Event marketers are some of the busiest people in the whole world. Forget taking a lunch break, they barely have time to breathe a lot of the time. One of the most common questions I get asked is “how do I find time to create content?”

Here we crack the event marketing content code and unlock the time you need to create killer event marketing content, without being in the office until midnight:

C: Create from existing assets.

Events are such rich sources of easily repurposable content. And I don’t just mean having had the nous to video last year’s event (although if you did, great job!). Your list of prospective speakers and the producer’s notes about their roles and expertise? A quick polish away from being a “who’s who” list for this area of the industry. Tapes of production research calls? Blog posts in the making, with only a little word craft required from you.

Do yourself a favour. On the bus/tube/train home tonight (or in the car, you don’t need hands just a brain), have a think about all the possible sources of content that already exist in your organisation. You’ll be amazed how much there is. Content marketing for events is not as hard as it might first appear.

O: Outsource.

You think nothing of buying in/trading email blasts (that don’t often work, but that’s another story). Why not content? The world is full of great content creators, just take a look at your media partner list – they didn’t build their brands on the back of being dab hands at picking apples! Buying in or trading for content can be a great way to get truly expert, original content for your event with minimal time investment for you (after all, you’d have to make that call to source your email lists anyway right?)

D: Double up. And then do it again.

We call this the multiplier effect. Take one kick ass piece of original content e.g. an industry survey and create a whole content series out of it. Publish the results as a report. Add insights and analysis to create an e-book. Do a blog post around each question topic. Make the results into an infographic. Ask speakers to write a response to the results report. The list goes on. Anything you create that’s worthwhile will be easy to double up and double up again until you have a whole content series from just one original piece.

E: Email less.

This is a tough pill to swallow but here goes…  If you look at your last campaign and evaluate how much time and volume you invested in each marketing channel, I’m going to bet that in most cases email wins hands down. And did every single one of those emails merit sending? I’m also prepared to bet that there’s at least 1 or 2 in there that didn’t get the love they should’ve (because you’re busy – don’t sweat, I get it!) and didn’t get you a result.

Email is like the event marketing security blanket. Event marketing plans are littered with them. And that’s before we get to the in-campaign reactive stuff. Bookings down? Send another email! Booking up? Send another email? Sponsor griping about something? Send an email on their behalf!

It’s endemic in the events industry and killing just a couple is one of the simplest ways to find time to create the great content you need to increase traffic and try a new way of marketing that you’re craving. You might have to push back a bit, but this is worth fighting for. After all, you’ve read this far right, you must be pretty keen to give it a go!

We've a few more content tactics on the blog, but if you want more secrets to help your content marketing for events, such as a comprehensive list of content pieces you can quickly and easily create today, we’re revealing all in our new content marketing workshop, specifically designed for event marketers.