These days, the journey they take from first contact to registration is diverse, chaotic and unique to the individual – all thanks to social media. With Internet users having access to so many different channels and being able to choose when and where they take action, it can be difficult to map out the visitor registration journey your target audience will take. While some people find this challenging, we find this exhilarating.
Before exploring how your visitor registration journey needs to adapt, let’s take a closer look at how things have changed.
“With Internet users having access to so many different channels and being able to choose when and where they take action, it can be difficult to map out the path your target audience will take.“
Meet Joe, he’s an electrical engineer in the automotive industry.
He attends events regularly to keep up to date on the latest industry advances and to source new suppliers and technology.
He’s been in the industry for about 25 years now.
Back when he was starting out he used to follow the below visitor registration journey:
This simple advertising to registration journey made it very easy for marketers to reach a target audience with the right message to generate registrations.
Here’s an example:
And here’s another example:
Creating a visitor registration journey that works
While catering to a wide range of visitor registration journeys may take a bit more thought and a lot more work, it is certainly possible to do. Here’s how to do it:
- Start with a broad strategy – With so many channels available to potential visitors and their ability to switch from one to the other without notice, it is important to start with a broad strategy that includes all of the main channels.
- Keep your strategy agile – Don’t go overboard with ads on each channel because not all channels will hold equal weight. Once you start to see results, you’ll know better which channels will generate the most registrations. Use this information to make sure your budget is being spent in the smartest way possible by taking budget from underperforming ads and channels, and moving it to the better performing ones.
- Tailor your ads to the channel – Something that often trips up event marketers is that people use different channels for different things. Facebook is all about being social, Twitter is about news and current events, and LinkedIn is about business. Tailor your ad content to each channel to make sure it speaks to your audience in a way that matches their mindset.
- Use pixels – Different people are interested in different aspects of your event. Adding pixels (pretty much all advertising platforms have their own) to your website will allow you to advertise to people who have visited your website. There are a few smart ways to use pixels, including:
- Target potential visitors who visited your website but weren’t ready to register yet.
- Tailor your ads to the specific pages people visited – If people visited your speakers page, give them more detail on what they will speak about, announce new speakers or remind them that each session has limited space.
- Create a lookalike audience mimicking the people who have already visited your website. This gives you access to a new audience with similar interests to those who are already interested in your event.
Use social media smarter
Social media has changed the way visitors find and register for B2B events. Savvy trade show managers and conference producers know how to use this to their advantage. It may take more effort than before, but building lasting relationships with your visitors via social media now will make your job easier next year.
Eric Louw
CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR
Some people are just destined to market B2B events. Eric is one of those people. It’s not because he’s passionate about B2B events (that’s a given), it’s because he’s passionate about helping B2B event organisers maximise their marketing budget with digital marketing tactics.
Eric Louw
CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR
Some people are just destined to market B2B events. Eric is one of those people. It’s not because he’s passionate about B2B events (that’s a given), it’s because he’s passionate about helping B2B event organisers maximise their marketing budget with digital marketing tactics.
