In
online event planning, your two best
friends are your social network of
humans and the search engines. You
can't possibly pull this thing off
unless both are wound into the plan
- and it should be pretty clear why.
If you stick with search engine
tricks alone, you'll find that your
website begins to pull some rank on
Google because you've driven those
search words via the major marketing
generation methods... but there's an
absence of life at the point of
contact. That's no good.
If you concentrate solely on your
human network but fail to tap the
engine power, you'll get a small
group of excited parties all sitting
in a closed circle and blinking at
each other. I guess small and
intimate isn't terrible, but we're
talking about an online event here
and that phrase connotes BIG. So,
use search engine optimization AND
word of mouth to spread it far and
wide.
Let's
talk about the ways you can
viral-market your internet promotion
and blast it out there in a short
period of time.
1. Article marketing.
Article marketing is at the heart of
every great marketing effort. Don't
get me wrong - blogging is instant
entertainment, but if you want
credibility, then write potent,
info-rich articles or have someone
write them for you. Your articles
are going to get picked up and added
to other people's websites, so
you'll want to mention the event
name and the URL to the event
website in each one that you write
for your promotional effort. Submit
your article to as many article
directories as possible but beware
the No Advertising Rule! If these
guys catch you being too promotional
your article will get the shaft and
there goes your big article
marketing Event Master Blaster Plan.
2. Networking.
Don't even attempt online event
planning unless you already have a
solid online network of marketing
colleagues in place. Your friends
are the ones who already love you,
admire you, will listen to what you
say and join in for the group
project. Very few "random finds" on
the web will just catch wind of your
Pied Piper event promotion tune and
start following along (but when they
do, it's really cool). You'll want
your network topic to be themed
around your event. So, if yours is a
Kids' Artwork Show with a portion of
the proceeds going to a children's
hospital, then your network should
ideally be for work-at-home moms and
parents. DON'T promote your event on
a network of unrelated subject
matter. That's a great way to drive
people away completely!
3. Landing page and email drip
campaign.
Your landing page should be
accessible from your articles and
other "outreaching" content
vehicles. When your reader clicks
the link, he should be "hard sold"
on why this is going to be
fantastic, what's in it for him, and
compelled to drop his name in the
box. Your email subscriber base
should continue to grow throughout
the event's developments. Use it as
a megaphone to 'rally the team',
send updates, and guide others to
help spread the word and click the
links to your blog, articles, ebooks
and other web traffic helpers.
Frequently tell the team what
they'll get out of this. Offer them
gifts. Without an incentive, nobody
will want to be your groupie and I
for one wouldn't blame them in the
least.
4. Blogging.
Blogs get indexed quickly! If you
want your mass event to power up the
Google ladder, then choose a blog
hosting company that will "help you
along." TypePad has been working
well for me. Fill your blog with
categorized keywords and turn your
"major search term" (the name of
your holiday) into something that
will ring a bell and prompt folks to
start typing into the Google box out
of sheer curiosity. Your blog should
contain plenty of links that "point"
to your hot pages; for example, any
fun contests or activity pages you
plan to run, your articles. Include
your landing page at the end of
every post. This will lend
clarification for the confused who
just landed from outer space and
also "grab" them for the email list.
Your blog should be highly
interactive. Initiate discussions;
blast out participants and
supporters by linking to their
websites. Make your blog sticky, and
offer plenty of reciprocal links as
incentive to keep watching your
show.
5. Web PR.
Web PR is needed so those RSS feeds
can sound off your news to the mass
communication circuit online. Just
like article marketing and blogs,
you'll want to include the name of
your event frequently (about three
times per press release) so that the
search term will get carried along
on those content feeds and bring you
higher up on Google. Think of that
web surfer, glazing over your press
release and reading a term like "Web
Content Awareness Day" multiple
times. It sinks in somehow. Later,
when he stumbles across you again,
suddenly he's compelled to hunt for
more info and he types those words
into the search box. That's how the
momentum keeps building and it's a
great reason to submit to free PR
sites.
6. E-Books.
E-books are super-vitamins for your
website's page rank. When people
open up your info-laden PDF file,
that counts as a page view. Page
views give you a push in the search
engine hierarchy. So DO give away
free information. Link to your free
downloadable e-book from your blog,
from your group emails, from your
network posts and from your "main
holiday website" after you launch
it. Encourage friends to pass your
e-book along to keep the page views
coming. Links in your e-book should
point back to... guess where? Your
blog and your landing page. Are you
getting a feel for how all this
content is connected?
7. Your
Big Yap.
Huh? I'm talking about word of
mouth. Don't forget to USE YOUR
VOICE in all of your event promotion
materials. So many people forget to
"speak to their audience" in their
marketing, and every time I see it I
want to slap myself silly. Don't
just plunk a link or a photo down
and think people will click it.
There's so much going on out there,
you need to be heard. I'm not just
saying that because I'm a copywriter
and I love words. Clear, simple,
compelling communication is crucial.
Don't be afraid to tell your reader
what to do. And ALWAYS tell him what
he gets out of it, always!
As you can see, it takes some
knowledge of cohesive internet
marketing to be able to manipulate
the search engines while getting
folks excited about your big
jamboree.
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