Grey Dog events experts Carley Quigley and Olivia Cummins hosted a live webinar where they will shared everything you need to successfully plan and execute an event.
Available for replay now, this webinar presents an unparalleled opportunity to delve into the intricate world of event planning and execution. With a comprehensive focus on each stage of the event lifecycle, from initial concept development to flawless execution, Carley and Olivia offer invaluable insights and practical strategies essential for success.
Whether you’re a seasoned event professional looking to refine your skills or an aspiring planner eager to plan your first event, this webinar promises to be a transformative journey towards mastering the art of event operations. Plus, you can also download our event planning guide!
This webinar covers:
💯 Setting up for success
⏳ Creating a timeline and milestones
👥 Determining team roles and responsibilities
🤝 Working with third-party suppliers
😯 Dealing with unforeseen challenges
💬 Q&A
Meet the Grey Dog events experts
Carley – The Leader of the pack! Carley takes the reins in operations, immersing herself in the intricacies of event management while regularly engaging with Grey Dog’s clients. She thrives on understanding their needs and feedback, ensuring that Grey Dog maintains a service that is constantly evolving and improving.
Carley’s primary focus lies in fostering relationships within Grey Dog. She is the backbone of support for our team, empowering them to deliver unparalleled service to our clients.
At Grey Dog, we are perpetually in the mode of both teaching and learning, and Carley embodies this ethos every step of the way.
Olivia – The Mastermind of Production! Olivia specialises in crafting targeted marketing strategies and overseeing event production to elevate clients’ positioning for exponential growth. With over a decade of expertise in B2B marketing strategy and financial conference production, Olivia brings a wealth of experience to the table.
Working at Grey Dog enables Olivia to collaborate closely with business leaders, founders, and entrepreneurs in the finance sector. She thrives on the opportunity to strategise with them, creating and executing marketing plans that yield remarkable results alongside unforgettable events that leave a lasting impression.
LinkedIn is a powerful tool that offers a fantastic opportunity for businesses to increase brand awareness, generate leads and ultimately, increase business growth.
While many users are familiar with the basic features, unlocking the platform’s full potential involves a strategic blend of organic posting and paid advertising efforts.
Whether you’re aiming to increase your brand’s visibility or exploring the benefits of paid advertising, this comprehensive guide will show you how to maximise your presence on LinkedIn.
Ready to make the most of your LinkedIn presence? We’re offering a handy LinkedIn for business checklist.
What is the difference between organic and paid activities on LinkedIn?
The main difference between organic and paid strategies on LinkedIn comes down to visibility: by posting organically (or, in other words, for free), you naturally build a presence over time through regular posts and engagement with your audience via likes, shares and comments. Organic posts are mainly viewed by your followers. However, through engagement with your content, your posts have the potential to reach a larger audience.
Alternatively, paid strategies like sponsored posts and InMail messages involve targeted advertising to increase reach and guarantee that specific content is seen by a selected audience.
How to make the most of organic posting on LinkedIn
1. Optimise your company page
Your company page is your ‘storefront’ and acts as a mini website. Use it to your full advantage by completing it with a compelling ‘about us’ description that includes relevant keywords, so that people (and the algorithm) can find you more easily.
Add your logo and a header image in your brand colours. Include keywords, your company tagline or a new product or service you want to promote
Pin your top-performing posts to the top of your profile. This can be used to promote a new campaign or product, or act as an ‘explainer’ to give visitors more context around your brand or offering.
2. Regularly share valuable content
By regularly sharing a mix of content, including industry news, thought leadership pieces on key trends, case studies, and company updates, you increase brand awareness and keep your brand top-of-mind for your audience.
Video content, infographics, polls and high-quality photographs and graphics will lead to higher reach and engagement. Grey Dog recommends using a variety of content and formats.
In the caption of your post, make sure to include a CTA (call to action). Not sure what a CTA is? Here’s a handy guide to marketing jargon.
Use 3 to 5 specific and relevant hashtags to the content of your posts to increase the visibility of your content and join trending conversations.
Anatomy of a good social post on LinkedIn
3. Engage with your audience
Foster connections and engagement by responding to comments and posing questions to invite further discussion.
Participate in relevant groups and discussions to establish your brand as an industry leader.
4. Encourage sharing
Encourage your colleagues and employees to share company updates, job postings, and relevant content on their personal profiles. Personal pages and posts tend to get better engagement so advocating for sharing from personal pages for your company is a good way to improve engagement. Tag other people and companies, where relevant.
5. Leverage LinkedIn articles
Showcase your expertise and thought leadership by publishing long-form content using LinkedIn Articles. Add your comments to collaborative LinkedIn Articles to further increase awareness of your thought leadership.
6. Maintain a consistent posting schedule
Building your presence on LinkedIn takes time and consistency. Maintaining a consistent posting schedule can be tricky, especially if you don’t have a plan. To keep on track and post consistently, check out the Grey Dog content planner and make content planning a breeze!
7. Track performance
Track days and times when posts perform best so that you can develop an optimal posting times schedule.
How to improve ROI of LinkedIn paid advertising
1. Create targeted LinkedIn ads
LinkedIn’s targeting options allow you to narrow down your audience based on job title, company size, industry, sector and other factors. Grey Dog recommends being specific with ad targeting, but not so specific that you narrow your audience too much. Rule of thumb: choose location and two other targeting criteria to start.
2. Experiment with formats
There are different ad formats to choose from including sponsored content, sponsored InMail and display ads; experiment with different formats to test which ones resonate the most with your audience.
3. Use compelling ad copy and imagery
Concise and compelling ad copy in your brand’s tone of voice will highlight your brand’s unique value proposition and encourage people to ‘convert’, for example clicking on the link in the ad and driving traffic to the ad landing page.
Eye-catching visuals, such as high-quality images or videos, will capture attention and increase brand awareness.
See our LinkedIn checklist for character restrictions on different ad formats.
Anatomy of a good LinkedIn ad
4. Use A/B testing
Testing different ad variations and formats is the best way to understand what resonates with your audience. Experiment with different headlines, ad copy, images, and CTAs.
5. Create an effective landing page
Landing pages for ads on LinkedIn play a key role because they act as the bridge between the ad your audience sees and the action they take. Think of them like a well-designed destination where your audience lands after clicking on an ad.
A good landing page has consistent messaging and ensures a smooth and user-friendly experience, increasing the chances of your audience doing what the ad wants them to do, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up, or exploring more about a product or service.
6. Set realistic bidding and budgets
Monitor your ad performance and adjust your bidding strategy and budget accordingly. LinkedIn Ads can be more expensive, so it’s crucial to find the right balance.
7. Analytics and reporting
Regularly analyse performance metrics to understand what’s working and refine your strategy accordingly. Use LinkedIn Analytics to gain insights into your audience and adjust your targeting.
Ready to maximise your LinkedIn presence?
We hope you’ve found this guide useful! To get your free Grey Dog LinkedIn for Business Checklist, click one of these buttons!
A well-crafted content marketing plan acts as a compass, guiding you through the intricacies of strategic communications. However, putting an effective content marketing plan together can easily become overwhelming and time-consuming. Many factors come into play, from business objectives, target personas to current trends and competitor analysis. Unfortunately, many businesses often end up posting content reactively, leading to inconsistency and a lack of clear messaging.
This comprehensive guide unveils the secrets to creating an effective content marketing plan. Bonus! We’re offering you a free content marketing plan template to jumpstart your planning.
A step-by-step guide to creating a content marketing plan
What is a content marketing plan?
An effective content marketing plan considers various factors, including your marketing objectives, target audience, and current trends. By clearly listing content topics and then mapping these topics onto your objectives, you gain:
Inspiration repository: avoid content creation bottlenecks by having a reservoir of ideas.
Objective alignment: ensure that every piece of content contributes directly to your business objectives.
Clear direction: streamline your content strategy by visualising how each piece fits into the overarching goals of your marketing plan.
Targeted communication: tailor content to meet your audience’s awareness stage for deeper engagement.
Holistic strategy: gain a comprehensive view of content distribution across different buyer’s journey stages.
Continuous improvement: leverage insights to refine and optimise your content strategy over time.
Efficiency: ultimately save time and resources.
Step 1: Keep track of your ideas
The first pillar of a successful content plan lies in compelling ideas. Use the Grey Dog Content Planning Template as a centralised hub to keep track of the content ideas you’ve garnered from:
Analysing what type of content performs well
Questions or pain points from your target audience
Trends that are top-of-mind for your industry and audience
Keywords you wish to optimise for SEO
Competitor content analysis
Team ideation sessions
Using this bank of content ideas ensures that no creative spark is lost and ideas are ready for evaluation and implementation.
Jot down your ideas in the first column of your ideas bank.
Step 2: Define your content pillars
Once you have your bank of ideas, categorise them into content pillars—your core topics. Communication on core topics allows you to build consistent brand awareness. Most businesses typically have three to four content pillars.
Edit the drop-down menus. Click on the dropdown and then the pencil icon to edit the dropdown options to suit your needs.
Step 3: Map your ideas onto marketing objectives
Strategic content planning requires a seamless alignment between your content and business objectives. You need to consider the goal of your marketing communications. We have four main objectives in marketing: brand awareness, consideration, conversion and retention.
Brand awareness
Do you need people to become aware of your brand and the product or service you offer?
Consideration
Do you need to persuade people who are already interested in your service or product with more information?
Conversion
Do you need to fully convince people who have shown interest in your product or service to purchase?
Retention
Do you need to nurture your customer base?
Step 4: Understand your target audience’s awareness stage
Understanding your audience’s awareness stage is pivotal for crafting content that resonates with your target personas. Our template incorporates a feature that prompts you to categorise content based on the awareness stage of your target audience.
Different types of content suit the various stages of the customer journey.
Step 5: Break the year down into quarters
Note any special days, upcoming events, partnerships or planned campaigns for each quarter. The Grey Dog Key Dates Calendar will come in handy here!
Assign overall objectives, target audiences, themes and sub-themes to each quarter, providing a clear, strategic view of your plan for the year.
Step 6: Make monthly plans
It’s time to get granular! With your quarterly strategic framework in place, you can now easily plan and visualise your content calendar month by month, ensuring a consistent and cohesive narrative. By mapping out topics, formats and go live dates, you ensure that every piece of content serves a purpose.
With your quarterly strategic framework in place, it’s time to get granular! Map out topics, formats, and go-live dates. The Grey Dog Content Planning Template allows you to easily plan and visualise your content calendar month by month, ensuring that each piece of content has a purpose and you maintain a consistent and cohesive narrative.
The monthly plans are also where you can keep track of individual items for each campaign or content theme as you move into the execution phase. Use the filter feature to see the status of individual campaigns or content themes at a glance.
You can filter alphabetically or by dropdown option.
Step 7: Execute and iterate!
Congratulations! You’ve now mastered the art of content planning. It may seem counterintuitive, but you have completed the bulk of the work. With a good plan in place, it is far easier to transition from ideation to execution, creating content that aligns with your business objectives and caters to your audience’s unique journey.
We hope you enjoy using the Grey Dog Content Planning Template as a flexible planning tool, point of reference and tracker throughout the year.
Ready to dive in?
Click the button, below, where you will get a Google Sheets link to the Grey Dog Content Planning Template. Make a copy, rename and adjust the template to suit your needs from there!
Securing a convenient date that doesn’t clash with public holidays or other big events is key to ensuring a great turnout and a successful event. But as our clients have often told us, keeping on top of these dates across the UK and Ireland can prove quite tricky! That’s why we have developed a key dates events calendar so that you can set the stage for success this year.
Copy the Grey Dog events agency approach to annual planning
In the world of event planning, timing is everything. You can meticulously set event goals, secure a budget, book an ideal venue, and design a stellar marketing campaign, only to realise later that your event coincides with a bank holiday. Facepalm emoji.
With Grey Dog’s 2024 Key Dates Calendar, which features everything from industry conferences and trade shows to major holidays and cultural events across the UK and Ireland, you can avoid crucial planning mistakes and ensure maximum attendance for your event.
Maximise your event marketing strategy
Timing is equally crucial for marketing your event. Knowing key dates and events allows you to discover the best times to schedule your marketing emails and social posts to capture the most engagement. Don’t let your efforts go unnoticed when your target audience is out of office – leverage our events calendar for strategic planning.
Setting your event marketing strategy up for success
Success is not accidental; it is the result of intentional actions. Use our key dates calendar as a springboard for setting achievable goals, planning impactful campaigns, and cultivating meaningful relationships. As you embrace the opportunities presented by each date, you’re not just marking days on a calendar – you’re crafting a narrative of success.
Let an events agency like Grey Dog handle the details
Planning and executing events takes a lot of time and time and effort, and you may prefer to outsource the complexities of launching and managing a successful event so that you can focus on other areas of your business. Helping you plan ahead is just the beginning of how we can assist you.
At Grey Dog, we pride ourselves as your go-to team of marketing and events experts. With years of experience managing conferences, business and networking events, awards, and gala dinners, we ensure that every detail is taken care of, allowing you to be a guest at your own event.
Planning an event in 2024 and need some support? We’d love to hear from you!
In the dynamic landscape of modern business, a great event can be the key to unlocking new heights of success. Imagine hosting an event that not only captivates your audience but also strategically propels your brand into the spotlight. At Grey Dog, we specialise in transforming imaginative visions into reality for business owners with a C-suite mindset.
Elevate Your Brand with Seamless Events
Our promise is simple yet powerful: to elevate your brand through meticulously planned and seamlessly executed events. From corporate gatherings to product launches, we specialise in curating experiences that leave a lasting impression on your audience and amplify your brand identity. Our team of seasoned professionals understand the nuances of business dynamics and tailors each event to align with your unique goals and objectives.
Testimonials Speak Louder Than Words
But don’t just take our word for it—our satisfied clients are a testament to our commitment to excellence. “A HUGE thank you to the Grey Dog events team . . . We have already had preliminary discussions with Grey Dog on nailing down a date [for next year] since we want to capitalise on the momentum built up and further solidify our first mover advantage to make it the must-attend event for [our industry] professionals.”—Grey Dog events client.
Another Grey Dog event client attests – “Thank you so much for all your support, hard work, and dedication to making this event a success. We could not have done it without you. You have all been a pleasure to work with! The feedback coming through today is amazing, so many people have commented on the quality of the speakers, the faultless organisation, the amazing turnout…it was all fantastic.”
Your Journey to Success Begins Now
Now, it’s your turn to experience the transformative impact of strategic events and event marketing. Whether you’re aiming to engage stakeholders, launch a new product, or strengthen client relationships, Grey Dog is your trusted partner on this journey. Don’t let the opportunity to build your brand slip away—take the first step towards success by contacting us today.
Let Grey Dog be the architect of your next success story, turning your visions into unforgettable realities. Elevate your business; the spotlight awaits!
Already established as specialists in high-end private home builds and commercial fit-outs, our construction sector client partnered with Grey Dog to launch a digital marketing campaign for an ambitious 12-house development project. Having successfully collaborated on previous digital marketing projects with Grey Dog, the client approached Grey Dog for guidance on overcoming the challenges of establishing a robust online presence for a new brand.
Challenges and objectives
Entering a pivotal phase in their business but unsure on how to enter a new market, the client initially aimed to enhance online brand awareness and establish trust among their core audience on Facebook and Google
A strategic approach
In close collaboration with the client, Grey Dog crafted a comprehensive marketing strategy that addressed their core objectives. The marketing plan included creating a visual brand for the development, building a new website, implementing a solid digital marketing campaign encompassing email marketing and paid digital advertising, and executing impactful local marketing with eye-catching signage on the development site.
Quantifiable success
The campaign has yielded remarkable results. The website engagement rate, at just over 62%, was well above the industry average of 54% and generated 987 leads. The ad had 319,060 impressions with a noteworthy CTR (click-through-rate) of 3.41%, far exceeding the industry average of 0.99%. In line with this level of engagement, the Meta ad generated an additional 634 leads. What’s more, the cost per lead was an impressive €0.07, underscoring the efficiency and effectiveness of Grey Dog’s strategies in turning online engagement into tangible business opportunities.
Interested in knowing more about marketing terms such as CTR and SEO? Check out our marketing terms jargon buster!
Key success factors
Transparent communication
A cornerstone of our success was consistent communication and transparent reporting, providing the client with a clear view of the campaign’s progress and performance. Grey Dog not only met but exceeded initial expectations, instilling confidence in the campaign’s effectiveness.
Meta advertising triumph
A standout achievement was the paid advertising campaign on Meta, which contributed two-thirds of the overall campaign leads. This success was magnified by a well-designed website, showcasing the power of paid digital advertising—a previously unexplored avenue for the client.
An iterative approach
Grey Dog’s iterative approach, starting with a modest budget and incrementally increasing it as the campaign evolved, ensured a steady and consistent flow of leads for the client. This adaptability contributed to sustained success throughout the project’s lifecycle.
How you can get similar results
Business owners often understand the importance of incorporating digital marketing into their overall strategy. But they can struggle with knowing how to establish their brand online in a way that achieves high ROI. This case study shows that with our expertise, clients can enjoy a significant impact on lead generation while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
Ready to transform your digital presence and drive tangible results? Get in touch to find out how Grey Dog’s tailored solutions can bring your projects to new heights.
