Event marketers know that marketing to niche audiences can be hard. The biggest challenge is finding people who are interested in your topic and showcasing the value to help solve their problems and challenges.
Our founder and CEO, Rachel Stephan recently sat down with Matthew Butter, at Ansys to discuss how you can market your events to niche audiences.
Who are Ansys?
For more than 50 years, Ansys software has enabled innovators across industries to push boundaries with the predictive power of simulation. From sustainable transportation and advanced semiconductors, to satellite systems and life-saving medical devices, the next great leaps in human advancement will be powered by Ansys.
Who is Matthew?
Matthew Butter has worked for amazing brands, including ESPN, NetApp, and for the past 3 years, Ansys.
He’s a self-confessed digital marketing geek who loves social media just as much as he enjoys SEO. With an MBA, Master’s in Communications and an undergraduate in Journalism, Matthew is hyper focused on the effectiveness of communication strategies, especially for event registration conversions.
You can watch our on-demand webinar with Matthew Butter here.
1. How can we find people who are looking for an event like our own?
“At the event level, we always plan as a team, who are target audience is, and we then use that as our north star.” Matthew says. Identifying the right niche audience is essential for the growth and success of your event.
By focusing on a specific group of people who have a genuine interest in your event’s theme or subject matter, you can customize your marketing efforts and provide a more tailored experience. This approach allows you to better meet their needs and preferences, ultimately leading to increased engagement and the overall success of your event.
“People get so tuned out to ads. It’s nice that there are other alternatives like Snöball. Peer-to-peer marketing and referral marketing is really strong because instead of someone seeing an ad, they are seeing someone vouch for the event they are attending, speaking at, exhibiting at etc.” Says Matthew. This form of marketing works really well for niche audiences because people who are already attending an event will likely have connections similar to themselves who would also be interested in the same event. The cost per event registrant using Snöball is far lower than Google, or LinkedIn ads (with much higher quality registrants), especially when marketing to niche audiences. “Not only were we thrilled with the quantity of referrals, the referrals were exactly the type of audience we were hoping for. They were the ICP’s.” – Matthew Butter, Ansys.
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Here are some of our top tips to help you identify and target the right niche audience for your event:
Define the purpose and uniqueness of your event: Take a moment to clearly show the unique value and purpose of your event. Understanding your events USP will help you identify a niche audience that will resonate with your offering.
Tap into your existing network: Explore your current network and connections to identify any specific groups or communities that align with your event’s theme. Consider reaching out to friends, colleagues, or industry contacts who might have insights or connections to your target audience. This is where Snöball comes in. Click here to learn how Snöball can tap into existing networks to help you get more butts in seats no matter how niche your event is.
Leverage social media in a unique way: Utilize social media platforms strategically by joining groups, participating in conversations, and sharing valuable content related to your event. Engage with your target audience by posing questions, hosting webinars and live Q&A sessions, or sharing exclusive sneak peeks. This will help you establish your event as a unique and exciting proposition.
2. What are the best marketing channels to gain new registrants?
“The biggest driver for us, really, across every event is always going to be email. That’s where you have the largest audience. The people who know us, know our products, know our solutions, they want to learn more about them. Other tactics usually shuffle between the two and four spots between all of our different social media and advertising tactics. So it kind of ranges in that area. We have seen some success with LinkedIn events and lead-gen forms on LinkedIn, but again, it’s all custom based upon where our audience is and for our audience, which really is hardcore engineers, they care about LinkedIn more than any other social network.”
Matthew also explains how Snöball helped Ansys tap into a new audience and gain new registrants. “The thing I like about Snöball is how it allows you to tap into new audiences via current attendees. With a few simple tactics using the Snöball platform, you can turn your new registrants into event advocates very easily.”
In our on-demand webinar we give you a visual representation of what this will actually look like on the Snöball platform. Click here to watch the webinar now.
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3. Why transparency and visibility across marketing channels is important for event marketers
“Every team needs to first ensure they have proper tracking for conversions and secondly ensure they can prove accurate ROI. If other teams are reporting on these metrics, then you need to work to understand them and standardize them otherwise the world will pass you by.” Matthew says.
Transparency and visibility allow for consistent messaging and branding across channels, expanding audience reach and fostering trust. By being present on various platforms, marketers can engage a broader audience and increase event awareness. But, as Matthew explained in the section above, identifying which channels your audience use the most and putting more resources into those specific channels is also very important.
Transparent data collection provides valuable insights for optimizing marketing efforts. Monitoring metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement enables informed decision-making and campaign optimization. Accurate attribution and ROI measurement are facilitated through transparent tracking mechanisms, guiding resource allocation and investment.
Transparency and visibility also enable real-time adaptation. Marketers can monitor channel performance and make prompt adjustments, maximizing the impact of messaging, targeting, and media allocation. These elements work together to enhance the effectiveness of event marketing campaigns and drive attendee engagement.
Bottom line
In conclusion, marketing your event for niche audiences can be tricky but when done correctly it can have huge benefits. In this blog, we hope we haven given you some great insights, and actionable tips to take away. We have helped many businesses like Ansys market their events to niche audiences using the Snöball platform, and we’d love to help you too! Click here to see how we can Snöball your niche event.
Already in? Book a 17-min chat with us here.
