{"id":1684,"date":"2020-01-29T09:50:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T09:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2022-07-05T10:59:38","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T08:59:38","slug":"how-to-build-an-event-marketing-plan-template","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/how-to-build-an-event-marketing-plan-template","title":{"rendered":"How to Build an Event Marketing Plan Template"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We all need a spot of guidance from time to time. Most organisers appreciate the use of a schedule to keep everything on track. And if there is one function that really benefits from a degree of structure, it\u2019s marketing.<\/p>\n<p>You could spend thousands on <strong>promoting your event<\/strong> and still end up with an empty venue. Without a set of goals to follow, and a rough idea of how to achieve them, you could be setting yourself up for a fall.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s for that reason <strong>why you need an event marketing plan template<\/strong>. This should contain questions that apply to any type of gathering, from a conference to a private meeting. So long as you\u2019ve filled in each box, your staff will always have something to refer back to when building publicity and sales.<\/p>\n<h2>What goes into an event marketing plan template?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1687 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/marketing-plan.png\" alt=\"-\" width=\"701\" height=\"368\" title=\"-\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/marketing-plan.png 1080w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/marketing-plan-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/marketing-plan-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/marketing-plan-114x60.png 114w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>The basics<\/h3>\n<p>When building your blank canvas, it always pays to start with the obvious questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are our goals? &#8211; E.g \u201csell 1,000 tickets per month\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Who are our target audience?<\/li>\n<li>Why do they attend our event?<\/li>\n<li>What is our core messaging?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The idea behind all four questions is to remind people why you\u2019re here and what you\u2019re trying to achieve. It sounds easy, but too many events try and be everything to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s say I\u2019m organising a <strong>networking event<\/strong> for SEO professionals. People will buy a ticket because they want to meet others in their industry. Thus, my messaging should be around connecting people and generating ROI.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-607\" src=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/eventscase-crm-whitepaper-ebook-300x170.png\" alt=\"event marketing crm\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" title=\"-\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/eventscase-crm-whitepaper-ebook-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/eventscase-crm-whitepaper-ebook-768x436.png 768w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/eventscase-crm-whitepaper-ebook-1109x630.png 1109w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/eventscase-crm-whitepaper-ebook-106x60.png 106w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn\" href=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/download-whitepapers\">&#8220;The role of CRM within the events business&#8221; Whitepaper<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>The channels<\/h3>\n<p>The next inclusion for your event marketing plan template is a list of channels and a strategy for each.<\/p>\n<p>If I were to promote my SEO networking event, I\u2019d probably want to allocate a share of my time towards advertising on Linkedin. I\u2019d also be looking into any forums and publications that search engine experts would head to for insight. If my event were big enough (2,000+ attendees), I might even want to consider targeted display advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, you don\u2019t have to make a plan for every channel. Some events will target just a few, ignoring anything that doesn\u2019t hit the mark.<\/p>\n<h3>The budget<\/h3>\n<p>In terms of overall spend, you should study any previous budgets and get advice before creating a figure. Some events can dedicate up to 50% of their overall <strong>costs to marketing<\/strong>. However, this will vary on the size of your event, as bigger gatherings tend to require more promotion.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1689 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/event-marketing-budget.png\" alt=\"-\" width=\"701\" height=\"368\" title=\"-\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/event-marketing-budget.png 1200w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/event-marketing-budget-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/event-marketing-budget-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/event-marketing-budget-114x60.png 114w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After deciding on an overall figure, you should assign a rough amount to each channel. Some organisers hate overspending. But if you see that one channel is driving more sales than another, you should be willing to shift more money to the high-performing campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>The questions for your <a href=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/the-biggest-changes-to-your-event-marketing-plan-in-2020\">event marketing<\/a> plan template should be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is our budget?<\/li>\n<li>What is the weighting of spend between channels?<\/li>\n<li>How do we measure ROI channel by channel?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Plan of activation<\/h3>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve outlined your audience, message, channels and spend, you can start to finalise what is arguably the hardest step: <strong>your marketing plan<\/strong>. This should give a detailed account of what is happening and when, down to key messaging on your channels.<\/p>\n<p>Try a weekly schedule for your smaller events and a monthly plan for anything bigger. You can always add new elements as you go along, but it helps to have a base to work off.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1688 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/planning-marketing-for-events.png\" alt=\"-\" width=\"701\" height=\"385\" title=\"-\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/planning-marketing-for-events.png 1080w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/planning-marketing-for-events-300x165.png 300w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/planning-marketing-for-events-1147x630.png 1147w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/planning-marketing-for-events-768x422.png 768w, https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/planning-marketing-for-events-109x60.png 109w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019d like to copy our <strong>event marketing plan template<\/strong>, the questions are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are our goals?<\/li>\n<li>Who are our target audience?<\/li>\n<li>Why do they attend our event?<\/li>\n<li>What is our core messaging?<\/li>\n<li>What channels are we using and what is our strategy for each?<\/li>\n<li>What is our budget?<\/li>\n<li>What is the weighting of spend between channels?<\/li>\n<li>How do we measure ROI channel by channel?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>Need more advice on marketing your event? Head to our piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/event-marketing-ideas-mastering-promotion-via-social-media\">\u201cmastering promotion via social media\u201d<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/free-trial\/EN?utm_source=eventscasecomblog&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=post1684\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1500 \" src=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/eventscase-products.png\" alt=\"event marketing\" width=\"400\" height=\"200\" title=\"-\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn\" href=\"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/free-trial\/EN?utm_source=eventscasecomblog&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=post1684\" rel=\"nofollow\">FREE 14-day TRIAL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all need a spot of guidance from time to time. Most organisers appreciate the use of a schedule to keep everything on track. And &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,8],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions\/1686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventscase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}