Strategic Framework of Event Marketing
What is event marketing?
Event marketing is a strategic tactic in an overall marketing plan that allows companies to integrate face-to-face customer interactions or real-time engagement through in-person or online opportunities. Events include trade shows, informational webinars, live streaming events, conferences, and appreciation dinners. When events are executed with the goal of providing customers value, while avoiding the feeling of a live, in-person commercial, companies attract consumer attention and leave lasting impressions.
“Events are personal, social, and the best marketing you can do.”
Why use event marketing as a strategy?
- Lead Generation
“79% of marketers use event marketing to generate sales.”
Lead generation is driven through in-person interactions allowing event staff to gain a better understanding of the customers needs and pain points. Quality listening and understanding results in more meaningful conversations and targeted demos . Other methods driving event lead generation includes:
- Speaking Sessions
- Hosting Special/Exclusive Dinners
- Integrated Social Media Content
It is important to prepare efficient ways to capture leads (event lead capture, cards, etc), and ways to capture notes of important conversations. As leads are followed up on and nurtured these notes make a difference in the sales cycle.
When effective post-event communication is executed the percentage of qualified leads moving through the sales funnel increases. This requires a diligent effort and team work to ensure leads do not falls through the cracks.
2. Increase Brand Awareness
“74% of attendees say they have an improved opinion about the company, brand or service being promoted after an event.”
Events provide the opportunity to differentiate your company or brand from competitors, as well as provide your customers with a real-time experience with the company personality and culture. This experience with the company personality and culture has the potential to win over customers and leave a lasting impression that provides a foundation to build and nurture leads.
Another way to increase brand awareness is through event media attendees. Connecting with reporters and influencers at events helps extend brand awareness efforts beyond the event to press articles, blog posts, and other content coverage from thought leaders.
3. Product Education
Consumers attend conferences, seminars, trade shows, and other events to learn about new solutions, strategies, and technologies, therefore, consumers enter events with an inquisitive mind looking to learning about use cases for products or services. Three steps help educate consumers during events:
- Well-informed event staff prepared to demo products and answer questions specific to each attendee. Collecting the attendees info and the information discussed is critical in continue the conversation. Moving through the sales funnel is more successful when you build upon the established relationship and reinforce the culture experience.
- When a speaking or presentation opportunity arises mix humor with information to capture the audience’s attention, and engage the audience frequently.
- When hosting events, seek speakers that bring unique viewpoints or case studies. This demonstrates different ways to use your product, beyond more than the standard use case. In addition, having well-known industry thought leaders speak increases attendance and credibility.
4. Increase Consumer Engagement
In-person events allow customers to authentically connect and humanize your company. During this interaction customers develop an emotional connection with your company making them more likely to purchase from your company; and share your company with peers.
Another important idea is to ensure your booth space or sponsored event is interactive. Doing this promotes engagement at the event, and leads to engagement post-event.
5. Opportunities for Content
While this may seem counterintuitive because a great deal of effort goes into identifying messaging and creating content for events; events do yield content. The obvious content is the collateral created for the event, but there is more to be harvested.
Did you have meaningful conversations with consumers? Did your consumers mention their pain points? Did you notice any themes among the conversations and/or the pain points? Did you attend sessions or presentations? Taking notes throughout each of these event moments provides content or content ideas.
In addition to the content and content ideas if event staff network with attendees and presenters; you may be connected to individuals willing to partner with your company for webinars, presentations, live streaming, etc.
Steps to Success:
- Plan, plan, plan
This seems obvious, and the steps below elaborate on specific aspects of planning; but it is critical that you plan meticuliously. The sucess of event marketing is found in the details. The little things are the big things, this cannot be emphasized enough. For a successful event it is imperative to manage all the details and ensure each detail is supporting the event goals.
2. Specific Goals
As a part of the planning process, you must set specific goals and identify metrics to evaluate the event. The event goals will guide you through the planning process to ensure you are reaching your overall company goals, and keep you focused along the way. Evaluation metrics provide a way to identify the event’s effectiveness, and help plan future events.
3. Communication
As a part of the planning process a communication plan needs to be created. Pre- and post- event communication should be personalized and catered to each individual. The plan identifies when pre- and post- event communication will occur, and what are the method and messaging. When these tasks are planned, scheduled, and assigned there is a higher level of accountability and lesser likelihood of leads being missed.
With careful planning and specific goals event marketing has the potential to yield sales leads, increase brand awareness, educate consumers, increase customer engagement, and provide collateral for content marketing.
