3000 words of practical tips: online event planning template

Brand marketing activities are increasingly being implemented online, so how can we do a good job in event planning? This article is full of useful information. The author introduces in detail the methodology of how to do each specific step in the entire process of event planning. It is recommended for those who are interested in event operation and event planning.

In recent years, brands have begun to transform from online to offline, including marketing methods. When doing marketing activities, many brands will give priority to online for reasons of cost, safety, controllability, and effectiveness . Of course, it is not easy to plan a good event.

So what should a brand do if it wants to plan an online event itself?

In this article, I will share a set of online event planning templates based on my experience. There are 8 elements in total. Of course, referring to the template is not the purpose, but helping you to sort out your thoughts is the key.

Below, enjoy:

01 Activity Objectives

When planning an event, the first question to consider is: What is the goal?

There is a misunderstanding here. Many companies will do activities just for the sake of doing activities. For example, the Dragon Boat Festival is coming, and the boss says to do a Dragon Boat Festival activity, and the subordinates start to do it without considering the effectiveness of the activity or whether the users will be satisfied.

Therefore, the most important thing to do when conducting an event is to first clarify the goal. There are usually four types of goals: attracting new customers, promoting activation, brand communication, and conversion. Different goals correspond to different groups of people and result data, as shown in the following figure:

It should be noted that people who set goals should fully consider the actual situation and not blindly set a goal that is impossible to achieve . Doing so will not only fail to achieve the goal, but will also cause dissatisfaction among employees.

02 Activity Budget

The budget for online activities is easier to calculate than that for offline activities. It usually includes advertising costs, prize costs, postage costs, software costs , etc., which are all easier to record and estimate.

It is best to record all the resources you need in a table, such as the following figure:

There are 3 common considerations to note:

First, spend money wisely. According to the goal of the activity, choose to focus on spending money. For example, if the activity is mainly aimed at promoting activation and attracting new customers, you need to spend more money on setting up activity prizes; if the activity is mainly aimed at exposure, you need to spend more money on the distribution channels.

Second, pay attention to the calculation of tax points. Especially when new employees are faced with some quotations, they often ignore the tax points. If the amount involved is large, the tax points are also a considerable amount.

Third, pay attention to the approval and use of expenses. If it is a small event, the event manager or operator can advance the money and then get reimbursed; if it is a large event, the approval process must be carried out in a timely manner so as not to affect the normal progress of the event.

03 Activity Time

As the name suggests, the activity time is mainly reflected in the entire activity SOP process. The operation personnel need to remember each time node clearly. This will be discussed in detail later.

When we plan in the early stage, we can simply plan the date, for example:

• Activity preparation period: x month x day - x month x day
• Activity warm-up period: x month x day - x month x day
• Activity launch time: x month x day - x month x day
• Activity end (finishing work): x month x day - x month x day

It should be noted that when producing and promoting materials such as posters, the time information must be strictly checked. If it is a holiday time such as 618 or Double 11, it must be highlighted and magnified.

04 Activity Theme

When selecting the activity theme, you need to first determine the general direction , which can also be understood as the reason for launching the activity, so that users can easily accept it through a certain point. Then determine the form of the activity , and finally add details.

Regarding the direction of the activity, here are a few methods:

1) According to special festivals

Borrowing festivals is the most common reason for organizing activities. Users have already formed common sense about this and there is no need to educate them further.

For example, during the 618 e-commerce promotion, users will naturally accept to participate in your activities. Of course, there is naturally a lot of competition during festivals. If you can't be original, it will inevitably fall into the cliché.

2) Based on the dynamics of the company or product. This is also a common reason for holding activities, such as company anniversary celebrations and new product launches. It is a good excuse and is not affected by time or season.

Doing this kind of activities can also strengthen the user's mind and leave an impression on the user about your brand.

3) Through joint activities, both new consumer brands and traditional brands are very keen on this type of activity. By combining strengths and aggregating users of both parties, they can even achieve a 1+1&2 effect through marketing means.

The difficulty lies in the fact that the brand must have a certain influence and that you must be able to find a brand that is willing to cooperate.

4) Taking advantage of hot topics through hot events is also a very effective way to organize activities. For example, during the Winter Olympics at the beginning of the year, many brands that had signed contracts with Olympic champions actively launched marketing, and brand popularity also saw a surge.

However, you must be careful to keep within limits when chasing hot topics. If you accidentally step on a landmine, your brand may be "destroyed and people may die", which will not be worth the loss.

Regarding the form of activities, here are a few references (mainly for online activities):

1. Live broadcast type: online lectures, live sales, online forums...
2. Game types: H5 games, social games, lottery games…
3. Fission types: bargaining activities, group buying activities, support activities...
4. User co-creation: Questionnaire survey, user collection…
5. Brand activities: studio live broadcast, press conference…
6. Other: Metaverse…

After establishing the theme and format, event planners can start designing copy, posters and other content.

You can also refer to other people’s excellent event cases and take their essence, but don’t plagiarize, otherwise it will easily cause a public relations crisis.

05 Activity Process

The activity process includes two aspects: the first is the user participation process, and the second is the activity execution process.

The user participation process is very simple, especially for activities involving user sharing and fission. We need to draw out each user's participation links and steps, and look for unreasonable and optimized areas.

The execution process of an activity is mainly for the convenience of operations personnel, so that the entire activity can be completed in an orderly manner . It requires clear time nodes, schedules, and persons in charge of each step, so that all participants have a clear execution direction.

Generally speaking, based on the timeline and the activity time nodes, the work, process, standards and responsible persons of each link should be clearly stated .

Example

It is recommended that the event leader hold a process meeting before the event officially begins, and all event participants must attend. The meeting includes three aspects:

1. The meeting begins: the person in charge introduces the background, reasons, goals and form of the activity;
2. Breakdown of key time nodes: According to each key time point, confirm each person’s responsibilities and deadline;
3. Inquiry and confirmation: It is necessary to clarify the work situation of each person and ask if they have any suggestions or opinions.

06 Promotion

The promotion of the event is also an extremely important part. The success of an online event depends largely on how much exposure the event gets.

Because it is mainly aimed at online activities, the means of promotion are also mainly through online channels. We need to design the promotion path and budget for each channel in the early stage.

I won’t say much about the current mainstream self-media platforms such as Tik Tok, Xiaohongshu, and official accounts. The prices for their placements can be found online, and the prices of bidding advertisements from Tencent and Baidu can also be found.

It is best to make a table and compare the delivery of each channel. Of course, the input-output ratio should also be calculated to ensure that the delivery is effective.

Another thing that needs attention is whether the channels, promotion labels, promotion areas and populations chosen are close to your own brand, so as to maximize the conversion rate.

Several tags are mainly used for reference when selecting delivery:

1. age
2. Profession
3. area
4. Income Level
5. interest
6. Whether new or old customer

07 Data Feedback

The importance of data is self-evident. It can objectively reflect whether the activity is successful and whether it meets expectations at each stage.

For example, in a fission activity, the user scanning rate has not reached the expected level or is even very low. There may be three reasons:

1. The poster design is not attractive, and there are problems with the copywriting and layout;
2. The prizes are not attractive, the bait is not big enough, and users don’t want to participate;
3. There is a problem with the fission software and a problem with the user operation.

Then, based on the causes, we improve the tests one by one and solve the problems.

Therefore, there should be dedicated personnel responsible for collecting statistics on key data indicators and reporting them every morning. If it is found that the data indicators do not meet expectations, the strategy should be adjusted in a timely manner.

08 Review Summary

A complete event plan should have a beginning and an end. When the event ends, the rules for stopping the event should be explained, and a channel for users to ask for feedback should be provided.

After the event, the person in charge of the event will analyze and summarize the experience, and review the overall situation, which can play a great reference role in the subsequent activities. It mainly focuses on three aspects:

1) Overall overview of the activity

• Completion of activity goals
• Input-output situation
• Comparison of the estimated effect and the actual effect
• …

2) Detailed data analysis

• Overall transaction situation
• User participation
• Comparison of the effects and inputs of various channels
• Product sales ranking
• …

3) Activity summary

• Event Highlights
• Completion
• Areas for improvement
• …

Final Thoughts

Online marketing will also become a trend at present. Whether for enterprises or individuals, improving online planning capabilities as early as possible, quickly absorbing the successful experiences of others, and applying what they have learned will definitely benefit them in the future.

Author: Yan Tao San Shou; WeChat public account: Yan Tao San Shou;