How to Build an Engaged Community from 0 to 100 Members in Less Than a Week

In this age of innovation, social media and disruptive technology, event marketing is becoming the best opportunity for like-minded people to meet and connect in person.

The event industry is worth billions of dollars and is the future of marketing and sales. You’ve probably heard of Dreamforce and Inbound; each year they connect thousands of professionals through events.

You don’t have to be a large company to host an event. Silicon Valley startups, small businesses and solo entrepreneurs all host events to launch a product, raise brand awareness or increase customer retention.

I am going to show you how you can organize your own event, in a cost-efficient way, to take your business to the next level.

As CEO of Startup Socials and founder of the Growth Marketing Conference, my years of experience in event marketing and community building have given me this vital piece of knowledge: :

Events are the fastest way to build a personal brand, get customers, launch a product or service, build a community, triple revenue and increase retention.

Yet it is still one of the most underrated strategies, overlooked by marketers and entrepreneurs. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of events out there, but just like with startups, 99% of events are not profitable and disappear within a year. Today, in order to succeed, every event producer needs to master event marketing.

BUILDING GROWTH MARKETING CONFERENCE

When I joined Startup Socials in 2013 and became more familiar with the Silicon?Valley ecosystem, I started noticing how the worlds of digital marketing and entrepreneurship were completely disconnected.

My partners and I got the idea of organizing small events and inviting a few founders and marketing professionals to connect in a non-professional setting.

Today our global community connects more than 110,000 members at networking mixers, workshops and conferences around the world. We built sub-ecosystems in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, London, Paris, Amsterdam and S?o Paulo. We are working with brands like IBM, Delta Airlines, HubSpot, and Zendesk just to name a few.

And it all started from studying and experimenting with events marketing.?

We quickly realized that events are the fastest way to build a community. But before you host your first event, you need to understand:

Organizing an event is NOT about promoting your service or product. It is about providing value, expertise and a positive experience for people so that THEY become your promoters.

Values are crucial to community building. At Startup Socials we care about connecting and empowering people in the startup ecosystem. That’s why?we created Founder Fridays. We meet with founders 1-on-1 every Friday to listen to their needs, give feedback, connect them with the right people and provide them with actionable solutions for business growth.?

To provide the best value to your community, you need to surround yourself with the right team.

You need a detailed-oriented team member to lead all operations and logistics, a marketer proficient in email, social media and content, and someone who is great at partnerships and relationship building. You might also want a creative type to?help deliver an amazing event experience.

We have “Social Architects” at every event whose job is?to find out more about our attendees and engineer connections to ensure that people get the most out of the event.

In the beginning, you might have to wear all the hats: event and content producer, event marketer, and event operator.

Here’s how to get started.?

GOING FROM?0 TO 100 MEMBERS IN 7 DAYS

Step 1: Get on Meetup.com

Sign up on Meetup.com, the largest B2B event marketing site. The current cost is $89 for the first 6 months and your first 3 events. There’s also a premium subscription, but it isn’t worth it if you are just getting started.

99% of meetup pages are terrible because people don’t put enough effort into graphic design and crafting their value proposition. Don’t make the same mistake.

Here are the best practices:

1. Make sure that your branding and user experience is consistent with your website and other social networks:
2. Upload logo/pictures/videos
3. Add your value proposition
4. Add relevant keywords
5. Complete your organizer profile
6. Add new member profile questions and a welcoming message
7. Invite your contacts to join meetup (email/social media)
8. Important: Create an event before your meetup gets announced

If you follow these best practices, your meetup should have from 50 to 150 members within 3 days.

Step 2: Plan Your First Event

Cities like San Francisco have many co-working spaces that can lend you their venue for free, or as part of a potential partnership.

Don’t speak at your first event yourself. Reach out to industry leaders whose presence will draw community members to the event. Invite someone you want to listen to, and tell them that you have an audience that wants to hear their story. Don’t aim too high with your first speaker.

Step 4: Create an unforgettable experience

There’s a big misconception in the events industry that you need to have expensive filet mignon dinners and open bars to make an event memorable.

Memorable doesn’t always equal expensive.

You can choose a fun location for the event, draw a fun caricature portrait of speakers, serve interesting food, hire a comedian, or just introduce two attendees who absolutely need to meet.??

Be creative and think about something that your attendees and speakers would be excited to share on social media.

For the 2016 Growth Marketing Conference, we partnered with a local winery to ship bottles of Merlot with customized labels to our event attendees, speakers and most valuable community members.

Step 3: Ask for feedback

The Lean Startup methodology teaches how to build products that people want. Steve Blank and Eric Ries, the founding fathers of the Lean Startup movement, emphasize the importance of getting out of the building and talking to your potential customers.

To build a great event you must treat it as a product. To build an engaged community, you need to get to know your community members personally.

Don’t just send out a survey, but try to meet with as many of your previous event attendees as possible. Ask for feedback, offer help and make new friends.

These people will eventually become your brand evangelists and will help spread the message. Your event growth is all about the word of mouth.

Step 6: Scale up by hosting webinars and virtual events

After your first in-person event, plan a series of follow-up webinars. This allows you to stay in touch with your community members between in-person events while expanding your reach.

We use crowdcast at the event marketing school. It is affordable software that allows you to engage the audience through live video.

You can read about other options in this comprehensive blog post covering webinar software for every business.

A few things to remember when hosting and promoting webinar:

1. Get an engaging speaker
2. Create actionable content
3. Optimize landing page for best conversions

EVENT AND COMMUNITY BUILDING IS A PROCESS

When I share event marketing and community building strategies with entrepreneurs and marketers I often hear that event marketing is too complicated and?time-consuming. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Now you have a step-by-step guide to build your first event. With every event you produce, you’ll learn to get better at marketing, attracting sponsorships and creating an unforgettable experience.????

Event marketing is just like content marketing and brand building. Consistency is key.

When you find your event market fit, make a commitment to keep building on it for at least 2 more years. Don’t quit no matter what.

And if you get stuck, send me an email [email protected] and will try my best to help.