Technology: Event Marketing & Management

“Say NO to Will Call”

by Robert Payne

Have you ever found yourself standing in a Will Call line that stretched around the block, while enviously observing carefree patrons stroll up to the Box Office, and thought to yourself, “this is what I get for buying my ticket ahead of time?” When it comes to concerts and events, there is often a clear disconnect between the ability to register for events online, and the clunky procedure put in place for when you arrive. Are pre-printed tickets the end all be all, or have we evolved beyond their physical constraints? And as marketers, are we losing out on a multitude of opportunities that digital media affords us when it comes to planning and marketing an event?

Connecting with Customers

I think most marketers out there would agree with me when I say, now more than ever we are expected to do more – and often times with less. For a lot of folks out there, events and event marketing are the best means of getting ahead of the pack. It is a chance to demonstrate your unique capabilities, align yourself with strategic partners, build a collective conversation about your brand in both online and offline realms, and ultimately forge deep and meaningful relationships with prospects and customers. I know because I’ve done it.

Practicing What We Preach

There is one thing that has always been core to the products and services we provide at Twelve Horses. We practice what we preach. Ever since we launched our ticketing system, we’ve been putting it through its paces in real world scenarios. Sure, clients like the Las Vegas Monorail, Mountain Sports International, and the PGA’s Legends Reno-Tahoe Open use it for transportation and sporting events, but we’ve also used it for a few of our own. What do I like about it?

Keeping Control of Your Brand

For starters, Twelve Horses Ticketing is slick because I control the branding of the event. So many event management software companies have the habit of inserting their brand all over your event. Not so cool. Whether it is the event site, confirmation emails, digital or printed tickets, kiosks, or coupons, I get to control what they look like. If I bring on a new sponsor, or devise a new promotion, I simply log in to the ticketing platform’s content management system and add them. While I’m there I can see how many tickets I’ve sold thus far, the money made, and even create a handy report if the boss wants to see how I am doing.

User-Friendly

Meanwhile, attendees easily cruise through the registration process instead of getting taken offsite to some weird and seemingly unaffiliated payment system. Once they hit Submit, the ticket immediately shows up in their inbox. Sure, they can choose to receive their tickets in the mail if they want, but all they really have to do is print them right at home. Done deal. The 2D barcode that is affixed to each ticket contains all the information the registration system needs to know. In fact, I can even scan the barcode right off their cell phone screen, input their unique code, or look them up by name or credit card. “Sir, Madame, you’re good to go.”

Adding Value to Your Sponsors

As any event marketer worth their salt knows, another way to build a great event is to attract worthwhile sponsors and partners. But we can sometimes struggle to ensure we give them the value they deserve. On top of making sure their branding is on every communication channel the attendee touches, you can also use the ticketing system to orchestrate promotions and lotteries. How about give each attendee a coupon good for a free drink at a local eatery? Or 20% off their next purchase of an applicable product? You can use the lottery system to award one or many lucky individuals with a compelling prize, or put it to work to place people in groups for educational exercises. As you can see, there is a lot of flexibility to customizing your event.

Redemption is Mine

In the end, how did we do? The reporting module is super handy for analyzing redemption. If you used any discount codes then you can see how those performed. If you had unique groups then you can see how many came. In addition, you may want to see which kiosks or mobile scanners registered the most attendees. This information is useful for determining which entrances receive the most flow and at what times, or which day and what presenters were most popular. The scenarios are endless. Of course, we would prefer if you used all of our technology, but if you don’t, and you want to export any of the data or contact lists to be used somewhere else then you can easily do that as well.

Putting on a successful event takes a lot of work, so the last thing you want to deal with is a lot of disparate technology that is difficult to use and doesn’t do what you want. None of us want to be hampered by our event management software any more than we want to stand in a Will Call line.

For more on Twelve Horses Ticketing visit www.thtix.com

Ah, it’s Monday. While enjoying my first cup of coffee, I thought I’d choose a WordPress plugin to play with and see what I could do with it. I stumbled across this WordPress Survey Tool and figured I’d use it to judge Facebook usage.

A note about WordPress survey tools: some are better than others, some take more time to use, some are compatible with older releases and not new ones. But sometimes it is just about getting a job accomplished, developing some insight, and moving on to the next item on your list. Either way, they’re free! I’ll let you know what I think of this one.

Answer to the best of your abilities, and if you have any other questions you would like to see added please comment on this post. I will share the results of the survey one month from today. Hope you have a good week!

TUESDAY, JUNE 23RD, DOORS AT 7PM, SCREENING AT 8PM

Downtown Reno: Nevadan Hotel, 3rd Floor Club Cal Neva (West side of Virginia Street)

Proceeds benefit Reno Bike Project and The Holland Project

Register Now

On the heels of National Bike Month, the Tour De Nez and the Reno Film Festival, Reno’s cycling culture gets a special pre-release screening of Veer. This award-winning, feature length documentary film explores America’s fast-growing bicycling culture by profiling five people whose lives are inextricably tied to bicycling and the bike-centric social groups they belong to. The film follows these characters over the course of a year, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their personal struggles and triumphs. 

Described as a “breakthrough documentary,” the film made its world premiere at the Victoria Film Festival earlier this summer and has won a Jury Award for Best Doc at the Calgary Film Festival, won Best Documentary at the Calgary Underground Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary at the San Joaquin International Film Festival. Veer examines what it means to be part of a community, and how social movements are formed.

REGISTER NOW AND GET YOUR TICKETS

CHECK OUT THE FACEBOOK EVENT

FLICKR PICS AND GOODS

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

TRAILER

Come out and support your local community cycling and arts organizations!

The event is a benefit fundraiser for the Reno Bike Project, a community bicycle shop and cycling advocacy organization, and the Holland Project, Reno’s non-profit youth-run arts, music and culture organization. Sponsors include Twelve Horses, Club Cal Neva, Chrome Bags, Jet Lites, and Silver Peak (“It’s only beer, and it’s only at Silver Peak Reno.”).

See you there!

Or so says the Reynolds School of Journalism. And we wholeheartedly agree. Coming on the heels of the Salt Lake City Wordcamp, we were pleased to be a part of another informative and inspiring gathering of the best and brightest WordPress designers and developers. If you missed it, well, there will most likely be another one soon. Until then, enjoy some of our CEO’s Flickr photos of the event, and read the School’s report in full below.

Reno-Tahoe Wordcamp a Big Success

April 27,2009

Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress and UNR student Colin Loretz, the driving force behind Reno-Tahoe Wordcamp. Photo by David LaPlante.

As Matt Mullenweg described how he came to develop the popular software WordPress, some of the 70-plus attendees in Saturday’s Reno-Tahoe Wordcamp twittered Matt’s geocities page, scrolled through his photo blog and checked out his demo sites on Automattic.

Mullenweg, who wrote the original code for WordPress and is still intimately connected with upgrading and expanding the capabilities of the original idea, previewed upcoming products that allow for multiple users and more social networking.

“We create things and we have no idea how people will use them,” he said. “It’s amazing to hear what people are doing with these tools.”

Saturday’s Wordcamp, sponsored by Twelve Horses and the Reynolds School of Journalism, featured a day-long series of speakers on using WordPress, developing a personal brand and understanding social media.

In his keynote address, Mullenweg described the history of WordPress and how much the process of open-source software development influenced his interest and direction.

In another popular session, David LaPlante, CEO of TwelveHorses, described an epiphany his company had as they watched site useage over the past few years. “People care about people,” he said. “Trust is the first thing we need to do business together. It comes with connecting with you as an individual.”

LaPlante emphasized his view that information is getting more personal, transparent and authentic. He noticed that on the sites they build, “about us” pages that feature personal insights about the individuals in the company attract a lot more page views.

RSJ alumna Annie Flanzraich asked LaPlante how to navigate the online emphasis on personal and transparent disclosure among journalists or bosses who don’t understand – or agree with — this kind of personal divulgence.

“The water is moving that way quickly,” LaPlante said. He described a disequilibrium in the marketplace as we move from one set of expectations to another. He pointed out the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over 55. “The stronger your brand, the more  you will connect with some and disconnect with others,” LaPlante said.

RSJ Professor Bob Felten organized the school sponsorship of the event and helped host a welcome breakfast for attendees. “It was an amazing day,” Felten said. “We want RSJ to be at the center of this conversation in the community, and Saturday was a great demonstration of why that’s important.”

Couldn’t make it? Many Wordcamp videos have been posted on WordPress.tv. Copies of the presentations from Saturday’s Wordcamp will be available online in the next few days. Check out http://renowordcamp.wordpress.com for updates.

At a recent TED conference, best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert stated, “we have completely internalized and accepted collectively this notion that creativity and suffering are somehow inherently linked.” She goes on to further frame “the utter, maddening, capriciousness of the creative process” by suggesting that we pull from something greater than ourselves. Maybe Gilbert was thinking of the late Carl Jung who once said, “Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument.”?

When it comes to email marketing, designing for your objectives can be a little maddening. If you do pull from something greater than yourself, and then translate that perfect vision to strategy and paper, you may find that your creative team is not realizing it. So, back and forth you go until there is no time left. A deadline is a deadline. But there is no doubt that the battle for the inbox – and your customer’s attention – requires engaging, actionable designs. What can you do to minimize your suffering and help aid that creative process along?

Know Your Audience

Through personalization, you no doubt consider who you’re addressing with every send. But who really is your audience, and what are they expecting from you? If you have a sizeable database with varying preferences, this is where you can not only practice segmentation, but also employ different designs and messages for each segment. What a great way to make your audience feel like you are personally interested in their needs and goals. Not to mention leveraging different designs for newsletters, promotions, events, and important notifications, as many businesses do.

Get Your Rendering Right

There is nothing worse than a well-designed email that just doesn’t render right. Ask yourself whether your recipients are primarily businesses or consumers? This will determine if the majority is using say, Microsoft Outlook vs. Gmail or Hotmail, or perhaps even receiving their emails on a mobile device – keep in mind that 30% of B-to-B recipients are receiving emails on their mobile devices. Regardless, it is impossible to get an email design, or the content offer itself, to render perfectly in all email clients, so you want to shoot for the top 2 or 3 and then make sure you test – test – test before you launch.

Avoid Graphical Overload

Remember less can be more. It’s especially important not to overuse graphics in an email to the point that images constitute the entire message. It is that much easier to delete an email message if nothing at all captures the consumer’s attention before they have opted to download images. Ask yourself, what are recipients going to see above the fold? Does it stand out? Does it speak to their needs? Call upon Maslow’s hierarchy of needs if you need some help with this.

Content is King

Great designs fall flat without good content. No amount of slick design skilz are going to carry your customer over the line if the message doesn’t add value to the recipient’s life. Subject lines, headlines, offers and calls to action are all crucial to a successful campaign. With one quick glance of these elements a recipient will understand what the value is immediately upon viewing the email. Easier said than done, but if you solidify the messaging first, establishing a strong supporting design can be made much easier.

The Beauty is in the Data

Don’t be afraid to test a few different designs early on in the game. Many email marketers get their template and design down to a point where everyone internally is pleased with the outcome. But no one has any idea what the customer really thinks! Each time a client has pursued A/B testing, it was completely obvious which email design performed the best. Also, don’t be afraid to test offers and subject lines. As you achieve greater relevance it will have a direct result on your clickthrough rates. Yes, you may have to invest more time in creating additional versions at the outset, but the payoff will be greater conversions with the final send.

Break the Rules

The email marketing industry loves to apply various rules and best practices by which we should guide our “online lives”. While it’s great to have a foundation to work from, don’t let best practices become a burden either. At the end of the day, your job is to move the needle more than you did the last time, so don’t be afraid to experiment with the experiential and maybe even defy conventional wisdom.

Considering these factors during the early stages of an email marketing campaign will lessen the suffering and assist you in finding the drive to make email a more effective instrument.