Since the managed services industry is relatively new, our marketing team has to spend a lot of time educating our market. Our services are very technical but serve a very simple purpose, on the DNS side, we route users to websites, and on the Email side, we ensure transactional email delivery. Now, there is a bunch of stuff that goes on in the background that we don’t need to get into, but that is the just of it. There are some things my company does that align with other companies in our space like webinars, whitepapers, case studies, etc but on top of this we host, what we call, “Roadshows.” Roadshows are themed lunch seminars to create a more intimate environment to educate prospects and build customer loyalty. Along with these roadshows we host a lot of parties, whether they be at events or at our office, for networking and meeting with prospects.
In order to manage all these events, we use an application called Eventbrite. Eventbrite is a social event platform for creating, managing, and promoting events through social media and email. An example of one of Dyn’s event’s promoted via Eventbrite can be found here, where all the information for our SXSW party is located. This app allows us to break the mold when in our industry which historically relied heavily on the traditional tradeshow’s for event marketing. We have the ability to provide experiences for our clients and prospects that will last a lot longer in their memory than a conversation at a booth at a giant tradeshow.
Eventbrite allows people to register for your events via mobile app or web application and share it over their social media network. It also automatically email’s and reminds them when events are approaching to make sure it is not forgotten. After an event it allows you to export all your attendees and non-attendees to an excel file for upload into your CRM and/ or Marketing Automation platform. At my work we adjust follow up messaging depending on whether people attended or not attended. While the attendees are more engaged than non-attendees, we will send a relevant piece of content to the non-attendees to try to re-engage them prior to passing them to sales. Ultimately our events are evaluated on how many net new leads we can acquire and how many sales opportunities are generated and closed as a result.
Event follow up is crucial for converting event goers into leads in our industry. Since our product’s implementation process is technically complex, it requires walkthroughs and multiple phone calls with our sales engineers along with a contract to complete. This cannot be done at a tradeshow so continuing the conversation following these events is key. We are able to track all these events from Eventbrite all the way through our marketing and sales software’s to track ROI and make decisions about what events to have in the future.
Some other features worth noting are its analytics and ability to take payments if the event were to cost money to get into. All of Dyn’s events are free so we don’t use that feature too much but I have attended events in the past which use Eventbrite and needed payment. It’s very simple to pay through the app and when you get to the event all you need to do is show the person working the door your mobile device. I also like how it recommends events based on past registrations, if you have friends within your social network that have registered and your location. When I travel to tradeshow’s it helps me find smaller events in the area worth checking out as well as smaller get together’s in my area. I would say Eventbrite is a must have for any company organizing events on their own and individuals looking to get involved with their industries/ communities. It takes a lot of legwork out of the logistics, aids with the tracking of success, drives attendance and the kicker is, it’s free!
AJ Garron 