Hosting an event can be a daunting endeavor but this past black history month we accepted the charge of hosting an event in support of our signature podcast, Black Businesses Matter Podcast on all podcast streaming platforms. While The L3 Agency specializes in pr, marketing, and experiential activation events, this would be our first podcast event post-COVID. So, we knew we needed to curate an eminent experience which is why we decided to record this episode outside of our in-house podcast studio. This, ultimately, made it not one event but two event activations. For the episode discussion, we decided to highlight the need for equity for black businesses with two leading thought leaders. Our ‘why’ behind this discussion was to have a live audience of thriving business owners while celebrating the wins and the opportunities in the black community.
As we began to build a robust strategy for our first live recording podcast event, we wanted to focus on creating a powerful but clean theme to ensure that the branding for the event would align in a cohesive way. We enlisted the agency’s Creative Director to create the look and feel for all our marketing materials for the event while ensuring it is aligned with the creative direction of the podcast.
Here’s a sample of our save-the-date image to announce the event. Notice it had the basic Who, What, and When, and the look and feel.
It also showcased how we are leading with an inclusive community-centric approach
After creating the theme, our marketing team began implementing the necessary marketing materials. Once the image above was created we then developed several tactics to generate buzz. We would like to share some of those tactics:
1. Create an efficient and seamless registration
This should be the first step to ensure that once you begin to release content around the event your audience has a destination for registration. For this, we used Eventbrite not only for registration but as a key performance indicator of our marketing tactics.
Outreach and promotion began in December during the holiday season. We made sure to post information about the event continuously and monitored the traffic on our Eventbrite page.
2. Utilize Omnichannel Approach
As a marketing company, we believe in omnichannel marketing. This means utilizing multiple outlets for outreach ensuring that the information our audience would need to understand and register for the event was readily available. To do this we made sure to include direct links, search instructions, and linktree on all profiles and assets.
The introduction is pivotal as it set the tone for the event moving forward. Making sure to highlight the event on all platforms is key to covering the entirety of your audience. To generate excitement, we launched a giveaway on Instagram where followers could win tickets while we gather data to retarget them for other upcoming events.
We used a few other tactics to promote the event incorporating storytelling as part of our marketing journey. Some tactics included, paid social media advertising, organic advertising, email marketing, and print PR.
a. Paid Social Media advertising
We crafted several separate posts that included all of the information potential attendees would need to be prepared for and understand the event. We made a myriad of assets including save the dates, flyers, and videos. We utilized 3 social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and Linked In to reach our target audiences, boost engagement, and raise awareness of the event.
b. Organic Advertising
With a similar process used when utilizing Paid social media advertising, we crafted a diverse range of imagery in support of this event. We also made sure to include references to the event in all posts regardless of their connection to the event.
One example of this is illustrated below.
c. Email Marketing
Being that this event was in support of our podcast, It was imperative that past guests were in attendance. We utilized email marketing to reach out to them personally to express our gratitude and extend a special invite. Within this email, we included our Eventbrite to register and opened a direct line of communication if there was a need for any additional information.
d. PR Outreach
Our strategy was to leverage PR to help promote the event and the podcast. Our PR team were able to share all of the creative assets as they were pitching to media outlets. These assets included our founder’s bio, photos, a marketing sponsorship one sheeter with all of the information about the event and a one- sheeter created to describe the podcast itself. Most recently, our founder was interviewed by FOX this month so we are looking forward to sharing their recent interview.
3. Announce our special guests to increase interest and expand our audience
This ensured that the event remained at the top of potential guests’ minds. We also used storytelling tactics to entice our audiences with bite site information. As we selected guests to for the event, we wanted to ensure that the lineup was diverse and covered major markets, including the Beauty, Financial, and Marketing industries. We also crafted imagery to highlight each guest individually and their business.
We believe in an integrated marketing process to generate buzz and to promote our podcast and we did just that!
If you would like an agency to help you boost engagement for an event activation or outreach campaign, feel free to reach out or connect with us on our socials.
Instagram: @thel3agency | @blackbusinessesmatterpodcast
LinkedIn: @TheL3Agency
