Many companies, particularly smaller ones, find it difficult to create their own content, and instead resort to curating, reusing or even copying content from other sources. Big no no. Doing this can be time consuming (for little or no reward), risky in terms of copyright issues, and your website may not really be advanced enough to host this kind of content.

We always recommend that companies create their own unique content, and if possible host their own regularly updated blog. But if this is not a feasible undertaking – for reasons relating to time, budget, or technical capabilities – it’s better to take action and join the content publishers than take a backseat and simply watch others succeed in this arena.

There are a number of different tools you can use to create your own bespoke news portal in less than one hour. Yes you read that right - under an hour. It’s the perfect way to provide your audience (both internal and external) with relevant and industry related content that you think will add value.

This is the single question, budget holders ask most frequently to both marketers and service providers like us.

Everyone understands what are the benefits of adopting an inbound based, community driving approach. Everyone gets it, however to get the support of the big guys you will need to be able to back up the bold statements you’ll be making with some hard facts.

We’ve drawn upon HubSpot’s research with their 30,000+ customers and the findings to demonstrate how a community based marketing strategy can impact your metrics – from website visitors to actual tangible customers.

The ROI is represented in three main areas, visits, leads and sales:

Building a community is a big commitment for all parties involved, and one of these commitments is financial. Yes, depending on the company size, the financial commitment might be perceived as big or not and you need to commit for at least 6-12 months before you start realising results and a return on investment.

To give you an idea, it costs between £36k and £250k. That doesn't help does it? The reality is that the costs vary greatly depending on many factors and how you choose to go about it.

Let's hit the nail on the head, in order for a 12-month inbound/community marketing program to be successful, there will be many daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that need to be completed to stay on course for achieving your business goals and getting a return on your investment.

So you have two options:

We advocate that before you do anything else to kick off your community, you must, must, must have a blog, but once that’s done and you’re in the routine of publishing regular content, it’s time to bolster your efforts with the other platforms available to you.

These are the steps you must take to develop your online community:

Great, you’re convinced. You realise that at some point you’re going to have to come around to the idea of an online community for your event(s) and what better time to start than right now? So how exactly do you do that?

Start Blogging! Start your own, blog on LinkedIn, blog wherever you want, but do it consistently.

Well we’ve shown you the shape an online event community can take, so think about which areas you’d like to focus on. We have some advice of our own on that topic but ultimately it’s down to you to fit the forum to your ideal customer, or the place you know your prospects and customers can be found.

However, we can’t stress this point enough – if you don’t have a blog you’re missing a major opportunity to generate leads and build a captive audience. This is the most effective first step you can take in creating YOUR community, though you might not think it’s the easiest.

Here are our 5 steps to blog success, take them one step at a time.

Most event companies we’ve engaged with have at least an understanding that something in the industry needs to change, even if they’re not sure quite what shape this change will take. They’re all scratching their heads as to how they can achieve greater levels of awareness for their events, drive delegate attendance, and increase ticket sales – and do so in a sustainable way.

The beauty of the online community is that it checks all the boxes. It is the only clear solution. Any conference organisation that isn't thinking about developing a community, generating good engaging content, pulling rather than pushing and recognising that there needs to be a different approach, is missing a huge opportunity.

Many event companies are just waking up to the fact that online communities could become a huge part of their event marketing strategy, so let’s start by clarifying exactly what we mean.

An online community, put simply, is a virtual community where members or users primarily use the internet to share information and interact with one another. In the event industry, an online community is formed around a single event, or if the topics are related, a group of events. The information shared would relate to the topic of the event(s), and participants in these interactions would have an interest in the sector. In its purest form, an online community is inbound marketing in action: the process of attracting leads to your organisation, rather than using outdated, interruptive methods to gain new business.

Your event homepage is a really important platform for promoting your B2B event, and getting it spot on will make you stand out from the competition. There’s some cool stuff you can do, and some really innovative approaches to tackling both the layout and the functionality – but first you must perfect the content, and the elements and steps that are absolutely imperative.

It's great to see that events specifically talking about "events and conference marketing" are on the up and the newly launched Event Marketing Summit by the Global Conference Network took place just recently. Over 150 people attended - from event marketers to senior management, old friends as well as new faces.

As a content officer, conference producer, event planner or even a CEO for an event company, you probably have a lot on your plate already – and the prospect of striving to become a thought leader might seem daunting. However, as the face of your organisation with your potential delegates, it’s absolutely critical that you outwardly portray that you’re an authority within the industry your event serves. There isn’t a quick fix to ensure you’re regarded as such, but we’ve figured out the ultimate approach to get yourself, and your events, noticed.

These are 17 of the best examples of B2B online communities launched by event organisations, or companies with a strong event presence. Most of them center approach on simplicity. We hope this ebook serves as some inspiration, or a means to show your teams that it doesn't have to be complicated.