How to Amplify Your Event Through Content

At a recent Investis Digital event, we used content to deliver a 200% increase in registrations and tens of thousands of audience views to the event’s key messages after it had finished. Here we look at how content can be used to amplify your live event and the business case for doing it. 

In recent years we’ve seen significant growth in our live event work, supporting customers with webinars, financial results and capital markets days. Of course, planning and execution are critical to the success of your live event. However, we also encourage our clients to think about the reach of their event, and how we can use content to help get their message in front of a wider audience. 

After all, when you are committing both financial and human resources to an event, it makes sense to maximise the number of eyeballs that see the results. 

Pre-event content 

The content you create prior to an event is all about driving registrations and anticipation. Making use of your social media channels is crucial – whether it’s simple static graphics listing the speakers and key event details, or countdown GIFs, or more elaborate videos and animations to help grab attention, they will all help drive people to your event landing page. 

This sort of content is clearly measurable – you can see how many people have clicked through to your website and a clear conversion rate via registration numbers. Over the course of several events, you can learn what sort of content delivers the most sign-ups and optimise future campaigns accordingly. 

During-event content 

While not suitable for every event, where organisations are hosting long sessions – or even multi-day events – content can be produced during the event to help create a buzz, drive engagement with attendees on the day, and help build your follower numbers on social channels. 

During-event content might include fast-turnaround soundbites from speakers and attendees, quote cards featuring a speaker’s headshot with their most powerful quotes or even a live blog covering highlights from the day. 

Post-event content 

Arguably the most important content you can create is for after the event has finished. Video round-ups, articles and infographics distil the most valuable information for a time-poor audience that didn’t have time to attend or view the event on the day. 

Ideally, post-event content should be created so that it is not time sensitive – website content should be search-optimised so that it keeps getting views months after it’s posted, while social media assets can be repeated for several months, with each re-post delivering further return on your investment. 

Cost/benefits of content 

The first question many people will ask is, “What sort of results will I get from investing in content on top of the event itself?” The answer isn’t straightforward. Creating good-quality content is the first step – eye-catching visuals and valuable insights that reward people for giving you their time are a must.  

If you have the right content, the next factor to consider is how many people you can put that content in front of. For organic reach, the more followers your channels have on social, the more email subscribers you have and the wider network you have of partner channels who can share that content, the better your results will be.  

If you have a relatively small reach (and even if you have a lot of followers), we will always recommend some paid promotion of the content. This can be targeted on platforms such as LinkedIn to drive registrations, or to view website content after the event is finished. 

Our results 

The recent Investis Digital event referenced at the top of this article was a direct comparison between two virtual events held a year apart. The first was just an event with no additional content, while the second had pre- and post-event content with a small amount of paid promotion to boost our 12,000 organic LinkedIn following. 

The second event saw an increase in registrations from 124 to 372, a total reach on social of more than 30,000 people, over 700 engagements on social (likes, comments, clicks and shares) and more than 2,000 article views. These numbers will increase over the year as we re-post the best performing content over social media. 

Our conversation with clients is a simple one when it comes to events content. If you choose to invest significant amounts of time, effort and money into hosting an event, why not add 5-10% more and ensure the key moments from that event reach a much larger audience? 

Contact Investis Digital 

To find out more about how we can support your live events with best-in-class content, learn more about or content solutions and virtual events services. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.