The magic behind event marketing

Event Marketing is a creative way to promote and communicate your brand. It goes beyond the standard marketing techniques such as emailing, social media or TV but instead focuses on a more personal approach by engaging with prospective customers. Here are 5 ways in which I think Event Marketing can work magic for your brand.

1. Increases Lead Generation

Stop with those one-night stands and focus on long-term relationships.

What better way to capture highly-qualified leads than organizing or taking part in an event with hundreds or even thousands of potential future customers. They provide the perfect opportunity to demonstrate what you have to offer in a relaxed, open environment. But, before you get all giddy about planning the next event you need to think about a few things first:

What type event do you want to participate in or organize?

If you’re going to invest time and money into an event to market your brand then you need to make sure you choose one that will provide you positive results. If you’re an Interior Design specialist then you wouldn’t participate in an event for cars…however a housing event would be a better fit.

Do you have a specific audience you want to prospect?

Will you prospect everyone that passes by your stand or focus on those actually interested in your brand? For example at trade shows it’s so easy to pounce on everyone that shows an interest with your stand but maybe it’s more worthwhile to prospect those that are generally interested in your offerings to then easily nurture through the sales funnel.

Do you have your commercial argument prepared?

Do you talk the talk but not walk the walk? Effective lead generation is knowing how to show-off your brand while making in-person connections with each one of your audience. It’s about showing your audience how great your brand is and proving you’ll nurture them through the whole journey.

Remember:

• Events provide opportunities to find qualified leads
• Choose the event that best suits your activity
• Use an enticing argument to nurture them through the sales funnel

2. Keeps Your Audience Engaged

Imagine the time you were glued to the box with Casa de Papel.

There are two sides to audience engagement. One side of engagement being the fact that a customer or prospect attends an event and the other side, providing engaging content so that they take something worthwhile away with them. The focus needs to be on interacting with the attendees and giving them every opportunity to involve themselves during the event.

For example this could be encouraging them to share their experience via social media with a hashtag of the event. A brilliant example that I saw go viral was Charmin’s (those of you who don’t know the brand, it’s toilet paper   #TweetFromTheSeat campaign. While toilet paper is quite a tricky one to market, the campaign went viral and Charmin succeeded in engaging their audience.

Another example is encouraging participation during presentations or demos. I mean let’s be honest, we can all get easily bored during a presentation where it’s just someone talking at us rather than with us.

Remember:

• Event Marketing focuses on interacting with customers / prospects
• Encourage attendees to share their experience online or participate during an event

3. Creates Brand Communities

Don’t miss out on the 4-1-1.

Customers are what keep businesses running and so it’s important to build strong relationships with them. Marketing or hosting events is a way to do just this as it gives both you and your audience the chance to meet each other. Not only that but they get to discover and interact with your brand.

Regularly hosting events for your customers or prospects provides them with a sense of connection which is a big motivation for consumers to buy from brands. It also allows prospects to interact with current customers to find out why they stick with a certain brand.

If you manage to create a community with the help of event marketing, your brand loyalty will hit the roof and you’ll never have the problem of lack of participants!

Remember:

• Marketing events builds relationships with customers
• Events give prospects the chance to discover and interact with your brand

4. Increases Your Credibility

Your knowledge is worth sharing.

With event marketing campaigns there can be the creative, informal side of it but there can also be the more formal type of events such as conferences, talks and classes.

The great thing about organizing these type of events is that it allows prospects and even current customers to see that you’re an expert in your field. You’re proving to them that you know what’s happening in your industry and have something to teach to your prospects.

What’s more is that by sharing your knowledge and passion, it adds value to your customers/prospects because they see for themselves that you’re offering much more than the basic product or service. In turn it leaves a positive reflection on you and your brand.

Remember:

• Organizing events such as conferences, talks or classes shows that you are an expert in your field
• Sharing your knowledge adds value to your customers or prospects

5. Allows Room for Creativity

Creativity is intelligence having fun – Albert Einstein.

And finally, the best aspect about a form of marketing that doesn’t follow the more traditional methods is that it lets you think outside the box! Think outside the box in terms of letting your creative flair out…like letting your hair down after a stressful week at work ;). Rather than sticking to the traditional, result-proven methods, this lets you promote your brand in an original, compelling way.

For example, Carlsberg, a brand well-known for their creative event marketing campaigns, decided to take advantage of an up-and-coming area in London and put up a billboard with a real running beer tap. Anyone walking past could help themselves to a glass of beer for free. I mean what better way to promote your brand in an original and attractive way!

Ok so passers-by were only allowed one glass, but Carlsberg created a positive experience for their prospects that they’ll remember. And that’s the key to a successful event-based marketing campaign. Creating something that is unforgettable and something that will make prospects remember your brand…and come back for more.

Remember:

• It allows you to think outside the box for creative ways to market your brand
• Focus on creating a positive experience that prospects will remember

Conclusion:

Event marketing can be applied to nearly all industries and gives you a fantastic opportunity to showcase your business in a personal, customer-focused way. The trickiest part will be answering the what, where, when and how questions but do it right and you’ll have customers lining-up at your front door!

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by Ailsa Cartledge
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