According to market research company, Forrester Research business leaders “concede that based on how customers behave and buy, content marketing is crucial to their success.” Leaders of the biggest and most successful businesses have spent time researching effective marketing channels and conclude that content marketing is one way to effectively build relationships with potential attendees.

Social media in itself typically won’t be enough, paid advertising might be effective but requires some skill to master if you don’t want to lose a great deal of money, and search engine optimization is effective but can take some time to work.

Content marketing actually makes all of the aforementioned marketing channels easier to execute, while also being an effective marketing channel in its own right.

Here you’ll learn how to produce and distribute marketing content to market your next event.

What is Content Marketing?

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience.”

Content can take the form of written articles, videos, infographics, presentations and audio recordings designed to educate an audience about a specific topic. The idea behind content marketing is that by providing helpful content for your target audience, you’ll be able to attract people to your website and once there, you can also educate them about your events.

For example, to educate event planners, Bizzabo wrote a blog post about how to choose event registration software. Similarly, Social Media Marketing World maintains a website, podcast and Youtube channel in order to educate potential attendees while also raising awareness about their event.

How to Brainstorm Content Ideas

If you’re interested in getting started with a content marketing strategy, but feel intimidated about writing helpful articles or producing videos, have no fear. The key to generating valuable content is to listen to your audience. Understand the questions that potential attendees are already asking, and try to provide them with answers that they will likely find helpful.

If you’re organizing a conference for arts educators, then content that teaches them how to better build lesson plans might be very helpful for them. You can figure out what kind of content would be most helpful by logging into forums used by your potential attendees and monitoring what people are asking. Popular forums include Quora and Reddit.

Other popular channels that organizers can use to listen to potential attendees is to take to social media and either listen to your audience, or directly ask your followers (assuming they are potential attendees) if they have questions that they would like answers to.

As a way of creating a connection between the marketing content you generate and your actual event, you can simply create content that is related to event sessions you already have planned.

Content Production Tips

Event planners have one thing in common: They have very limited time thanks to hectic schedules. For many organizers it might be out of the question to spend a few hours creating blog posts, videos or podcasts. Fortunately, organizers who are interested in implementing a content marketing strategy can make use of others to produce the content for them.

Consider asking event speakers to produce content that potential attendees might find helpful. Afterall, they are experts in their field and content that they produce will most likely find an instant audience with people already following their work.

In addition to adding event speakers to produce content for your event, you can also find talented freelance writers on platforms like Upwork or Guru who can quickly turn a content idea into a reality.

Effective Content Marketing Channels

Once you’ve created some valuable content, it’s time to distribute it. Social media is a channel for distributing content to potential attendees. Tweeting out a link to the piece of content will drive social media users to your website, also increasing the chances that they actually register for the event.

In addition to social media, email marketing campaigns that promote content to those scribed can be a great way to re-engage with leads.

Organizers should also consider writing content for other websites (called guest blogging). This type of content creation helps to get in front of a larger audience, thus increasing the reach of your event.

If you produce video content, then be sure to publish it to Youtube and Vimeo and if you create a Podcast series, than publishing it on iTunes is a must.

Education Begins Before Events

Content marketing is a proven marketing channel that makes it easier to reach potential attendees. By educating your audience about issues relevant to them and to your event, you can create an event brand that is viewed as a “thought leader.”

To create valuable content listen to your audience, and then consider asking event speakers, or freelancers to produce materials if you don’t have time. Once written you can then distribute the content on various marketing channels like social media, or through email marketing campaigns.

For additional event marketing tips, download a free ebook on proven event marketing strategies for organizers.

David Epstein is the content marketing manager at Bizzabo. Launched in July 2012, Bizzabo is the world’s first event success platform. It helps organizers create successful events by empowering them to build amazing websites, sell tickets, grow communities, go mobile and maximize event experiences – using a beautiful, user-friendly platform.

Companies can waste less time and be more efficient with a few simple steps, says business development expert

Many employees probably groan and grumble when they see that the boss has scheduled yet another meeting.

But Cameron Herold, a business development expert and author of “Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less” (www.DoubleDoubleBook.com), insists it doesn’t need to be that way.

“Meetings aren’t terrible,” Herold says. “We’re just terrible at running meetings.”

He says businesses can make better use of the time spent in meetings, and improve employee morale and productivity in the process, if they follow five simple steps.

Have an agenda. Meetings that don’t have a clear agenda tend to get off track easily. They also often include people who don’t need to be there and would be better off back at their desks, completing important projects, Herold says. The agenda can be short, but should include the main purpose of the meeting, the possible outcomes and the action items to be covered.

“An agenda prevents the meeting from being hijacked by some random topic,” Herold says. “It also allows your more introverted team members to prepare what they want to say in the discussion. Most introverts won’t chime in when they don’t know the agenda ahead of time and you could miss some great ideas.”

Determine a meeting style. There are basically three styles of meetings: information share, creative discussion and consensus decision. In an information-share meeting, the information flows in one direction. Either employees tell the leadership something, or senior management has something to say to employees.

Creative discussions are brainstorming sessions. People toss out ideas without any judgments made about feasibility or validity, and decisions come at a later date. Consensus-decision meetings are held when a decision is needed. Herold warns that these can get testy, but eventually the participants need to reach a consensus. “Once you’ve concluded the meeting, put it behind you,” he says. “Don’t continue the discussion outside the meeting.”

Start on time and end early. If you scheduled the meeting for 10 a.m., start at 10 a.m. “This shows respect for people’s times, and also reflects something much bigger,” Herold says. “If you can’t start a meeting on time, why would it be any different for anything else that’s going on in a company?” End the meeting five minutes early. That gives people time to grab a cup of coffee, check emails, go to the restroom or chat with colleagues before their next meeting.

 Foster useful communication. Some people talk a lot in every meeting. Others rarely speak. For a meeting to be successful, you need to get everyone engaged, Herold says. Foster dialogue with newcomers or quiet people first, and then go around the table, moving up in seniority as you solicit feedback or ideas. Also, make sure people are not distracted because they are responding to email on their cell phones or laptops.

Know your role. Every meeting should have a chair, a timekeeper, participants and a closer. The chair announces the type of meeting it is and makes sure everyone sticks with the agenda. “The job of the chair is to prevent the meeting from going sideways,” Herold says. The timekeeper does what the name implies, making sure everyone stays on schedule and that no one lingers too long on any one point. The participants should not be passive observers. They need to arrive prepared to contribute and to remain interested throughout the meeting. The closer generally is going to be the chair. Herold says meetings should always end with the chair posing the question: “Who’s doing what, and by when.” That way each person acknowledges their assignment and their deadline for achieving it.

“Employee frustration will drop drastically if you can keep meetings focused on the task at hand and avoid wasting time,” Herold says. “You should be able to get more done faster, and with fewer people involved.”

Cameron Herold, author of “Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less” (www.DoubleDoubleBook.com), began his first business at age 21. He has been instrumental in the successful sale, branding and integration of 500 business locations with three major companies. He’s best known as the driving force behind 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s spectacular growth from $2 million to $106 million in revenue in six years. His range of executive roles includes strategic planning, negotiating corporate acquisitions, operations, people, sales, marketing, call centers and public relations. Herold is a top-rated lecturer at the EO/MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program and a powerful and effective speaker at EO/YPO & Vistage events around the world.