How to Spread Influence to Build Event Attendance

Over the years, those dabbling in the event industry have realised that one of the most efficient strategies to promote events has been using influencers to spread the word about the event within their networks. In recent times, with the snowball effect gaining steady popularity, the importance of word-of-mouth has amplified. And this has put the influential power in the hands of the organisers rather than simply limiting it to a select few with followers and dominance on social media platforms.

Here are some tips on how an event-related crew can pull audience to their event.

Boosting returns with influencers

Social media, an ever-evolving phenomenon, is gradually shifting the balance of power between customers and brands. Recent studies show that as many as 92% consumers trust recommendations while 33% rely on advertising. Thus, using influencers who have the ability to influence consumer behaviour or opinions is a go-to option for sure. Influencer marketing not only creates buzz and awareness about your products and services but also quite successfully converts them into visible returns.
But, then having an influencer/s and having them promote your offerings will cost a lot of money and ROI is not necessarily guaranteed. In the past, when event organizers opted for an influencer marketing strategy it ensued factors such as sending out one-off emails from speakers, exhibitors and other influencers to prospective attendees. But, there was no way to track the results of those initiatives. Thus, the snowball effect was born, which was designed exclusively for organisers and planners where people working on the event, first-hand, could spread the word in their networks.

Creating a snowball effect:

As evident is the fact that the sky is blue and the trees are green, ours is a society that is socially-oriented, and this opens up a plethora of influencer opportunities at events. Organisers and event planners have the upper hand as they can reach a much larger audience by having speakers and exhibitors share information about their event. On the other hand, big brands usually rely on celebrities, basically the big names. A socially-oriented society likes to share what their interests are, what they are doing, etc., and influencers are very much a part of this society. So when they share links, info, pictures and more within their network to share their experience, build credibility or leverage the power of FOMO (fear of missing out), it turns out to be a win-win situation.

What’s more? If the organiser gives these influencers a tool that helps them spread the word in a more lucrative fashion, then a robust community steadily builds around the event.

How technology works in influencer marketing

Technology available in the domain of influencer marketing is highly automated and affordable. All an organiser or a planner has to do is fill an Excel spreadsheet and then leave it to the tech world to handle the reach and content creation bits. From getting in touch with influencers, generating fully customisable landing pages for them, sharing content that influencers can then share on their pages, all small and big things are minutely tracked. This frees the planners from the smaller hassles and allows them to concentrate on the more pivotal things like conversion rates and outcomes from the influencer marketing activity.
What lies ahead…

While emails do remain at the top of the list of promotion strategies, organisers must take note of how wonderfully word-of-mouth and the power of influencer community can work. By leveraging the power of this fast-growing community, organisers can increase their registrations and tap into a section of the audience they were earlier unable to tap or, even worse, didn’t know existed.