food served should be an extension of your event brand.

The critical question to ask yourself: What is the feeling that I want to convey to my attendees?

A great example of an event with a strong brand is Social Media Marketing World, arguably the largest social media event on the planet. Everything about the event's online and offline presence conveys adventure and fun.

While not every brand needs to convey adventure and fun, every event should convey something. To not do so would be as remiss as not setting proper event goals.

“By having a consistent brand that runs through your event strategy, people become more familiar with the brand over time. Each small event, whether that be a roadshow or webinar, becomes a different touchpoint through which attendees understand the overarching event brand."

—Lauren Sommers, Sr. Director of Corporate Events, Gainsight

To learn more about conveying a strong event brand, check out the event branding guide.

Event Website

Now it’s time to build your event website. This will be the literal front page of your event. In many cases, it will be the first thing that prospective attendees and stakeholders see. You will want to make sure that your event website clearly communicates the mission of your event, your brand and a call-to-action that visitors can take. Imperative here is having a strong white label URL.

Check out how GitHub nails the event website below:

Depending on your event, it may be worthwhile to create a pre-event website before you have the rest of your digital event infrastructure built out. This sort of website can be something as simple as a landing page with information about your event.

You can learn more about event website design here.

Create an Event Hashtag

Part and parcel of building your online brand is creating a short and memorable event hashtag. Ideally, people will take to social media to talk about your event. Make it easier for them to do so (and to find other fans) with an event hashtag. If you don’t choose an event hashtag, someone will choose it for you and you will end up with a fractured online discourse.

Research which hashtags are not yet taken and then begin promoting it on your event website, emails and other marketing materials.

One common best practice is an include the year with the event. This can be especially helpful if someone already has the root of your event hashtag or if you plan on using your event hashtag in the future.

Below are some examples of great event hashtags

Event Hashtag

Event

#ETL18

Event Tech Live

#INBOUND18

HubSpot Inbound

#GoogleIO

Google I/O

#smmw18

Social Media Marketing World

#df18

Dreamforce

Partner, Speaker and Sponsor Outreach

No event exists alone. In order to get the most out of your event event, you’re going to need enlist the support of partners, speakers and sponsors. The sooner you begin reaching out, the easier it will be to spread the word on your event further down the line.

In formulating your outreach strategy first determine why you are reaching out for each potential stakeholder to begin with. Are you looking for help in spreading the word? Does their product offering align with your yours? Are you looking for sponsors to help mitigate the cost of planning event?

Sales Hacker, a leading publication on sales and business development, partners up with Salesforce for their Sales Machine event series. Because the two align closely in audience, Sales Hacker benefits from the brand pull of Salesforce and Salesforce benefits by engaging a targeted audience.

To help you out, create a list of potential stakeholders to reach out to. Include the name of the stakeholder, the type of stakeholder they would be, the reason that you are reaching out to them, the name of the contact, the contact’s email address and a status on their responses. Here’s an example of what that list might look like.

Stakeholder

Stakeholder Type

Reason

Contact Name

Email Address

Status

James Bond

Speaker

Requested by many attendees

Money Penny

[email protected]

Responded

Very Cool Company

Sponsor

Aligns with product offering; expressed interest in partnerships

Cool McGee

[email protected]

Sent

Comic Sans

Media Partner

Willing to help promote the event for free tickets

Arial Sans

[email protected]

Confirmed

You can find more event partnership marketing advice here.

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Launching the Event

Now that all of your event infrastructure is in place, it’s time to launch your event! In this section we’ll touch on all of the bases you’ll need to cover for spreading the word.

Announcement Email Blast

Once your event is live, it’s time to let the world know! Send out an on-brand email with information about your event and clear call-to-action. You can also use an invitation maker like Venngage to design your own in minutes.

If you already have data on prospective attendees from other marketing efforts, segment your list for best results. (You can learn more about event data segmentation here).

Check out this great announcement email from Marketing United.

For more information on getting the most out of email marketing to promote your event, read the Secret Science of Email Marketing for Live Events by clicking the button below.

Blog Posts and Contributed Content

One of the first things you should create, sometimes before you even create your event website, is a blog announcing your event. This can be featured on your organization’s website, your personal website or both. You can then reference post with a link whenever anyone has a question about your event.

Focus on the big picture of your event: Why is it meaningful? Why should people be excited?

Once you have blog posts written for your home turf, consider reaching out to other publications for contributed content, or guest posting. You may be able to secure a placement on another organization’s website either through a content exchange (wherein they write a piece for your blog in exchange) or by simply writing a high quality blog post for their blog that mentions your event in passing.

If you are working with other partners, ask them if they are willing to write a blog post about the event linking to your site or if you can write a post for them.

Contributed content is not to be confused with PR, which we’ll cover below.

For more information on leveraging content marketing to promote your event, read Cracking the Content Code by clicking the button below.

Press Releases

Publishing a press release for your event increases the chance that someone will hear about it. In writing a press release, focus on what makes your event unique. Is it the speakers? The mission? The topic you are covering? Prospective attendees and journalist may receive Google Alerts depending on the key terms included there.

You may end up writing several press releases for several industries. Various press release platforms offer targeting based on industry among a myriad of other criteria.

If your event promotion budget is limited, consider splitting the cost of a press release with your partners or other key stakeholders.

Below is a list of PR networks. Note that different PR networks come with different price tiers and analytics functions:

Business Wire

Marketwired

PR Web

PR Newswire

SB Wire

1888PressReleases

Social Media and Co-marketing

Now that your event is live, it’s time to really start promoting it on social media. Devise clever copy and images to draw attention to your event, and post away!

Create posts that focus on different aspects of your event. For instance, one series of posts can focus on the amazing speakers at your event, others can focus on your partners, sessions, discounts or something that makes your event stand-out.

Here’s a great example of a piece of collateral that features our Co-founder and CMO:

It will also help to send event sponsorship packets to your partners containing copy, images and promo codes that they can share. To help your partners out even more, segment the materials that you give them by social media network (e.g. Twitter and LinkedIn), newsletter and even blog posts. Each of these different mediums may call for different content lengths and style.

The below table gives you a rough idea of the character count for each medium:

Medium

Suggested Character Count

Twitter

140 - 280

Facebook/LinkedIn

200 - 400

Newsletter/Blog

500 - 1000

Keep in mind that organic social media can only reach so far and so you may want to consider paid social media placement.

You can find more social media event marketing wisdom here.

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Promoting the Event

Your event is launched. Now it’s time to keep it at the top of people’s minds. The event promotion stage is critical for driving registrations and building excitement.

Nurture Emails

According to the Event Success Formula report, the most successful organizations consider email the most effective channel for promoting an event. Chances are you won’t hear from people after the first event promotion email you send out. Only through continued promotion will you be able to drive registrations.

Since you will be sending out a variety of emails, here are different approaches you can take.

Early Bird Pricing: Base Forecast

Speaker Feature: HubSpot INBOUND

Video: Influitive Advocamp

You can find more exceptional event email marketing examples here.

Blogs, Social Media and Co-marketing

Similar to the launch phase of the event, you will want to promote your event through blogs, social media and co-marketing up until the event date. Don’t forget to plug promo codes where applicable.

Here’s an example of a great co-marketing image we shared for our partners at CloserIQ:

Attendee Promotion

Getting your partners to help you promote your event is one thing. But what if you could get your attendees to help you out, as well? Having a short and memorable event hashtag (see above) is one way to encourage your attendees to talk about your event, but it’s not the only one.

Depending on the event tools you are using, you may have access to a variety of features. For instance, the Bizzabo platform has two novel features that help turn your attendees into event ambassadors.

Social Media Integration: When attendees register for your event, they have the option of linking different social media accounts to their profile. Then, if they want to share anything about the event, they can easily do so from within the platform. (The entry form will even auto-populate the event hashtag).

Ticket Boost: With Ticket Boost, attendees get rewarded for promoting your event. When they register for your event and at any other time up to an end date of their choosing, attendees have the option of sharing a special link to your event on social media. If someone purchases a link through that link, the original purchaser gets a discount. Ticket Boost can also be set-up so that both the original purchaser and the new purchaser gets a discount. The choice is yours.

Click for sound

If you are not using social media integrations or Ticket Boost, there are still many other ways you can turn attendees into event ambassadors. Here are a few:

Create a special promo code for them to share and track how many times that promo code has been entered

Offer special prizes for event referrals and track those referrals over the web by assigning each attendee a specific tracking link

Encourage your attendees to share your event on social media (you can even offer a prize for the post with the most engagement)

For more info, check out these other creative tips for increasing ticket sales.

Last-minute Event Promotion

It’s often the case that there are still event registrations to sell within weeks (or days!) of the event. Fortunately, there are several tactics at your disposal for last-minute event promotion.

Email follow-up: Look through your contacts database and see if you can segment a group of likely registrants and send them an email blast. You may even want to reach out to them individually.

Paid Ad Targeting: Whether through Google Adwords, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, create a paid ads campaign that specifically targets your ideal attendee. You may want to limit this geographically, by industry, job title and other criteria.

Co-marketing (Again): If your partner's haven’t already done so, ask them to help you promote the event. Make clear how they will benefit from the additional attendees and make it as easy as possible for them to promote the event by supplying them with images and copy to share.

For more info, check out these last-minute event promotion ideas.

Confirmation Email

Once your attendee has registered for your event, send them a confirmation email. This can be sent manually, through email marketing platforms or through some event platforms.

Reminder Emails

Once your attendees are registered for the event, send them at least a couple of reminder emails at set times approaching the event day. This is especially important for smaller or free events where attendees don’t have a sizeable event registration fee to help them remember. Regardless of the event you’re throwing, you’ll want to send out a reminder email with helpful information a few days before the actual event day.

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Managing the Event

You’ve gone through all the work of getting people to your event, now it’s time to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

Welcome Email

On the day of your event, send your attendees a welcome email with helpful information. This email can include:

The venue’s address and convenient ways of getting there

Information about where to check-in

The WiFi password

A general overview of the event day

A reminder about the event app

Event App Adoption

If you’ve invested in an event app, you’re going to want your attendees to get the most out of it. You should start encouraging your attendees to download the app as soon as they register. Once they get to the event, drive home the importance of using the event app through signage and other reminders.

For more information, check out the guide to increasing event app adoption.

Monitoring Social Media

Depending on the event that you’re holding, there may be some chatter about your event on social media. Whether someone is sharing praise for a speaker, critiquing a particular session or is asking a question about the event, you’re going to want to engage with them on social media.

One way to track event chatter is by tracking the event hashtag or handle.

Event Updates

Break out session locations change, emergencies come up, people get hungry and want to know where lunch is. Email will be your stand-by for sending out event updates, but if your attendees are using an event app, you’ll be able to push notifications directly to their phone.

Ultra Early Bird Discount

It��s never too early to start promoting for next year’s event. Try offering an ultra early bird discount to attendees that expires once the event is over. You can see an example of how CoinDesk did this for their Consensus event below:

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Wrapping Up the Event

Congrats on creating a successful event! Now it’s time to make sure all of your loose ends are tied up.

Thank You Email

Send out a thank you email to your attendees and stakeholders. Your event wouldn’t have been possible without people to attend it and stakeholders to support it. Let them know that. Using email segmentation, launch an email blast for your attendees. Depending on the sophistication of your event software integrations, you may be able to fine-tune email segmentation based on ticket type, sessions attended and more.

Event Goals

You established your event for clear goals. Now it’s time to look over your event data to see how successful your event was. Whether your event KPI for the event was registrations, pipeline generated, revenue generated or simply attendee satisfaction, it’s time to dive into your event planning analytics.

If you’re using event software, you should be able to clearly visualize all of this information from the event dashboard.

Event ROI and Attribution

Whether or not ROI is your main reason for planning an event, being able to attribute tangible results to your event strategy will be key. There are a number of event ROI and attribution models for you to look into. Below is an example of the simplest model: the first-touch model.

The first-touch model attributes 100% of the credit for a new customer to the first trackable marketing material that they encountered. This likely will not be your event, but it could be marketing collateral related to your event.

Event App Analytics

If you’re using an event app, you’ll want to see how people used your app to determine whether or not it’s worth the investment. How many people downloaded your app? How many people used it? How many messages were sent? How many connections were made?

Learn more about event apps in the event apps guide.

Event Surveys

After the event you’ll want to give attendees the opportunity to speak about their experience, what they liked and what you can improve in the future. A post-event survey with open-ended questions is a great way to get this type of feedback. For more quantitative data you may want to issue an additional type of survey.

NPS Scores

Once event is complete, you’re going to want to know what attendees thought of it. The NPS (net promoter score) survey is one the best tools at your disposal.

This survey method asks one simple question: On a scale of 1-10, how likely is it that you would recommend this event to friends?

Scores of 9-10 are considered “promoters” who will act as loyal enthusiasts for your event brand.

Scores of 7-8 are “passives” who are satisfied attendees but are still vulnerable to competitive offerings.

Scores between 0-6 are considered “detractors” and run the risk of damaging your event brand through negative reviews.

The NPS is then calculated by subtracting the % of detractors from the % of promoters.

This score is a key indicator of how much value your event brought to attendees, which is something all major stakeholders will want to know.

For more information, check out this post on event metrics

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The Right Event Strategy for You

If there's one thing to takeaway from this extensive guide, it's this: your event goals are crucial to your event strategy.

Your event goals create the foundation for everything—from your promotional emails, to your event success metrics, to your event brand and more. Having concrete goals will give you an idea of how to proceed with your event strategy timeline and will help you determine the best tools for getting the job done—in 2019 and beyond.

If that means leveraging out-of-this-world event software, we’re here to help. Click the button below to connect to a product expert and discover how Bizzabo can take your event strategy to the next level.

from Cameron Jones Updates https://blog.bizzabo.com/event-strategy

0 notes

cameronwjones · 6 years

Text

Crafting the Perfect Event Strategy: Your Complete Guide

Event organizing ain’t easy. In this guide you’ll find what you need to know about the event strategy timeline—from planning an event, to promoting an event and more!

Planning the Event

Launching the Event

Promoting the Event (Coming soon!)

Managing the Event (Coming soon!)

Wrapping up the Event (Coming soon!)

Why You Need an Event Strategy

As we mentioned above, events have never been more important. According to the Event Marketing 2018: Benchmarks and Trends report, most marketers believe that events comprise the single-most important channel for accomplishing key business goals. What’s more, the most successful organizations plan on increasing their event budgets in the future, and they plan on increasing their budgets by more than the average organization.

Why? While there’s no simple answer, two trends loom large.

In-person events provide the solution.

Bottom-line: Your event strategy is critical to your organization’s growth—and it’s never been easier to tackle. Let’s dive into the how.

Planning the Event

Event Goals

Once you’ve identified a specific event goal (or goals). It’s time to make sure that they are S.M.A.R.T. That is, specific, measurable, achievable and results-oriented. For more information on setting goals, check out the SMART Event Marketing Playbook.

Event Success KPIs

Your event goals will then inform how you measure your event. Just as there are any number of event goals, so are there any number of event KPIs with which to measure them. Here's a list of some of the most popular event KPIs

Registrations

Gross revenue

Attendee satisfaction

Attendee engagement

Cost-to-revenue ratio

Number of qualified sales leads

Sales pipeline created

For a more extensive list of event metrics, check out this post on event success KPIs.

Event Budget

Next in your event strategy is determining what sort of resources you have at your disposal to make those goals a reality. It’s time to draft an event budget.

Your rough event budget could look something like this:

Item

Amount

Description

Estimated Cost

Actual Cost

Microphone

Cordless microphones, rental

$400

$600

Once you have a better idea of the particulars of the event vendors and suppliers that you’ll need you can create an advanced event budget that might look something like this:

Item

Description

Cost

Vendor

Name

Email Address

Microphone

Cordless microphones, rental

$600

Mics..com

Frederick Microphone

[email protected]

Strapped for cash? You may be interested in what Lloyed Lobo, Co-founder of Traction Conf, has to say about growth hacking an event with no budget.

Understanding your event budget will help you determine the best channels for promoting your event and the best tools for managing it.

Event Tools

Event planning is difficult. Event planning tools make everything much easier. Depending on your goals, KPIs, budget and team size you may be interested in adopting one of the below tools:

Event Registration Software

Event Planning and Analytics Software

Event Marketing Software

Mobile Event App (for attendees)

All-in-One Event Management Software (includes all of the above)

Event Branding

The critical question to ask yourself: What is the feeling that I want to convey to my attendees?

While not every brand needs to convey adventure and fun, every event should convey something. To not do so would be as remiss as not setting proper event goals.

To learn more about conveying a strong event brand, check out the event branding guide.

Event Website

Now it’s time to build your event website. This will be the literal front page of your event. In many cases, it will be the first thing that prospective attendees and stakeholders see. You will want to make sure that your event website clearly communicates the mission of your event, your brand and a call-to-action that visitors can take.Imperative here is having a strong white label URL.

Check out how GitHub nails the event website below:

You can learn more about event website design here.

Create an Event Hashtag

Research which hashtags are not yet taken and then begin promoting it on your event website, emails and other marketing materials.

Below are some examples of great event hashtags

Event Hashtag

Event

#ETL17

Event Tech Live

#INBOUND17

HubSpot Inbound

#GoogleIO

Google I/O

#smmw18

Social Media Marketing World

#df18

Dreamforce

Partner, Speaker and Sponsor Outreach

Sales Hacker, a leading publication on sales and business development, partners up with Salesforce for their Sales Machine event series. The two align closely in audience, Sales Hacker benefits from the brand pull of Salesforce and Salesforce benefits by engaging a targeted audience.

To help you out, create a list of potential stakeholders to reach out to. Include the name of the stakeholder, the type of stakeholder they would be, the reason that you are reaching out them, the name of the contact, the contact’s email address and a status on their responses. Here’s an example of what that list might look like.

Stakeholder

Stakeholder Type

Reason

Contact Name

Email Address

Status

James Bond

Speaker

Requested by many attendees

Money Penny

[email protected]

Responded

Very Cool Company

Sponsor

Aligns with product offering; expressed interest in partnerships

Cool McGee

[email protected]

Sent

Comic Sans

Media Partner

Willing to help promote the event for free tickets

Arial Sans

[email protected]

Confirmed

You can find more event partnership marketing advice here.

Launching the event

Now that all of your event infrastructure is in place, it’s time to launch your event! In this section we’ll cover all of the based you’ll need to cover for spreading the word.

Announcement Email Blast

Once your event is live, it’s time to let the world know! Send out an on-brand email with information about your event and clear call-to-action.

If you already have data on prospective attendees from other marketing efforts, segment your list for best results. (You can learn more about event data segmentation here).

Check out this great announcement email from Marketing United

For more information on getting the most out of email marketing to promote your event, read the Secret Science of Email Marketing for Live Events by clicking the button below.

Blog Posts and Contributed Content

Focus on the big picture of your event: Why is it meaningful? Why should people be excited?

Once you have a blog posts written for your home turf, consider reaching out to other publications for a contributed content, or guest posting. You may be able to secure a placement on another organization’s website either through a content exchange (wherein they write a piece for your blog in exchange) or by simply writing a high quality blog post for their blog that mentions your event in passing.

If you are working with other partners, ask them if they are willing to write a blog post about the event linking to your site or if you can write a post for them.

Contributed content is not to be confused with PR, which we’ll cover below.

For more information on leveraging content marketing to promote your event, read Cracking the Content Code by clicking the button below.

Press Releases

You may end up writing several press releases for several industries. Various press release platforms offer targeting based on industry among myriad other criteria.

If your event promotion budget is limited, consider splitting the cost of a press release with your partners or other key stakeholders.

Below is a list of PR networks. Note that different PR networks come with different price tiers and analytics functions:

Business Wire

Marketwired

PR Web

PR Newswire

SB Wire

1888PressReleases

Social Media and Co-marketing

Now that your event is live, it’s time to really start promoting it on social media. Devise clever copy and images to draw attention to your event, and post away!

Here’s a great example of a piece of collateral that features our Co-founder and CMO:

The below table gives you a rough idea of the character count for each medium:

Medium

Suggested Character Count

Twitter

140 - 280

Facebook/LinkedIn

200 - 400

Newsletter/Blog

500 - 1000

Keep in mind that organic social media can only reach so far and so you may want to consider paid social media placement.

You can find more social media event marketing wisdom here.

Stay tuned! The rest of this guide will be updated shortly.

from Cameron Jones Updates https://blog.bizzabo.com/event-strategy

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