When it comes to virtual events, the work doesn't stop once the event takes place. That's when it all begins.

You can get as much as 2x or 3x the number of registrants to your virtual event. You just need to ensure the content produced as a result of your event is repurposed into multiple bite size chunks to drive those registrations through blogs, social, email and your own community.

The key is to take the long-form content and break it into small chapters or “episodes.” Content takes the shape of a story that follows a plot and slowly reveals more to the viewer with each episode.

Creating content isn't always easy, but  it doesn't have to be complicated or costly either. By costly I mean, you don't have to be hiring production companies to do this for you.

This post was updated on 24th August 2020.

One thing is clear, in the world of events to increase website visits you will need to spend money on advertising or you will need to start writing value adding-content that will drive free and organic traffic.

What is value-adding content? The term refers to content you produce for which your sole intention is not to sell but to educate, inform or entertain. In my world event generated content meets the education and information purpose by default. Event organisers should not have any issue with publishing top notch relevant content in the first place. The challenge is repurposing it efficiently to drive engagement and as a result of that engagement intiate/spark/stimulate interest in future events you have coming up.

Building an online community with the help of your content is a great strategy and it’s one that absolutely works! But there are various things to consider in making the most of your content - at the most basic level you need to PLAN and know what to do with it. Sounds simple right, but often content can become your master without you even realising it has taken control!

This blog will help you take back and keep control with one of the best ways to succeed - by developing your own content marketing framework and exploring the skills needed by your team.

One thing that I feel very proud of is the content I write for you! It’s nice to know it’s well received and valued. So much so that I recently discovered someone had literally taken one of my most popular posts in my blog via LinkedIn and used it as their own. Definitely not kosher! The number one rule in repurposing content is acknowledging the original source, giving love and always linking back.

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Content marketing is one of the most important aspects I discuss with B2B marketing professionals and business owners before they start developing their project strategy. In my view this will be the only way for the companies to differentiate themselves in the future.

It is important to outline these fundamental truths as content marketing is a set of tactics and a particular approach that is going to take time. The journey will be successful and hugely rewarding only if the right steps are followed.

Your blog (powerpoint, ebook, email, or social media post) is nearly ready and you ask a colleague, the boss or your team to check it over and the feedback is..."Great post, but I am not sure about the image... You need something slicker, more elegant and stronger..."

So, you've finally convinced your boss to switch some of your focus from outbound to inbound channels, you've been given the go ahead and created some sweet content and made a good sounding plan. The only problem is, that results just aren't there. 

After the initial screaming and holding your head in your hands part, you're likely next thought is "what the heck do I do now?" What do you do when content marketing doesn't work? Here's our 3 point, no-panic action plan....

Our series of Inbound Marketing Stories continues with John Whitaker, Head of Marketing from dmg events - a global events business that manages over 80 events in over 25 countries. John shares his experiences and learnings with his inbound marketing journey so far. 

In our new series of Inbound Marketing Stories, we interview B2B organisations and explore their inbound marketing journey so far. 

Our first story comes from Andrew Ferguson, Co-Founder at BrainXchange who lifts the lid on his unique business model and shares the reason why he believes inbound marketing for event and conference organisers is so essential for any future success. 

• Want to know how you can secure a 80-90% rebook rate from your event sponsors?
• How about the secret to being able to charge double what your competitors do?
• Or reliably booking a handful of delegates every single week without touching the phone?

You can listen to the full interview at the bottom of the post, or just digest some of the highlights we've pulled out here...

Your team of marketers may already be creating valuable, insightful and market-leading content by the buckletload, and driving additional views to your website, as well as increasing your social media followings; but have you thought about content that will bring in additional revenue? Here is how to monetise B2B content from your online community - you could be sitting on some very easy wins. 

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:

I recently took part in a podcast for Event Industry News to delve into what event marketers are getting right, and where they’re going wrong. The “Talking events” session was hosted by Event Industry News contributor James Dickson, and I was joined by Adam Parry, Event Industry News editor and organiser of Event Tech Live. You can check out the podcast in full at the bottom of this post , but just in case you don’t get a chance to, I’ve summarised the key points from our discussion below or go straight to the video if you prefer.

B2B marketers tend to dream big, but can sometimes be held back due to time constraints and lack of financial resource. This can mean that necessary changes aren’t made to websites, new landing pages can take ages to implement, and the smallest design update can end up being expensively outsourced.

If this set-up sounds familiar, take a look at our top free content creation tools, and see if you can’t solve your creative challenges without seeking help from outside.

There comes a time in every organisation’s lifecycle when a website redesign is staring them in the face, and it’s an occurrence you simply cannot afford to ignore.

This could be for a multitude of reasons such as a rebrand, a strategy overhaul, or just that it looks increasingly dated.

Don’t sigh with despair when this issue arises, grab the bull by the horns and make your website work harder for you; turn it into an unstoppable inbound marketing machine.

Here’s how to in just ten steps:

Aside from publishing high quality content, there aren’t many additional revenue streams media publishers can tap into, right?

Wrong!

There are several ways you can expand your reach and repertoire that don’t necessarily need to break the bank. And if you at least try these new channels, you’ll be able to discover which are more profitable for your organisation and are worth persevering with.

We’ll explore each of these tips in greater detail in the next few weeks, so watch this space for more information!

Here are our absolute top revenue generating tips for media publishers:

If the qualitative and quantitative evidence that we’ve provided in other blogs isn’t enough to get the support of your team, or your CEO’s buy-in, the cherry on the cake in your argument will be demonstrating the effects of an online community at every level of the value chain.

There are several groups who will thank you for your efforts in your B2B online community – in terms of both monetary rewards and delegate fandom.

Hubspot publishes every year ‘The State of Inbound’ report and it is full of fascinating insights, statistics and findings, but just in case you don’t have time to read it yourself, here are the top takeaways in easily digestible summaries. Not only is this a real time saver but we’ve also unearthed what these insights mean for the event industry – and how you can use them to your advantage.

1. Budgeting

As a marketer, you’ll be well aware that the size of your budget depends on and relates to so many different factors it can seem impossible to ensure all of them lead to an increase – but it is achievable. Factors such as the economy, a change in management and a past failure with inbound marketing typically led to a lower inbound budget being granted – however demonstrating success with inbound accessed significantly higher sums of budget.

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: