How to Leverage Professional Networks When Marketing Events

While the event industry has largely completed its post-pandemic course correction, two challenges have remained consistent: burned-out teams and stretched budgets. Compounding these are increasing expectations from attendees who, according to a recent Skift report, “are taking a pass on events for a number of reasons, including flight hassles, budgetary restraints, a growing fear of mass shootings, and having little-to-no desire to venture out after becoming accustomed to remote work.” Marketing events has become increasingly more important.

Event marketers must optimize value communication to attendees while managing marketing spend, time, and budgets. For many events, the most efficient way to spread the right messaging is through word-of-mouth. 

Here’s why it works and how best to leverage your extended professional networks to get the most out of it.

1. Know Your Best Advocates

It’s not hard to understand why word-of-mouth marketing works so well. People tend to trust those in their networks to provide solid, unbiased advice. These are people with whom we share professional goals, interests, and experiences. Who better to let you know about a relevant, high-value event? The mere fact that peers in your network are going to an event can make it a valuable one to attend.

Understanding this dynamic is key to identifying who your best advocates are. The two factors to consider are 1) how much they perceive value in your event and 2) how much influence they have within your target audience.

For attendees to become advocates in the first place, they have to believe in what you’re offering. A Net Promoter Score survey shows value delivered but can make identifying high scorers difficult, especially anonymously. One way to get around that is to prompt users to share on social media upon completion of the survey. Limit the prompt to high scorers to avoid asking those with mediocre experiences to promote your event.

Because you would normally ask for an NPS rating after a given event, this strategy is more for boosting word-of-mouth marketing for your event brand over time. If you’re hosting an event for the first time or are trying to drive registrations now, analyzing your existing event community can be a good way to find your best advocates. Who are the most active in your forums or community platforms? Who engages with your brand most on social media? You will often find there is a correlation between the most active users and those with the biggest networks.

2. Engage Influencers and Market Leaders

Someone with a large enough network may warrant a platform within your event. An opportunity to boost one’s own professional profile can be a significant motivator for promoting your event within their networks.

Proactively reach out to those with interesting opinions, deep expertise, and a demonstrated disposition to share them on their networks. Offer them the opportunity to speak at your event, participate in a panel, or moderate a session. By including them in the content, you give them an extra reason to promote the event and your attendees an extra reason to come.

Speakers and even exhibitors can be promotional rockstars when it comes to word of mouth. They are highly invested in the event, renowned among your target audience, and typically very motivated to increase attendance. 

3. Use Referral Marketing Incentives

While offering someone seeking influence the chance to increase their personal brand can incentivize them to promote your event, incentives needn’t be this organic. Offering perks and rewards can be a smart way to boost your word-of-mouth spread.

Offer incentives that motivate participants without compromising the trustworthiness of their recommendations. For example, offering a modest discount to both the attendee and their referral rewards efforts without implying promotion is solely for a prize. To offer more value, structure it as a competition where anyone can win, such as “Top referrer wins an iPad” or “Exhibitor with most new registrants gets X and Y fees waived.”

4. Referral Marketing Tech

Measurement is key for long-term success in any marketing effort, whether through incentives, prompts, or social media assets.

Fortunately, a number of tools have emerged that specifically focus on word-of-mouth marketing for events. These provide event organizers with trackable social links, landing pages, custom recordings, pre-packaged copy, and performance tracking.

They also help you to recruit advocates by automating the outreach and providing data on the effectiveness of different messaging.

5. Home In on the Right Channels

Some platforms will even break down the number of shares or conversions based on the channel used (email, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.). This can not only help you to temper the copy and images you offer advocates, but it can also help you to figure out where to double down your own marketing efforts.

For example, if LinkedIn is your strongest network, prioritize sharing links there, especially if screen space is limited. Ask people to stream their registration on LinkedIn Live or base your competition on how many of their connections register.

Preferred channels may vary according to region, industry, and other demographic considerations, so it’s important to look for data that can help you to home in on the most effective platforms.

Conclusion

Event organizers can significantly boost their registrations by leveraging word-of-mouth marketing. Understanding and engaging active community members and influential industry leaders can help you gain access to valuable networks. Offering opportunities for personal brand growth and structured incentives further motivates these advocates. 

However, while referral marketing tends to be one of the more efficient tools in an event marketer’s arsenal, it does require some maintenance. Using referral marketing tools to track and optimize outreach efforts can maximize the number of people who promote the event. Event organizers can tailor their strategies to meet attendees by focusing on the most effective communication channels.

For more strategies on increasing registrations and reducing the burden on your team, contact us.