Proven Peer to Peer marketing strategies for all events - large and small.

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H o w t o Ma r k e t
Yo u r E v e n t
A u g u s t 2 7 , 2 0 1 4

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Armbruster
Consulting
Group
Change What
Is Possible.
We are problem solvers,
opportunity seekers and
innovators.
We provide strategy,
program execution, and
everything in between.
It’s not just what we do,
it’s who we are.

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Call Objectives
• Marketing evaluation and analysis
• Share event marketing and recruitment best practices
• Determine a point of differentiation for your events
• Provide a framework to evaluate marketing options
• Outline recommended next steps

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There are no magic wands, no hidden tricks,
and no secret handshakes that can bring you
immediate success, but with time, energy, and
determination you can get there.
Darren Rowse
Founder Problogger

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STEP ONE
• Data analysis from past
events and marketing
activities
• What tactics are you
currently using?
• What tangible results
are they producing?
• How efficient are they?
• What is our budget and
ROI?
• What is missing?

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Case Study:
Total Funds Raised by Source

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Case Study:
Participants by Source

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Case Study: Avg. Participant
Fundraising by Source

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Data Analysis Takeaways
• In total dollars raised AND number of participants,
Referred by someone, Returning Participant, and
Social media are the primary drivers for success
• When looking for where to invest more resources,
the average funds raised by participant shows us
an opportunity to invest in Google Ads, TV/Radio,
and E-newsletter
• Need to analyze the data again with cost/expense
data to create an accurate acquisition cost per
participant

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STEP TWO
• Understand what
marketing tactics are
being used
successfully around
the country

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Businesses should follow and learn from
others’ successes and failures in order to better
understand and predict their own.
Larry Weber
Author Marketing to the Social Web

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Marketing Tactics & Best Practices
 Personal solicitation
 Email marketing
 Direct mail
 Corporate partner engagement
 Quality event experience
 Referral programs
 Facebook advertising
 Print advertisements (comp)
 Signage
 SEO
 Experiential

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Marketing & Recruitment Best
Practices and Trends
• Update SEO/SEM: Update all event website language and tags to
support higher search engine rankings
• Create assets to support messaging: Work with staff to identify
mission stories, CEO stories, and compelling imagery in all marketing
and communications, including: website, landing pages, email
communication, ads, and printed collateral
• Segmented marketing: Configure lists, auto-responders, and
pages
• Emails to data/RE data: Send up to 3 recruitment emails to be sent
to segmented audiences of your data/RE data
• Direct mail to “email opens”:
• Use a “self-mailer” that can be direct mailed to supporters that
opened the recruitment emails. This “one-two” hit has been a
successful strategy for recruitment.

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Marketing & Recruitment Best
Practices and Trends
• Implement a RFI option online and in published materials
• Lead management: Focus on warm leads!
• Test market recruitment language: Conduct research via
telephone interviews to develop marketing language then
validate proposed marketing language via test groups or
Facebook Ads.
• Refine your marketing plan by understanding the emotional
motivations for a participant with questions such as:
• What do they read?
• Who they trust?
• What language do they use?
• Enhance the participant experience for repeat participation and
growing revenue year-over-year: Find your point of
differentiation

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What makes our events different from other
charity activities? How do we stand apart from
the crowd?
• Ability to make your mission tangible with a mission
moment at the event
• Develop a sense of community using your chapter
Facebook page, emails and personal stewardship
activities
• Family-friendly/opportunity for kids to get involved
• Leverage the brand awareness and integrity
• Ability to share stories of impact

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STEP THREE
• Evaluate and select
the right marketing
tactics for your events

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When you break down all the fluff, there
are two ways to promote and market
your organization: dumber, slower, and
expensive – or smarter, faster, and
cheaper.
David Siteman Garland
Host of The Rise to the Top

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Keep Lose Change

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Tactic Evaluation
Selection
Criteria
• How will you determine which marketing tactics to use?
• Create a framework to evaluate each tactic apples to apples.
• Be results-focused.
Filter
• Generate a list of every marketing concept or opportunity.
• Provide enough detail to accurately rate each option.
Prioritize
• Based on responses, begin to put all options in order based
on results and impact.
• Adjust ranking based on past data and factors such as
immediate opportunity or desire to test concept.

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Sample Tactic Scorecard
TACTIC PROJECTED
REGISTRATION
S
REACH EASE OF
IMPLEMENTATIO
N
(scale 1-10)
USE OF
RESOURCE
S
(scale 1-10)
COST
Social Media 100 25,000 3 (easy) 1 $1,000/mo
Goodie bag
inserts
Radio
TV
Print

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Tactic Scorecard Creation
• Fill in criteria and ratings
• Sort and prioritize
• Ensure that tactics selected will help you achieve your
goals

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STEP FOUR
• Communicate and
implement the new
marketing strategy

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…as you’ve noticed, people don’t want to be
sold.
What people do want is news and information
about things they care about.
Larry Weber
Author Marketing to the Social Web

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One-Page Marketing Plan
• Key messaging
• Goals and objectives
• Strategies
• Tactics
• Budget
• Action items
• Person responsible
• Metrics
• Resources needed

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STEP FIVE
• Repeat STEP ONE!
• Data analysis from past
events and marketing
activities
• What tactics are you
currently using?
• What tangible results are
they producing?
• How efficient are they?
• What is our budget and
ROI?
• What is missing?

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Recommended Next Steps
Step One
Analyze past
data
Determine what
works and what
should be
removed
Step Two
Create a
comprehensive
list of marketing
opportunities and
ideas
Step Three
Determine
evaluation
criteria (cost,
registrations,
difficulty to
implement, etc.)
Grade and
prioritize all
opportunities
Step Four
Finalize and
communicate
plan
Step Five
Evaluate results
Make revisions

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Questions and Answers

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Do all the good you can. By all the means you
can. In all the ways you can. In all the places
you can. At all the times you can. To all the
people you can. As long as ever you can.
John Wesley

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Thank You!
Contact me:
Rachel Armbruster
President
Armbruster Consulting Group, Inc.
512.944.3417
rachel@armbrusterconsulting.com
www.linkedin.com/rachelkarmbruster
@rarmbruster