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This post is part of the series, and is based off the ebook 'Top 21 marketing methods for membership websites published by the Subscription Coach Amanda Northcutt.

 Download the whole series in a book

There are many opportunities for creative marketing at trade shows and industry conferences: pay for an exhibit space, purchase sponsors through the organization, or host a spin-off event in conjunction with the event or conference as well as many other.

If you are lucky enough to find that someone else from your industry is organizing an annual gathering in which your audience is all together, you must be present.

In relation to hosting an event of your own, taking part in an event that another organizes is similar to pressing the button. But, if you simply go to the event without planning and without a plan, it's probably best to remain at in your home.

There are often conference/event/trade show sponsorships available for purchase, booths, and other opportunities to get amplified exposure to attendees over what you can accomplish on a one-to-one basis. One of the Holy Grail of event engagement for an event of someone else's is to be a speaker. Speaking engagements will be discussed in a moment however, as uncomfortable as it might be at first, public speaking before your intended public is just as effective as gold. It's a fast path to trust and authority, provided your presentation is entertaining, valuable, and relatable.

Examine sponsorship options in the same manner as you do for any other paid advertisement. The results should be quantifiable, and that's largely on you with an event sponsorship. The presence you make at the event, the brand the experience you provide, and call to action will likely decide the success of your event or lack of it. The event plan you choose to use should be pre-planned, with an on-site plan, and the follow-up process. This is true regardless of whether or not you have an official sponsorship. However, this will be much more straightforward if you've got one.

Prep: If you can get access and exposure to the attendees list prior to the event, you will be able to move people through the sales pipeline faster. If you're a corporate sponsor you can ask the event organizers for ways you can make the most of the sponsorship. Ask for more than what is included in the package of sponsorship If you think of a creative way to provide the attendees with value and help the organizer appear good.

If you don't have sponsorship or aren't an influencer in your space You're not likely to attract the attention of event people who are organizing the event in any significant manner. Circumvent this by getting on Twitter and Instagram and using the appropriate hashtag to find others who are coming. Begin to get acquainted with these people and consider hosting a happy time, meal or a mini-workshop offsite on the days or hours surrounding the main occasion.

The day of: Sponsor or not find a method to get leads. You can definitely do this on a one-to-one basis through providing relevant resources or even a deal to an interested prospect in exchange for contact information or permission to connect with the person on social media. Take a look around and be respectful, not pushy, or pushy. If you're able to assist anyone, inform them that you believe you could and ask for permission to email them. A moment to make an e-mail to each person so you can make a personal follow-up email is sure to put you head and shoulders above those with generic follow-up emails that do not include personal information.

Find the hashtag used for the event through social media both during the event and afterwards, make sure you use the hashtag your personal hashtag. It's an easy way to amplify your presence and make you more visible to the attendees. This is also a great opportunity to identify potential clients and influencers during and after the conference.

If you have a booth in a conference, then you'll need to figure out how to be noticed. It's not my expertise however, you can go to Pinterest and look for some innovative ideas. Get noticed and if your business is a good fit for a little lighthearted fun, then play that up. One way to do this is to set up a themed booth and have employees or helpers dress the way they want to dress.

One thing I've seen done effectively is having staff wandering around asking guests whether they'd want to attend an exclusive bar/restaurant to enjoy cocktails after the event. They then have to go into your booth and learn more about the services you offer and to sign in (lead capture) to get an invite. If you decide to do this, then you must be a friendly group in your booth. People who your potential customers actually want to have a drink with. Rent out a popular bar or room in a restaurant in town and pay the tab at the conclusion of the evening. This kind of thing can create a buzz (no pun intended) during the event. It lets potential customers have the best experience possible in your business, and essentially serves as a direct lead magnet.

Follow-up: The preparation and preparation on site can be wasted If you don't follow up in the follow-up plan. Keep in mind that lead-capture during the event is essential because otherwise, you'll not have plenty of people to follow-up with. Oops.

The day after the party, send them an email to each person with the personal details you made note of when you met them (you did that, right?) Make a connection to them via their preferred social media platform for that one-two punch. Do not put off this. You must capitalize on event hype as well as momentum. If you delay this for a week, you've likely not seen the big picture. After the personalized email, trigger the automated drip sequence you created before the event. You can do this through your email service provider (you got permission to email them, too, right?) And then, move them through your process of selling just like you would someone who visited your site. However, you've seen that person face-to-face and your calls to action (CTAs) should be of more consequence (attend an engaging webinar, sign up for a the trial, purchase) as opposed to someone who just starting your drip sequence after picking up the lead magnet from your website.

If you're allowed to distribute cards but not collect names and contact info for some reason, create a landing page with an offer for leads exclusively for conference attendees. Have a special batch of business cards made that include the web address of the landing page and a quick description of the amazing free resource that you've designed just for them on it. Make sure you have an email capture forms on that landing page in exchange for downloading and start the automated nurture process to be followed.

 There are a myriad of methods to implement this, but the key point is that you need an prior the event, throughout, and after it plan that is measurable.

Webinars

A webinar is a 45-90 minutes value-for-money online webinar that is live in front of a live audience on the web or pre-recorded and consumed at any time. Webinars can be great top-of-funnel sources as well as email list-building instruments. They are also a great tool to use towards the end of a marketing funnel to solicit a sales.

Webinars are produced by yourself as a one-off, produced in a set of events called the summit, with or without guests, or you can be a guest on someone else's. Whatever the case, they could and should be used for demonstrating your expertise, and build authority and trust in your industry space. It is possible to use them just one time or produce evergreen webinars - the contents of which should be applicable for in the coming 12-24 months.

If you have in a closed-model membership (meaning that you open your site to new members couple of times in the year), a single conference or webinar can be an excellent closing tactic. I'd suggest offering such a webinar in real time and mentioning a the possibility of a special, unique and time-sensitive offer within the marketing materials you use. It is only available only to attendees who attended live at the end of the session, and not for those who watch the replay. The replay of the webinar should still be sent to those who don't attend live, but you can increase your live attendance and closing rate in case your attendees know that there's something very special happening during the course.

Hosting a summit is one of the best moves you can make to become an authority/influencer. It is essential to have an extensive email list in order to draw other industry experts as guests and if you manage to pull this off, your efforts will be well-rewarded. This can be a significant amount of work. Therefore, I don't suggest this unless you are willing to commit enough time to ensure that your technology, summit promotion, guests, content planning as well as scheduling and follow-up hashed out.

As a guest at someone other's webinar and inviting your audience to attend is the perfect chance to get your feet in the water and get at ease on the camera without putting into the work hosting your own. If you're working with others on cross-promotions and are using an influencer-based strategy that is organic implemented, you're likely to be at the top of the list of guests for people who host webinars and summits.

Much like fully leveraging a conference or industry event, having a pre-webinar promotion strategy as well as a follow-up plan is vital. Since webinars and summits are an excellent source of information to your target audience (not to mention an enormous amount of work on your part), make sure you're repurposing your content of the webinar. You can turn your webinar content into blog book, series, podcast or video series on YouTube as a lead-generator, and on.

 The most crucial thing to keep in mind regardless of whether you're hosting or as a guest, is that you provide an unimaginable quantity of value for webinar attendees. It's not the time to hide your secret sauce - it's the time to prove you have the sauce that's secret and you have plenty of other benefits you can find it behind your paywall.

Meetings in-person or meetings

Meetups and events in person may include one of these: hosting happy hours, in-person classes/lessons, workshops, sponsorship of events held in person in cities where a critical mass of your members live as well as any other place it is possible to bring people together on the ground. Events can be free or paid and educational in nature or simply enjoyable for gatherings that build community.

The majority of membership websites we work with offer an online community in their membership. After all, a community is one of the most important differences between a membership and a course. If you are able to gather your community in person and host an event that members (and potential members) enjoy and then rave about online, you're going to improve sales, cLTV and conversion rates, and the strength of your online members.

These kinds of events are a great place to allow members who are currently or prospectively to socialize and have a chat. Allow your members to do your "selling" to you to potential customers through casual conversations. If a handful members of your current membership value your membership enough to show up somewhere physically discussing your membership, it will come up naturally in conversations.

Like industry conferences or trade shows it is essential to plan in advance, ensure that the conference live up to the anticipation, and then have a follow up strategy. The way you prepare and the follow-up depends on the kind of event you're hosting.

If it's a workshop, you're likely charging people to attend, and will need to prepare marketing materials, and then the workshop details themselves (workbooks, handouts, a slide deck, your presentation, guest speakers/instructors). Follow-up materials should comprise the survey that attendees completed as well as bonus material, or an offer to buy something else. If you've met someone in person and earned their trust, use the momentum to create relevant upsell opportunities.

If you are hosting a happy hour, little preparation is required. Concentrate on finding a suitable venue, providing appetizers as well as drinks and getting people there. When you're there, interact with the people in attendance, and ensure that you don't have anyone awkwardly left out. Inviting members who are already there to invite a friend who is similar with them is an effective method to increase your membership as well.

And while a happy hour is the last place to be salesy, if you're inviting prospective members, make sure you have a smart way of making sure you can follow up with them. Lead capture might be entry into a contest for an unrestricted membership, merchandise, etc. Or, some other method that is more subtle, such as handing the prospect cards with a special promo code on them.

Whatever the event, ensure you have the right plan to capture leads and follow-up with prospects who are attending. And just as your membership marketing materials have to match the materials that paid members get when they pay the paywall, your promotion for the event will need to be in line with the content you can deliver in person or else you risk being badmouthed online. Create raving fans of your events , rather than critics to ensure that you are able to successfully host events in the future. It is the perfect opportunity to harness the underpromise, overdeliver principle.

Speaking engagements

Maybe this is more fear-inducing than direct sales for some however it's extremely effective when it's done right recording, recorded and used. If you're still new to public speaking, that's okay. Events such as blogging, guest-podcasting, hosting or participating in webinars, creating videos, etc., are all great preparation of public speaking.

It's not necessary to aim for the moon when you're just starting out. Look for a local association of business to give a speech there or teach an individual workshop for tiny groups. You can even go to an area that you do not know for a presentation if you really want to take the pressure off. Start small, and when your confidence and skills improve, you can move up to a larger task.

Offer to lead breaks at conferences or organize an informal breakout session prior to or following another's conference or event (in an ethical manner, of course). Once you've done those things successfully, start to harness your organic influencer, guest blogging/podcasting/webinar hosting strategies to move further up the speaking ladder. If you're in the loop for suitable speaking opportunities since your network is strong and have taken the time to build an online presence within the network, then you're much more likely to be considered for a speaker slot, even if you're less well known as of yet.

Speaking gigs with a higher profile are on par with creating your own book, organizing a conference, or perhaps a summit alongside others in the industry, both with respect to reach and influence. Whatever the scope of the speaking gig, make sure you maximize your presentation by repurposing it for different media. Be sure to take a quality video of your talk or talk. After that, you can upload your video to your own site both behind and in front of the paywall. Post it on YouTube and use the video to create a series of blog posts, podcast topic, to start discussions within your communities, both paid and free Include an embedded video under your website's "About" or "Resources" section of your website.

 Also, make use of the recording of your video to be eligible to speak at other events. When you've established yourself as an excellent speaker and promoted yourself accordingly using recorded footage of your speech and some social proof (positive feedback you received from your audience) and your public speaking life will get a whole lot easier.