LinkedIn has become an incredibly powerful platform for event marketing and promotion. With over 722 million users worldwide, it provides access to a massive professional audience. LinkedIn’s unique value lies in its focused, business-oriented user base. This makes it ideal for promoting events aimed at working professionals, industry experts, and thought leaders. However, effectively marketing events on LinkedIn does require some strategy and effort. Simply creating an event and expecting people to sign up usually won’t cut it. You need to leverage LinkedIn’s various features and best practices to generate awareness and drive registrations. In this article, we’ll explore top tips and proven tactics to successfully promote your next event on LinkedIn.
Benefits of Marketing Events on LinkedIn
Before diving into specific strategies, let’s first look at some of the key advantages of using LinkedIn to market events:
- Targeted reach – LinkedIn’s user base is highly focused around industries, job functions, seniority levels, and more. You can precisely target relevant audiences for your event.
- Engaged users – LinkedIn users are there to network, learn, and grow their careers. They are primed for professional events.
- Thought leadership – Hosting or speaking at an event enhances your brand’s reputation and subject matter expertise.
- Lead generation – Events attract registrants and build your prospect pipeline.
- Insights – LinkedIn provides data on event post reach, follower growth, and more.
- Relationship building – Events facilitate networking between attendees, speakers, sponsors, and organizers.
In summary, LinkedIn events provide unparalleled access to professional audiences, enable thought leadership and relationship building, and support lead generation. Now let’s look at how to make the most of LinkedIn for your next event.
Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Page
Your LinkedIn Company Page will serve as the hub for all your event marketing efforts. So make sure it is complete, optimized, and up-to-date:
- Fill out all sections – description, website, contact info, company size, specialties, etc.
- Upload photos, videos, presentations to showcase your brand.
- Publish regular posts to build followers and engagement.
- Monitor notifications and respond to comments promptly.
- Claim your company page URL and add any merge tags.
Also, add relevant Showcase Pages for your business lines, brands, products, and initiatives. All this will give people more context on your company and reasons to connect.
Create a Robust LinkedIn Events Page
Once your Company Page is spruced up, it’s time to create a LinkedIn Events page for your upcoming event. Here are tips to make it as compelling as possible:
- Catchy title and description – Make them descriptive, keyword-rich, and written for your target audience.
- Event hashtags – Include relevant hashtags people can use when sharing and discussing the event.
- Eye-catching banner image – Choose an image representing the event theme and tone.
- Detailed logistics – Date, location, schedule, speakers, agenda, ticket types, and more.
- Call-to-action buttons – “Register Now”, “Learn More”, etc. Make it easy for people to take next steps.
- List event sponsors and partners – Cross-promote with other credible brands.
A compelling Events page will answer all your audience’s questions and get them excited to attend.
Promote the Event Through Your LinkedIn Network
One of LinkedIn’s biggest advantages is the ability to tap into your own professional network. There are several ways to get the word out about your event through your connections:
- Share event updates and posts with your 1st-degree connections.
- Post in relevant LinkedIn Groups you are a member of.
- Engage your followers by mentioning them in event posts.
- Reach out directly to top customers, strategic partners, and industry influencers.
- Offer discounts for referrals from your connections.
Leveraging your own network multiplies event visibility exponentially through shares, cross-promotion, and word-of-mouth buzz.
Run Targeted LinkedIn Ads
In addition to organic promotion, you should also consider investing in LinkedIn ads. With the ability to target by location, job role, industry, company, interests, and more – LinkedIn ads can deliver your event message to precisely the right audiences.
Some options to consider include:
- Sponsored Content – Promote event posts to a targeted audience.
- Message Ads – Send customized event invitations via LinkedIn messaging.
- Text Ads – Display relevant text ads alongside LinkedIn search results and feeds.
- Dynamic Ads – Automatically show ads to people who visited your event website.
When running LinkedIn ads, focus on your ideal buyer personas and what messages will resonate most with them. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s robust targeting capabilities.
Post Valuable Content and Updates
One of the most effective tactics on LinkedIn is posting relevant, valuable content to engage your target audience and get them interested in attending:
- Teaser content – Share event agenda details, speaker bios, venue sneak peeks, etc.
- Thought leadership content – Publish articles, whitepapers, and presentations from your speakers.
- Behind-the-scenes – Photos, videos, interviews showing event preparation and promotion.
- Hashtag updates – Share key announcements and reminders using the event hashtag.
- Retargeting – Remarket to people who already engaged with your event content.
Posting content allows you to nurture prospects with useful information before asking them to register. Follow the 80/20 rules – 80% value, 20% promotion.
Encourage Word-of-Mouth Buzz
LinkedIn’s viral nature makes it possible for your event to catch fire through word-of-mouth. Here are some ways to ignite the viral spread:
- Like and share others’ relevant content
- Comment on industry discussions
- Join LinkedIn Groups to connect with engaged communities
- Reward shares and engagement with discounts or giveaways
- Ask satisfied attendees to organically share about their experience
- Repurpose the best social content across channels
If you can get people genuinely excited about your event, they will eagerly promote it to their own networks. Focus on quality over quantity and let the conversation happen organically.
Partner With Relevant Brands
Strategic partnerships with complementary and relevant brands can expand your event’s reach tremendously. Explore co-marketing opportunities such as:
- Cross-promotion on LinkedIn
- Email co-marketing
- Affiliate referral programs
- Sponsorships and exhibitor packages
- Giveaway contests or promotions
- Bundles and combo deals
- Co-branded content
Choose partner brands that align well with your event’s industry, theme, and target audience. Structure partnerships for mutual benefit and integrated marketing.
Implement Retargeting Tactics
Retargeting, or remarketing, involves following up with users who previously showed interest in your event. On LinkedIn, you can retarget people who:
- Visited your event website
- Viewed your event content
- Registered for a past event
- Clicked your event ads
Effective retargeting keeps your event top of mind and nudges prospects towards registration. Personalize your messages and offer exclusive discounts for retargeted audiences.
Use Hashtags Strategically
Hashtags help your content be discovered by the right people. For your event, come up with a short, memorable hashtag and include it everywhere:
- Your LinkedIn event page and posts
- Other social channels like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
- Event website and registration pages
- Event signage, brochures, swag, and giveaways
- Emails and advertisements
- Encourage speakers and partners to use the hashtag
Monitor the hashtag to see who’s engaging, respond in real-time during the event, and analyze usage afterwards.
Promote Live During the Event
Your event promotion doesn’t stop once the event begins. Leverage the live experience to generate more buzz on LinkedIn:
- Share photos, videos, quotes, testimonials, and key takeaways from sessions
- Give attendees content and insights to share on their own profiles
- Incorporate the event hashtag or links to your LinkedIn page into signage and presentation slides
- Offer a “Social Media Lounge” for attendees to post and share
- Monitor and react to social media conversations in real-time
- Go live or run a LinkedIn Live event to share key moments
Promoting in real-time extends your event’s reach and social proof. Attendees become amplifiers to share memorable experiences from the event.
Continue Engagement Post-Event
Stay active on LinkedIn even after your event wraps up. Post event recaps, testimonials,thank yous, and additional content. Share photos and videos from the event. Most importantly, keep conversations going by responding to comments and mentions.
Other post-event engagement tactics include:
- Send follow-ups to attendees with exclusive content and discounts on future events
- Email attendees asking them to write LinkedIn recommendations for your company
- Promote any upcoming webinars, reports, or guides based on your event
- Monitor event hashtag and conversations for future marketing insights
- Share and tag influential attendees to extend your event’s reach
The momentum and conversations sparked by your event can continue long after it ends with an effective post-event strategy.
Track LinkedIn Analytics
To refine your approach, analyze the key LinkedIn metrics and data points for your event:
- Event page views and visits
- Registrations and sales through LinkedIn
- Content engagement and reach
- Leads and contacts generated
- Audience demographics and interests
- Paid advertising results (clicks, impressions, CTR)
- Referral traffic to your site
- Follower growth and new partnerships
Continuously track performance to identify your best event content, audiences, promotions, and partnerships on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
The strategies and best practices covered in this article will help you maximize LinkedIn for your next event. Focus on creating compelling event pages, engaging your network, running targeted promotions, posting valuable updates, generating word-of-mouth, forming strategic partnerships, retargeting, using hashtags, and tracking analytics. With LinkedIn’s unparalleled professional reach, you have an invaluable marketing channel to build awareness, boost registrations, and drive the success of your events.