The clock is ticking. You are coordinating this year’s client conference -- a two-day destination getaway in Scottsdale, Arizona. There will be keynotes, seminars, dinners, golf, hot air ballooning. 200 clients prospects, sales team members, executives and guest speakers need housing, food, gift bags and personalized scheduling. And your four member marketing team has 5 months to get it all together.
Time is money. That mantra rings particularly true when it comes to corporate event planning. Wide-ranging functions from venue coordination, catering, special guest and speaker scheduling to general marketing and promotional activities like advertising, website development, SEO and more can stretch marketing staff paper thin.
The event planning time crunch doesn’t help, but outsourcing tasks to skilled freelance talent can lighten the load and make your next event truly amazing. Here are five ways to leverage freelance talent for your next corporate event to help make it truly epic.
1) Ad hoc design
Need a stunning event logo, flyer or exhibit banner? Examine freelancer skill sets by media or software (Adobe Creative Cloud is a must). You can even tap some high-grade videography talent for a :15 promo video that can be repurposed across your event page and social media accounts. Freelancers will also be a huge asset post-event to sift through and edit raw video and photo footage for future use.
2) Event coordination
Gain an extra set of event planning hands that actually know the trade. Event production, logistics and planning are just a few freelance skill sets you can add to your team. You may just need some administrative help for data entry, scheduling, follow ups and other virtual assistant tasks. Or you may need more full fledged event management help, which will run you more depending on expertise level.
3) Social media support
There’s only so much automation tools can do when it comes to social. Events will naturally generate an influx of attendee questions and customer support inquiries to field on and off social media. You want a human approach to your digital strategy efforts. You also want to add a depth of expertise to your team -- a Facebook Ads specialist or someone who knows their way around Google DoubleClick -- to get the most bang for your social media advertising buck.
4) Web design and optimization
Building a website from scratch is a tall order for a resource-strapped marketing team. Even more so within the tight constraints of an event timeline. You want a top-grade client conference landing page that can operate on your web hosting platforms? Need SEO help and mobile optimization? You’ll likely engage a freelancer on a project-basis for a complete buildout.
5) Content development
Corporate events can require tons of compelling content in both the lead up and follow up. Think blog articles, social media posts, promotional emails, webpage content, flyer and banner copy. Developing all these deliverables on a consistent basis (across a tight timeline) is a big ask for any marketing team -- but finding quality writers is not as hard as you would think.
Your next corporate event is never far off. Lighten the load by tapping skilled freelance talent when and where you need it.
Wanna learn more? Get started with your guide of Freelance Management Systems.
