Houseful

INDI A SINGAPORE M A L AY S I A
Notion Press Media Pvt Ltd
No. 50, Chettiyar Agaram Main Road,

Vanagaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu – 600 095
First Published by Notion Press 2021

Copyright © Sorav Jain 2021
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 978-1-63997-575-4
This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the
material error-free after the consent of the author. However, the
author and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any
liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by
errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from
negligence, accident, or any other cause.
While every effort has been made to avoid any mistake or omission,
this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding
that neither the author nor the publishers or printers would be
liable in any manner to any person by reason of any mistake or
omission in this publication or for any action taken or omitted to
be taken or advice rendered or accepted on the basis of this work.
For any defect in printing or binding the publishers will be liable
only to replace the defective copy by another copy of this work
then available.
I dedicate this book to all the event organisers and
event marketers looking to reach out to their audience,
innovating and offering them an amazing experience.
I truly appreciate your effort and know how tough it
can be.
I also dedicate this book to my son, Sahel, and my fantastic

team at echoVME. I am blessed to have them in my life.
CONTENTS
Preface................................................................................ 7
Chapter 1 Introduction to Event Marketing......... 9

1.1 Event Marketing on Social Media........ 11
1.2 Creating the ‘Sell Your

Event’ Game Plan��12
1.3 15 Steps Content Strategy Plan�� 22
1.4 Budget and Sales Plan........................ 42
1.5 Event Marketing Sales Funnel............ 47
Chapter 2 Case Studies on Event Marketing...... 55

Case Study 1: Generating 400
Leads for Kay Fashions Diwali Mela..........56
Case Study 2: Driving a Sale of

60 Lakhs with Less than 1%
Investment on Social Media.......................71
Contents
Case Study 3: How We Sold 170+

Tickets for Leadership Unplugged
via Social Media......................................... 87
Case Study 4: Medicall Expo, Chennai..... 100
Case Study 5: Super Chef

Chennai FEASTATHON............................. 109
Case Study 6: Hot Air Balloon Fest.......... 119
Case Study 7: Selling 3,000+

Tickets for Digital Masters
Conference Online in Just 20 Days......... 127
Case Study 8: How We Sold

an Event on Social Media with
a Budget of Rs. 17,000.............................. 131
Case Study 9: How We Got 10,000+

Registrations for CREDAI
Chennai FairPro....................................... 144
Conclusion........................................................................167
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PREFACE
We love marketing events at echoVME, the digital

marketing company that I run. What makes it so
interesting is the hustle bustle surrounding each event,
from ideation to execution to the results everything is
much more instantaneous than other campaigns. The
interaction with the respondents also serves as a source
of inspiration. The goals are the same; the audience
wants to have fun; we too want them to have fun while
also enjoying the thrill of meeting our client’s targets.
What got me to writing this book is the realisation

that most brands categorise event marketing with
general digital marketing. They fail to realise that event
marketing needs a different approach; there are other
things to be considered, and the pacing and thought
process is entirely different. What is similar though
is the power and reach of digital that can pull in the
crowd you are looking for. With this book, Houseful -
The Art of Selling Your Events On Social Media, I intend
to illustrate the best strategies you can take up while
marketing your event online. I have explained how you
can create an engaging objective that inspires people
to choose your event and also about the power of
audience engagement. So, here’s hoping this book
helps you boost the marketing of your next event! Have
a good read!
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION TO EVENT
MARKETING
T
he event marketing industry in India has grown
rapidly over the years, accounting for a valuation
of over 5500 crores INR in 2019. With such a
huge market comes a massive opportunity for marketers
to play their role in marketing these events to the right
audience.
Selling events on social media is one of the most

exciting tasks ever! There are two reasons for this:
1. It has a quick-end goal, unlike any other social

media marketing campaign. You set a goal, you
launch the campaign, you persuade people to
buy, and then you conclude. It is similar to a
product sales cycle, but a product sales cycle is
ongoing, whereas event marketing isn’t.
2. Both customers and advertisers receive

outcomes.
Houseful
Being a non-ongoing process, it gives you the chance to

conclude activities as an advertiser and as a customer.
• You run the campaigns, you fetch the results, and

you conclude.
• You attend the event, you share it on social

media, and you conclude.
In my experience, event marketing is one of the best

ways to learn digital marketing. It has the largest scope
for innovation as you deal in a window period, a window
period from the time you announce it till the date of the
event.
Event marketing is connecting the event theme,

takeaways, or cause to the right audience via both
inbound and outbound marketing activities. Apart from
just providing information to the audience, a successful
event marketing campaign will deliver value to the
audience, such as early bird offers, special takeaways,
gift vouchers, discounts, and more.
Event marketing does not only pertain to attracting

an audience for a particular event and piling in
registrations and walk-ins. It extends to coordinating the
entire event, creating a direct connection between the
brand and audience, delivering the value promised during
the promotion, and increasing the brand’s reputation
among the audience.
“A good event marketing strategy will focus on delivering

memorable events rather than successful events.”
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Introduction to Event Marketing
The key to creating a memorable event marketing

strategy lies in finding the right event marketing
mix. The mix consists of getting together the right
audience profile, geography, channels, communication,
frequency of communication, and the messaging for
the audience.
1.1 Event Marketing on Social Media

People usually look to social media when they are in
search of something new, and events are usually the
answer. On social media, events sell faster than a product
since people are drawn to them.
The key to selling an event on social platforms is to

target the right people with the right message with the
right creative.
Social platforms have also evolved over the years

to help you better market your event on the concerned
platforms. Facebook offers you event pages through
which you can exclusively publish your event and invite
attendees. You can promote your event-related hashtags
and drive engagement using the same. You can reach
people directly with tools like Facebook Messenger
to engage continuously and convert your Marketing
Qualified Leads to Sales Qualified Leads. There is a lot
that each of the platforms could offer. I have covered
them extensively in Table 1.2.
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1.2 Creating the ‘Sell Your Event’ Game Plan

Event marketing on social media platforms has to be
backed up by robust sales. For event marketing, I have
observed that a lot of them follow a typical pattern. They
create a Facebook event page, boost the page, and keep
their fingers crossed for sales/leads. Remember, creating
an event page and boosting it gets you to Level 0 in your
event marketing campaign.
Doing so might get you a lot of RSVPs, but on the day

of the event, you might not be happy with the turnout.
RSVPs do not get you sales. Unless people buy tickets
through your promotion, your event isn’t sold.
• RSVP/marking interested on Facebook pages
• Registration without a fee
In both cases, you would see a lot of online enrolments,

but a reverse scenario at the actual event. The turnaround
rate is less than 20% for a commercial event unless it is a
weekend carnival or a fair or a rock star concert. However,
it is always better to sell tickets online since it is a token
of confirmation.
The formulated strategy should be based on the

primary objective of the event. I usually recommend
the event marketing triangle to begin your strategy
formulation. The event marketing triangle consists of the
3Ps – people, platform, and posts.
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Fig 1.1: The 3Ps of event selling strategy – People, Platform

and Posts
• People: The first bubble defines your target

audience. Try brainstorming to identify the right
share of audience who will benefit from the
event. Usually, B2C events will have a broader
targeting scope when compared to B2B events.
With B2B, you can consult the event organizer to
identify the niche target.
It’s crucial to analyse the brand as you try to create an

audience for them. Here are some important questions
you should ask to help yourself create a psychological
roadmap. These questions will help you with the pre-
event analysis on finding your selling proposition,
timelines, existing records, budget estimate, and setting
the expectations right with the client.
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Table 1.1 Pre-event analysis questions for the brand
Questions Impact on Audience/Sales

Is this the first time A first-time event needs social proof
the event is being and hence requires a lot of effort in
organized or does it marketing.
have a history? An event with history has a pre-
existing audience and market. Repeat
events are effortless.
Does the event A database of past participants or
organizer have a other resources can help you create
database? a buzz right from the moment you
announce the event. You can create
a custom audience or send emails to
the list.
Is the event An event associated with a club or
connected to any association has an easily availed first
club/association? level of influencers as the members of
the club or association are more likely
to share, purchase, and inform their
peers through social media.
Are there enough Pictures or videos of past events are
collaterals (pictures one of the greatest ways to make
and videos)? people feel the pulse of the event,
and it helps you sell a lot faster.
An actual picture from the past
edition has a larger impact on sales
of the event than images taken from
stock images websites or vector-
based designs.
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What’s the agenda How you plan your conference,

and key takeaway? the profile of the speakers and the
theme create an enormous impact.
A conference on business leadership
has a larger impact when compared
to just a routine business conference.
It’s about how you set the context
and the ultimate goal.
A simple question to ask your client –
What would be your audience’s key
takeaway from this event? Why do
you think someone should participate
in this event?
What is the date The event date is another turning
and timeline? factor in sales. A lot of business
conferences are organized on Fridays
and Saturdays, and, in some cases, on
Saturdays and Sundays.
For conferences, Saturday and Sunday
bring in a lot of business crowd.
Friday and Saturday usually attract
employees as they don’t want to give
their Sundays a miss.
Weekends are ideally the best time
to host most of the events as people
are in the mindset of doing something
new.
Continued…
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Where is the event? The event venue defines the class.

The location defines the mass. If your
event is at a five-star hotel, expect
your audience to pay more. If your
event is in the centre of the city, in
a prime location, your chances of
receiving higher footfalls are better.
We once organized a business
conference in a five- star property at
the price of just INR 3,000 (for two
days). The event had a massive impact
as the fee charged was equivalent to
the cost of food at such locations.
A carnival we held in the centre of
the city had more than ten thousand
footfalls when compared to a similar
carnival organized on the outskirts,
which fetched us only 25% of the
former.
How popular is There are times when the tickets
the presenter? sell like hotcakes because the chief
(This is especially resource person is quite popular. Then
relevant in the there are times when the tickets don’t
case of stand-up sell despite a strong promotion drive
comedy, concerts, due to the poor brand recognition of
conference the presenter.
speakers, etc.)
What’s the price of The price of the event (tickets/
the event? registration fee) will help you decide
your communication or execution
strategy.
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On the internet, there are very few

takers for early bird offers unless
the event has a popular history or
presenter.
Presenting a sense of gradual ticket
price rise every week is a great way to
create a sense of urgency.
Is the event being Events advertised offline have
advertised offline a great impact online as people
(PR/newspaper generally forget to register after
ads)? seeing an offline ad, but they respond
immediately online when they see the
advertisements again.
It’s all about brand recall!
How much time do Some events are planned months in
you have to market advance while others leave you with
the event? very few days. Plan your activities
within the timelines and calculate the
effort for each activity accordingly.
What’s the budget? A budget helps you define the reach
and sales of the event. You should
educate the client on how the budget
for the event and the number of
conversions are correlated. Define
your budget accordingly.
• Platform: The second bubble talks about finding

the right platform to reach the target audience.
If it is a B2B event such as trade shows, webinars,
workshops, etc. you can consider professional
networks such as LinkedIn. If it is a sales carnival
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or a food festival, you can choose Instagram,

Facebook, and Twitter. The channels can extend
to Google Search Ads, display advertising etc.
Table 1.2 Social media platforms and their benefits
Platforms Key Attributes Benefits

Facebook ȃȃ Messenger ȃȃ Cost-effective
Marketing ȃȃ Guarantees an X
(+follow up number of inquiries for
sequence) the event in the given
ȃȃ Event Page timeframe
Marketing ȃȃ Can be automated
ȃȃ Facebook Lead through Messenger to
Ads drive more sales
ȃȃ Custom ȃȃ The audience can be
Audiences built out of the people
(highly targeted who have engaged
engagement) with the posts/
ȃȃ Traffic campaign messages and videos
for Landing ȃȃ Easy to set up
Pages. ȃȃ Effective in storytelling
ȃȃ Works with all age
groups above thirteen.
(But doesn’t work
if you are targeting
niche professionals or
CXO level individuals).
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Instagram ȃȃ Story ȃȃ A great way to

Advertisements connect with
ȃȃ Influencer millennials
Campaigns ȃȃ Constant storytelling
ȃȃ Instagram Stories in the format of stories,
polls, questions and
answers, boomerangs,
etc., can excite the
audience.
ȃȃ Has a loyal audience
following
ȃȃ Works well for
events related to
entertainment,
edutainment,
carnivals, shopping
fests, and exhibitions.
LinkedIn ȃȃ LinkedIn InMails ȃȃ Highly targeted
ȃȃ Sponsored Posts campaign to get that X
professional on board
ȃȃ Clicks to Website
or keep them informed
Campaigns
ȃȃ InMails are cheaper
and have a good
turnaround
ȃȃ Turnaround time
is slow; it requires
about two months of
promotional activities
to attract key decision-
makers
Continued…
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Twitter Hashtags ȃȃ Good for unique

One-on-one listings
engagement ȃȃ Great for keeping
the right audience
informed by tagging
them
ȃȃ Engaging influencers
to communicate about
the event
ȃȃ Trending Hashtags
are an excellent
opportunity to get
mass attention
Google ȃȃ Search Ads ȃȃ If the budget allows,
Ads display ads on relevant
ȃȃ Display Ads
sites are one of the
ȃȃ YouTube Ads best ways to grab
attention for your
event
ȃȃ Search ads will get
you minimal results,
but if the event
is also promoted
traditionally, the
search ads can help
you get a lot of
traction
ȃȃ YouTube’s five to
fifteen-second video
ads are a great way for
branding
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Event MeraEvents ȃȃ Like how people

Marketing Eventjini go to portals like
Platforms magicbricks or
Sulekha Events
housing.com to search
BookMyShow for properties or yatra.
EventsNow com and makemytrip.
com to book tickets.
Townscript
People check these
apps to view the latest
events in the city
ȃȃ This would differ from
country to country
• Posts: The third bubble represents the

establishment of content and a messaging
strategy that will appeal to the segmented
audience profile. Your content strategy can
consist of an analogy using the latest events
happening around your target audience, regional
language promotional content, and so on. The
content strategy should be engaging and drive
curiosity. Content includes all forms such as
videos, text, and graphic designs.
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1.3 15 Steps Content Strategy Plan

In this section, we cover some of the crucial attributes of
event marketing:
i) Landing Pages
When your website has too many pages, and you have to
lure your customers to a single page which has multiple
scrolls to convey the complete event information,
you can follow the following structure for the landing
page content:
͞͞ What’s the key highlight
͞͞ Where is the event
͞͞ Who are the speakers/presenters
͞͞ What’s the agenda
͞͞ What’s the timing
͞͞ Testimonials or social proof from the past
͞͞ Event images/videos to build credibility
͞͞ Cost of the event
͞͞ Payment gateways
Here is an example of a landing page we created for

one of the events organized in the past, http://www.
leadershipunplugged.in/
As a B2B conference, our landing page covered

information about the event theme, guest speaker
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profiles, event agenda, photos from the past, and we

had a prompting CTA at every step.
Please check out the landing page to better understand

how one can go about conveying the information
needed.
ii) Hashtag
Create event-specific hashtags to get a common gateway

for communication. Getting the hashtag registered in
your audience’s mind will prompt them to use the same
during their engagement about the event, and this turns
into an organic channel for promotion in later stages.
Along with the event hashtag, you should use other
relevant hashtags like local hashtags, generic hashtags,
location-based hashtags or any other trending hashtag
that would work for the event.
Fig 1.2: Example: Event specific hashtag
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For the Hot Air Balloon fest organized in Chennai, we

used the hashtag #Hotairballoonfestival consistently in
all our posts to create a uniform engagement window.
iii) Event Page
As I said earlier, creating an event page is one of the

easiest things to do, but one should ensure that you
create it at the beginning of your marketing initiatives
itself. If you will route your Facebook traffic here, a
well maintained Facebook event page is bound to yield
results. Here are some things to note while creating an
event page for your event.
• Cover Image
Care should be taken to ensure that the cover page is

designed well. You can make it a video or a photo. Ensure
the cover image fits the mobile as well as the desktop
resolution. Important details, such as event date and
venue, should be present on the cover page, and they
should not be hidden in the mobile view.
Fig 1.3: Example: A cover page with all the details
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• Page Title
Do keyword research before fixing on the title and

ensure that the title conveys the intended meaning.
Fancy titles might sound good, but unless you have solid
branding backing it up, people will just ignore the same.
For example, a page with the title ‘Bumblebee’, though
it may sound good, does not yield the desired traction as
‘South Indian Food and Fashion Carnival, Chennai’ would.
As pointed in the above example, add the location of

the event to the title to make an instant connection. You
can even add the exact location instead of just the city
name for local events.
Another idea for page title is to use the pricing terms

in the title. For example, ‘Free Royal Enfield Field Drive’,
or ‘Baking for Beginners from INR 2,500’, etc., help your
audience jump the decision-making funnel.
Fig 1.4: Example: An event title that conveys the right message
• Event Page - About Us
The ‘About Us’ column has to tell a story about the

event. This should carry the history (if there are previous
editions), the ideology behind the event (if it is a new
event), the organizing team, the key takeaways from the
event, and the value proposition (chief guest, speaker
profile, price, etc.).
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Fig 1.5: Example: A descriptive About Us
• Discussion
There is a column in the event page called ‘Discussion’. At

least 90% of the event pages do not use this area, which
is a sin. This is a great place to have some conversations
and drive engagement with the audience. This increases
your credibility among first-time visitors and helps you
convert more.
Fig 1.6: Discussion section of event page
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Keep the event page active for the next few days to
see more interactions on how the event fared. If there
is another edition next week, you can retain the page
based on the reviews and branding.
iv) Payment Gateway
Event partners help you promote your event through

their existing platform to their pre-built audience from
awareness to payment. You can tie up with such partners
to boost your event sales. If you are in the US, you can
check Time Out or Eventbrite, and if you are in India, you
can check Eventjini, MeraEvent, etc.
If you are selling through your landing page or

website, you can use payment gateways such as PayPal,
Instamojo, PayUmoney, etc. to complete the payment
process.
Always offer multiple modes of payments such as net

banking, card payments, and third party gateways such
as PayTM, Google Tez, etc. to ease the overall process.
In addition, keep counter sales open since they will add
last-minute entries.
v) Event Channel
If you have identified your target audience, do not hit

them up on every platform on which they have their
profiles listed. Rather, keep it targeted.
If it is a B2B event, you can primarily use LinkedIn.

Choosing a high profile person’s profile to send your
LinkedIn InMails will help you get good engagement
from the target list.
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If it is a B2C event such as a food fest or a music

concert, platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will
help you to deliver.
The idea is to use the dominant platform to drive

sales while using other platforms for awareness and
remarketing. It is best to push conversions through
the prime platform while actively promoting the event
on all other social media platforms. For example: For
Credai Fair Pro and Toca Boca, we mainly promoted
them on Facebook as they were B2C events (Fig 1.7
and 1.8) while for Smart CEO’s Innovation 50, we
primarily used LinkedIn (Fig 1.9). While you promote
them through various social media channels, follow
up and nurture them through Drip Marketing.
Drip Marketing is the long haul sending of drips of
information to your customers so as to nurture them
and convert them.
Fig 1.7: Toca Boca, a Kids Carnival, was promoted on Facebook
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Fig 1.8: Credai Fair Pro Real Estate Expo was promoted on Facebook
Fig 1.9: Smart CEO, a Leadership Conference, was promoted

on LinkedIn
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vi) Announcement Posts
If you are handling a niche event or a B2B event, you

need to educate your target audience about the event.
They might be new to the concept, and it becomes your
responsibility to educate them about the theme, your
value offering, and the takeaway from the event.
It is essential to set the expectations right and not

promise too much during the awareness stage. This
will ensure a positive brand reputation post the event
with the participants. You can discover how we created
awareness for the Balloon Fest, a first of its kind event in
Chennai, in the case study section of the book.
Fig 1.10: Example: Announcement post for an event
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vii) Early Bird Offers
An early bird offer is when you offer a discount for the

first few entrants to the event. This is to encourage
and attract early adopters who have a relatively faster
decision-making process. While this sounds old school,
this is a common strategy, which is expected even by the
audience. The more creative your offer is, the more likely
it is to fetch results. The early bird offer also gives you the
guarantee that there would be a set number of people
willing to make it to your event.
Generally, people do not take up early bird offers

since they want to keep their options open until the last
minute. I had an experience where a company overcame
this problem with a brilliant solution.
I wanted to attend a Global Affiliate Marketing

Conference in the US, and was looking at the ticket
prices; it was at $200. I waited for the price to go
down and to my surprise, the price started to increase
day by day, and within a week it reached $600. I was
forced to make a decision. I bought the ticket for $600
while some of the attendees had to buy it for almost
$1,000.
With a strong brand value, you can get as creative

as you want to push people to make decisions within a
stipulated time frame.
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Fig 1.11: Example: Early bird offer post
viii) Building an Audience
Your audience has to be approached multiple times, not

just once. Hence, it would be best if you built your custom
audience on Facebook before the campaign.
Target the list of people who have visited your event

page or have visited your landing page. You can also
create an event video, promote it, and then retarget the
people who have viewed the video.
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Fig 1.12: Example: Customizing and targeting your audience
ix) Social Proof Posts
If you are marketing a metropolitan event, there is

a chance you are competing with another 100 event
marketers simultaneously, so how do you make your
event stand out?
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You can use the strategy of social proof and build

the reputation of your event and the brand. Get user-
generated content from previous event instances and
share the success ratio. Be transparent and show the
engagement rate among the audience. If possible, be
explicit to display the number of registrations driven for
the current event.
This will help you increase the event’s reputation and

generate more word of mouth content.
Fig 1.13: A post being re-shared by Success Gyan, one of the largest
event Organizers. The participants were asked to upload their
event-experience on social media
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Fig 1.14: Here is a social proof example of a leadership event. By

showing photos of last year’s conference, you can excite people for
this year’s registration
x) Last Call Posts
Event marketing is time-bound, and you have to close the

registrations at some point. Continue your promotions
till the last moment, and if done right, you can generate
leads until the last day.
We have seen more success in lead generation when

we create a sense of urgency among the audience. This
promotion is meant for the late adopters. These people
tend to take a lot of time before they make a final
decision.
To provoke a sense of urgency, you need to share the

number of seats left and final call for registrations before
you close down. I have seen a minimum of ten sign-ups
during the last day of registration for my social media
workshops.
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Fig 1.15: Example: Urging the audience through last call posts/stories
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xi) Backstage Showcase
Pump up your audience for the event day and create

curiosity with some backstage posts. This can be a
hyper-lapse video of stage development, speakers’
preparations, or bites of organizers from the event area.
You can show glimpses of the social media elements

and write a story around them in the description to
encourage people to talk about the same.
For example, a food carnival talking about a thousand-

year-old wine bottle display will have a lot of word of
mouth interaction. Adding a photo of it from the actual
event area will increase credibility.
Fig 1.16: Gary Vee sharing backstage updates from an event with
relevant hashtag
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xii) Live Event Coverage
Marketing does not stop with the start of the event.

As I said, an excellent event marketer would strive to
deliver a lasting event experience. Go live from the event,
covering major event highlights and visitor bites.
This will help you drive in more footfalls the next

day. It will create a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
for those who did not attend, helping you increase the
turnaround for the next edition.
Fig 1.17: Example: Going live to captivate the audience
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xiii) Event Log to Work on Future Events
Document every part of the event. Create a logbook

about the people, the strategy and the steps involved
from start to end. This will make event planning much
easier the next time around or if you want to plan a
similar event elsewhere.
Collect images, videos, and key happenings from

the present event and use them in the follow-up edition.
This will serve you as social proof and as a credibility
builder.
xiv) User-Generated Content
User-generated content helps you understand the

audience’s point of view about the event. This has more
credibility than the brand itself. Your event has higher
chances of trending in the respective geography with
more positive UGC.
Encourage users to share their experiences and

pictures, and bring hashtags into play here. Emphasize
on adding the location in their posts to increase
visibility.
You can plan for some social media elements in the

event area such as selfie booths, stalls, and places with
good lighting facility to prompt them to take pictures.
If you feel the push is not working, organize a

contest with a giveaway to encourage them more, for
example ‘weird selfie contest’, ‘most tweets about the
event’, etc.
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Fig 1.18: Using user-generated content builds credibility
xv) Post-Event Updates
Create a custom audience profile with the people who

have attended the event or registered for the event.
Engage with them through a thank you note after the
event; the customer would appreciate this thoughtful
gesture.
Once the event helps you achieve customer

satisfaction, the thank you note would be a cherry on
top. This will create a lasting experience for the audience.
While a thank you note is an example of what can be

done, you can be creative with the endnote to engage
with the audience post-event. This will also get you loyal
participants in the next edition.
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The three ‘Ps’ (people, platform, and post) should

be interconnected at all times; they should establish
a connection within themselves. For example, a
professional set of audience shall receive professional
value delivering messages via a professional platform.
Fig 1.19: Posting an event participants group photo and promoting

the post to a custom audience boosts the credibility of the event
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1.4 Budget and Sales Plan

Once you have identified the channels, the next step is to
define the budget for promotions in each channel.
As I always say, social media is free, but social media

marketing is not.
Hence, when it comes to marketing on social media,

you have to allocate sufficient funds to achieve the same.
The organic reach in social media is only a keyword at the
moment; paid advertising is the only way to achieve your
event marketing goals.
While your overall objective is to achieve event

branding and sales, you need to form a separate strategy
for each objective. Each should have their own KPIs, and
from my experience, all clients love to hear more about
the sales KPI.
In general, there are two types of clients:
• A client with a low budget
• A client with a high budget
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Fig 1.20: Client categories based on budget
Now, let’s understand the categorization of these clients

as per their budgets:
• Low budget, high turnaround events:
These events market themselves. They usually include

food carnivals, music concerts, celebrity shows, etc. that
have an audience profile for themselves. Such events are
easy to sell on social media.
• High budget, low turnaround events:
These include B2B expos, conferences, and workshops.

Such events usually call for more educational messaging
before the user reaches a purchase decision. They are
not easy to sell as such events are not planned or driven
by a ‘sales by volume’ approach.
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In this section, I would also like to cover some of

the most important points on budgeting and frequently
asked questions by my clients:
How much should one invest in event marketing and

where?
B2C/B2B Event Marketing requires the following fixed

and variable budgets:
There is no standard template for budget, but a pilot

test is essential to derive at the cost per sale. Cost per
sale will help you define further budgets. However, event
marketing is always a ‘last moment game’, so while you
do your budget split, you also need to determine the
timeline of your impact.
Table 1.3. A Pilot Test Budget
Activities Budgets (Pilot Test) – INR

Landing Page (Fixed) 20,000
Email Tool (Fixed) 25,000
Messenger Platform (Fixed) 10,000
Ad Budgets (Variable) 1,00,000 overall, it’s split
below.
Lead Generation (B2C/B2B) 60,000
Re-targeting (B2C/ B2B) 10,000
Event Page Promotion (B2C/ 5,000
B2B)
LinkedIn InMail (B2B) 10,000
Sponsored Posts & Stories (B2C/ 15,000
B2B Respectively)
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An ideal event marketing activity costs between

1,00,000 to 5,00,000 INR depending upon its number
goal; this is with agency fees involved. However, there
are certain events with goals such as 30,000 to 50,000
footfalls; this will increase the nominal budget by
5x to 10x.
An event-marketing budget largely depends

upon who your target audience is. For example, your
audience gets categorized into Quick Selling or Slow
Selling. I have listed down the categories below for your
reference:
Events Target Audiences

Quick Jewellery expo, kids’ Mass audience (parents,
Selling exhibition, fun fairs, youth, working mothers,
online expos housewives, etc.,)
Slow Business events and Niche audience
Selling conferences, real (Professionals, doctors,
estate expo, medical CXOs, IT Professionals,
fair, etc. (More of B2B etc.)
events.)
Stages of Event Marketing & Budget Split:
• As mentioned earlier, the event marketing

activities require a lot of effort during the last 10
days.
• Let’s assume you have 45 days in hand to

promote the event. In the first 15 days, you can
spend about 15% of the budget for awareness
with an early bird offer.
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• In the consecutive 15 days, you can spend about

20% of the budget. This can be adjusted until you
achieve your break-even.
• The following 10 days, you can spend 35% of the

budget.
• And during the last five days, you can spend the
remaining 30% of the budget aggressively.
What if your budget is low?
If your budget is low, you can focus on pure lead

generation campaigns and drive sales via calls. The
number of leads is directly proportional to the size of
your audience and budget. You can also create a viral
campaign by using platforms like UpViral. These help
you create a scoreboard where people can share the
URL of the event on other platforms to earn some
points and win something. This generally makes a lot
of people share the event details on their social media
channels.
One of the leading digital conferences in India, titled

Online Millionaire Summit, generally gives its buyers 50%
affiliate on selling tickets. This makes many young buyers
promote the events all across social media and make
affiliate money.
By giving incentives or affiliate commissions you can

make your audience promote the event.
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What do you do if it is a last-minute event?
Well, if you are already late to promote an event, then

you should consider getting shout-outs for the event
from Instagram and other social media influencers; this
way, you can get immediate traction. The other method
you can adapt is direct traffic to the landing page from
where people can buy tickets. However, this doesn’t
guarantee the purchase of the event tickets but at least
it eliminates the huge process of leads, calls, and then
sales.
1.5 Event Marketing Sales Funnel

The event marketing funnel helps you visualize the
stage at which your target audience is in their decision
journey and strategize your content and marketing
plans accordingly. The funnel does not end with
the ticket purchase; rather, it continues until social
advocacy, where they share their experience on their
respective social profiles.
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Fig 1.21: Event marketing sales funnel
i) Event Awareness
This is the first stage of the funnel, where your audience

gets exposed to the event details for the first time.
Engagement at this point should focus on registering
the event name, location, and date of the event in the
audience’s minds.
Do not try and force sell at this point; instead, focus

on conveying the value proposition offered by the event
to the audience.
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This can be achieved via blogs, creatives or videos

to create an impact. Work on videos that convey the
event value, blogs and quality creatives with celebrities
attending the event.
Your video can be about:
• _________ event is here, are you aware?

(a 1 minute video about the event)
• Here’s a glimpse of last year’s _________ event.
ii) Event Education
Once the audience has given you their attention, you

have to register the brand in their minds —device your
content strategy to engage with the audience. You can
ask them to comment, tag or share photos with you to
win prizes.
Once they engage with your brand, they tend to

remember it much better since this is not something
they do quite often. In this stage, it is also important to
educate your audience about why this event is important
for them.
You can make video/posts on:
• 10 reasons why you should not miss _________

event.
• Speakers participating in the event.
iii) Event Consideration
Now that they remember your brand and the event, they
start to consider the same. This is the point where they
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are more refined with their searches and approach. Let

us say your event is happening on a Saturday evening,
and you have to fight with the competition at this level.
The audience evaluates the current event with other
alternatives.
People have seen your event, and they have seen

the event price by now. This is the time to create a lot
of noise about early bird offers and other offers like
buy 1 get 1. If you believe an offer is not your thing, you
can have the key speaker give a shout-out about them
participating in the event. You can also hire influencers
or offer them free tickets to make noise about the event.
One of the popular global advertising conferences was
willing to offer me 3 ticket giveaways for my audiences
to host any contest and give the tickets of the event for
free. This also promotes the event exclusively.
For example, if you have a celebrity attending the

event, play your strategy around them with a post such
as ‘Get to meet them live on stage’. This will help you win
over your competition.
iv) Event Registration
This is a crucial step, and its success is shown through

the Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Optimize your
messaging towards the event registration.
Share posts such as ‘Last call’, ‘Only 20 seats left’, etc.

to push them towards taking a decision. Create the ‘Fear
Of Missing Out’ at this stage to ensure they sign up for
the event.
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v) Event Advocacy
As mentioned earlier, your work does not end with the

registration or purchase process; rather, you have to
complete the journey. The journey concludes with social
advocacy.
There are two ways to go about event advocacy:
1. Before the Event: You encourage your

participants to use the event hashtag and make
posts and Stories about their participation in
the event. This is usually informed via email and
SMS. You can even gamify this by using tools like
UpViral and incentivize this based on the sales or
engagement they bring.
2. During the Event: When you encourage your

audience to talk about the event on social media,
it makes their audience curious, and they are
more likely to check the event details. Interested
followers will ping them, asking, ‘tell me more
about the event’ ‘where is the event happening?’
‘can I participate in this event now?’. If it’s an
expo or a long-form event, your audience’s
participation in talking about the event on social
media with relevant hashtags can create the
biggest ‘Fear of Missing Out’. The best way to
encourage your event participants to talk about
it on social media is by doing the following:
• Display hashtags and a call to action on

the ticket: ‘Talk about the event with
#EVENTHASHTAG and win _________.
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• Display hashtag on the Name Tag of the

events (on the backside)
• Display hashtag on the entrance
• Display hashtag on the stage backdrop on

the right corner or in the centre
The ideal place to display hashtag is also in the

restrooms. You may have some creative messaging like:
‘Taking a Break, How About Making A Story or Tweet
with Hashtag #EVENTHASHTAG’
Ask the emcee of the event to announce the hashtags

and the give-aways. In regular time intervals, the emcee
can host a contest like
• Click a selfie with the next speaker and upload it

on social media
• Make a video or story about what you feel

about this event with #EVENTHASHTAG and
win _________. Give a participation gift for
everyone.
Create a photo booth with cut-outs of Instagram and

Facebook posts and display hashtags on the cut-out.
This encourages a lot of participants to click selfies and
photos and upload them instantly on social media.
When your customer has had a great experience with

the event, they are more likely to talk about the same on
their social media.
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In some cases, you might have to nudge them to

encourage them to do the same. Create on-spot contests
or post live videos from the event arena. Create more
social media elements that will provoke social actions
to achieve the same.
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CHAPTER
2
CASE STUDIES ON EVENT
MARKETING
N
ow that you have an understanding of how
event marketing works on social media and
how to create a selling strategy for your event,
we can move on to referencing successful projects that I
have worked with so that we can learn from experience,
not just theory. Here we go!
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Case Study 1: Generating 400 Leads for Kay

Fashions Diwali Mela
If you are from Chennai and on the lookout for designer
fashion wear for a festive occasion like an elegant
wedding, a sizzling sangeet ceremony, a mehendi
gathering or a chilled-out cocktail party, you can never
be disappointed with Kay Fashions.
Kay Fashions, previously known as The King’s Silks,

was established in Chennai in 1978. The King’s Silks was
rebranded as Kay Fashions in 2007, post which the brand’s
popularity has soared among the audience in Chennai.
With eight stores in Chennai, Kay partnered with

echoVME to help them with improving their brand reach
and drive more leads for their Kay Diwali Mela through
social media marketing.
a. Objectives:
• Create sound awareness about the event, Diwali
Mela, through social media
• Educate the target audience about the specialities

of the event
• Promote Kay Fashion’s exclusive Diwali collection

to the target audience
• Plan and conduct engagement driven activities

during pre-event and on event dates
• Highlight the USP of the mela - the Kay Goodie

Bag
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Case Studies on Event Marketing
• Generate leads via social media to increase walk-

ins and provide VIP tickets to target exclusive
clients
• Leverage Facebook Messenger marketing to

personalize engagement and update event-
based reminders for better traction
b. Target Audience:
• Gender - women
• Age - 18 - 60
• Geography - 5 km radius around the store (first

priority) - a sizeable portion of the budget was
spent here. Secondly, we targeted women in
the city interested in keywords like lehenga,
sarees, and those interested in high-value
goods.
c. Channels for Promotion:
• Facebook Posts
• Facebook Ads
• Instagram Posts
• Instagram Stories
• Instagram Live
• Emailers
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d. Promotions:
i) Facebook Videos
Teaser Video
Give your followers a

glimpse of what they
can expect in your event
with a teaser video.
Show them the sights
of products, collections,
and collages from the
previous events to create
more engagement and
get them ready to splurge
on the shopping days. Fig 2.1: Example: Kay Diwali
Mela teaser
Introduction Video
The first step towards any event promotion is to

create the introduction video. This can be preceded
with several teaser and countdown posts revealing
the introduction video. But the core message should
revolve around the event introduction.
For the Kay Diwali Mela, we made a 20-second video

that carried the event title, venue and date. Another
video followed this, which contained glimpses of the
Diwali collection to be displayed at the event.
This was to create awareness among the audience

and increase the curiosity to explore more.
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Fig 2.2: Example: Kay Diwali Mela Introduction Video
Reminder Video
Your followers tend to forget

about the event if you start your
promotion well ahead. Hence,
you need to build a funnel for
retargeting and keeping your
interested audience engaged
while acquiring a new audience
in parallel.
Fig 2.3: Example: Kay Diwali
For Kay Fashions, we Mela reminder video
prepared a reminder video and
targeted the interested segment a day before the event,
to serve them a notification about the event taking place
the next day.
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ii) Facebook Creative Posts
Product Showcase
In addition to videos, use stunning visuals on your

timeline to keep your audience rooted to your page.
Photos are always effective in promoting products as
it allows people to zoom in and view the product for a
longer duration.
This is the second stage of the funnel. Once you have

created awareness with a video, you can share something
valuable in this funnel, e.g., a specific kind of dress from
the collection. This calls for engagement, where they
seek out prices, availability, etc.
Fig 2.4: Product showcase for Kay Diwali Mela
Collection Showcase
So, the last time, if you showcased your masterpiece

product, this time, showcase your masterpiece collection.
Show them you have variety; more products generally
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mean a lot to choose from. People love having choices

when it comes to clothing. Flaunt it.
Fig 2.5: Showcasing variety for the Kay Diwali Mela
Long Haul Posts
Long haul posts are my favorite when it comes to event

marketing. Now, what are long haul posts? Posts that
can stay on the internet for a long time and can be
promoted for a longer duration because the context
of the content is always relevant to a fresh audience.
Also, since long haul posts are promoted for a longer
duration, it gets maximum engagement and raises
curiosity. In Kay Fashion’s case, we created multiple
educative long haul posts and promoted them to the
target audience.
Give your audience more to keep them hooked for

a longer duration. People like shopping online, hence
create long haul posts.
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If you can get your audience’s attention for more than

eight seconds, your brand gets registered in their minds.
We created long haul posts, posts with more than

four images, and uploaded them together.
The following (Fig 2.6) is a post about the things to

expect from Kay Diwali Mela.
Fig 2.6: An example of a long haul post trying to entice people with
what’s in it for them.
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iii) Event Hashtag
Create an event-related hashtag and use it in all your

upcoming posts. If someone is interested in one of your
posts and wants to know more about the designs, they
can view all the event-related posts using that hashtag.
There is more engagement when there is ease of use.
For Kay Fashions, we created the #KayDiwaliMela and

used it on all our posts to make it easy for our audience
to get complete information about the event with just a
click.
Fig 2.7: Event hashtag used in regular posts along with

generic hashtags
iv) Instagram Marketing
Instagram is perhaps the most promising tool today to

give your brand organic reach. When your hashtags and
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post creatives are striking, you are sure to make a mark

on the platform.
Just like other social platforms, you don’t have to

load it with ten posts per day to get viral reach. Posts that
are a visual treat to your audience are good enough to
get a breakthrough.
For Kay Fashions, here are the ways we used

Instagram to create some noise around #KayDiwaliMela:
Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is an excellent tool on Instagram

since they are not pushy. Your audience can choose to
check your story or not. Hence the ones who click your
Stories convey real interest towards your brand. It is
essential to be consistent with your Story schedule for
repeat attention.
With Kay Fashions, we initially started with an RSVP

Story to provoke engagement. This increased the number
of profile visits and our organic reach.
Secondly, we started posting Stories about the

customers’ shopping experience and on how Kay
Fashions helps one indulge in the latest fashion clothing
as a family. This helped us generate more footfalls on
the day of the event as more than individuals, families
attended the Mela.
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Fig 2.8: Instagram Stories to engage followers with event details
User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content always creates positive

impressions of your brand. They are more trustworthy
and often your first level word-of-mouth marketing.
We had some miniature props that made posing fun

for the customers during their visit to Kay Fashion Mela.
These pictures were added to the stories now and then
to create a positive feeling about the event.
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Fig 2.9: Example: Stories involving the user
Goodie Bag Stories
The Kay Goodie Bag was a

key giveaway that we shared
in our Stories. This was also a
part of our customer delight
strategy. Any customer who
billed above 7,000 INR was
awarded a Kay Goodie Bag.
The goodie bag was loaded
with gift vouchers, pastries,
and diyas.
Fig 2.10: Sharing the Kay

Goodie Bag through Stories
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Instagram Grid Layout Showcase
Gridstagram, as it is commonly called, is a new layout

format used popularly to create a unique and visually
appealing profile.
Break the pictures into matrix layouts 3*2 or 2*3 or

1*3 or pretty much anything that fits within a 4*3 frame.
The result is shown in Fig 2.11.
2.11: Example: Grid layout post
For Kay Fashions, we started posting the Diwali

collections with a grid layout for which we received an
overwhelming response from our audience. We had high
reach, and the organic follower count rose.
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v) Event Day
On the day of the event, we

organized engaging events
around the shop to make
the shopping experience
more exciting. One among
them was Lucky Draw.
Lucky customers won some
cool merchandise and gift
vouchers when their name
popped up.
The same was posted

on Facebook and Instagram
Stories to serve as an
incentive for online listeners.
Soon, it started bringing in
Fig 2.12: Example: Lucky draw
more footfalls.
coupons
e) Results:
Kay Diwali Mela was well received as it went heavy on

digital marketing and was the first to launch a concept
of Mela a month before Diwali, which gave the shoppers
the first-hand experience of the new collections.
Investing in Advertisements
We invested about 1,00,000 INR and generated about

1000+ enquiries through automated SMS and emails.
SMSs were triggered to 90,000+ customers database.
Besides this, about 1,00,000 was spent promoting the
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event to both fresh as well as the previously targeted

audience.
Facebook Campaign Overview
Reach Leads Cost Per Leads Cost
61,004 391 42 16,184.25
Overall Campaign Results
Amount
Platform Impression Clicks Leads
Spent
Facebook
+ 1,16,505 8,073 391 41,217.55
Instagram
f) Key Learnings:
• Focus on targeting the audience in a 5 km radius

if it’s an expo or sale event.
• Target the elite audience if the products are

expensive.
• Showcase a glimpse of what the latest collection

looks like so that the audience experiences
excitement and also the fear of missing out at the
same time.
• Make the best use of your existing database for

the event by informing and engaging regular
customers on social media. This would urge them
to bring someone else along with them to the
mela.
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• Encourage visitors to make posts about

their visits. Also, have a team to capture the
experience on Day 1, Live on social media; this
builds herd mentality and encourages people
who watch your Stories and posts to make up
their mind to visit the store in the next 2 to
3 days of the expo.
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Case Study 2: Driving a Sale of 60 Lakhs

with Less than 1% Investment on Social
Media
There are various goals for which one can run a social
media campaign. Understanding the funnel helps you
choose the right campaign for your goals, which can be
branding, lead generation, or driving more sales.
Our client, JCS jewellery has an exceptional history

in the jewellery business. They started their retail
business four years ago. With their unique designs
and remarkable customer experience, they grew by a
staggering 50% in the past four years.
They joined hands with echoVME to promote their

social presence across Facebook and Instagram. The goal
was to establish JCS as a brand among a wider audience
around Chennai and drive sales in the later stages of the
funnel.
a) Objectives:
The event objective was to increase the sales and footfall

of JCS Jewel Creations, establish JCS as a brand among
the Chennai audience, and turn it into the go-to place for
people looking to buy marvellous designer jewellery.
The team at echoVME came up with the idea

to launch a jewellery show event, which would be
one-of-its-kind, and help drive in traction to the brand.
The well-planned and well-executed event resulted
in a ravishing 60 lakh INR sale value for JCS. We also
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achieved our goal to establish JCS as a brand on social

handles, increasing their number of followers.
b) Target Audience:
• Women within the age group of 24 to 34 in

Chennai and Tamil Nadu
• Interested in buying designer jewellery and can

afford the luxury elements
• Celebrities and influencers who have interest in

jewellery designs
c) Channels for Promotion:
• Facebook Posts
• Facebook Ads
• Instagram Posts
• Instagram Stories
• Instagram Live
• Messenger Ads
• SMS Broadcast
• WhatsApp Broadcast
• Online Surveys
• Postcards
• Emailers
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d) The Thirteen-Step Event Promotion:
Intending to increase brand awareness and drive more

conversions using the Temple Jewellery show event,
team echoVME used the following thirteen steps to
achieve the same:
i) Getting JCS Social Media Ready
Since JCS Jewellers were new entrants to the digital

world, they were not social media ready. The elements
to drive social media interactions were missing in the
brand’s outlet and their event kiosks.
Our first step before launching the campaigns

was to get the social media elements in place. With
a professional photographer, we arranged for a
photo shoot for the jewellery to be used across our
promotions. We also made small video clips to blend it
with the images.
ii) Creative Instagram Posts
For retailers, Instagram is a great platform to gain

followers organically. We started building JCS’s
Instagram profile straight from the start. The profile
had around 800 followers when we initially started
working with them, and we increased it to 10,000+
followers.
We achieved this by engaging our target audience -

women of age twenty-four and above who were
interested in luxury brands - by the following posts and
Story strategies.
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Instagram Grid Posts
A grid post is of two types:
• A single post broken into a certain grid layout
• Multiple images of similar patterns posted

together
It is massively appealing to the visitors of the

profile.
Fig 2.13: Example: Grid post 1
Another type of layout is the line in the middle layout

where we maintain uniformity with text in the middle
and images on the adjacent sides.
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Fig 2.14: Example: Grid post 2
iii) Creating a Facebook Event
In order to drive more footfalls, a strong pull needs to be

present. Our team internally came up with the idea of a
temple jewellery show, aimed at driving more footfalls to
the store and increasing the sales conversions via social
media.
We created an event page on Facebook to send

out invites to our existing followers. The event
page was targeted at women in the twenty-four to
thirty-four age category since they have the liberty
to make purchase decisions. The event page helped
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us reach 21.4K people, garnering a 30% response rate,

which was well above the industry average of 10%.
Fig 2.15: Temple Jewellery Show event page screenshot
iv) Facebook Event Posts
With high-quality images, we created some high-quality

creative designs for our Facebook posts. The posts were
boosted, which reached around fourteen thousand
people. The posts focused on the brand’s uniqueness
and exclusive designs.
Fig 2.16: Example: Facebook event post
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v) Celebrity Endorsements
Being one of the elites and one-of-a-kind jewellery shops

in Chennai, JCS was not new to hosting celebrities in
their shops. We requested the celebrities to endorse
the brand on their social feed post their purchase, which
increased the brand’s reputation and reach.
Fig 2.17: Example: Celebrity endorsement on their personal social media
vi) Facebook and Messenger Ads
We started the Facebook and Messenger ad campaign

with a simple messaging strategy - “Claim your free VIP
Pass.” Usually, words like free, discount, VIP, etc. catch
the attention of the viewer, and they take a moment to
go through the ad.
While most people are aware of and run Facebook

timeline ads, Messenger ads are spoken of less.
Messenger ads get you more responses and should be a
part of every Facebook ad campaign.
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Fig 2.18: Facebook Ads example
We ran both Facebook and Messenger campaigns in

parallel. We reached out to users who signed up, through
personalized invites via their Messenger.
Fig 2.19: Facebook Messenger ad
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The Messenger invite was sent to nine hundred and

eighty six people, and it yielded a 91.8% open rate from
the audience. It further fetched a click-through rate of
7.4% from the links.
vii) Sending Hard Copy Invites
To reach out to new audiences and ensure that they

have brand recall the next time they hear JCS Jewel
Creations, we sent out hard copy invites to the ads
respondents.
Fig 2.20: Design of the hard copy invite
This not only makes them feel special but creates a

strong connection with the brand JCS. Anyone who
signed up for the event via the ad was asked to send
their address, and the invitation was sent to the same.
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viii) SMS and WhatsApp Messaging
During the final weeks, we shot an SMS and WhatsApp

blast campaign to the registered users as a reminder, and
to existing customers to inform them about the event
happening at the JCS store.
Fig 2.21: Example: The SMS Blast Message Sent for the Event
ix) Emailers to Registrants
Any registrant who had signed up with their email id

was sent a personalized event invite email. The message
conveyed an image of the event and details about the
venue, time, etc.
The email was opened by 21.3% of the recipients.

There was a follow-up email on the same lines, as a
reminder about the event. The reminder email was sent a
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day before the event, which fetched another 20.6% open

rate from the subscribers.
Fig 2.22: Open rate of the personalized event emailer sent
x) Messenger Broadcast
In addition to SMS and WhatsApp, we also sent out a

Messenger broadcast to subscribers. This broadcast was
planned with a series of follow ups. The total message
count was around eight thousand messages sent to
approximately a thousand people over a set of eight
follow-ups.
Fig 2.23: Messenger broadcast metrics for the JCS event
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xi) Messenger Contest
Rather than just informing people, we wanted to engage

with the subscribers. To keep them engaged with our
campaign, we sent Messenger contests, asking the
audience simple questions, and awarded the lucky
winners. This delivered us an 83% open rate.
Fig 2.24: Example: The Messenger engagement posts

for the JCS event
xii) Countdown Posts
During the days just before the event, we created

countdown posts to develop last-minute excitement
for new visitors and brand recall for the existing
visitors. Each of these posts helped us reach around five
thousand people on average during the last days before
the event.
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Fig 2.25: Example: Countdown posts for JCS
xiii) Activities on Event Day
Messenger Broadcast on Event Reminder
On day one of the event, we sent another Messenger

broadcast campaign to subscribers, this time with an
image and a reminder note about the event happening
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the next day. The message broadcast had a 58% open rate
which converted to six hundred and sixty-two people
reading it.
Fig 2.26: Example: Messenger broadcast for the JCS event
Instagram Stories with Contests
We wanted to keep the buzz going on our social profiles

and among our subscribers rising over the course of the
event. We posted stories with contests - polls asking
for the location of the shop - and more to engage the
audience.
Instagram Stories with Celebrities and Influencers
We posted Stories with celebrities and influencers as

and when they visited the store. We also went Live on
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Instagram with them, which provoked quick action and

engagement from our audience base.
Doll of the Day
We picked select customers, from the ones who made

a purchase, to be the ‘Doll of the Day’. All images were
focused on the jewellery designs to create more interest
in the viewers and push them for a walk-in.
e) Results:
Fig 2.27: Result of the JCS event campaign
Over the course of the event, we spent around 41,152 INR

for promotions on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger
channels. This yielded us approximately sixty to seventy
footfalls over the three-day event. The end result in sales
was a whopping 60 lakhs INR.
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Thus, with the thirteen-step plan, team echoVME

managed to increase the brand reach and sales revenue
through the three-day Temple Jewellery event.
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Case Study 3: How We Sold 170+ Tickets for

Leadership Unplugged via Social Media
Chennai’s largest leadership summit, Leadership
Unplugged, was hosted by Smart CEO with the sole
objective of celebrating the art and science of leadership
and decision-making. It was an event that brought
together family business leaders, professional CXOs, and
entrepreneur leaders onto one platform to share their
best experiences as leaders. It was also a platform for a
community of people who were extremely passionate
about improving their leadership skills and networking
with the top business minds in the city.
a) Objectives:
• Create awareness about the event with social
media as the prime channel
• Educate the audience about the benefits they
can yield from the event
• Promote the 40+ speakers of the summit
• Promote the different panel discussions
happening at the summit
• Put across generic leadership content to create a
custom audience
• To communicate with discounts and early bird
offers
• Route them to the Leadership Unplugged event

website - http://www.leadershipunplugged.in
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• Fill the lead generation form on Facebook and

follow up via calls, emails, and WhatsApp
b) Target Audience:
• Entrepreneurs, start-up owners, small family

business owners, and professionals from Chennai
• Men and women aged 24 to 65 living in Chennai
• Previous Start-up 50 event attendees
• People with interest in TedX talks, and

entrepreneurship
• People who have engaged with the social media

posts of Leadership Unplugged
• Website visitors of Leadership Unplugged

website
• Facebook Posts
• Facebook Ads
• Facebook Videos
• Facebook Event Page Marketing
• Email Marketing
• WhatsApp Messenger
• Live Chat Integration
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d) Event Promotion:
i) Integrating Facebook Pixel to the Website
Most of the conversions were expected to happen via

the website of the event Leadership Unplugged. Hence,
with the help of an in-house web development team,
we integrated the Facebook pixel code to their website,
which helped track the amount of traffic inflow and
conversions fetched via Facebook for the event.
Further, this was also helpful in retargeting visitors

via other channels to create our own custom audience
with the website visitors.
ii) Facebook Event Page
Smart CEO was the group organizing the event Leadership

Unplugged. Hence we created a Facebook event under
Smart CEO’s Facebook business page.
Fig 2.28: Leadership Unplugged event page
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The first task was to design the cover image for the event
page. All images on social media are advised to follow
the 80:20 rule, where 80% is the image, and 20% is for
the text in the overall image area. Since the event cover
page will be the prime factor visible in event posts, we
ensured that it carried all the vital information that our
audience needed to make decisions. The information
included theme, pricing, location, and date of the event.
With our experience, we believe that simple and

direct communication sells well and brings in fewer
doubts about the event in the users’ minds. Now, this
was about the cover image of the event page.
The second task of the event page was the description

about the event. The event description should be a blend
of information and search terms optimized. We described
what the two-day event was all about and the benefits
one would get by attending the summit, with the link to
the registration site.
The third task was finding and adding matching

tags to the event. Facebook adds events to the user’s
notification bar automatically based on their interests.
Adding the right and relevant tags will help your event
reach people who share similar interests on Facebook
more organically.
iii) Facebook Promotions
The Five-Step Funnel Strategy
Our social media expert team at echoVME devised

a funnel strategy to structure the promotions on
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Facebook. We take our audience through a step by step

process before we push them for conversion. It goes as
per the following:
• Creating awareness about the brand and the event.

(Fig 2.29)
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• Educating the audience about the benefits of the

event. (Fig 2.30)
• Increasing the reputation by sharing the speaker

profiles. (Fig 2.31)
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• Creating interest by informing about the different

topics covered in the sessions. (Fig 2.32)
• Looping them into conversion. (Fig 2.33)
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Create Audience Engagement
Making people remember your brand name is essential,

and it can be done only when they start engaging with
your brand. Contests are quite an easy way to begin if
you want to create engagement with your audience.
Since this was targeted at a more mature audience

who are entrepreneurs, we planned a contest that would
drive professional response. As expected, the audience
engagement started to grow and reaped a positive
outcome in our sentimental analysis for the brand.
Fig 2.34: Example: Contest post for the event
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Video Promos
Videos on Facebook generally perform four times better

than images. So any Facebook promotion planned
today cannot go without a video promo strategy.
Videos were added into every step of the funnel.

Any content prepared was modified into a video to fetch
more traction on the funnel stage.
Apart from the funnel stages, we also created videos

over the last couple of days to create more curiosity and
also had a countdown to the event. The countdown was
added to cut short the time taken in the decision-making
process.
Fig 2.35: Example: Video promo for the event
iv) Lead Follow Up
We went a step ahead with Smart CEO’s Leadership

Unplugged event. We did not stop with just generating
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lead enquiries but pursued to follow up on the queries

ourselves to ensure there was a conversion from the
lead.
The decision to work on lead conversion turned

fruitful. The key highlights were:
• With our team completely aware of the event

details and promos, it was easy to sell it over a
call and reduce conversion time.
• By interacting with the leads, we could classify

the lead quality, and this, in turn, helped us
strengthen our ad strategies.
• We had the cost per lead data, and hence we

prioritized the high CPL accounts to ensure
conversion in that area.
Apart from email follow-ups, we reached them through

the Messenger channel since traction and response
are higher on instant messaging channels. We shared
the event info to the lead’s WhatsApp Messenger to
generate immediate responses.
This was again extended with an email follow up that

carried a call-to-action either to buy the ticket or to know
more about the event.
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Fig 2.36: Example: Follow up emailer for the Leadership

Unplugged event
v) Live Chat Integration
In addition to the above channels, we integrated Live

Chat to the event website using Zendesk. The chat was
handled by a team exclusively and was maintained live to
produce instant responses.
We mapped eighty to hundred chats in a span of

twenty days, and the conversion rate was also higher
since the visitor was already aware of the event.
Fig 2.37: Live Chat Integration
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e) Results:
With no traditional marketing involved, we had a

target ahead of us, to sell a hundred and eighty tickets
for the event only via digital marketing. By deriving
a unique marketing funnel strategy and a mapping
content strategy, we managed to sell a hundred
and seventy tickets via the digital channels alone
successfully.
Apart from this, there were also a few on the spot

conversions on the day of the event, which eventually led
us to achieve the mark of a hundred and eighty tickets.
In addition to the above channels, we integrated Live
Chat to the event website using Zendesk. The chat was
handled by a team exclusively and was maintained live to
produce instant responses.
Impression/ Clicks/ Leads + Amount

Platform
Sends Open Conversions Spent (INR)
Facebook
+ 10,76,864 21,230 311 + 26 ₹ 1,85,000
Instagram
Google 6,15,036 4,223 13 ₹ 13,000
LinkedIn 4,067 2,131 - ₹ 15,000
Total 16,95,967 27,584 17,23,551 ₹ 2,13,000.00
f) Key Learnings from the Event:
• Selling a leadership summit needs more brand

awareness than conversion ads. If the event
reaches the right audience, it will sell by itself.
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• In these events, the ticket price was not much of

a concern to the targeted audience.
• While selling, talk about the benefits one would

get by attending the event.
• As a channel for marketing, LinkedIn is not

recommended to promote these kinds of
summits.
• While selling such summits, choose the right job

title for your Facebook advertising campaign.
If you are not talking to the right person, your
campaign would be a disaster.
• Following up on leads is one of the most

important tasks that one should take up and
do with utmost sincerity. Thanks to our call
executives. Because of their support, we were
able to achieve our goals.
• Creating a marketing funnel is extremely

important. We had three different ad groups for
our conversion campaigns, but we received 90%
of the results only through the custom audience
and lookalike audience.
Overall, team echoVME had an amazing time

marketing a leadership summit like this and being the
digital partner for the Leadership Unplugged Summit.
The learning was immense, and the results were
appreciated by the client on the event day.
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Case Study 4: Medicall Expo, Chennai

Medicall is a renowned expo that happens all around
the country. Organized by hospital owners and medical
equipment manufacturers, Medicall Expo is the ideal
destination to understand the latest advancements in the
medical industry. You can gain new business opportunities
by working on distributor-agency partnerships with large
manufacturers.
The Medicall Expo in Chennai happened from July

27 to July 29th. The event was packed with exciting
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shows, awards, workshops, and exhibitions. EchoVME

partnered with the organizing team to promote the
event via social media to create awareness and generate
leads via the same.
a) Objectives:
• Create awareness about the event among the

target audience via social media.
• Use social media as the prime channel to educate

people about the business opportunities the
event offers.
• Enable medical equipment sales via the event.
• Target and reach industry leaders to shortlist for

Medicall awards.
• Sell tickets and increase enrolments for the

Medicall workshops and seminars.
• Drive in more footfalls from the target group for

the expo.
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b) Target Audience:
• Gender - Men and Women
• Age - 18 - 60
• Geography - Chennai + Anna Nagar (Specifically)
• Facebook Event Page Marketing
• Twitter Invites
• LinkedIn and Facebook Posts
• Facebook Promotion for Custom Audience
• Targeted Facebook Ads
d) Event Promotion:
While for the common man, hospitals are just a place

for medical treatment, there is more to it at the
backend. Hospitals need operations management,
human resource management, financial management,
technology assistants, and more. In other words, they
form a complete organization with various functional
departments.
The Medicall event addressed all the functional

audiences of these departments. There was information
on business, technology, scientific advancements, and
financial planning.
Our social media strategy is incorporated by educating

each section of our audience about the list of takeaways
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through the event so that we don’t miss out any key

audience set.
i) Facebook Promotions
Facebook was the go-to platform to reach the

mentioned audience. The channel was used to create
awareness about the event and share information on
the benefits the audience would receive by attending
the event.
Introductory Banner
Fig 2.38: Facebook Banner for Medicall event
Awareness Posts
Awareness posts focus on the key events, workshops,

and webinars that are scheduled before the event dates.
The same was boosted to the appropriate audience to
drive more engagement and registrations.
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Fig 2.39: Example: A post to create awareness for Medicall
Video Promotions
Short animation videos on the same theme as the

awareness images were created, which carried information
on the event.
Fig 2.40: Example: Animated video promotion for Medicall
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There were also videos from speakers and visitors

conveying their experiences at the previous Medicall
summit.
Fig 2.41: Example: Promotion video featuring Medicall speakers
Countdown Posts
Countdown posts help you trigger immediate call-to-

action with a new audience and serve as a reminder for
the enrolled audience. We rolled out three countdown
videos before the event for Medicall, which got us close
to 3K video views.
Fig 2.42: Example: Countdown video for Medicall
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ii) Twitter Promotions
A Twitter handle was created under the event name and

used for Twitter promotions. An event-specific hashtag
was created: #Medicall2018. The hashtag was used for all
Twitter engagements.
Fig 2.43: Example: Medicall promotion tweets
The feed was used to promote the event schedule and

also had a link to register for the same. Twitter was
primarily used to target medical professionals rather
than the general audience. With a hundred and sixty
tweets, we generated more than 17K impressions and
500+ profile visits.
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Fig 2.44: Example: Tweet for the Medicall event
iii) LinkedIn Promotions
LinkedIn has always been a successful tool to handle

B2B marketing promotions. Most business professionals
delve more into LinkedIn. Hence, you cannot omit the
platform from your B2B strategy checklist.
The LinkedIn content strategy included sharing

detailed event information and the agenda in captions.
Fig 2.45: Example: Promotional post for LinkedIn
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The promotions witnessed a spike on the metrics

graph, and we saw the follower count of the page
rise organically. We generated more than a hundred
followers during the course of the promotion, apart
from registrations for the event.
Fig 2.46: The metrics graph showing an organic reach rise
e) Results:
The Medicall event was exciting right from the

beginning since the event catered to both B2B
professionals and B2C audiences. Our strategies had
to be customized for each of these target groups.
The combined promotions helped us land more than a
hundred and fifty leads to the event. In addition, the
promotions also helped Medicall fetch better brand
reach, and their social media profiles witnessed a
follower count spike.
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Amount spent
Types of Ads Result
(In Rupees)
Lead generation Ads (For
seminars, workshops, 157 leads 1,05,218.9
awards and visitors)
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Case Study 5: Super Chef Chennai

FEASTATHON
The Madras Cosmopolitan Ladies Circle 38 (MCLC 38)
and the Madras Cosmopolitan Round Table 94 (MCRT
94) organized ‘Super Chef Feastathon’, one of the
largest food carnivals in the country, in Chennai. The
event focused on bringing all food lovers from across
the country together to taste, cook, shop, and share
recipes from around the world in addition to music and
entertainment.
Super Chef Feastathon was a one of its kind
event in Chennai and a new experience for most of
its audience. Many of them had not experienced
something similar to this, and the organizers of the
event had the challenge of creating awareness about
the event offerings and what to expect at such events.
In addition to this, they had to drive traffic sales via
various media to make the event more successful.
a) Objectives:
• A content strategy with the mix of both event
education and sales pitch
• Rigorous promotion through social media for
event awareness
• Social media ads on Facebook, Instagram, and
Instagram Stories to boost ticket sales
• Google Ads to drive ticket sales from Google
searches
• Drive in six thousand to eight thousand footfalls
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b) Channels for Promotion:
• Facebook Promotions
• Google Ads
• Instagram Promotions
c) Target Audience:
• A family audience who possesses the spending

power for the event
• Corporate and IT people who are food and event

savvy
• The organizing team shared a user database from

their previous activities
d) Event Promotion:
i) Facebook Promotion
Facebook Event Page
This is where an event promotion starts. The event page

shall be considered as the microsite for your social media
promotions and shall be prepared as the information hub
for your new visitors.
For Feastathon, an event page was created on

Facebook with the required information, such as about
the event, date, venue, link to buy tickets online, etc.
Further, this also gave people the option to invite others,
and their interest in the event increased the reach
organically.
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Fig 2.47: An event page with an exclusive cover video that builds
excitement, and a title with a number to create curiosity
Facebook Posts - Contests
We organized some social media contests among our

target audience to drive the initial engagement. The
contest was based on a GIF image - to stop the GIF at
the right moment and share the screenshot. The lucky
winners were awarded free tickets to the event.
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Fig 2.48: A simple Feastathon contest to drive

excitement & engagement
As expected, the post went viral and reached more than

ten thousand impressions and 500+ engagements from
the target audience.
Facebook Series Posts
People love being exposed to extra information. Long

haul posts, when done right, can perform miracles. We
tried some long haul posts with a sneak peek into the
stall set up of the event, and the menu each vendor was
offering during the event.
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Fig 2.49: Example: Long haul post showcasing the event offering
Both the series posts gathered more than a thousand

impressions and 150+ engagements. The surprising part
is that these long haul posts got the most number of
clicks when compared to other types of posts.
Video Posts
The event was about more than just food and carried
shades of entertainment and experience. It also
showcased the kid’s play area to ensure enjoyment for
all ages. For the music band, we created a video and used
the same for the promotions.
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Fig 2.50: Example: Video post for Feastathon
The video content captured glimpses of the troop

playing their instruments and vocals for the promo.
Posts on Event Reminder
From our experience in dealing with young and dynamic

crowds, we know that the decision is made at the last
point. Hence, it is important to engage with them
continuously until the very end.
Ticket sales for events that target young or millennial

crowds drive more sales in their final two days. For the
same, we posted event reminders to trigger last minute
call-to-action.
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Fig 2.51: Example of a countdown post that serves as

an event reminder
Though they might not perform that well regarding their

reach or clicks, these posts will yield you the maximum
clicks to conversion rates.
ii) Instagram Promotions
Instagram Story Promotions - Event Build Up
If you ask me why Stories when there is a posting option

that lasts more than twenty-four hours, the answer
is pretty simple; Stories are more than just organic
posts. Once you have reached a certain brand image,
if people are viewing your Stories, it means they value
your content. It is not just something they have to scroll
through; instead, they choose to view it.
This is why I find impressions on Stories more valuable

than the rest of the posts.
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For Feastathon, we created various forms of Stories

with similar post ideas such as vendor lists, food menus,
the countdown to the event, and a lot more.
Fig 2.52: Example: Feastathon Stories
Instagram Stories - Event Day
The promotion via Instagram Stories continued even

on the event day with live and instant updates from the
event area.
Fig 2.53: Example: Live Stories updates on the day of Feastathon
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Instagram Video Promotions
Instagram is the only place where there is still scope for

organic reach. But, the same is also a great platform to
do your paid campaigns. Currently, Instagram yields you
four times better results than Facebook campaigns.
Fig 2.54: Video promotion for Feastathon
Our video promotion on Instagram for the Feastathon

event garnered more than one lakh eighty-six thousand
impressions and drove a whopping 1,500+ website visits.
iii) Google Search Ads
Google Ads marketing was set up for high volume and

event-specific niche keywords. Due to the size of the
event, we did not want our hub page to lose out against
prolific bloggers. Also, these website visitors were also
targeted on social media.
The Google Ads campaign delivered 17,000+ clicks,

and we managed to maintain the CPC at INR 0.97.
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e) Results:
As a result, the overall lead generation campaigns earned

close to about five hundred leads in total within two
months. This budget included the following campaigns:
• Contest Promotion Budget
• Budget for Like Campaigns
• Budget for Instagram Promotions
• Long Haul Post Boost Budget
• Boost Post Budget
• Google Ads
The average cost per conversion is anywhere between

Rs. 80 to Rs. 150, and varies from campaign to campaign.
f) Key Learnings:
• An event driven by a community has a great

impact on social media as the community
members actively participate in social media
posts and share them with their friends.
• Food related events usually have larger traction

on social media.
• Clearly defining the cause also helps you connect

with the audience largely.
• Defining what’s going to be inside a food festival

could also help you sell the event better.
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Case Study 6: Hot Air Balloon Fest

Chennai is a city that has every weekend filled with lots
of events for people of different ages and interests. Still,
some spectacular events catch everyone’s eye and turn
out to be the destination for a large share of the crowd.
One such event is the Hot Air Balloon Fest.
Well, who does not want to spend their weekend

enjoying a panoramic view of the city sitting in a high tide
hot balloon? So, the Tamil Nadu International Balloon
Fest decided to organize their fifth Hot Air Balloon Fest in
Chennai in February 2019. The event was combined with
some more show stoppers such as Andrea Jeremiah’s
music concert, maestro Ilaiyaraaja’s 75th-anniversary
concert ticket sale, comedy shows, and a special
appearance by a movie crew.
The Hot Air Balloon Fest, as mentioned above, had

an array of events within. It was more than just flying in
the balloon. The food, music, and entertainment aspects
of the event made it a perfect weekend package. The
organizers decided to go by sales by volume model, and
each ticket was priced at just INR 100 for entry.
They partnered with echoVME to scale up their

ticket sales and create a broad reach among the target
audience.
a) Objectives:
• A content strategy that had a mix of all event

highlights
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• Promote more about the hot air balloon since it

was new to the audience
• Social media ads on Facebook, Instagram, and

Instagram Stories to boost ticket sales
• Google AdWords to drive ticket sales from Google

searches
• Drive in six thousand to eight thousand footfalls
b) Channels for Promotion:
• Facebook Promotions
• Google Ads
• Instagram Promotions
c) Target Audience:
• Chennai residents aged between 18 to 65
• Corporate and IT people who are food and event

savvy
• People with interest in weekend getaways,

adventure sports, and outdoor recreation
d) Event Promotion:
i) Facebook Event Page
As I always emphasize, the event page is your microsite

for all information to be shared. Here, we started the
event page with the idea to reuse it for the next events
too, so we kept the event name without any location or
date specified.
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Fig 2.55: MWC- Hot Air Balloon Festival event page
Most of the promos had a link to the event page since

the page improves credibility and addresses many pain
points to ease the decision-making process.
ii) Facebook Posts - Spotlight Promo
The Hot Air Balloon Fest was the first of its kind in the
city and was relatively new for most of the city. The
disposable income of Chennai, the host of the highest
migrant population in the state, was also favourable to
the event. Hence, we decided to fix the spotlight on the
hot air balloon rides.
Fig 2.56: Promotional video and engagement metrics
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As expected, this was received well among the crowd,

and the post started gaining traction with time. We
managed to receive more than two thousand five
hundred clicks for the post, and it turned out to be our
most successful post on the campaign.
iii) Facebook Posts - Celebrity Spotlight
If you follow South Indian cinema, you cannot miss

Andrea Jeremiah. The popular actress and singer was to
perform during the event and if you could watch it live
for just INR 100, why would you miss that?
So, our next spotlight was on the concert from

Andrea Jeremiah. The celebrity, being a well-known
star among the local crowd, did not take time to pick up
engagement from the target audience.
Fig 2.57: Example: An event post highlighting the involvement

of a celebrity
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This post garnered around thousand clicks during the

closure stage of the event and helped us boost end ticket
sale conversion by a vast margin.
iv) Posts on Event Reminder
Fig 2.58: Example: Reminder post for the Hot Air Balloon Fest
Posts on event reminders are time tested, and they

ensure you keep your audience looped till the very end.
We started posting reminder videos during the last three
days and focused on ensuring audience retention and
pursuing last-minute decision-makers.
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v) Instagram Promotions - Event Build Up
Advertisers often wonder if Instagram is the right

platform to advertise one’s business. Well, here is a stat
for you: 80% of users follow businesses on Instagram.
This means people love to follow enterprises as long as
they have their posts tailored for the platform. Giants like
Google, Facebook, and McKinsey play their part well in
curating content for their Instagram handles.
We decided to give the Balloon Fest a shot with

Instagram, and as expected, we managed to come out
with flying colours. The handle started to gain traction
organically, and it continued to grow even after the
event. Instagram was more helpful when it came to user-
generated content.
Fig 2.59: Examples of Instagram posts for the Balloon Fest
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vi) Google Advertising
We followed up social media promotions in parallel

with Google paid promotions. Ads were set up in the
Google Display Network and Google Search Ads.
The clicks were redirected to a landing page, which

enabled them to know more on the event, watch videos,
and buy tickets online.
Google advertising helped us fetch close to eighteen

lakh impressions and more than fifty-five thousand
clicks. The average CPC was maintained at just Re.1.
e) Results:
It was a three-day event, and it had a lot of activities to

promote, not just the Hot Air Balloon Fest. This helped us
generate more content and helped us in cross channel
promotion.
• A total of fifty-three posts were published on

social media, and selected posts were boosted.
• The budget of two-lakh rupees was managed

between both social media and Google
advertising.
• The CPC was maintained at 1.95 INR for social

media leads and 1 INR for Google advertising.
• The promotions soared up both organically and

through paid channels, helping us yield more
than 1.4 lakh clicks.
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As the event was 50km away from the main city, we had
anticipated a turnout of six thousand to eight thousand
people, but to our pleasant surprise, around fifty thousand
people turned up which is 5X the targeted number. This is
why it is crucial to brand your event online!
f) Key Learnings:
• Sometimes a massive event that has a very

strong offline coverage just needs a similar push
on social media by garnering an impression.
• In the social media world, something novel sells

like hotcakes. This was Chennai’s first Hot Air
Balloon Festival, so it was evident that it would
do well.
• When your budgets are minimal, focus on getting

massive impressions and cheaper clicks to the
landing page, and don’t go too narrow while
targeting.
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Case Study 7: Selling 3,000+ Tickets for

Digital Masters Conference Online in
Just 20 Days
During the Corona Lockdown, Digital Masters Alliance and
Success Gyan together organized an online conference
to educate people on digital marketing. We sold 3000+
tickets for the conference in just 10 days. In this chapter,
I cover what it took for us to achieve the sale of 3,000
tickets in a period of just 10 days.
a) Objectives:
• To raise funds for Corona Relief (to contribute to

the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund)
• To educate people about the importance of

investing in digital marketing during and post
lockdown.
• To create brand visibility amidst 3000+ Indians

and collect the data of people interested in digital
marketing.
b) Target Audience:
• All CEO’s and business owners between the age

group of 38-50.
• Individuals who want expert guidance in the

domain of digital marketing.
• People who have been in association with

Success Gyan for other courses.
127
Houseful
c) Event Promotion:
• Influencer Network:
Digital Masters Alliance is an association with nine

masters and all of them together (in accumulation)
have more than a million followers on social media.
We promoted the event through Facebook groups,
Instagram channels, YouTube channels, Twitter
accounts, LinkedIn presence, and Facebook Messenger
subscriber campaigns. Our overall presence on social
media is super strong, so we made the best use of our
accounts and used videos for announcements. This sold
us more than 1,000 tickets. Here is an example of a post
made:
Fig 2.60: A screenshot of the video post made for the event
• Email Lists:
All the nine masters and Success Gyan together have

huge email lists to which emails were circulated about
this event. More than 1,500 people purchased tickets
128
through this effort. One of the core reasons people

were buying tickets is because in total there were 11
speakers. It was a five-hour-long conference, and
the donor pass was just 199 INR. Also, this was done
immediately after the lockdown was announced, and
we were the first to create a huge digital conference
of its kind. For the first time, India was witnessing a
digital conference this big.
• Facebook Ads:
A decent amount was allocated for Facebook

advertisements by Success Gyan. This sold about
400 to 500 tickets in total. Here is an example of the
advertisement:
Fig 2.61: Example of an ad we promoted for the event
129
Houseful
d) Results:
Our objective was to raise above 5,00,000 INR for this

event. Surprisingly, up till the last day, we were about
4,00,000+, and on the last day, with last moment emails
and social media noise, we saw the sales increase. One
of the factors was that we had social proof of so many
people buying and registering for the event. We had
shared the screenshots of the same across social media,
which attracted a lot of organic last moment buyers for
this event.
Through this event, all the speakers used the

#DMCforCorona, which became a trending Twitter topic,
and generated thousands of posts and stories across
social media. Success Gyan earned 1,000+ followers in
just one day! When the audience is digital, you can make
the event go viral, and it actually happened.
130
Case Study 8: How We Sold an Event on

Social Media with a Budget of Rs. 17,000
Chennai’s largest kid’s carnival, Toca Boca, was hosted by
RCC Platinum at St. George School Ground. Though this
carnival’s ultimate aim was to gather funds to install RO
plants in schools for clean and healthy water, it became
the supreme source of fun and enjoyment for children
and parents, bringing with it entertainment and learning.
a) Objectives:
• To spread awareness about the carnival by

popularizing it on social media, highlighting that
event was a noble initiative.
• To get more online registrations for Jog-A-Thon,

a kid’s marathon held on the day of the carnival.
The run stressed the importance of staying fit.
• To create excitement before the event in the

form of posts, ads, stories, contests.
b) Target Audience:
• Since the event was happening in North Chennai,

people residing in North Chennai and around
Kilpauk, Sowcarpet, Anna Nagar were targeted
by dropping pins on Facebook.
• We reached out to Parents of kids between the

ages of 4 to 13 years across Chennai.
• Married women whose age range between 27-45

years assumed to have kids.
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Houseful
• We reached out to fathers who have kids between

the age group of 4 to 10 too.
• Targeted members of the RCCP club who are the

decision-makers.
• Last year Marathon Runners & Carnival

participants (Defined by the database of parents
of an earlier marathon – seed audience).
• Targeted people living in the northern part of

Chennai (3 KM radius venue).
Channel of promotion:
• Facebook Advertisements
• Google Advertisements
• Colombia Advertisements
• LinkedIn Advertisements
• YouTube Advertisements
• Display Advertisements
• Third-Party Real Estate Promoters
• SMS platform
• Email platform
• Activated Missed Call feature to integrate both in

digital and traditional advertisements.
132
c) 5-Step Event Promotion:
Step 1: Creating an Event page on Facebook
An event page was created for Toca Boca on Facebook

with a focus on driving more organic engagement. It is
suggested to have the following:
• 20% text based event image title.
• The two important keywords were: Kids Carnival,

Chennai.
• An event page is significant to sell an event as

the event page has more organic traction for
content posted than the business page. So
content posted on the business page should be
posted on the event page, too, because it sends
a notification to all the people who have RSVPed
going.
133
Houseful
Fig 2.62: Toca Boca Facebook event page
134
Step 2: Creating A Landing Page & Integrating A Payment

Gateway:
The landing page was created with the following points

in mind.
• A colorful carnival-themed landing page was

created using LeadPages.
• The templates used were designed by designers

and integrated into the landing page.
• A microsite with the assistance of GoDaddy was

put in place to sell tickets for the carnival through
the landing page.
• The landing page was integrated with pixel codes

on Facebook.
• The enquiries about the Jog-A-Thon started

flowing in on the day of the announcement.
Hence, an FAQ section was included in the
landing page to be of assistance to the parents.
• A payment gateway was set with PayUMoney to

drive registration for the marathon and carnival.
(If you are hosting any event, please ensure that
you sell tickets online and not offline as its easy
for you to keep track of sales, and at the same
time, it’s a commitment that people give to your
event in advance)
135
Houseful
Fig 2.63: Toca Boca landing page
Step 3: Creating Long Haul Posts To Educate and Inspire:
To create a funnel structure, we started the engagement

saga with a long haul video that spoke about 20 reasons
why you should attend Chennai’s biggest kids carnival.
136
Fig 2.64: An example of a video post giving reasons to

attend Toca Boca
Here is the link for the video:
https://www.facebook.com/RCCPTocaBocaKidsCarnival/
videos/1144296352370193/
We also created a post that talks about Jog-A-Thon,

its registration details, and what benefit kids would get
on registering for the Jog-A-Thon – this post kept floating
for 10 days in order to create a maximum number of likes,
comments, shares, and tags for the given budget.
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Houseful
Fig 2.65: An example of a series long haul post giving information

about Toca Boca
Step 4: Creating an Engagement Element for Recall:
We created an audience out of the people who had

engaged with the video, posts, event page, Instagram
business page, and the Facebook page on the whole – this
138
audience, along with a fresh audience, was approached

with the below series post to create a strong brand
recall and remind them that the team is very proactive
with respect to this event.
The series post showcased 25 exciting things that a

child can do when visiting the Toca Boca kid’s carnival.
The post had a staggering reach of up to 25,000 people.
Fig 2.66: An example of a series post aimed at highlighting the

different aspects of the event and creating excitement
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Houseful
Step 5: Creating Excitement for Last Moment Closures:
The key to success for any event is rigid promotion a

week before the event. The same mantra was followed
for Toca Boca. The following video post was made about
the key highlight of the event – an inflatable base. The
video witnessed very good traction, receiving about
3,251 views. This was mainly targeted at the audience
that had visited the website, watched the videos,
RSVPed, messages us, and interacted with the earlier
posts.
Fig 2.67: A video post showcasing the about the key highlight of the
event a week before the event
Countdown videos were made as we approached the

day of the event. While giving away the days left for the
carnival, these videos also showcased what would be in
store for them. Thus, it created an aura of excitement
and fun among the viewers.
140
Fig 2.68: An example of a countdown post to create

last-minute excitement
d) Results:
The above activities helped us get about 29,000+ unique

visitors to the landing page. Remember, quite a bit of
credit also goes to traditional advertising as 25% of the
traffic was direct and through Google Search for the
keyword ‘Toca Boca’.
As a result of the above traffic, we saw a total of

2793 transactions, and almost 75% of transactions were
attributed to the impact of social media.
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Houseful
Fig 2.69: A screenshot of PAYU collection details and

number of transactions
e) Key Learnings:
1. Selling a kids’ event is a lot easier than selling

professional events as the emotional drive to
make kids participate in the event is a little high
in Indian parents.
2. Visuals matter; if your brand cannot invest in

good visuals, it is difficult to make the event look
wow on social media – so please don’t hesitate to
make your investments there.
3. Creating video funnels are very important to

drive a relevant conversation. The first thing you
should do with your event is to create videos and
market them really well.
4. Test with your audience – don’t get stuck with

the number of parents alone as a category,
target married people too under the assumption
142
that they might have kids but have not registered

on Facebook – so use your common sense while
targeting.
5. While selling events, please do choose a radius,

especially when you have stringent budgets –
there is no point selling your event to someone
who lives 30 km away from the event venue.
6. Associations and Club events are a lot more fun

to sell as they have members who can help you
drive initial traction to all your social media posts,
and not to forget, the way these guys drive up
WhatsApp sales by sending forwards is just super
crazy.
143
Houseful
Case Study 9: How We Got 10,000+

Registrations for CREDAI Chennai FairPro
a) Objectives:
• To reach out to the 30+ age group who are more

likely to buy a home in Chennai city.
• To achieve 10,000+ quality registrants before

the event (though this was a Free event, we
were focussing on driving registrations to put
them into a funnel to follow up). People in India
generally register for Free events and not turn up
later if they are not given enough reminder about
the same.
b) Target Audience:
• 30+ audience (investors, interested in real estate,

small business owners)
• HNI audience who are interested in investing in

Chennai city
• Working professionals (IT)
• NRIs (People who are currently working abroad

but wants to settle down in Chennai city)
• People living in North Chennai (Hindi speaking

audience)
• A family person who is more likely to buy a home

in the age 30 to 40
144
• People celebrating anniversaries (as we have

learnt that most people buy homes in the first
five years of their wedding)
• CXOs who usually don’t hang out much on social

media other than platforms like LinkedIn.
• People who are searching for ‘Home’ related

keywords in Chennai
c) Channel of Promotion:
• Facebook Advertisements
• Google Advertisements
• Colombia Advertisements
• LinkedIn Advertisements
• YouTube Advertisements
• Display Advertisements
• Third-Party Real Estate Promoters
• SMS platform
• Email platform
• Activated Missed Call feature to integrate both in

digital and traditional advertisements.
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Houseful
d) 10-Step Event Promotion:
Step 1: Engagement and Information based Social Media

Posts:
We launched different types of social media posts, each

with their own purpose that includes contests, audience
engagement, informational posts, and posts that help
build credibility.
The below contest was for the audience to figure out

the last Pincode of Chennai city. The post reached out to
over 2200 people with about 610 engagements.
Fig 2.70: An example of a contest post for Credai FairPro
146
This post below had an Amazon voucher giveaway for

one of the participants who cracked the riddle on the
post. This post also witnessed an amazing reach of about
5000+ people with 1000+ engagements.
Fig 2.71: An example of a contest post for Credai FairPro that

features a riddle
147
Houseful
This post below portrayed the differences between

owning and renting a house and the advantages of the
former. This was a subtle attempt to tempt people into
buying homes.
Fig 2.72: An example of an informative series post comparing

renting and owning a home
148
The following series post aimed at social proofing by

reiterating CREDAI’s past achievements and spoke of
builders that constitute the board and personal video
invites from the top officials of the board. There was
no paid promotion for this post, and it served the sole
purpose of building credibility.
Fig 2.73: An example of a post aimed at providing information and

building credibility for Credai FairPro
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Houseful
Step 2: Facebook/Instagram Advertisements:
Generic Campaign Create Awareness:
This was one of the first Facebook lead generation ads

launched for CREDAI FairPro. We highlighted what people
could expect at the event and also prompted them to get
their Free VIP pass. This ad campaign roped in 327 leads,
with Rs. 35,714 being spent.
Fig 2.74: An example of an awareness ad campaign for

Credai Fairpro
150
Vernacular Ads to Draw Attention of Tamil Speaking

Audience:
We tested the power of vernacular communication in

the ads by using the local language – Tamil, and made
sure that the ads were targeted at the Tamil speaking
audience. This ad brought in about 150 leads at the lowest
cost per lead of Rs. 79/lead, reinstating my belief in the
power of vernacular ads.
Fig 2.75: An example of a Tamil-based vernacular ad for

Credai FairPro
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Houseful
This was a similar vernacular ad targeted at the Hindi-

speaking audience in Chennai. The ad had a similar
response bringing in about 50+ leads.
Fig 2.76: An example of a Hindi-based vernacular ad for

Credai FairPro
Information Rich Ad:
The below video ad was another one of our lead

generation campaigns, explaining the benefits of being a
part of the event and addressing the common questions
that people generally have with respect to buying a home
in Chennai. Additionally, we segregated the audience in
various buckets based on the time they viewed the video.
We got about 100 leads with a spend of Rs. 10,500.
152
Fig 2.77: An example of an information rich, FAQ based video ad

for Credai FairPro
NRIs:
Our advertisements hit the right chord by telling them to

invest in their hometown and inform their relatives about
this event.
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Houseful
Fig 2.78: An example of an ad targeted at the NRI crowd for

Credai FairPro
Recall:
We ran advertisements with Tamannah in the image

and video. The Chennai city had her ad on bus backs,
hoardings, TVs, and radio channels. It’s a good idea to
integrate offline ads and online ads so that people who
see the counterparts in the offline world can take action
in the online world.
154
Fig 2.79: An example of a video ad featuring a celebrity for

brand recall
Facebook Messenger Campaign:
We also ran a Facebook messenger campaign ad to

drive Facebook messages to understand the quality
of engagement. Upon sending them the details about
the event, we saw a good response and continued to
communicate with them through the Chatfuel chatbot.
In total, we got 350+ messages on spend of Rs. 1000.
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Houseful
Fig 2.80: An example of an ad used for Facebook Messenger

Campaign encouraging the viewers to click for VIP pass for
Credai FairPro
Step 3: Google Advertisements:
A fair amount was invested in Google advertisements

(Search, Display, and YouTube advertisements). Below
are the details of the campaigns we ran on the Google
network:
156
#1. Text Ads: People who searched for the well-known

real estate players in the city were displayed our ads.
With a budget of Rs. 1,49,000, the text ads witnessed
606 conversions. Search campaigns had keywords based
on generic real estate keywords, builders name, event
title, area-specific searches, weekend events, etc.
Fig 2.81: An example of a Google Search ad for Credai FairPro
#2. Display Ads: People who showed interest in real

estate, based on search behaviour, were targeted. They
saw our ads throughout the Google display network. The
ad roped in 155 conversions after spending Rs. 10,4000.
Fig 2.82: An example of a Google display ad for Credai FairPro
157
Houseful
The content on the post above was translated to the local

language- Tamil, and promoted on the Google Display
network. The ad witnessed an interaction with around
1.98 Lakh people, with the average cost per interaction
at Rs. 0.75.
Step 4: YouTube Ads:
The video of Tamannah used earlier on Facebook was

used again for promotions on YouTube targeting the
viewers of Chennai. With a budget of Rs. 30,500, the
video ad reached out to 1,70,331 people.
Fig 2.83: An example of a YouTube ad featuring a celebrity for

Credai FairPro
Step 5: Times Network Ads:
We also opted to push the ads on the Times Display

Network using Colombia. We re-launched the ad that
was earlier used on Google display on the Times Network
with a budget of Rs. 1,00,000. It reached about 33,039
people.
158
Fig 2.84: An example of a display ad used on Times Network for

Credai FairPro
Step 6: LinkedIn Campaigns:
Something that got my attention this time was LinkedIn

InMail advertisements. We ran a campaign targeting
all managerial professionals in Chennai above 35. The
InMails were sent as a personal invite from the General
Manager of CREDAI himself, which had a registration link
for the free VIP Entry Pass.
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Houseful
Fig 2.85: An example of a LinkedIn InMail ad done for

Credai FairPro
LinkedIn Sponsored Content:
The below post was displayed as a sponsored post

on the newsfeed of the target audience on LinkedIn.
160
The post saw a considerable amount of traction while

getting about 5000+ impressions.
Fig 2.86: An example of a LinkedIn sponsored ad for

Credai FairPro
Step 7. Collect.chat:
The chatbot was integrated to pop up with a welcome

message for anyone who visited the site. They were
prompted for their contact details. This mode of lead
generation came with no extra cost. This feature aided in
a large number of conversions which amounted to about
1250+.
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Houseful
Fig 2.87: An example of a chatbot integrated into the website to

communicate better with the website visitors
Step 8. Sponsored Content:
Apart from the all the ads that were published from our
end, we also got the most read newspapers, magazines
and real estate agent sites to promote the event on
their Facebook pages and websites. We roped in Ananda
Vikatan, Dina Thanthi, The Hindu, Dinamalar, Maalai Malar,
MagicBricks, Chennai Properties and RoofandFloor.
Step 9. SMS Campaign:
We used the phone numbers that we obtained through

the lead generation ads to initiate our SMS activities.
We used bulk SMS senders to send confirmations of the
registrations and also reminders for the event.
162
Step 10. E-mail Campaign:
We sent e-mails like the following to people who had

earlier shown interest in buying homes and investing in
real estate. As we got closer to the event dates, we sent
them daily reminder e-mails.
Fig 2.88: An example of an reminder e-mail that was sent out as the
day of the event approached
e) Results:
The total budget of the event summed up to Rs. 20 Lakhs

which together brought us 5941 leads and 5000+ missed
calls that were then converted to attending the event.
Apart from the online platforms, a part of the budget
also went into reaching the audience through SMS and
WhatsApp.
Here is the complete break-up of the amount spent and

the leads each category fetched:
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Houseful
Fig 2.89: The breakup of the amount spent and the leads received
CREDAI FairPro – 2018 was indisputably a grand success.

The credit also goes to the traditional advertising that
included the hoardings all around Chennai city, ads in
the most-read newspapers, and popular TV channels in
Chennai.
f) Key Learnings:
• When you have big budgets, you should

creatively innovate.
• Invest in a lot of video campaigns.
• The budget really doesn’t matter. There should

be a demand for the product that you are
trying to sell, or you need to generate demand
through all possible means. If this event had
164
come 6 months in advance, we would have had

a different strategy altogether that aimed at
educating the audience, going live, webinars,
meetups, etc.
• LinkedIn was a complete game-changer, the

quality of leads that we got through LinkedIn
was fantastic, and they were genuine. Many
real estate digital marketers ignore the power
of LinkedIn InMail Lead Generation campaigns;
if done right, it can help brands reach out to
investors and key decision-makers.
• We adopted Twitter as well, and it is not

mentioned in the above campaigns as the
response wasn’t very great, and we finally
restricted it for re-targeting or Live coverage of
the event alone.
• Don’t heavily invest in all the property portals.
• Don’t ignore the power of SMS and e-mail

campaign. The automation triggers and e-mails
help you keep the momentum of the event alive.
165
CONCLUSION
A lot of us are unaware of how to get the most out of

social media for our events, and this book is a short and
sweet guide to get you familiar with the reins of digital
marketing for events. Through Houseful - The Art of
Selling Your Events on Social Media, you can learn to
create a memorable experience on social media so that
the audiences anticipate a fantastic time and convert
from a lead to a participant. With Houseful, you will be
equipped to make better and informed decisions when it
comes to promoting your event.
88% of brands use social media to increase awareness

before an event; that’s because they understand digital
promotion for your event helps create awareness, drive
up registration and boost engagement. Something that
most people overlook is that the data that you collect
through the digital marketing of one event can be used
to reconnect with the audience and shape the strategy
when the event returns the next year.
Just posting on social media or sending out a few

emails/SMS does not create a substantial audience. The
form of messaging that works in one location might not
work in the next. The trends and people’s expectations
keep evolving, and you need a partner who can keep
Conclusion
up with this dynamic nature of the audience and ideate

strategies accordingly. 46% of marketers claim that
curating content and building their event agenda is
the most time-consuming aspect of event planning. An
expert in digital marketing would be able to ease this
burden and provide you with knowledge and creative
strategies that not only drive sales and connect with
people but also increase your ROI.
At echoVME, we enjoy handling first of their kind

event promotions, even though we may face more
challenges than product promotions. The reason being
that they are time-bound and result bound. With every
event calling for more creative posts and innovative
engagement ideas, event promotions help us get better
with the rising challenges.
168

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INDI A SINGAPORE M A L AY S I A

Notion Press Media Pvt Ltd

No. 50, Chettiyar Agaram Main Road,

First Published by Notion Press 2021

I also dedicate this book to my son, Sahel, and my fantastic

Chapter 1 Introduction to Event Marketing......... 9

1.2 Creating the ‘Sell Your

1.3 15 Steps Content Strategy Plan��������� 22

1.4 Budget and Sales Plan........................ 42

1.5 Event Marketing Sales Funnel............ 47

Chapter 2 Case Studies on Event Marketing...... 55

Case Study 2: Driving a Sale of

Case Study 3: How We Sold 170+

Case Study 4: Medicall Expo, Chennai..... 100

Case Study 5: Super Chef

Case Study 6: Hot Air Balloon Fest.......... 119

Case Study 7: Selling 3,000+

Case Study 8: How We Sold

Case Study 9: How We Got 10,000+

We love marketing events at echoVME, the digital

What got me to writing this book is the realisation

Selling events on social media is one of the most

1. It has a quick-end goal, unlike any other social

2. Both customers and advertisers receive

Being a non-ongoing process, it gives you the chance to

• You run the campaigns, you fetch the results, and

• You attend the event, you share it on social

In my experience, event marketing is one of the best

Event marketing is connecting the event theme,

Event marketing does not only pertain to attracting

“A good event marketing strategy will focus on delivering

The key to creating a memorable event marketing

1.1 Event Marketing on Social Media

The key to selling an event on social platforms is to

Social platforms have also evolved over the years

1.2 Creating the ‘Sell Your Event’ Game Plan

Doing so might get you a lot of RSVPs, but on the day

• RSVP/marking interested on Facebook pages

• Registration without a fee

In both cases, you would see a lot of online enrolments,

The formulated strategy should be based on the

Fig 1.1: The 3Ps of event selling strategy – People, Platform

• People: The first bubble defines your target

It’s crucial to analyse the brand as you try to create an

Table 1.1 Pre-event analysis questions for the brand

Questions Impact on Audience/Sales

What’s the agenda How you plan your conference,

Where is the event? The event venue defines the class.

On the internet, there are very few

• Platform: The second bubble talks about finding

or a food festival, you can choose Instagram,

Table 1.2 Social media platforms and their benefits

Platforms Key Attributes Benefits

Instagram ȃȃ Story ȃȃ A great way to

Twitter Hashtags ȃȃ Good for unique

Event MeraEvents ȃȃ Like how people

• Posts: The third bubble represents the

1.3 15 Steps Content Strategy Plan

i) Landing Pages

͞͞ What’s the key highlight

͞͞ Where is the event

͞͞ Who are the speakers/presenters

͞͞ What’s the agenda

͞͞ What’s the timing

1.2 Creating the ‘Sell Your

1.3 15 Steps Content Strategy Plan�� 22