Saffire Blog

Target Practice: The Importance of Having a Target Audience

In honor of our attendance at the upcoming IAVM VenueConnect Conference, we thought it would be a good time to talk about the importance of having a target audience when it comes to your online marketing. This is especially true if you have a variety of events that attract very different groups of people. Whether you’re pulling in tweens for a Selena Gomez concert, or pulling in old school rockers for a Kansas reunion, the most important thing to remember is to go where your audience goes. Here are a few tips to make sure that you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to online marketing for your events.

Go where your audience goes. We’re saying it twice, so you know it’s important! It may seem obvious, but different age groups are going to be more inclined to use different online avenues. This is especially true when it comes to social media. Teens and young adults have a tendency to gravitate towards Instagram rather than Facebook, while adults aged 30+ are all about Facebook. When you’re thinking about the best way to advertise an event, you need to be seen where your target audience is looking. Whether you believe in the value of social media or not, you miss out on reaching a huge segment of your audience when you choose to opt out of being present on social media.
Pay to play. We’re talking about Facebook here! Facebook has made it extremely difficult for businesses to reach their fans; only an average of 3% of your fans will see your posts if you don’t pay to advertise. The great thing about Facebook advertising is that they have some insanely in-depth audience targeting options. From specific purchasing behavior, to moms with kids of a certain age, the choices make it nearly impossible not to select the exact characteristics you want in an audience. By targeting your ads to the people you want to reach most, you are less likely to waste money reaching people who might find what you’re promoting irrelevant.
Segment your email list. Email marketing is a must! We might be preaching to the choir now, but email is still the most cost effective way to drive online sales. However, you can really take your email marketing to the next level by segmenting your lists by interest or age group. A great way to do this is to have an email sign-up list on your website that allows users to select what they’re most interested in (concerts, outdoor events, competitive events, etc.).
Do your research. Some events or concerts have a very obvious audience, but others may require an extra step from you. Whether you’re paying attention to numbers from a similar past event or going to Google to figure out a performer’s fan-base, you need to be in-the-know of exactly who is interested in the event you’re promoting. Don’t play the guessing game, because that only wastes your money!

Whether you’re a venue with 150+ events a year, or a single event with multiple attractions, you should be targeting your audiences online! It’s the best way to be relevant and save yourself from spending unnecessary money. No matter what type of event you have, the ultimate goal is to get butts in seats! So give yourself the best chance of filling every seat by making sure to reach out to the most relevant audience!

Getting Seen and SHARED on Social Sites!

It’s no secret that we are living in the days of “more” – more content from more sources, being shared with more people, more frequently and more quickly. The question is, in the sea of information flooding consumers today, how do you ensure that your social marketing efforts will be read – and ultimately shared? … Continue reading “Getting Seen and SHARED on Social Sites!”

It’s no secret that we are living in the days of “more” – more content from more sources, being shared with more people, more frequently and more quickly. The question is, in the sea of information flooding consumers today, how do you ensure that your social marketing efforts will be read – and ultimately shared? Sharing certainly is not a new concept. People love to tell their friends about great finds, ideas and experiences, it’s just a lot easier to do so with the help of modern technology, and you should be taking advantage of this fact!

Why does it matter if your customers share your content? According to The Psychology of Sharing, a study published by The New York Times, “73% [of people surveyed] say they process information more deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully when they share it.” This means that if you post about an upcoming event on your Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts, and one of your followers shares this post, that person will be more likely to really contemplate the event, making them more likely to buy tickets and end up attending the event! Also, once they’ve taken the time to share your event information, it is probable that they will continue to talk about it with others (since you are now top-of-mind), which often translates to more tickets sold!

Time is of the Essence. One of the implications of consumers receiving so much data is our attention spans are shorter than ever. In other words, if you want to capture your target audience, you need to get information to them as quickly and frequently as possible. Big concert next week? Let you consumers know through a number of different channels – email, social media, and on your website – as soon as possible, so they will be thinking of you and be more driven to share this information with others. Make it easy for them to share, too! Incorporate social media buttons directly on your webpage that link your site to your social media pages. If customers can share your content with one-click, they are far more likely to do so. Another important consideration – even if you aren’t working on Wednesday and Thursday one week, your customers are still looking at your content, so try to keep active every day. (For tips on leveraging social media on the weekends, see the article we linked under “Latest Headlines,” at the top of The Dirt.) On the flip side, people will generally share your content only if they feel like they can trust you, so make sure you take any outdated information down with the same sense of urgency as you’re posting.

Get Engaged! When posting, don’t just think about the business side of your venue, but about what draws consumers to your venue in particular. In other words, what are the interests of your target audience? Most people choose to share information when they believe the information is a direct reflection of their personality, interests and beliefs, so try to match up with your customer’s mindset. Also, your fans want to be heard just as much as you do. If they take the time to comment, reply or write you an email, make sure you respond! Engagement makes people feel valued, and the more appreciated they feel, the more likely they’ll be to share your information with others.

Make it Fun! While thinking about being timely and engaging, try to also find a unique way to get your customers involved. Some great tools include polls, contests and open-ended questions. For example, if you have 3 big shows coming up over the next couple of months, put a poll up asking your fans who they are most excited to see. Not only will this get people voting, but it will likely get them to share as they see the preferences of others. You may also choose to post a photo of one of the favorite foods served at your event, and ask people when the last time they tasted this dish was. Leaving the question open-ended invites more conversation, which makes readers give more thought to the post, resulting in more shares.

Think of posting to social media in a similar fashion as talking to a group of friends. You want to stay on topics that will be interesting to the group, and hopefully get everyone involved. The real victory is when you choose a topic that so interesting, your friends talk about it even after you part ways. Also remember, no one likes being the person who shows up late, making the others wait, so be sure to exhibit a sense of urgency with your social media posts. Sharing isn’t a new idea – in fact, people love to share when you give them content that sparks their interest, so start posting!

5 Steps to Help Your Event, Venue or Destination Take Off With Facebook Advertising

If you’ve seen one of our many presentations in 2014, you’ve probably heard us mention the importance of Facebook advertising. In September, Facebook made a change to its algorithm, drastically reducing the reach of business posts. In December, they did it again and now only an estimated 3% of your followers will see your posts … Continue reading “5 Steps to Help Your Event, Venue or Destination Take Off With Facebook Advertising”

If you’ve seen one of our many presentations in 2014, you’ve probably heard us mention the importance of Facebook advertising. In September, Facebook made a change to its algorithm, drastically reducing the reach of business posts. In December, they did it again and now only an estimated 3% of your followers will see your posts if you don’t advertise. With that in mind, we’ve put together our top 5 basic steps to get started with Facebook advertising.

Step 1 – Ads Manager & Power Editor: When you’re first getting started with Facebook advertising it’s sometimes hard to find where to begin. Once you’ve accessed the “Ads Manager” page it will show as a link on your Facebook “Home” page on the left side navigation, but for your first entry point you can start by clicking on this link: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/. If you manage several business pages, you’ll want to make sure you have your Account dropdown in the top left corner set to the correct account. The “Ads Manager” is where you’ll set up your billing information, your users who are allowed access to your ads, and where you’ll access your reports. Once you have the billing information set up, you can click on “Power Editor” to actually start building your audiences and campaigns. Each time you go into the Power Editor you will want to click the “Download to Power Editor” button to ensure you’re working with the latest data.

Step 2 – Audience: Once you’re in the Power Editor, you’ll want to start building some audiences to target your ads to. There are 3 different types of audiences you can create. The first is a Target Group that allows you to select different user demographics that match the demographics of your audience. If you’re a venue or event you may want to set up a target group that lives within a 50 mile radius, and is “interested in” a specific performer coming to your stage, or sponsors supporting your events, or local media outlets. If you’re a destination, you may want to target a different city or state that you know travels to your area frequently, along with a specific age group, or parents of children in a specific age group. You can also create target groups of people who “Like” your page and their friends. There are a ton of options here so we recommend you explore the possibilities. The 2nd type of audience is a Custom Audience. This is a spreadsheet of email addresses that you’ve collected for your newsletter, volunteers, sponsors, board members, etc. that you can upload to Facebook and it will search for Facebook accounts tied to that email list. You can also create a custom audience of people who visit your website. The 3rd audience type is a Lookalike Audience which Facebook creates based off the demographics of your uploaded Custom Audience, and matches those demographics to other Facebook users with similar likes, interests, ages and locations.

Step 3 – Campaigns, Ad Sets & Ads: Now that you have your audiences set up, you can start creating those ads. There are 3 levels of ad creation. The top level is the Campaign. The Campaign is where you set the Objective of a group of ads. The ad objectives range from increasing engagement with your posts (generating more likes, shares and comments on a specific post), to increasing page likes (the number of people who are following your business page), to increasing website conversions (actually getting users to click through to your website and make a purchase). The Ad Set is the middle level of a group of ads and is where you set your budget and the start and end date for the group. Important tip: Please note that Facebook defaults your ad set to run continuously with no end date and with a $10 daily budget. You can edit this amount and add an end date if you would like. We’ve seen success with budgets as low as $3/day. You can have multiple ad sets within a campaign which helps you budget different amounts to different groups of ads. The bottom layer is the Ad itself. You can make an ad out of any of the following: a post that is already live, a post that is scheduled to go live in the future, or an unpublished post that doesn’t actually show on your business page but does show on your audience’s wall. You can have many ads within an ad set, and this allows you to create an ad for each audience using the same content for each or possibly different content depending on your needs. When you create the ad you need to set the name and select the post on the first tab, set the audience on the second tab and set the “Optimization & Pricing” on the third tab. I typically use the Optimized CPM option to allow Facebook to determine the best mix of how to spend my set budget between my ads within an ad set.

Step 4: Create an editorial calendar and budget for your Facebook advertising that will help you determine how much you will be spending throughout the year. Consider ramping up your budget in the weeks leading up to tickets going on sale and while tickets are on sale, and then lowering it during your off-season. Your editorial calendar should reflect milestone dates for your venue, event or destination as well as for your surrounding community and national holidays and events so your posts can be relevant to what your fans are already paying attention to. Consider scheduling contests and promotions to garner excitement and use that as an opportunity to spend additional advertising budget on posts that your audience will be most excited about. Whether you’re spending a dollar a day or $50 a day, you’ll be guaranteeing that more people will see your posts than if you do not advertise at all.

Step 5: Practice makes perfect and this is a format that will likely take a bit of trial and error. If you’re looking at the reporting during a campaign and realizing that a target audience isn’t responding, think about what needs to change for that audience to work better. Adjust your settings and keep moving forward. If you notice that posts with images or promotions get better traction than posts without those things, then do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.

With over 1 billion monthly active users, Facebook is space that cannot be ignored, but you simply won’t be seen without spending some advertising dollars there!

Saffire Stats: 2013 IN REVIEW

We were blessed to have a wonderful 2013! We wanted to share some of the exciting numbers we found for our clients as well as a few fun stats we had from the year! The most exciting number we found was that over 4.7 million people visited a Saffire website in 2013. From small associations, … Continue reading “Saffire Stats: 2013 IN REVIEW”

We were blessed to have a wonderful 2013! We wanted to share some of the exciting numbers we found for our clients as well as a few fun stats we had from the year!

The most exciting number we found was that over 4.7 million people visited a Saffire website in 2013. From small associations, to venues, to 1 million person events, each of our clients contributed to this number and we are thrilled that the Saffire platform provided their customer with a welcoming online destination. These visitors viewed over 26.2 million pages on our sites and 40% of these visitors came to a Saffire site on their mobile device or tablet (now you know why we constantly teach about the importance of mobile)!

Also in 2013 we gained 58 NEW clients while launching 59 new Saffire websites! Considering we ending 2012 with just 46 clients on our roster we are honored to now have 104 clients in the Saffire family! Finally, you may have seen us in your state or out of state at an association meeting, conference, or trade show and that’s because we attended 16 conventions, more than one per month! Now that is a lot of travelling, but what’s even more interesting is that we believe we made at least 20 crock pots of Saffire queso last year, YUM!

Again, we can’t believe the success we experienced in 2013 but can’t wait to see the continued growth of Saffire and the Saffire family in 2014!

5 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Event

Chances are that you’re already using social media as part of your marketing toolkit. Here you’ll find 5 ways to increase odds on having a spectacular event. 1) Create buzz with a contest Any type of free giveaways get people excited and scrambling to get in on the action. Contests are a great way to … Continue reading “5 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Event”

Chances are that you’re already using social media as part of your marketing toolkit. Here you’ll find 5 ways to increase odds on having a spectacular event.

1) Create buzz with a contest

Any type of free giveaways get people excited and scrambling to get in on the action. Contests are a great way to generate interest in your event and get people talking about it.

Recently Rodeo Houston targeted the younger audience with a contest promoting their Demi Lovato concert.

Participants only needed to say where Demi was born (and spell it correctly). The winner got two chute tickets to Demi Lovato’s concert at Rodeo Houston, plus the chance to meet Demi Lovato backstage. Also, Carnival tickets, a steak dinner for two before the Rodeo, two season passes to the grounds and a parking pass. Now that’s a serious prize package!

As Leroy Shafer, chief operating officer of Rodeo Houston, said, “these entertainers introduce rodeo to a new generation that will stay with us for generations to come.”

Create a hashtag to easily track your entries on twitter and use a similar phrase on Facebook. Keep the requirements super-simple to encourage participation.

2) Create a video that people will share

A video is the next best thing to experiencing your event in person. Great visuals and sound will not only get people excited to attend, but also will get them motivated to share their excitement.

Make a video (and remember, it doesn’t have to be slick – just take it with your phone!), and leverage it everywhere you can. Post it on YouTube, Facebook and on your own site.

We aren’t sure if this was truly done by a fan or someone at the Los Angeles County Fair, but it’s unique, clever and catchy , proving that even slightly annoying things catch on with repetition.

Some Things I Saw At The 2012 Los Angeles County Fair

3) Interview Performers or Guests for Special Content

One of the main reasons people attend your event is to see your performers – rodeo cowboys & cowgirls, famous singers or even the chef at a crowd favorite fair food cart. Getting more exposure is one of the primary reasons that they are performing at your event.

So take advantage of this by doing a short interview with your performers, and this will be valuable event content. Here’s an example:

Trevor Brazile talking about the prestige of the Pendleton Round-Up

Again, leverage the content everywhere – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and your own site.

4) Create a “Great Tips” post for your blog

Help your guests organize their day by creating a post with tips about your event. Highlight the “Don’t Miss It” attractions. Suggest ways to avoid the crowds for the most popular attractions. Let them know helpful information about any event changes; for instance, you have now moved several kiddie rides over near the petting barn rather than everything being in the midway. (If you have a Saffire site, your guests can use all of this information to customize their own event schedule right on your site.)

Encourage your visitors to contribute their own tips. Make sure it’s easy for them to share this great content on Facebook and Twitter.

5) Create a tweet for your attendees

If people are excited about attending, why not make it easy for them to tell their friends by just clicking a button. You can create a custom Twitter button with your specific message already set up in the Tweet text. Here is the link to Twitter’s Button resource. Once you’ve built it, you embed the HTML code that Twitter provides.

These are just 5 Ways to promote your event with Social Media. Be creative and try out your own ideas. One of the great things about social media is that you never can predict what will catch everyone’s attention and go viral. Just keep the content flowing.

Saffire Client Webinar: Meet the NEW and IMPROVED SaffireMail!

Meet the New and Improved SaffireMail! Are you using email marketing to its fullest potential? Do you know you need to do more but need a little help getting started? Email marketing is extremely cost-effective, and your top revenue days will likely be the days you send bulk email to customers! Since email is … Continue reading “Saffire Client Webinar: Meet the NEW and IMPROVED SaffireMail!”

Meet the New and Improved SaffireMail!

Are you using email marketing to its fullest potential? Do you know you need to do more but need a little help getting started? Email marketing is extremely cost-effective, and your top revenue days will likely be the days you send bulk email to customers!

Since email is so important to an event’s success, we want to share our 8 steps to creating and sending an impactful email.

Then, we’ll take you on an exclusive sneak peek of our NEW and IMPROVED SaffireMail!

This is the perfect opportunity for you to ask questions and kick-start your email marketing efforts. As our customer, you will get to see our completely revamped SaffireMail before its official release so you know exactly how our tool will make your life easier.

Kendra Wright, our president, and Aaron Pederson, our technical director, think it is so important for you see the updates to SaffireMail, they are offering two different sessions so you can work it into your schedule. Register now!

Please make plans to join us and take your email marketing to the next level with SaffireMail!

TOP 5 THINGS TO DO NOW TO BRAND YOUR EVENT FOR SEARCH ENGINES & BEYOND

There are moments when I’m almost painfully aware of how long I’ve been doing internet marketing (since 1995, if we’re really keeping track). One of my main reminders is seeing the change in web browsers. In the old days, it was Netscape vs. Internet Explorer, and it was a constant challenge to make websites look … Continue reading “TOP 5 THINGS TO DO NOW TO BRAND YOUR EVENT FOR SEARCH ENGINES & BEYOND”

There are moments when I’m almost painfully aware of how long I’ve been doing internet marketing (since 1995, if we’re really keeping track).

One of my main reminders is seeing the change in web browsers. In the old days, it was Netscape vs. Internet Explorer, and it was a constant challenge to make websites look good in both browsers. Then along came Firefox, Chrome and others.

As is true in real life, the only thing constant is change, except I’d say this is even more so with how quickly things change on the Internet.

The shift of search engines is another reminder of my time in online marketing. Before Google, website managers had to worry about getting found in a whole myriad of search engines. Google domination has actually made our lives easier!

But then as is often the case with putting all eggs in one basket, when the Google algorithm shifts, the aftershocks are seismic.

This spring, Google has been busy teaching us what they think is important online by changing the rankings (often for the worse) of many websites. The bottom line is this: We in the industry have always known that what you have on your page is dwarfed in importance by who links to you. “Who links to you” used to mean other websites., but now it mostly means social media.

Google understands that a website isn’t the only place online where a brand needs a presence, so exchanges via social media about and with your brand are now more important than ever. You must interact with your customers, which will get you a great reputation and also rankings in Google.

The Checklist

What are the most important places where you need a presence? Our answer, inspired by a Fast Company article on the topic, is nothing new. But you should consider it your checklist in having a strong brand, both for your customers and for Google.

Have conversations on Facebook. Invite questions, suggest reading, provide links, and curate content. Share content that inspires more followers, and if you aren’t getting more followers, tweak your strategy and repeat what works.
Share tweets about topics of interest. Notice we didn’t say self-serving announcements. Nobody wants to read over and over how great your brand is. Provide info that is of real use to people, then measure what gets retweeted the most and repeat what is successful.
Upload videos to Youtube. If people aren’t watching and sharing your videos, then tweak your videos and repeat what is successful. (Remember, Google owns YouTube – reason enough not to leave video out of your strategy.)
Pin and repin interesting images on Pinterest. Most businesses can communicate better with images than text, which is handy, since as we all know, reading online isn’t exactly pervasive. Pin things that you think will be interest to your customers
Participate in groups and post company updates on LinkedIn. If a customer sends you a referral, ask them to post it on Linked In. (Send them a link to make it easy for them.) Because company pages are public and now feature status updates, these pages can be useful both for search engines and people.

Branding is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. But the time you put in pays dividends that your event will feel for years to come. Your goal is to be sought after, both online and offline, to share the relevant information you become known for sharing.

So what are you waiting for? Get going!

Should you be using Text Marketing?

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: our goal is to help improve the overall online presence of the event industry. One of the ways we try to keep up with the needs of fairs, festivals and rodeos is by surveying our current clients to find out what is important to them. Earlier … Continue reading “Should you be using Text Marketing?”

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: our goal is to help improve the overall online presence of the event industry. One of the ways we try to keep up with the needs of fairs, festivals and rodeos is by surveying our current clients to find out what is important to them.

Earlier this spring, we asked what feature they would most like to see incorporated into Saffire and the overwhelming answer was text message marketing!

After we saw this infographic, we were sure glad we took their word for it and now provide SaffireText.

But that’s enough about us. Let’s talk about why text marketing is an important step for the event industry.

This infographic breaks down why text message marketing just might be the best way to reach customers. You can’t really argue with the fact that 98% of text messages are opened!

Most Americans look at their phones around 150 times per day, so going where your users are has taken on a whole new meaning. Not only should you have a presence on sites they already visit, but you can now go directly into the palm of your customer’s hand with the latest information and updates about your event.

Text messaging is still considered to be mainly a personal form of communication, so you don’t want to just add text marketing to your mix and look like a bull in a china shop. Here are a few tips to consider as you get started with text marketing.

Text messages should be short, simple and personal.
Text messages are not billboards, so make sure to include a call to action so your point is clear.
Timing is everything, so only send messages when they will be considered valuable to the customer.
Respect your customers and don’t send too many messages. Remember, texting is a relatively new form of marketing so give customers a chance to tip toe in without scaring them off.

If you haven’t considered text marketing before, I hope these statistics show you that this new marketing technique is something your event should consider.