How to Master Event Marketing to Grow your Pet Business?
Leveraging event marketing can be game-changing for pet businesses. From consumer pet shows to local collaborations, events often offer opportunities to connect, receive feedback, and contact directly with the business target audience.
Though beneficial for all types of businesses, events are especially crucial for those selling pet products. The reason why is that they allow customers to experience products firsthand, seeing and touching them, which can enhance purchasing decisions.
However, the path is not without challenges. With more pet businesses participating in events, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get noticed by attendees. Therefore, having a solid event marketing strategy is essential to stand out from the crowd.
In this blog post, we compile a list of recommendations to have in mind before deciding when and how to participate in a pet event or trade show.
Study and analyze the event’s audience
Events offer valuable opportunities, but they also come with costs. Participating in events typically requires pet businesses to invest in participation fees, travel expenses, staffing, stand construction, and time spent preparing for the event.
For smaller companies with limited resources, it’s crucial to identify strategic events likely to yield positive results.
The decision to participate should be based on the alignment between the event’s audience and your business’s target audience. If they overlap significantly, the event is worth considering; if not, it may be better to look for other opportunities.
Whenever possible, it is recommended to conduct thorough research. Ask the organizer for past results and review the list of previous participants. Additionally, search online for feedback from customers and past attendees to gauge the event’s reputation.
Just as with partnerships, the event’s reputation can influence how consumers perceive your business. Ensuring the event aligns with your brand can enhance not only your visibility but also your credibility.
Establish goals for the event and measure them
Events can be challenging to measure. While sales are the most obvious indicator, events often serve as a starting point, raising awareness about a brand or product for future customers.
Despite the difficulty, it’s recommended to approach events with specific goals. These can be related to various metrics, not just those linked to sales. For example, if you aim to increase your Instagram presence, track the increase in followers during the event. If you’re distributing samples, count the number of samples given out. Similarly, if you’re collecting emails for a contest, track the number of emails gathered.
Setting and measuring specific goals will help your business become more effective. By compiling the results, you can compare the performance of different events and evaluate its effectiveness compared to other channels, such as paid media campaigns or influencer marketing.
Create engagement opportunities
Exposing your brand to potential customers is one of the main benefits of participating in events. Instead of waiting for potential customers to visit your stand, find non-intrusive ways to spark their curiosity.
Handing out flyers is a common tactic, but there are more creative approaches you can incorporate. Depending on your brand, you could offer biscuits or balls or hold contests.
If your brand has a playful image, consider dressing differently or hiring actors to perform, similar to historical fairs. The goal is to go beyond the ordinary and become memorable. By doing so, your brand will stand out.
Let potential customers try samples
In a previous post, we discussed how samples can build trust by reducing customers’ perception of the risk of not liking a product, making them more willing to try it. At events, brands often aim to reach new audiences or promote new products. Handing out samples of these products can be particularly effective. This tactic is especially useful for consumable products like pet food, treats, or snacks.
If you offer consumable products, make sure provide options for pet owners to try on-site or take home. While some pet owners may be happy to treat their pets at the event, others might prefer to test it at home.
Benchmark and act differently
A white stand will stand out if all other stands are black, and a black stand will be more noticeable if all others are white. The same principle applies to flyers, lucky roulettes, and other common tactics brands use to capture event attendees’ attention.
It’s important to know what other businesses are doing or have done in the past so you can either use different tactics or give yours a unique twist.
Flyers, for instance, offer plenty of room for creativity. Instead of the traditional flyer, try using a less standard format, a catchy copy, or turning it into a scratch card, as we did for 2024's Pet Festival.
Prepare ahead and follow up after
The event starts before the doors open and ends long before they close.
Thanks to digital strategies, maximizing the event before, while, and after it occurs is now possible. For major events, ensure you are prominently featured in all materials, including the website, newsletters, and stationery.
Informing your followers about your participation is a great tactic. That can be done in various ways, such as announcing your involvement, sharing behind-the-scenes content, or creating special initiatives for those who engage on social media and attend the event.
After the event, follow-up can be done through mailing lists or by reaching out to customers who spoke with you or provided their contact information. As always, personalized messages are most effective.
Need help improving your event marketing strategy? Reach out to us at don.gata.studio@gmail.com.
