Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
"When I think of Jaarbeurs, I think of experience" says Marleen. "That is also what I want to achieve with the fairs. I am responsible for visitor recruitment and how the fairs are marketed." To meet visitors' expectations, she engages with her target audience. In doing so, she works closely with a content marketer.
Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
Marleen's goal is to take the visitor on the journey to the fair from the very first moment. Her job is to make it as easy and friendly as possible for the visitor to find and search for information. Marleen: "To make sure our guests find what they need, for example, we carry out conversion optimisation on the website. We do this using a test panel. We ask them questions and give them assignments, for example to look up a particular participant. They have to arrive at the end goal within a few clicks. Based on those test surveys, we can optimise our websites and make it as easy as possible to navigate through them. We also look closely at our target audience's search queries and put that directly in view or at the top of the website."
Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
Marleen wants Jaarbeurs to be a nice place for visitors, where they really experience a day out. She therefore spends part of her time listening to feedback. "After all, that's how we can go that extra mile and go for the best experience" she says. "At KreaDoe, for example, we asked on social media what visitors hoped to see this upcoming edition. We received massive feedback that BENR, the Utrecht-based music duo (who were also present the previous edition), should be there. Naturally, we booked them again."
"We are always looking for ways to enhance perception"
Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
By using different communication channels and asking visitors for feedback, Marleen anticipates their expectations. She also comes up with special elements together with her team and gets great (last-minute) inspirations. Marleen: "We are always looking for new ways to enhance the experience. Especially the beginning and end of an event stay with you. When you receive a nice reception and leave with a present in your hand, for example. So at the KreaDoe Spring Festival, we decided to set up a glittery Fiat 500 with a DJ at the entrance. We saw people coming in swinging. Daughters tapping their mothers and having a dance. I enjoy that so much: it's a small element that we thought of quickly, and which makes so much impact."
Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
Sometimes Marleen has to think around. Because what we as Jaarbeurs have in mind does not always match what the visitor wants or expects. An example of this is our app. Like any technical development, the app still needed some acceptance and fine-tuning. Marleen: "We noticed that at the first edition, the Jaarbeurs Live App was not yet rated very well. People couldn't quite find their way around yet and the preference for a printed map remained high. That was a tricky one for us, because from a sustainability point of view we want to get rid of paper maps. So we made a trade-off. We optimised the app, of course. We also encouraged visitors to download it and, in exchange, gave them a free festival tape. People who really wanted a physical map could buy one. We could thus offer an option and explain how that fits in with Jaarbeurs's sustainable goals. That was well received. So we always try to listen to our visitors and anticipate that."
"There is always something to do and experience here"
Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
Marleen enjoys going to work. And although it sounds cliché, no day is really the same. For her, Jaarbeurs equals amazement: "One day you travel the world here at the Vakantiebeurs, the next day you learn to knit at KreaDoe. There is always something to do and experience here. And everyone is trying hard. We internally, but so do the exhibitors. At Vakantiebeurs, for instance, travel organisations are busy all week building their stands. These are really amazing projects, which look super special. A new world really is being built from 'nothing'. That's why, on the day of opening, I prefer to stay at the registration desk to see how surprised people enter. It is fantastic to see the first reactions and think: yes, this is why we do it all."
Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
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Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Marleen van Soest is Brand Marketing Manager and tells how she ensures that Vakantiebeurs and KreaDoe really become an outing for visitors.
