# Venture Atlanta

> Driving record attendance to the Southeast’s largest venture capital conference.

Case study by Marketwake: https://www.marketwake.com/work/venture-atlanta/

- Services: Brand, Social, Performance
- Scope: Brand identity; Email marketing; Marketing collateral; SEO; Social media; Website development
- Industry: Events, tech
- Year: 2017 – Present

Venture Atlanta is the premier startup conference in the Southeast. As Venture Atlanta’s digital agency of record, Marketwake has partnered to craft their event marketing since 2017.

**The challenge:** Grow Venture Atlanta’s audience, increase engagement, and continue driving growth for sponsorships, ticket sales, and conference attendance year over year.

## Venturing into a new brand.

*conference theme*

what we did: Art direction, Copywriting, Brand refresh

The first challenge for the Venture Atlanta team each year is defining a theme that sets the tone for the next conference. Venture Atlanta leans on Marketwake to develop the manifesto behind the year’s theme, concept the visual language, and create a fresh expression of Venture Atlanta’s existing brand. These designs are used throughout the conference on social media, email, web, and in-conference collateral.

## Investing in the inbox.

*email*

what we did: Copywriting, Art direction, CRM management

Early in our foray with Venture Atlanta, they needed to expand their email marketing presence to increase engagement. We helped them develop a robust email strategy centering around recurring newsletters and case studies that highlighted the value of attending the conference.

By sharing valuable content, their audience stayed engaged and relationships with their partners strengthened.

- **6,565** increase in audience size
- **20.9%** increase in average open rate
- **4,236** increase in users to site from email

## Building a network.

*social media*

what we did: Content creation, Thought leadership, Art direction

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 team handles real-time posting, photography, and engagement to maximize visibility and participation.

- **320%** increase in LinkedIn followers
- **37%** increase in X followers
- **294%** increase in YouTube subscribers
- **95%** increase in website traffic from social media

## Taking stake in SERPs.

*seo*

what we did: Keyword research, Content writing, SEO optimization, AEO optimization, Content strategy

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.

- **64%** increase of keywords ranking on the first page of Google
- **1,257** increase in monthly organic traffic growth

> “Marketwake has been our marketing partner for 8 years now! Years ago, we were struggling with brand awareness, but now Venture Atlanta’s name is everywhere.” “I can’t say enough about the partnership we have formed and I look forward to many more years together!”
>
> Allyson Eman, CEO of Venture Atlanta