So, what exactly is an exit podcast? It’s pretty much what it says on the tin. A podcast you share with your delegates as they exit your event. Think of it as a takeaway, an extension of your event. An add on that provides more event content and more sponsorship opportunities. Read on to find out the benefits of an exit podcast and how to incorporate one into your next event.
Events that provide valuable content for their attendees are proven to keep attendees at the event for longer periods of time and as a result, offer a greater impact to sponsors. It’s why since the very first event was planned, event managers have been devising new ways to keep attendees at their events for longer and longer periods. If you’ve been around for as long as the team at Congress Centre, you would’ve seen it all (remember when they used to hold end-of-exhibition raffles to try and keep you there until the end).
Raffles, gimmicks and even Miss Universe saying farewell won’t keep people at an event to the very end if the content is bad. They cost money and quite frankly, they have nothing to do with most business events and conferences. Most business events specialise in providing information, content, and networking opportunities. The exit podcast is a way to provide more content, it’s exactly what your delegates came for in the first place, and it costs next to nothing to produce.
Your event attendees will probably tell their colleagues about your event and any new things they learned or experienced there. While that’s powerful word of mouth it ends when the conversation ends, and the recipient of the review won’t engage directly with your event and therefore, is more likely to forget about what they heard.
A podcast is something from your event that can be shared and kept. If you include calls to action within the podcast you can invite listeners to follow your event on social media or subscribe to other channels to receive more content. As the podcast is shared, it will bring more people into your marketing funnel whose first experience with your brand was a podcast that was referred to them by someone that attended your event. That’s a recommendation and a sample of your event content. What more could you ask for in a referral?
If the first question event planners have been asking since the first event is ‘how to increase value perception’ the second question is ‘how to increase income’.
There are only so many income streams at an event until the planner has no other option than to make it longer. The trouble is, the longer it is, the greater chance people won’t stay for the duration. Even if you could make them stay, extending the length of an event increases the cost of operations so an event planner must be confident they can meet and exceed those costs to make a new initiative worth their while.
An exit podcast will create another sponsorable feature at your event, without extending its length or increasing operations costs.
It can be listened to by anyone, at any time. It has the potential to be one of the most listened to speeches at your event, with the longest shelf-life and greatest post-event distribution potential. That makes it valuable to a potential sponsor. As it’s digital, downloads and listening behaviour can be tracked to demonstrate the impact on podcast speakers and sponsors.
To create an exit podcast all you need is recording equipment. It could be done on-site at the event or weeks in advance if you wanted more time to edit and perfect the final version. It’ll be one of the cheapest additional features you provide at your event and zero carbon. That makes it a useful addition in a world where event planners are trying to increase the size and income from their events while also decreasing their carbon footprints.
With an estimated 16.76 million podcast listeners in the UK and approximately 5% listener growth forecast every year for the next few years (statista) there’s no shortage of people crying out for podcasts. Most event attendees have a journey home and with their phones, most can download and listen to a podcast on the way home. If they’ve spent all day at your event, and hopefully enjoyed the content, it’s going to be very easy to convince them to download and listen to a podcast on their way home.
It costs practically nothing to produce so why not try it out. If you’re not ready yet and want more ideas to keep your delegates there until the end, check out our blog post on how to encourage delegates to stay until the end of your event.
Creating a podcast is one thing, distributing it is another. We asked digital marketing agency Patch to share their tips on creating and distributing a podcast and some free tools you can use to do it.
Events at Congress Centre
We have 16 event spaces for 20 to 500 attendees for almost any type of event. Located just three minutes’ walk from Tottenham Court Road station the venue has top of the range AV facilities and competitive prices. Our largest space, the Congress Hall, has a dedicated entrance and registration area and the digital signage throughout our venue will make it easy to promote your exit podcast or whatever information you want your attendees to know.
If you want to discuss your next event with us contact 020 7467 1318, congress.centre@tuc.org.uk or send your event brief on our contact form.