How to Use Gleam at Your Event
Hosting an event? Learn how Gleam can help you engage your guests and drive powerful actions with this helpful guide.
Organising and hosting an event is an undeniably challenging task. Every type of event comes with its own set of unique obstacles and opportunities, but whether you're hosting a convention, trade show, conference, informational session, product launch, book signing or meet and greet, there's a key factor that holds constant across them all: the goal of maximising guest engagement and generating as much value as you possibly can.
This can be a tall order, but luckily for you Gleam can help take away some of the pressure. No matter what kind of event you’re running, Gleam's suite of apps will be able to augment its value and help you efficiently and effectively boost engagement and drive powerful, relevant actions that will aid both your immediate and long-term growth.
If you want to know exactly how you can use Gleam to take your event to the next level then all you need to do is keep reading.
The relationships you develop with your guests are always incredibly valuable. It takes a lot of effort to find and engage a relevant audience for your event, but if you do it well you will be left with a cohort of highly engaged users who are primed and ready to take further action - immediately or in the future.
Regardless of the event you're running, there will be topics you want to follow up on and actions you want to drive. This may include driving sales, signing up new members or securing guests for future events. Remember, there's no better time to drive action than immediately after your event before the excitement has worn off!
Why not send out personalised emails to re-engage your guests? It's the perfect opportunity to promote your offering and encourage action.
To connect with your guests post-event, you will first need to collect their email addresses. The best way to do that is by using Gleam Competitions to incentivise email signups with a tactic that will not only grow your mailing list, but also reward and engage your guests while adding an extra layer of value to your event which will help you cultivate favourable associations and developer stronger consumer relationships.
Gleam Competitions can be run in Event Mode which allows you to collect multiple entries on the same device. With this feature, you can easily get your attendees to enter the giveaway from a laptop or tablet you provide, allowing you to seamlessly integrate the promotion into your event.
Take a look at this demo Competition we've put together to see what your own in-event giveaway could look like with Gleam. 👇
You don't want people spending too much time completing various entry actions and logging in and out of different social media accounts, so if you're running a Competition from your own device it's a good idea to limit entry actions to email signups.
Setting up a Competition for a live event with Gleam is straightforward and intuitive. It's just like setting up any other type of Competition with one extra step: you need to select 'Event Mode' on the setup tab.
Then, decide on what information you would like to collect in the User Details form:
The most crucial pieces of information you can collect are names and email addresses, but you can also use custom fields to ask questions, determine the demographics of your guests, or get users to provide you with any other information you want.
The prize pack for your contest will depend on the type of event you are hosting. For example, if you're hosting a product launch then the product you're launching is the obvious choice for a prize.
As a general rule, your own products make for the best prizes, but this isn't always possible. If you don't have a product of your own then you should pick a prize which is highly relevant to your audience, in line with the theme of your event, and valuable enough to encourage entry. Partnering with sponsors is an outstanding way to grow your prize pool.
When it comes to wrapping up a Competition at your event, you have two options:
Your first option involves closing your campaign and announcing the winner(s) at some point during your event. This option is advantageous for adding extra engagement to your event and bringing the giveaway to a close while interest is at high-point - perfect for user engagement.
When you do decide to wrap up your Competition, Gleam can automatically draw random winners for you, so picking winners during your event won't cost you any time or effort:
Another way you can wrap up your contest is by announcing the winner(s) a few days later. While this may limit the amount of engagement you generate from your campaign during the event, it will provide you with the opportunity to re-engage your guests once the event is over.
Reaching out for a winner announcement email following your event is the perfect way to re-engage your audience and encourage further action. Let unsuccessful entrants know about any other promotions or events you may be running, and if you're selling a product, offer a consolation prize to unsuccessful entrants.
For example, a discount voucher can encourage unsuccessful entrants to take action and drive sales.
Check out this winner's announcement email by Tradlands:
Check out our documentation on setting up your own Competition or get started now!
Using Gleam you can create a Competition that attendees can access via their own mobile devices and use it to generate actions that extend far beyond email subscriptions.
Take a look at this demo Competition to get an idea of what your own mobile campaign could look like:
The choices you make surrounding your prize and contest wrap-up will remain unchanged regardless of if you run a mobile contest oran event mode contest, however, if you opt to run a mobile contest you will need to decide what type of actions you want to drive.
When running a contest or giveaway at a live event, you want to make sure that the main focus is the event itself. This means you should limit your entry actions to the essentials and make it less time-consuming.
Here are a few entry actions we recommend adding to your Competition:
Gleam has a Subscribe Action you can incorporate into your mobile Competition to easily collect email addresses from your attendees.
The action is quick and easy for users to complete and it will provide you with lots of value, so it's definitely worth including in your giveaway.
Increasing your Twitter following is a great way to extend the reach of your promotional efforts and build more personal and meaningful relationships with your audience. You can use Gleam's Twitter Follow Action to encourage users to follow you on Twitter and give your brand an immediate social boost.
Getting your guests to follow your Twitter account may be the quickest and most powerful social media action you can drive from within your event, but that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of other highly effective social media actions you should consider.
Gleam has actions which allow you to give entries to users who:
- Sign Up For Your Newsletter
- Follow You On Twitter
- Social Media Actions
- Check-In to Your Event on Facebook
- Promote Upcoming Events
- Upload a Photo
All of these actions are great ways to grow your social following, which in turn can feed directly into driving future event attendance, sales, and any other goals you might have.
If your event is reliant on the involvement of other brands, people or sponsors (such as a trade show or music festival) then you can even use your contest to promote their social media channels and help grow the wider community surrounding your event. It can be a particularly good idea to partner up with your sponsors and get them to provide prizes in exchange for the promotion your contest will deliver.
This is exactly what ESL did at one of their events and they were able to drive massive user engagement and give their own social media following, as well as that of their sponsors, a serious boost.
Another quick and powerful action you can implement is to have attendees check-in to your event or venue with the Facebook Check-in Action. If your event isn't just a once off occurrence then this is a great way to get users to spread the word about your events, and if you're running an event in your own venue (such as a bar or restaurant) then this is a great way to draw attention to your establishment.
If you have more events coming up and you're already in the process of promoting them then it's worth using your Competition to send some extra attention their way. The attendants of one of your events are quite likely to be interested in others, and with Gleam's Visit Action you can award entries to users who visit a webpage devoted to your upcoming event(s). This is a superb way to raise some awareness and drive up attendance.
The Media Submit Action requires more work on behalf of your guests, but the payoff is worth it. You can ask users to take a photo of your event and upload it to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with a specified #hashtag and submit the image as an entry.
This is an outstanding way to procure highly valuable user-generated content and score some free social media promotion in the process.
Once you setup the Competition, you will need to make sure it is accessible to your entrants via their mobile devices. All you need to do is retrieve the unique QR Code from the Promote tab of your campaign and prominently display it at your event. Attendees who scan the code on their mobile will be directed to your Competition's landing page and able to easily complete actions and unlock entries.
Check out our documentation on setting up your own Competition or get started now!
Running a Competition with Gleam is a terrific way to incentivise a wide range of actions, but it isn't the only strategy you can use. Gleam's Rewards app allows you to drive meaningful actions by providing any user who completes a designated number of actions with a reward.
This strategy is most effective if you reward entrants with a discount code for a product you're selling. This is the ideal reward as it will not only encourage entry, but also drive sales and raise product awareness.
Much like with Competitions, you have two options for running a Rewards campaign at a live event:
A Rewards campaign can be run in Event Mode which allows you to collect multiple entries on the same device. This feature allows you to encourage entry from your attendees via a device you provide, allowing you to seamlessly integrate the promotion into your event.
Just like with Competitions, you don't want people spending too much time completing various entry actions and logging in and out of different social media accounts. So if you're running a Rewards campaign from your own device it's a good idea to limit entry actions to email signups.
Take a look at this demo Rewards campaign we've put together to see what your own in-event Coupon Rewards campaign could look like:
Email addresses are valuable but they don't necessarily warrant a huge reward. If you opt for this option, it's a good idea to limit your reward to something fairly minor like a 5% discount on your products. A prize like this is perfect as it is valuable enough to encourage entry, help promote your products and drive sales.
Gleam can automatically email your Coupon code to entrants who have successfully completed their entry, so you don't have to worry about the logistics of delivering coupon codes.
Another type of campaign you can run at your live event is a mobile-friendly Rewards campaign. This strategy is essentially the same as the Mobile Contest strategy we previously discussed, except instead of rewarding one lucky winner with a major prize, you can reward all users with a smaller prize.
Coupons make for the best prizes, but how much of a discount you offer depends on what type of actions you are driving, and how many actions a guest must complete before they can redeem their reward.
Check out our documentation on setting up your own Rewards campaign or start rewarding your guests now!
During your event, your primary goal should be to ensure that your guests are engaged and entertained. If your event gives people the opportunity to move around freely, then one of the most unique and exciting ways you can engage your guests is by using Gleam's Rewards or Competitions app to run a treasure hunt.
With Gleam's Secret Code Action you can give your users Competition entries or instant Rewards for entering the correct code. You can use this action to send your guests on an interactive scavenger hunt to find the code.
You can make these treasure hunts as simple or as intricate as you like. If you want to keep things basic, simply let your guests know there are several codes hidden around the venue. Or if you want something with a bit more depth you could set up a series of riddles or puzzles that guests must solve in order to find the code.
If your event is set up with different stalls or booths you can give the codes to certain attendants and reward guests who have a chat to them
Just make sure your guests can easily access your mobile campaign by making the website link accessible and available at all times!
Try out our Secret Code Action yourself with the demo below:
With the Competition template above, you can randomly select a winner from everyone who participates in your treasure hunt. But if you would prefer to reward every guest who finds the code, then you can take the same concept and implement it as a Rewards campaign. This approach can be particularly powerful if you want to drive product sales by offering discounts.
You can run a treasure hunt as its own campaign or simply as an individual action in a larger competition. If you like the idea of using a Competition to create a fun and engaging activity for your guests then there are plenty more options for you to consider.
Using Gleam's Secret Code action you can also set up questions which users must answer correctly in order to gain an entry. You can use this to do anything from asking riddles, giving your users a trivia challenge or even quizzing them on your brand or event to see if they've been paying attention.
If you want to engage and entertain your audience while also generating some value for yourself you should consider using Gleam's Question Actions to conduct some consumer research.
The nature of the questions you ask will be entirely dependant on who you are, and what type of event you're hosting. If you're running a product launch you may want to ask for feedback about the product, and if you're in charge of a music festival, convention, trade show or food festival you might be interested in finding out what the main draw was for your attendants.
If you host events on a regular basis then it's important that you're constantly finding ways to promote your events and encourage future attendance. One of the best ways to do this is by harnessing the power of user-generated content to showcase everything that's great about your events in an authentic and engaging manner.
Guests tend to take photos during events, so if you can encourage them to upload those photos to social media alongside a designated hashtag, you will not only attract attention across various social media platforms, you'll also be able to collect high-quality content and display it in a beautiful and responsive Gleam Gallery.
If you're importing media from Instagram you should consider asking users to also tag you in their posts and using @mention imports with #hashtag filters. This will help you take clearer ownership over posts and capture additional user data such as usernames and timestamps which Instagram no longer allows you to capture from hashtags alone.
Another terrific way to display hashtagged images is by activating Carousel Mode in your Gallery and showcasing photos from your event in a scrollable carousel. This is a highly effective way to stylishly and unobtrusively show off high-value user content on your website.
With Gleam, setting up your own Hashtag Gallery is a breeze. All you need to do is select a design for your Gallery, then decide on import sources and an appropriate event hashtag. Now sit back and watch the images roll in 😎
If you setup a Hashtag Gallery, make sure that your guests are aware of the Gallery and how they can be featured in it. Making announcements or posting signs around your event are both great ways to do this, and if you've managed to collect email addresses from your attendees then you can send out an email after the event encouraging people to post their photos.
The chance to be featured in your photo gallery will be enough motivation for most guests to upload their photos, but sometimes you might want to give your guests a little extra incentive, or even just make things a bit more engaging. In these situations you should consider running a photo contest at your event.
If you want to collect user-generated content using a contest then you can either use the Media Submit action which we previously discussed, or you can use Gleam's Import Actions to run a frictionless photo contest. That means your guests can enter automatically by uploading a photo to their social media accounts.
With Gleam, you can set up a Competition where users can enter by posting a photo to Twitter or Instagram with your choice of #hashtag. It's as simple as that.
There are other import actions that you can opt for, but we find these actions most engaging for a live event.
Once your photo contest is all set, you can create a Gallery which will automatically import all entries into a Competition Gallery for you to display. Check out this demo Gallery for some inspiration:
If you want to add an extra layer of engagement to your photo contest, you can get your guests to vote on their favourite photos in the days following your event and pick a winner based on user voting:
Check out our documentation on setting up your own gallery or start showing off user content now!
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Ahron Burstin
Ahron is a Growth Marketer at Gleam. Shoot him a Tweet if you got something out of this post ☺