We were recently asked to assist a regional industry association with marketing their annual conference.  We created a multi-channel marketing campaign strategy that included direct mail, e-mail, tweets & Facebook posts, and video marketing.

Our audience consisted of the association’s current membership, lapsed members from a three-year period, and two targeted lists of prospective companies.  Prospects were identified through a partnership with a similar industry association and targeted businesses based on SIC codes within a five-segment, geographic area.

The campaign rendered attendance from over 30 companies, across the nation and Australia.  Twenty percent of the companies were first-time attendees and eight percent of the lapsed market was recaptured.

Direct mail brought the largest returns as 57.5% of the total registrations occurred within 10 days after a mailing and 57.1% of first-time registrations occurred within the same time frame.  We also saw that 33% of our total webpage traffic occurred within a ten-day period after a mailing.

E-mails that emulated the mail pieces and followed a mailing brought the second highest amount of activity.  Within 72-hours after a direct mail/e-mail,  23.1% of our total website hits occurred and 12.1% of attendees registered.

Generic e-mail blasts brought also brought 12.1% of the total registrations and comprised 15.8% of the total website activity within the 120-day campaign.

The social media component brought interesting results as well.  Nearly 25% of all website activity (24.7%) occurred on the day of positing on Facebook or Twitter, using a link connected to the website.  We noted that 14.6% of registrations occurred on days where social media was the only form of marketing used.

Seven videos were created and uploaded onto YouTube during the 120-day campaign bringing 399 views.  One-third of all views came from the inaugural, two-minute, introduction video that outlined location, topics and speakers.  Daily, 30-second spots, highlighting schedules for the three-day conference were watched by 18.7% of the registrants and accessed from a QR-Code conveniently placed on the cover of the conference program.

In conclusion, the conference was a profitable and successful venture for the association.  Revenues were 13.4% higher than the previous year and first-time attendees were up 3.9% from 2011.