Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

Here's a little excerpt from page 88 of my Facebook book ...

One of the first things we do with any new client is a marketing and advertising audit. Almost every audit proves that events aren't tracking their advertising spend to ticket sales even at the most basic level.

Here comes some compassionately brutal advice. If you're not willing to properly setup and track your Facebook advertising spend to a ticket transaction, stop using Facebook. You can't break through all the Facebook noise if you don't pay to advertise.

But paying to play (paid advertising) isn't enough. By failing to track, you're subjecting you and your event team to a plethora of unqualified opinions about what is working without the hard data to back it up.

So, it's agreed that you're going to track all your efforts on Facebook, yes? Great! Because you'll gain a massive competitive advantage and profits galore when you spend money advertising on Facebook while meticulously tracking your results.

Before we get into tracking specifics, it is important to understand some basic marketing math. What is that? It involves a few key digital media metrics and their crazy acronyms. To be successful with your social media marketing strategies, you need to have a basic working knowledge of these metrics.

With traditional media, it was very difficult to quantify the usefulness of advertisements. The beauty of digital media is that tracking effectiveness has never been easier. Facebook has a straightforward way to setup and automate your ad tracking.

Here's a simple place to start, Customer Acquisition Cost (at least the basic version of CAC).

Let's say you spend 20,000 USD cash on advertising and marketing to promote your event. You know that 1,000 people attended your event. Sorry, you can't use the grossly exaggerated attendance numbers people love to tout to calculate acquisition cost.

Remember, bad data equals bad marketing intelligence. To get your customer acquisition cost, divide $20,000 in ad spend by 1,000 paid customers. The result is $20, so your "Customer Acquisition Cost" is $20.

Your customer acquisition cost determines what you can afford to spend on advertising and marketing. If you don't spend more than $20 per person to acquire a customer, you should always stay in the black.

Another advantage of digital media is that you can turn it on and off in a matter of minutes. Hence, if an ad is not working on Facebook, you simply turn it off. The same isn't possible with television, radio, or billboard ads.

This is a very basic measuring stick when you look at it from the top down with a bird's eye view. As we come down to a ground level view, customer acquisition cost becomes very important for digital media. It becomes microscopic at the social media level. Facebook allows you to track the customer acquisition cost to a single post or advertisement.

That is where Facebook provides you with a huge advantage and it's tracking at the microscopic level.

Track & profit!

You Must Play the Game Differently
If you want to take advantage of social media, you have to play the game differently. What follows are the most common social media marketing mistakes to avoid and simple corrections you can use. The suggestions apply to any social media platform. Click below and dive on in to the 5-Part Social Media Series:

1. Putting Your Social Media Mindset Ahead of Theirs
   
   
2. Focusing Too Much on Likes & Followers
   
   
3. Trying to Engage on Too Many Social Media Platforms
   
   
4. Avoiding Paid Social Media Advertising
   
   
5. Not Measuring the Results of Your Hard Work

Here are some additional social media resources you can use to market your event:

• Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?
• Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• Social Media Comments and Your Event
• The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

"A" writes the following in response to yesterday's email on social media icon placement ...

-------

hi - what if you consider that social media helps with awareness, but actual ticket sales do not reflect a click from a social media link

old school example - you have to advertise for months in magazines before there can be increase in sales attributed to magazine ads
continual subliminal and overt messaging on the subject

in this case the show that you want people to attend.
perhaps people click on the social media for more info
and then later to the website to buy tickets

good thoughts, good health!

A

-------

Thanks for reply "A!"

Good question on awareness in regards to social, including your "old school" example. The difficulty of "awareness" campaigns is that how do you measure effectiveness without tracking a specific action? Without some variable or valuation, it almost becomes arbitrary and subjective.

Thus, have a measurable call to action / tracking method in every single marketing and advertising piece in the marketplace.

There are tracking options for every medium, e.g. promo codes, unique URL, unique link on a URL, telephone number, etc. Most of the previous methods tracking methods are offered as part of automated services.

In the case of your magazine ad example, use a unique domain name for that specific magazine.

At the end of your magazine ad run, you can create a report and see how much traffic was generated by a unique domain name, promo code, link, telephone number, etc.

Let me know if the above helps.

Here are some additional social media resources you can use to market your event:

• Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?
• Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• Social Media Comments and Your Event
• The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

Today was a fascinating "kick in the head" kind of day. It was a day where government X was supposed to give updates on a set of federal regulations. The information was scheduled to be shared via an online meeting. The particulars of the information impacts thousands of individuals and businesses. Including, the guy writing this email.

About five minutes before the scheduled meeting start time, I logged in and entered my password. After that, meeting attendees are met with a "waiting for organizer to start the session" message.

At the 10-minute mark, I decided to call into the backup audio line. Then, more waiting and no action. Finally, after about 15 minutes, I started to make some telephone calls.

By now, you've probably guessed that the meeting was cancelled. And you are correct.

When I finally spoke with one of the organizers about the meeting, their response was, "we posted to Facebook that the meeting was postponed." Mind you; the post was published 13 minutes after the meeting's scheduled start time. And the post was made on a completely unrelated Facebook page.

Why am I bringing the above to your attention?

Should your event be postponed or canceled, you need to use multiple modalities to update your attendees, in short order! These modalities include but are not limited to your event webpage, all your event's social media channels, and contact lists. Depending on the size of your event, you might want to include local media outlets.

Here's one last crucial point. If something changes about your event. Please make sure that you let your attendees know first.

Attendees (especially ticket holders) finding out issues regarding your event from other sources diminishes trust and credibility with your customers moving forward.

Here are some additional social media resources you can use to market your event:

• Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?
• Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• Social Media Comments and Your Event
• The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

The greatest thing about social media is that it’s absolutely FREE. However, the worst thing about social media is also that it’s FREE. Being able to post anything about your event doesn’t mean that you should post everything. This issue is becoming progressively worse in both the personal and professional spheres. The worst transgressors are those people who post constantly post content, just to post.


Have you ever blocked any friends because of their annoying Facebook posts? e.g., Those posts about politics (regardless of which side they’re on). If so, you’re really going to understand the context here… Too much social media has become a SPAM fest, especially for events! For some events, it’s a contest of “How much random stuff can we post about our event in the shortest amount of time?” This will turn your prospective attendees off and make them ignore you. If you’re always posting subpar information, are people going to pay attention when you have something important to say? Probably not!

At an annual event convention, I attend every year, there is at least one dedicated education session on social media. The social media sessions are one of the most attended sessions at the convention.

One year at one of the social media marketing sessions, a woman by the name of Kerry Ward the single best social media marketing tip anyone could adopt: “If you do anything with social media make sure you track the effectiveness of your efforts.” Some people take issues with such simple advice. The irony is that not only is the advice simple, it is also amazingly powerful!

Here’s the thing about social media: It is a double-edged sword.

The best part about social media is that it is free. The worst part about social media is that it is free. You can post as much content as you want to your Facebook page at no charge. The challenge is that most people and businesses on Facebook are also posting free content. All this free content results in mountains of content for Facebook to distribute to users. So how does Facebook deal with all that content?

Here’s a very common question regarding promoting one’s event and social media … "Which social media platform should I focus on: Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter?" The previous question is made even more complicated by new platforms constantly launching. Allow me to make a strong and straightforward recommendation. Want to know what the single greatest social media platform is for your event? Facebook! Yes, even in spite of Facebook's recent criticism and issues regarding Cambridge Analytica. I'm a firm believer that user privacy is paramount!

After reading the title, you are probably thinking to yourself, “how the heck is focusing on social media likes and followers a bad thing?”


Two arbitrary scoring methods people love to brag about on social media are likes and followers. How often have you heard or thought to yourself: “Did you see how many likes that post received?” or “Wow, their Facebook page has an astronomical number of followers, I wish we had those numbers!” Far too many social media efforts focus on getting the maximum number of likes and followers. On the surface, this seems like the perfectly logical thing to do. However, here’s why it is a GIANT red-herring:

Please consider the following question: When you go on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your social media platform of choice do you do so with the idea that you are going to be productive? Most likely not!

People do not go on social media to think. They go on social media to be entertained and engaged. People want to see what their family and friends are doing, watch funny animal videos, or the latest rant of a friend who disagrees with their politics.

Social media is an escape hatch, so your efforts to market an event are competing with family, friends, and escapism. You need to cut through the noise.

Social media, regardless of whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat, is not a marketing strategy. It’s a tool in your marketing toolbox. Furthermore, posting a bunch of content on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter probably won’t compel people to attend your event. Do these ideas sound radical? Even going against the grain? They are, and they do.

What Truly Matters to You and Your Event?
Please understand I am not against social media. However, it’s essential not to confuse posting social content with results that matter like ticket sales and attendance at your event. There are far too many people that work tirelessly to post great content on social media without getting the results they deserve.

Most Are Missing the Mark!
Bottom line? Almost everything you have been told about how to do “social media marketing” is wrong. It’s not your fault. The bad advice goes well beyond the event industry. It is everywhere — and here’s why.

Two HUGE reasons why people don’t show up to your event are either because they’re not interested or they don’t know about your event. Hence, the problem could be either market research or event promotion. In my opinion, it’s far easier to “get away with” an event promotion problem. Here’s why . . . No event organizer has enough money to change people’s minds.

Let me give you an example that’s close to my heart. If someone doesn’t like the band Van Halen, I don’t have enough advertising budget to change people’s minds. The same applied to event organizers. That’s why knowing the wants, needs, and desire of your event attendees is crucially important. If you create an event that people REALLY want to attend, it becomes much easier to sell advance sale tickets and pack your event.

Yesterday, I made a brief stop at my local Barnes & Noble to check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, “The Thank You Economy.” Gary is one of my favorite social media experts. I give him a ton of credit because his wisdom comes from experience, NOT just book smarts.

These days the Internet is full of “marketing experts” and “Internet gurus” who are great at regurgitating info, but when it REALLY matters - can’t deliver results. I digress . . .

During a quick scan of the “The Thank You Economy,” there was a series of bullet points that jumped out at me. The bullet points addressed mistakes that companies make with their social media efforts.

Here are Gary Vaynerchuk’s - "Biggest Mistakes Companies Make with Social Media":

For all the things that can be done with social media, there is one significant downside . . . once you start you cannot stop. My intention here isn't to dissuade you, but make you aware of what's needed to promote your event with social media. In today's information hungry world you can't afford to stop producing high quality RELEVANT content. People expect information and your competition will pray upon any passivity.

Watch the video below. It expounds some very important points on social media marketing . . .

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, "What exactly am I getting from my social media efforts?" As with any marketing endeavor, you should always measure for a specific result. You cannot afford to confuse activity with productivity.

Lots of Updates with Zero Results
Recently, the topic of social media effectiveness came up with a Canadian event organizer. The event committee is fortunate enough to have a volunteer to manage their social media promotion strategy. Their Twitter and Facebook accounts are currently being updated on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. For all the hard work being done, a look at Google Analytics for the last 30 days shows no referring traffic from Twitter or Facebook. Some people might argue that social media is all about goodwill and branding. Unfortunately it's difficult to directly tie branding and goodwill to something substantive.

If you’re using Facebook to market your event there are a few important things to understand. First off - like any marketing or advertising medium, Facebook has both positives and negatives. Disclaimer: I’m NOT on the crazy train that thinks Facebook can instantly fix every event marketing challenge. But, I do firmly believe Facebook is here to stay. Thus, event organizers should understand how to use it to their advantage.

Facebook versus Google
These days there seems to be a ton of press attention on the Google versus Facebook War for World Internet Domination. What you need to understand is how the two services differ from one another . . .

Social Media in Event Marketing is a double edged sword . . . It can be either a tremendous event promotion asset or a potential public relations disaster.

Here's a tenet to follow when it comes to social media and your event marketing . . . Be very honest with the online information regarding you event! It doesn’t matter if the information is on your own event web site, Facebook, Twitter, or a newspaper interview. People are keeping an eye on you. Let me give you a specific example I found online a few month ago . . .  It revolves around a post-event article in a local newspaper.

During a recent coaching call someone asked, "Can I use social media sites to broadcast Insider Information regarding my event?" The simple answer is, "Yeah, absolutely!" But, the more important question is, "Do you want to?" Consider the following . . .
 
Insider Info, Social Media, and Email Marketing
To me "Insider Information" is exactly as it reads "Insider" - hence it should be kept confidential.  Better yet, think of "Insider Info" as a secret. As you know, most people want to know a secret. You can use that "Wanna Know a Secret?" frame to your advantage . . . especially when it comes to list building.

If you were to broadcast "Insider Info" on your Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter accounts - is the info really privileged anymore? Personally I don't think so. Because emails are a one-on-one communication form, things are inherently confidential.

Last month I attended the International Council of Air Show's annual convention in Las Vegas. The convention is the air show industry's annual get together to share ideas and plan for the upcoming air show season. During the convention's marketing seminars there was significant discussion regarding social media. Seminar participants and presenters were jumping up and down expounding the marketing virtues of using social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.

Here's my rub . . . when pressed, not one Twitter proponent in the could cite a bottom line result for all their efforts. Perhaps it's that I've been spending way too much time in the direct response world, or maybe I'm just getting jaded on all the social media hoopla . . .   But before you jump on the social media crazy train, take a moment to find out if social media is actually helping your event marketing efforts.

This was originally published in 2009, but the main question still persists ... "is social media getting too noisy?"

The other day I went to lunch with my good friend Todd.  After lunch (and the ensuing food coma), we stumbled back to Todd’s office for a few minutes.  While at Todd’s office, I had him log into Facebook account to show some interesting photos from the weekend. 

During our brief Facebook session the topic of “How many Facebook friends could one person possibly have?” was discussed.  I told Todd that I’ve seen some high Facebook friend numbers before - people with over a thousands friends. Yet Todd knows someone with the highest number of Facebook friends I’ve ever seen – 2,157 (note: April 2009)!

After leaving Todd’s office, I had to ask myself “How many friends are too many friends?” The more friends you have on Facebook the more requests, status updates, and messages you’ll get on your account.  Don't forget all paid advertising getting thrown into the mix.

Social Media can be a virtue or a vice for event organizers.  On the positive front, event organizers can interact with their target market like never before.  You can use target market interaction and feedback to build a better event.  On the negative side, social media can be used to leave disparaging comments about your event.  In some cases the comments might not be true or misrepresent your event.  Even worse, negative comments about your event can show up on web sites that you have no editorial control over. If comments appear on a popular web site (a local news agency web site) they will probably get indexed into the search engines. Today people are apt to read something online and take it as fact without checking the facts.

Below you will find some suggestions on dealing with social media comments regarding your event.