Venture Atlanta Event Marketing Case Study

SCOPE

SEO, Brand Identity, Email Marketing, Social Media, Content, Website Development, Campaign Development

INDUSTRY

Events, Tech

YEAR

2017 – PRESENT

Venture Atlanta

Driving Record Attendance to the Southeast’s Largest Venture Capital Conference Year Over Year

Venture Atlanta is the premier startup conference in the Southeast, offering a platform for entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators to connect and thrive. As Venture Atlanta’s digital agency of record, Marketwake has partnered to craft event marketing since 2017, elevating the conference’s digital presence and further expanding its reach and impact year over year.

Venture Atlanta’s primary goals were to grow their audience, increase engagement, and continue driving growth for sponsorships, ticket sales, and conference attendance. In turn, they needed a comprehensive marketing strategy that would tap into digital channels and build stronger connections with their target audience.

So, Marketwake developed a holistic digital marketing approach for Venture Atlanta, focused on increasing brand awareness, engagement, and attendee interest. Key strategies included:

• Implementing a multi-channel digital marketing strategy using social media, content marketing, and SEO to boost Venture Atlanta’s online presence and reach new audiences.

• Refreshing Venture Atlanta’s brand and website, creating a modern, innovative look that better reflected the dynamic nature of the organization and its annual conference.

• Collaborating with community partners, leveraging their reach to expand Venture Atlanta’s audience through joint social media efforts and content distribution.

• Developing a recurring newsletter and case studies to showcase the value of attending Venture Atlanta, including success stories from past entrepreneurs and community updates.

• Selecting and optimizing SEO keywords to improve visibility and rankings for Venture Atlanta, resulting in significant growth in organic search traffic.

• Creating a custom social media playbook for the off-season, buildup, and execution of the conference. This included creating an event hashtag, scheduling posts, and maintaining real-time interactions throughout.

• Putting together a dedicated event team that handled live posting, photography, and community engagement during the conference—creating a buzz and encouraging real-time participation.

Venture Atlanta Email

RE: Engaging Audiences Through Their Inbox

Marketwake developed a robust email strategy for Venture Atlanta, centered around recurring newsletters and case studies that highlighted the value of attending the conference. By sharing valuable content, Marketwake not only kept the audience engaged but also strengthened relationships with partners who shared the content on their platforms. Here are the results from 7 years of email growth:

6,565

Increase in Audience Size

20.9%

Increase in Average Open Rate

4,236

Increase in Users to Site from Email

Venture Atlanta SOCIAL

Increasing Signups Across Media Channels

Initially focusing on Twitter and LinkedIn, the social media strategy for Venture Atlanta expanded to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube as the audience grew, with an official event hashtag and posting schedule aligned with the conference seasonality, ensuring consistent and engaging posts. During the event, a dedicated three-person team handled real-time posting, photography, and engagement to maximize visibility and participation.

320%

Increase in LinkedIn Followers

37%

Increase in Twitter Followers

294%

Increase in YouTube Subscribers

95%

Increase in Website Traffic from Social Media

Venture Atlanta SEO

Boosting Conference Visibility on SERPs

Marketwake’s SEO strategy for Venture Atlanta included identifying key search terms relevant to their target audience, optimizing webpages, and creating content that would appear in search results when those keywords were used. This approach helped drive organic traffic and increased the visibility of the Venture Atlanta brand online.