Here’s the indisputable truth. Creating valuable content is all well and good, but letting it die on the internet, like your Myspace profile from 2007, is a huge waste of your time and effort—and ultimately it’s leaving money on the table.
Sound familiar? In our last blog, we broke down how valuable content leads to your bottom line. We taught you how to measure the success of your event and how you can develop a foolproof content roadmap to get you there.
But, here’s the thing. Your event continues to live and breathe even after your attendees Ubers are called and notifications are silenced.
This is where your always-on event strategy comes in. It’s the idea that you should have a core event site, an everevent, a show floor that never sleeps—where people can continue to register for, watch, and interact with your content long after the curtain call.
So let’s take a deeper dive into this.
What is an always-on event strategy & how do you implement one?
An always-on event strategy helps to keep your brand at the top of attendees’ minds and extends the reach of your event’s content and audience network post-event.
Let’s take the re-release of Taylor Swift’s 2012 album, Red for example. Taylor busted out this Grammy nominee almost a decade ago, so why bring it back now? Well, Taylor understands the unparalleled advantage of using an always-on content strategy. She dug deep into her vault of endless valuable content and repurposed Red for a whole new generation to enjoy (Of course, not forgetting to sprinkle in a couple of new bangers.)
So I bet you’re all wondering … how do I become an eleven-time Grammy-winning artist with a quite extensive, yet impressive dating history under my belt? Well to be honest, we can’t help you out there. But what we can help you with, is giving you access to the tools you need to get you there, AKA helping you implement your own always-on event strategy.
Here at Swoogo, you probably won’t hear us shut up about the virtue of a well-oiled Hybrid Strategy, a combination of an in-person or virtual event with a longer-term, loosely structured online component.
We refer to this online component as your Event Hub. Your Event Hub functions not as a freestanding event, but as a gathering place for content, sponsors, and most importantly—people; with an event timeline that stretches before, during, and after the live or main event.
The show floor that never sleeps
In your Event Hub, your attendees can get updates, interact with past or related content, book appointments with sponsors, make appointments for 1:1 networking with other attendees, chat with attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, and event organizers before the event.
This is also where your attendees can learn about future events, watch or rewatch past and day-of-event content, network virtually with other attendees, browse the sponsor directory and continue to get in touch with your always-on event community. Think of your Event Hub as the home for your event.
Pro Tip: This is a great way to build a helpful, free community for people with similar goals and interests; leaving networking on in these situations is a huge value add for the people who might attend your events.
Better data = better events
Take Swoogo for example, because organizers have unlimited events and registrations available to them within our pricing model, marketers can just leave their event active … forever. They can continue to collect leads, disseminate content and maintain an open forum or always-on event community for attendees.
Implementing an always-on event strategy, or hybrid event strategy also allows you to track additional analytics that you can’t always get from in-person events. With attendee data tracking tools, like Swoogo Analytics — easily track attendee page views, clicks, and session attendance & match the attendee’s title, industry, and other key information to the tracked data to build better events, better content, and more targeted marketing materials.
Great content should be created with the intent to last. Your event should function as an eternal content-museum, a place for attendees to gather with one another and interact with your content long after the lights go out.
Wrap up
Ready to immortalize your events? Take notes from the big guns in our latest on-demand webinar, How To Drive Revenue Through Events—and turn your next event into the show floor that never sleeps.
Pssst… Want to create events that live longer and convert faster? Check out our Hybrid Guide.
