How to Market Events Effectively?

Ben  
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Kathleen. Kathleen, welcome to the show.

Kathleen  
Hi, good to be here.

Ben  
Love it. Love it. Both of us are here in Utah. What I really love is we were just talking about the weather and it's just bonkers here today. We have snow on the ground. It's in the early May. A couple days ago, we were in like the 60s and 70s. I got a sunburn and all sorts of crazy stuff. So.

Kathleen  
and it's gonna be 80 at the end of the week.

Ben  
Yeah, exactly. It's just, it will change on a dime. So that's kind of the Utah mode. If, if you get bugged by changes in barometers and allergies and stuff, you're in for a whirlwind if you live here. So it's, it's been kind of fun to commiserate over that this morning. But Kathleen, I'm excited for the show today. I'm excited to dive in. Sorry, I got sidetracked this morning, but before we dive in, let's get to know you. So Kathleen, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you love about content and marketing. Love to get to know you and then we'll dive into the conversation.

Kathleen's Journey into Marketing

Kathleen  
Yeah, so I got into marketing in kind of a roundabout way. It was never the end plan, but I had always been pretty artistic. And I did ballet for 14 years. I wanted to be a professional dancer. And at the end of that, I'm like, maybe I don't want to have joint problems and hip problems for the rest of my life. And so I did ballet for 14 years. And I wanted to be a professional dancer. And at the end of that, I'm like, maybe I don't want to have joint problems and hip problems for the rest of my life. And so I did ballet for 14 years. And I wanted to be a professional dancer. And at the end of that, I'm like, maybe I don't want to have joint problems and hip problems for the rest of my life. And so I did ballet for 14 years. And I wanted to be a professional dancer. And at the end of that, I'm like, maybe I don't want to have joint problems and hip problems for the rest of my life. And so I did ballet for 14 years. And I wanted to be a professional dancer. And at the end of that, I'm like, maybe I don't want to have joint problems and hip problems for the rest

I'm like, okay, let's not do that. And then I tried to do a degree in fashion design. And then I'm like, geez, I mean, do I really want to be sewing things the rest of my life? That sounds awful. And then I switched to a fine art degree and I'm like, I'm going to be an artist. And then I'm like, I don't want to be covered in oil paints and chalk the rest of my life. And so I looked around my university, Westminster University. Now it was Westminster College then. But I saw there was a degree in arts administration and they had a lot of like business classes and marketing classes and that all seemed very intellectually stimulating to me. And then I just really enjoyed all the marketing classes and all the communications classes and that was just kind of it for me. I'm like, you know what? I want to go into marketing. This is enjoyable for me. So, and I don't have to be covered in paint. So it's great.

Ben  
I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, I feel like everyone has a unique journey to get into marketing and that's the beauty of it. That's why we have so many good things in marketing. I love that. So for today's conversation, I'm really excited about this. We're going to really talk about content for events. Now, a lot of times we talk about content in general and providing value and this and that.

Thinking About Content for Events

Ben  
But specifically when you're trying to fill up an event, there are tactics and strategies that can be implemented to see more success. Kathleen has a ton of experience in this area. So I'm excited to pick your brain, Kathleen, really understand what it takes to do things well in this area. But Kathleen, just to get it, you know, the ball rolling, how should I start to think about content and events and providing value? What are some of your initial thoughts in the area?

Kathleen  
Yeah, and I probably should explain this in my little intro of myself is that I do specifically marketing to get people to events. And so I have quite some time of experience, quite a bit of experience in all of this. But the first thing that I always want to take people through when they are thinking about their event, before you're even thinking about getting people to the event, think about the event and you know, what exactly is it that you were trying to sell to someone? What is that vision? I think that sometimes, you know, people have this idea of, I have this great idea for an event and everyone's going to love it. And if they, if we build it, they will come. And that's just not the case. A lot of times I worked. So I worked for Utah Symphony, Utah Opera for a while. And there's the kind of this thing in the classical music industry that there's so many people there who are just so passionate about classical music.

And they're just like, everyone should love this just as much as we do. And they don't fully understand that not everyone understands it the same way that you do. And you know, people are, their motives, motivations for coming to an event like that are very different than your motivations for coming to that event. And so I like to, you know, think, you know, take clients through an exercise and say, and ask them, what is it that you're selling? It's not a ticket. Just stop thinking of it as I'm selling a ticket and stop thinking of it as I'm selling art.

Like, which, you think about that, like, yeah, it's art, but it's kind of almost a little bit denigrating to what you do when you think of like, I'm just like selling prints of like the subway or something. You want it to be more than just that. And so one of the things that I really like to tell people is the story of Hermes. It's this luxury brand that they make the Birkin bag. And if you know anything about the Birkin bag, it can cost almost as much as a house. It's really expensive.

Ben  
Yeah.

Selling the Event Experience

Kathleen  
And you kind of just wonder like, why would anyone buy a purse that is absolutely so expensive? It's going to cost you a mortgage. Why would you do that? But I remember the CEO of the company saying something to the effect of, his name is Axel Dumas, and he had said something to the effect of, we're not selling bags, we're selling time. And he talks about the amount of time the company has been incorporated, the amount of time it takes a craftsperson to learn the skill.

And then the amount of time, it's like over 200 hours to make this bag. And this bag is timeless. It's always going to be in fashion. And he has a very good sense of what it is he's selling. He's selling time. He's not selling a bag. He's not selling just a thing. He's not just selling art. And I really encourage my clients to think about it in those terms.

Ben  
I love that, I love that. So taking those examples and translating it into an event, right? You're trying to pull out like this emotion, this experience, this value. You know, you talked about this bag where it's talking about time and they're walking you through kind of like all of the steps in the process so that when you have it, you appreciate it.

and you see the details and it's not just another bag. It's a bag that went through this entire process, right? How do you do that with events? Like how does that translate and what's your advice there?

Kathleen  
I mean, I think the best thing to do is to kind of walk through the event and figure out who's your audience, why are they coming there, what are their motivations for coming? And it can be a couple of things. Like you want to maybe consider three different personas. I generally try and encourage people to have at least three that maybe focus on just one of their major ones and the other two for different purposes. But consider who this person is. Like I remember.

Again, when I was working at the symphony, we did a focus group and there were a lot of people in there who were like, well, I like to go to the symphony. I don't know much about music, but I really like taking my kids because I think it's good for them. And, you know, the drive there is a great time for me to actually bond with them. And it's like, they kept mentioning all the stuff that happens outside of the symphony hall.

that it was we get to go to dinner and I have a teenage son who's just kind of, you know, being a teenage boy right now and I want to talk to him and get to know him better. And, you know, to think, OK, why are people coming here? And it's like maybe they want to have fun. Maybe they want to explore a new art form. Maybe they want to talk to people. Maybe they want to get to know new people and to think, OK, what is it that I am selling them? What does this event,

what value?

Does this event give to them? It's a networking opportunity. It's just really just not think of it as a very simple, like, we're selling a concert, or we are selling a networking event, or we are selling a conference. That's just so boring. No, you're selling destiny. You're selling something else. And then to think about your content in a similar way of, you know,

Ben  
I love that. I love that.

Identifying Audience and Their Motivations

Kathleen  
Okay, so let's say they are coming here because they want to build their business. It's a conference or a networking event. What does your content look like now that you know that this is someone who is an entrepreneur and trying to build their business? You tell a story to them that is, this is how you're going to use events to build your business. This is how you're going to meet new people. So.

Ben  
I love that. I think that's super smart. The ability to really discover exactly what they're actually doing there. I love your example how this mom goes to the symphony really because it's an excuse to spend time with family. And like I've seen with events, like a lot of people, it's their work vacation, you know? And some of those events do a great job saying, hey,

The events great, but here's all the other stuff you get included. Like here's the hotels that you're going to stay at. Here's the city nightlife. Here's the like all the stuff around it. It's like, and your work's going to pay for the plane ticket, you know, and they may recognize like that's some of the value they bring to the event. So when you're looking at it, you know, before we went on the podcast, you have this great kind of quote saying it's not about selling tickets about selling value.

Kathleen  
Grace.

Providing Value Beyond the Event

Ben  
So how do you balance, you know, some of those things to say, how can I provide value to the potential attendee before any of like the speeches or any of the events actually happened? How are you generating value to actually have people say, yeah, this will be worth my time.

Kathleen  
Yeah, and that's a bit of like a product question to some extent of, because I mean, sometimes I'll like, you know, work with people and they're halfway through planning their event, they just really need to get people there. But then sometimes, you know, you actually have to sit down and think of what are the other things about this event that are actually going to bring some value to people. I've noticed anytime you go to arts events outside of Utah, you know, one of the first things they do when you buy your ticket is they ask you, you know, if you want to go put in an order.

for a drink at intermission or something. And just having that tiny thing where it's like the majority of the event is the concert, but the thing that people look forward to is being able to go talk about the concert at intermission with their glass of wine. And it can just be a very simple thing of like, how do you construct this event to give people that value? And so the reason why people are going to say a symphony is not because they just want to hear classical music, which that could be true, but they're doing this more to...

you know, have an experience with other people, to have a simultaneous experience with other people, to build this community. And so designing your event in just one way of like, okay, you know what, let's give people a drink ticket. And then at one point in during the day, you can send them out to, you know, go talk to each other or have hors d 'oeuvres or, you know, have...

an icebreaker game, if it's a networking event, you get people talking to each other that wouldn't normally talk to each other. And if you know exactly what it is your event is, like the value your event is giving to people, like is this a networking thing? Then okay, we need to build in some things that will help people network. Or we need to think about our content in a way of how do we get people all talking about this on social media so that they end up talking to each other as well? Yeah.

Ben  
Yeah.

Ben  
I like that. So often when I look at events, a lot of the content is based off of last year's event. So a lot of people are really just sharing content from the previous event, trying to share emotions, things like that. What are some tips and advice where you're having an event this year? You know it's an annual event or it's going to be a recurring situation. What are some pieces of advice to say, how do I capture?

Capturing Content for Future Events

Kathleen  
Yeah, that is always a challenge. I mean, I have always found that it's very helpful to have a list ahead of time of like, okay, these are the photos that I need. These are the common pain points in the past. Like we don't have enough pictures of smiling children. So we need to figure out a way to do that. I think, you know,

Think about the people you want to bring there for free or for a discounted ticket so that they can be willing to have their photo taken. I think having models and just people who are models that are normal looking people to have a photo for that is great. Think about the people who are coming who are your biggest advocates or how you can make them your biggest advocates. And sit down with them at some of their time, even if it's before the event, after the event, and capture their reactions to it so that you can use this in video.

for future events as well. And of course, you're not gonna use every single piece of content that you have there, but anything that you can gather, whether it is reviews, whether it is video, whether it is photos or anything like that, and you can have it all in one place that you can go and pick from in a future event, that is really helpful. But yeah, having that list ahead of time, especially that values -driven list of you're not selling them the event, you're selling them the value that comes from the event.

and have that in mind when you create that list so that you can grab that content and use it for next year. Yeah.

Ben  
I love it. So a couple of things really stood out. I love this. So you're talking about also like you can almost create and gamify this. It sounds like here's your scavenger hunt. Everyone in the business that we need photos of this, this and this. We need reviews of this, this and this. And you can get everyone that's putting on the event to like really try to generate this content. And I loved how you talk about putting it in a central place. I'd love to touch on that in just a second. But

I also like that you're talking about like, hey, I'm thinking about next year. There are five influencers in our space that are really, they would be really good. I'm just going to reach out, offer them free tickets and let them come. But I'm going to ask them in exchange for this, could you sit down with us for 15 minutes and let us record the interview or something like that. And would you be willing to publish it online and whatever?

So it sounds cool, like you're using like creative techniques to leverage other people's networks and all sorts of cool stuff. So I love that strategy. So final question before we're right up against time. Once you have the content, talk to me really quickly about like the idea of like dumping it somewhere centralized so people can actually pull from it and use it.

Centralizing Content for Accessibility

Kathleen  
So this is advice that I give a lot of my clients is making sure that you have some kind of central document or space in which you can have all of your copy, all of your approved photos, all of your approved logos, sponsors, everything in one place and a place to have this information that you're not ready to give to the press and indicating it in a certain way. So I mean, I've seen it in just Word documents where they have everything, they have a.

pronunciation guide because sometimes people's names or venue names are not intuitive. I remember a touring artist coming through and just pronounce it, just butchering the name of the venue. And so it's like, you know, also having some information of like, okay, this is stuff that you need to send to your keynote speaker or your guest artist or something. Basically having everything in one place. So when people are going in there and they're like, okay, I'm going to create a Facebook event for this, they have the copy and they have,

the official title of the event, they have the SEO title of the event, they have a short bio, they have all these things. Basically everything you would need to know about this event. Where to park, how to get in there, ADA information, and then of course a place to find, like this is where you're going to find relevant video or video that you can use or photos that can help you create a graphic for this event.

And especially if you are working with a lot of people and you have like, you know, if you're doing 20 events a year, you definitely need to have a centralized location where you can access all this information and everyone knows where it is and everyone knows what can be used and what cannot be used. Yeah.

Ben  
I love that. I love that really good advice. Well, Kathleen, again, thank you so much for all the information. I've learned a ton. I'm sure everyone listening in has learned a ton. If anyone wants to connect with you and further the conversation, how do they reach out and find you online?

Kathleen

You can either find me by my website, KathleenSykes.com, Sykes, S -by -K -E -S, or you can email me at hello at KathleenSykes.com, or I'm on LinkedIn. I love to connect with anyone through LinkedIn. Yeah.

Ben  
Love it, love it. Well Kathleen again, thank you so much for all your time today.

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