Boost Sales at each stage of the event marketing funnel

Events are a critical part of your marketing strategy. Online events, hybrid events, and in-person events are critical drivers of campaign success. Whether you are using your event marketing channel to promote brand awareness or to drive sales for your business, events can be a powerful marketing tool.

Naturally, ticket sales and attendance are drivers for marketing success. But, there are many other opportunities to take advantage of the event marketing funnel.

Considering the amount of effort that goes into running a successful event, your event team needs to ensure that the event marketing funnel is designed to effectively capture, nurture and convert leads.

Not sure where to start? To tackle this, first map out your event marketing funnel and then define how to nurture, warm up and convert leads at every stage of the funnel.

Your Event Marketing Funnel

Like any marketing campaign, your event marketing channel campaign will rely on a funnel. A marketing funnel will move potential customers from point A to point B. Point A is the inquiry stage, where they are looking for a solution. Point B is making a purchase from your company.

The sales funnel is dependent on several factors, including:

• your target audience
• the pain points that need to be resolved
• your marketing and brand goals

A successful funnel is one that turns potential customers into actual customers. This success happens when all of the stages link up and make sense for the overall marketing goals. By mapping out the marketing funnel stages, you can then more effectively move registrants towards becoming active event participants.

What does this look like in practical terms? Most event brands will have an event landing page directing potential customers to the event registration page, where they can then sign up. Even though an event technically captures leads by getting attendees to register, it is still important that these registrants actually attend the event .

Even then, if your event goal is to increase sales for a certain product, getting people to sign up for and attend your event is only a first step. To further nurture potential buyers, they should be encouraged to actively participate in the event, for example by signing up for sessions, answering polls and interacting with exhibitors. Not only does engaging with event content educate them about your brand, you'll also gather additional data about their pain points and challenges.

Mapping Every Marketing Funnel Stage

Let's explore how you can clearly define each stage of your event marketing funnel. 

The typical funnel stages are:

1. TOFU = Top of the Funnel (Awareness)

2. MOFU = Middle of the Funnel (Consideration)

3. BOFU = Bottom of the Funnel (Conversion)

Creating Content for Each Stage of the Marketing Funnel

Let's consider the four stages of the funnel in more detail. Many funnels are divided into the Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) stages.  

Each stage is organized by user intent:

• Top of funnel: This is the awareness stage. Whether your leads are entering your funnel through social media event announcements, your website, or an event landing page, make sure that you have clear Calls to Action (CTAs) that get the website visitor to sign up for the intended response.
• Middle of the funnel: Marketers call this the consideration stage of the customer journey. Your prospective customer is intrigued, but not yet purchasing. Educate them about your event agenda, keynote speakers, special offers and celebrity attendees with a dedicated email campaign that builds excitement as the event approaches.
• Funnel/Sales completion: Now you have completed the sale or conversion. Typically this means that your audience is going through the sales process. If getting attendees to buy event tickets or register is your main goal, you need to cross-reference your CRM with your in-person, hybrid or virtual event platform to push leads through in real time for a faster follow-up.

With the right tools in place, you will be able to warm up your leads at every stage of the funnel. Even if customers drop off, you can still align them with your marketing campaign and overall brand goals at a later time.

A Personalized and Omni-Channel Marketing Funnel

Not every lead is in-market for your product and ready to convert. If a lead is not ready to buy, enroll them into an email nurturing program and try to recapture them at a later stage. Integrating your leads with a CRM will help you stay on top of this.

Platforms like Accelevents offer native integrations with marketing automation platforms like Marketo, Salesforce, and HubSpot, so you can sync lead information from your registration form to your CRM in real time.

Collecting in-depth analytics such as registration, attendance and session participation via your event platform helps create personalized email marketing campaigns and turn your event marketing funnel into an omni-channel marketing funnel.

Best Strategies to Boost Sales at the Action Stage

Integrated event marketing strategies are key to boosting sales at each stage of the funnel.

Consider the following when trying to boost registration and ticket sales:

Content Marketing:

Content marketing strategies like blogging or putting out podcast content are useful ways to build brand and consumer awareness. Your content strategy should follow a regular posting and publishing cadence. Distribute content such as event teasers on social media platforms or your website and lead visitors to your event landing page.

Paid or Pay-Per-Click Advertising:

This is a great way to boost event sales. However, if you do this, you will need to allocate more money to your marketing budget. Google Ads can be expensive. It can be a little more cost-effective to run ads on niche sites that share your target audience.

Social Media Marketing and Influencer Marketing

Social media campaigns can boost brand awareness and encourage your target audience to sign up at your virtual or hybrid event.

Event Marketing Funnel Strategies and Your Event Platform

When it comes to deploying an event marketing funnel strategy, ensure that each funnel stage speaks to your target audience.

- Keep your event page on brand to attract visitors and build trust. Event landing page design is a key factor in branding.

- Be sure to position clear CTAs on your event page and make the registration form prominent and easily accessible.

- Integrating lead capture tools with your CRM will accelerate the lead management process, ensuring a faster, more effective follow-up by sales and marketing teams.

Conclusion

Your event is a major part of your marketing toolkit. Take advantage of the event conversion funnel and the marketing potential it creates.

By tapping into each stage of your event marketing funnel, you will be able to nurture leads more effectively and ultimately, boost sales and ROI. Choosing a comprehensive in-person, hybrid, and virtual event platform like Accelevents can simplify this process.

With Accelevents, you can create an optimized event website, build and send branded emails, integrate with your chosen CRM or email campaign platform and your social media channels, and capture attendee data to maximize insights into your lead capture process. Get in touch today and let us help you achieve your event growth goals!