You've got an event coming up... now what?, Freddy Dobinson

Every advantage should be squeezed from every marketing dollar (pound) spent.

One way to do this is to create content in line and deliberately linked to the event you are attending, hosting, speaking at or sponsoring.

When it comes to events the key to successful planning is getting your team involved - and doing it early. Delegating tasks and creating ownership will enable you to focus on maximising return on investment.

Using the framework below you can decide which of your colleagues are going to contribute to each activity. This is a simple and repeatable process for identifying your key targets (whether clients or prospects) and how to drive engagement with them.

Make sure it is clear who is executing each step.

STEP 1: IDENTIFY (YOUR TARGETS)

Who are you trying to influence? Keynote speakers, delegates, other vendors - write them down and map out their interests/challenges. Most events will profile their speakers, making your job in cherry picking relatively straightforward...

STEP 2: SUGGEST (WITH REASON)

The lead into the event is a great window to do some research. Whilst some might be hesitant, social stalking can provide excellent insight into your targets' interests and indicate business challenges. Run their name through Google, look them up on LinkedIn & Twitter and check out the latest news about their company.

Essentially you are looking for an opportunity to create a post that establishes reciprocity. In doing so you are adding value to the conversation by bringing in your expertise around a topic of mutual interest.

Once you find a topic of relevance, share this with your subject matter experts to draw in their insights.

STEP 3: CREATE (DELIBERATELY)

There are a number of different ways to influence your clients and prospects. We are not saying content is the 'silver bullet', but it can certainly open doors for yourself and wider team. Before the event, co-authoring an insight with your peers can be a great way of owning the conversation online.

STEP 4: SHARE THE CONTENT (STRATEGICALLY)

Before you have even published the post determine where, how, and who is sharing the content. Utilise the networks of your well-connected employees to get the content to market and in front of the right people.

BEFORE THE EVENT - where your identified targets are concerned, is it relevant to namecheck them when sharing online (you can do this on both LinkedIn & Twitter)? Picking the content up and sharing 1-2-1 is still an incredibly powerful form of engagement. Not many other vendors will be sharing highly relevant content which is focused around the interests/challenges of the individual.

AT EVENT - share your insight using the event # to maximise distribution and influence. Tweetdeck is a useful tool for monitoring the conversations happening across Twitter about the event - you can decide if you want to bring your content into the conversation.

AFTER EVENT FOLLOW UP - For the contacts you met, share your content 1-2-1 with a personalised note. Top Tip: on their business card write down a key fact, something they were interested in, or a challenge they expressed.

For those that you did not meet, a post-event newsletter is a great way to package up and redistribute your insights with your target audience.

TRACKING THE FEEDBACK

Predetermine how you will track and record success. This might be meetings booked, opportunities created, resulting revenue, just make sure the process is mapped out and agreed. This will enable you to review performance and improve the process for your next event.