What should I include in my promotional toolkit?

There are several potential applications for promotional toolkits that make them an essential part of your event marketing mix. We like to refer it as empowering your influencers to spread the word about your event. 92% of people around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising (click to tweet).

A promotional toolkit allows anyone who wants to showcase your event to do so while respecting your event branding guidelines. Check out our top tips for creating promotional toolkits:

Make sharing easy and effortless

If you have partner organizations with their own members and publications, it can be fruitful to put a cross-marketing initiative into motion. For the 2015 CIM Convention toolkit, we made sure to include a variety of marketing assets such as various banner sizes, event calendar listing blurb, email signatures specific to each audience, multiple ad sizes, etc…

Empower sponsors and exhibitors

Sponsors and exhibitors view them as an efficient way to spread the word of their presence at your event. They are just as interested as you in increasing attendance to your event. They feel empowered by having these materials on-hand! And of course, like sponsors, exhibitors want to promote the fact that they’ll be present at your event to their network. Consider creating dedicated, shareable landing pages for speakers and exhibitors like this one.

Get speakers talking

Promotional toolkits allow them to announce their upcoming presentation at your event to their professional network, family, and friends in a simple and branded way. A speaker’s circle of contacts can prove to be indispensable. For more ideas on how to engage your speakers in marketing your event, check out our previous take/two.

Let attendees in on the fun

An event that revolves around social action before, during, and after the event may want to include a list of pre-approved tweets with appropriate hashtags, like Teacher Appreciation Week has included. They’ve also included printables for students, thank-you cards, and more! Resources like these allow attendees to increase their level of engagement and participation with your event.

Some promotional toolkit essentials

For the World Biometerials Congress (WBC 2016), we included the following elements in the promotional toolkit: PowerPoint presentations, promotional and highlights flyers, and website banners. These elements are what this event’s attendees would find the most useful. What might your attendees find useful? In many cases, a “convince your boss” letter is good to include. It can help prospective participants demonstrate to their employers that attending your conference is worth the investment.

Get famous

All events are organized differently. Your promotional toolkit needs to reflect both your audience and the demands you place on them. Have a look at the Cargo Logistics America promotional toolkit and notice the link at the bottom for a separate “social media toolkit”. They’ve included custom photos with specific posting instructions, separated by social media platform, thereby setting the stage for great social engagement.

Article by Justin Mulfati

Justin is passionate about bridging the gap between art and business, and is constantly on the lookout for great event marketing content to share with the sensov/ community.