Spotlight 31: Maximizing event visibility
Growing your event audience requires you to know both who they are and how to reach them effectively. Once you've figured out your target audience, it's time to get people talking about your event so you can boost attendance on event day. With Backstage, you can do this by using keywords, advertising in different avenues, and setting up the right level of visibility.
Work with trending keywords
Summary:
When creating your event, Backstage allows you to add a summary for your event in the Event details tab. Write a line or two in the Summary text box describing what everyone can gain by attending. Ensure that you include all the relevant keywords in this space. This will help prospects easily find your event when they search online.
Event category:
Organize the events in your portal into categories. Putting your event in the right category that is in line with the theme of your event can aid in better visibility too.
For example, if you are hosting an event related to innvovation but catorgorize it under another option in the Category dropdown, say environtment, then your event's visibility will be affected.
Event key:
Each event has a unique key that's appended in the microsite URL. When you publish your event for the first time, you can create your event key by providing a word or a phrase that includes proper keywords. Once your event microsite is live, anyone who has the link can access your event microsite. Adding the right keywords here will contribute to better visibility online.
You can change your event key at any time, but keep in mind that the old URL will not be accessible anymore. If you have already promoted your event with the old URL, ensure you modify it to the latest URL as it will not be updated automatically. Attendees who have already registered for your event will be informed immediately after you update the event key.
Publicize the event
Spread the news about your event as early as possible so you can get through to potential attendees. Create buzz around your event by making banners and posting them on social media, blogs, and websites. Create a tagline or hashtag for your event that can be included with your event banner and post them consistently to keep up the interest.
Set up a visibility level
Backstage allows you to take control of who can see your event. This can help you widen or restrict your event's reach based on how public or private you want your event to be. In the Design tab, click the Settings tab and select the Event visibility preferences option. Ensure that the Search engine results checkbox is switched on if you want your event to be displayed in all online search engines. You can also allow it to be displayed in your portal's event listing page and Backstage's attendee app.
After you've worked towards making your event easily discoverable, you can use tools like affiliate links or the Google Analytics integration in Backstage to track the results and make changes to your strategy if needed.
Happy organizing!