Looking to grow your business through events but not sure where to start? Here are 10 easy steps to get you going!

1. 10 Steps To Growing Your
Business Through Events
Download as a free eBook here!

2. As a small and growing
business, hosting events
on a regular basis is a
great way to build up your
client base, grow your
network and generate
revenues.

3. However, you probably don’t
have dedicated marketing and
sales teams to rely on, so you
need to find a way to get the
right audience to your events,
and then manage your
attendees, with a minimum of
fuss and resources.
If this sounds like you, then
this Slideshare is going to
help.

4. These 10 steps will get you
on the fast track to sold-out
events and happy attendees,
so let's get started.

5. Being first, or at least on the first
page, of Google’s organic search
results is still one of the best ways
to help customers find you. It’s
particularly powerful because when
a customer is searching for terms
such as ‘networking lunch’ and
‘presentation workshop’, they’re
showing real intent towards
purchasing the solution you offer.
That’s why it pays to get the basics
right!
1. Get the SEO basics right

6. When you create your event on
Eventbrite.co.uk, we automatically
add your event name to the title of
the url created, and optimise it for
organic searches, which helps
Google index your class and helps
with your SEO.

7. Fill out your event descriptions as
fully and accurately as possible
too, so that Google is able to pick
up the information and direct
people to your page more
accurately if they’re searching for
specific terms found on your event
page.
That’s it, just follow these two
simple steps and Eventbrite and
Google will do the rest for you.

8. Assuming you have your own
website, then you should definitely
add a link or button from your
event page to it, otherwise all the
traffic you attract will not be seeing
your events – a big missed
opportunity!
2. Add the event page to your website

9. The added benefit is that having a
link or button from your Eventbrite
page onto your website is another
great way to help boost SEO because
Google still relies on backlinks to
understand which pages are popular,
and therefore which to show higher
up their rankings.

10. You should also add links from
your website and all your social
channels to your event page to
help people navigate between
your different web profiles, and to
help Google understand how
they all fit together.

11. The rise of social networks have
helped balance out the
monopoly of Google, because so
many people now rely on social
recommendations to make
purchasing decisions, and these
are often shared via Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc.
3. Get social

12. Adding social integrations to your
event page is also super simple
with Eventbrite, and there are
some handy how-to guides on
publishing your event to Facebook
and promoting your event with
Twitter. You can even use
Eventbrite in conjunction with daily
deal sites like Groupon or Living
Social!

13. Anyone who is successful has at
least one characteristic in common
– they stand out from the crowd.
Successful authors write differently
and imaginatively, successful
businesses have inspiring missions
and dedicated staff, successful
athletes train harder or have
unique physiologies that give them
an edge.
If you want to stand out, then you’ll
need to be different too.
4. Be different!

14. One way to achieve this is by
creating a unique brand experience
through design.
The Eventbrite platform allows you
to customise your webpage to
express whatever unique design
you have, helping you stand out
and attract more sales.

15. Another tactic for standing out is to
focus on a specific niche, so you’re not
competing with a huge range of generic
competitors. Instead, you can specialise
in a particular area, becoming the
dominant player in that niche.
For example, maybe you just want to
focus on a particular demographic
(mums, young professionals, city
workers etc.); a specific type of event
(seminars, classes etc.); the goal of
your customers (networking, improving
skills, learning about a new topic etc.)
or a location.

16. If one niche is still too large to
effectively stand out, you can combine
different ones until you’ve create a
market big enough to be lucrative but
small enough to easily let you be the
number one practitioner
(e.g. young professionals who are
interested in improving their
presentation skills, that live in North
London).

17. Once you’ve picked your focus,
it’s then important to build up
your authority in that niche.
There are a number of ways to
achieve this, but perhaps the
most powerful is through
inbound marketing. There are a
large number of resources to
learn more about inbound
marketing, but here are three
ideas to get you started.
5. Build authority

18. Firstly, start a blog. You don’t
have to write every day, and even
just one a week should be
sufficient to start building your
reputation in your particular area
of expertise. Share your posts on
social media, see if other blogs
would like to republish your
content and add links to your
popular topics to your event
pages.

19. Secondly, create a Youtube channel.
Youtube is the second largest search
engine after Google (which owns it!),
so it’s a great place to be found. You
can show examples of your events,
the types of benefits attendees gain,
interview attendees who have found
the events useful or all of those
things.
Just showing your enthusiasm for
what you do will help build trust with
potential attendees and build your
credibility.

20. Last but not least, public speaking can
be a really powerful way to build your
authority. Every time you speak to a
room full of people (all potential
customers!) you’re able to demonstrate
your knowledge to them, and even if
they’re not your target audience, they
will probably know someone who is.
Being listed as a speaker is also a
great way to indicate your expertise,
and potentially attract yet more
speaking gigs, interviews from
journalists and links back to you site
(helping with your SEO rankings).

21. Everyone is familiar with the phrase
‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you
know’ and that’s because it’s so
often true. You might be the most
knowledgeable person in the world
in your particular niche, with a long
list of blog posts and Youtube videos
to support that claim.
However, without supporters to help
you spread the word, you’re fighting
an uphill battle to get others to
notice your hard work – or your
events.
6. Build relationships

22. Make sure you attend industry
gatherings and events relevant to your
profession, so you can build
relationships with your peers, and
help one another get found offline and
online.
You should also make sure you follow
influencers in your space on Twitter,
and comment on popular blogs in your
sector so the authors start to
recognise your name and contribution.

23. If you consistently leave quality
comments, they may reach out to you
and ask for guest posts, which helps
spread your authority even further
again.
Of course, good old-fashioned word of
mouth will always help you to grow
your network too, and having a lot of
friends and contacts within your
industry is a great way to get people
talking positively about your events.

24. So far we’ve talked about a lot of
different marketing tactics, from
social media to SEO, blogging to
relationship building.
7. Test what’s working

25. Being a busy business owner or
manager, you probably don’t have
time to dedicate to all of these
activities. But how do you know
which you should concentrate on,
and which are not worth you time?
Guessing this part is not a good
idea, because its essential to
building out a strong business!
Thankfully, the Eventbrite platform is
built to help you make these kinds of
decisions really easily.

26. For example, every time you build a
new relationship and they promise to
share your event with their friends,
readers or followers, you can give
them a custom link which will help
you track any sales that come from
them.

27. Similarly, these custom links can be
implemented into your social media
promotion and any calls-to-action you
have on blog posts or videos, so you
can track their effectiveness too.
All you need to do is log in to manage
your events, and Eventbrite brings it
all together in an easy to understand
dashboard so you can make data-
based decisions in minutes, letting
you focus your time only on the
activities that really work.

28. Sometimes it’s just impossible to
proactively target your potential
customers through social media,
search or blogging. Instead, you just
need to be in the right place at the
right time.
8. Be in the right place at the right time

29. For example, it’s hard to predict when
someone is going to buy and sell their
house, which is why most estate
agents will feature all their listings on
property sites like Zoopla.
Would it make sense to use Twitter
and Google to find buyers for a used
skateboard? Probably not, because
it’s too niche to target an audience
effectively, which is why people use
eBay to sell their used goods to those
who want them.

30. With events, many people will simply
skip Google and social media all
together, and come to Eventbrite
directly to find out what’s available.
That’s why anyone who organises
events often chooses to be listed on our
platform because it helps aid discovery
when other traditional marketing
channels get skipped.
When you’re on the Eventbrite platform,
you also get the added benefit of a site
with a large amount of traffic, all of
which is people trying to find interesting
events for them to attend!

31. Talking of being in the right place at
the right time, its also essential to
make sure people can find and book
events from their mobile phones and
tablets.
Mobile phones and tablets are quickly
overtaking household PCs and
laptops in number, and best of all,
your customers probably have them
on them just about every minute of the
day (with the exception of sleeping
and showering!)
9. Be mobile friendly

32. The Eventbrite site is completely
responsive, meaning all our pages
(including your events) will display
appropriate to the size of whatever
screen someone is viewing it on,
making their search and booking
process as easy as it is on larger
screens.

33. It’s also a good idea to make sure your
own webpage is also responsive, so
they can view your content on mobile
phones, and this will help build up a
relationship with your prospective
client while they’re away from their
homes.
Having this new mobile sales channel
available to you will be a key success
factor in the future.

34. The results of these previous
steps should be be sold-out
events and high expectations
about what you can deliver to
your attendees.
Now you need to make sure you
deliver.
10. Offer a great customer experience

35. The first thing you need to do is
communicate with them regularly, so
they know where to go, what time to
arrive, what they should expect and
any other information that will be
essential to them getting the most
out of your events.

36. You can email all of your registered
customers directly from Eventbrite, or
if you already use other popular email
services like Mailchimp, they’re fully
integrated too.
The second thing you need to do is
understand your clients goals and
know of any special requirements
they will have.

37. This is really easy to do with custom
questions that you can set up for the
registration process, and then simply
download or review before you run
the event.
If they (or you) have any questions
during the process, then Eventbrite
also fields a dedicated, multilingual,
24/7 customer service team. While
they can’t tell your clients whether
they’re displaying good form or not
(that’s what you’re there for!) they
can be reached by anyone, to help
with just about anything event
related.

38. Finally, when everyone turns up for
your event, you want to make their
arrival as hassle free for you and them
as possible. This is where the Event
Manager app comes into it’s own,
available for both iPhone and Android.
Now it doesn’t matter if no one printed
a confirmation ticket, all you need to do
is scan the unique barcode on their
phone and they’re in.

39. Putting on exciting and unique events
isn’t easy, so it’s important you get
rewarded for the effort with a sold-out
event, without having to employ a
fulltime marketing team to get them
there!
Conclusion

40. This is exactly what Eventbrite is built
for. It gives you all the powerful tools
you need to promote your event, and
deliver awesome customer service,
with minimal effort, so you can
concentrate on looking after your
attendees and growing your business.

41. Want to learn how Eventbrite can help grow
your business through events?
• Feel free to learn more about
how it works with Eventbrite.
• Register for a free demo.
• Or give us a call on:
0800 652 4993