Bored of flyers and digital ads? Looking for a change of pace? Want to interact with your potential customers face to face? Marketing events might just be the thing for you. With the help of the right event marketing plan, you can leave a lasting, brand-focused impression on a larger audience.
The key to a successful marketing event is to provide potential customers with a memorable experience that resonates with them and which they are most likely to remember. With physical and virtual marketing crossing paths, event marketing is entering a new hybrid era.
From Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Conference to sponsorships and webinars, there are a variety of events. Before you can choose a marketing event to promote your services and products, you need to know what type of marketing events are trending currently.
What was the last event that you attended? Was it a trade show or a conference? A fundraiser/charity event or an online webinar? How about a socially distanced golf outing or a 5k? All these events differ from each other but they have one common purpose – to engage the potential customers with help of educational events.
From education and technology to medicine and non-profit, all kinds of businesses use promotional events. Corporate events not only benefit the sponsors & hosts, but they enrich the lives of the attendees as well.
The online events intrigue, entertain, inspire, teach, and bring all sorts of people together unlike other marketing efforts.
Let’s take a look at the various forms of marketing & sales events so that you can leverage the right marketing event for your own company.
Customer/Product conferences are generally used by B2B marketers. These conferences require a big budget and a lot of work. However, the bigger the event, the higher the opportunity for gain.
In a conference, there are various speakers, usually worldwide leaders This means that the attendees will have a lot of opportunities to learn and engage. You can hold one room conferences as well hold conferences on a bigger scale – it is all up to you.
An example of successful conferences is the annual conference Inbound by HubSpot. In 2017, their keynote speaker was Michelle Obama – with such a distinguished speaker, your conference will definitely be a success and an experience the customers will not forget.
The costs for a conference are going to add up to a lot. The speakers, their travel costs, the rooms for the attendees & the speakers, the food, etc. all will drain your budget. You can get sponsors to cover the event costs.
Trade fairs usually center on a single product or a group of products among the competitors. They are big events where companies set up their stalls and promote their products & services. Trade shows are generally dedicated to a particular niche industry like IT or fitness or organic food.
Job fairs and trade shows are great networking events and they allow you to meet not only new customers but other business owners in your industry as well. You will be able to interact with your potential attendees in a controlled setting as well as scope out your competition.
You can show off your newest products & services at the trade show and create brand awareness. Trade shows are great for both B2B and B2C companies.
Want to get your business’s name out there? You can do that by sponsoring an event such as a sports game, local fair, or festival. When you sponsor an event, your branding will be seen all over the event.
You can have more than your logo present at the event. Even if you sponsor an event, just having your logo all over the place isn’t enough. Make sure there is ample interaction between your sales team and the captive audience.
You can have a booth at the B2B event where the attendees can interact with your team. You can sell your product or give away samples of the product. Collect people’s information and then you can send them coupons, flyers, direct mailers, etc. to keep their attention hooked.
The whole point of you sponsoring an event is to increase sales and getting the contact info of the attendees will help you do that. Give freebies in exchange for their email addresses, home addresses, etc.
When you are giving chocolates, t-shirts, mugs, etc. for free, people are happy to let you have their email address!
When it comes to workshops, they aren’t sales events in the usual sense of the word. The main goal of workshops is to pass on important knowledge to other people. Most businesses run workshops and hold masterclasses to teach budding entrepreneurs and newbies the tricks of the trade.
You can charge people an attendance fee and then give them at the end of the workshop. If you hold a workshop, your business will look knowledgeable and credible. Moreover, You will be able to generate some leads when the attendees will feel good about your company.
You can hold a multi-purpose workshop as well where you not only impart knowledge to your customer but also sell your services & products. You can offer a masterclass on one of your services or products.
For example, if you are a business that sells yarn, you can hold a knitting masterclass and bring in a professional to teach the attendees. This will increase the traffic to your business and you will get the exposure you were looking for.
Another approach to marketing is by getting guest speakers for marketing purposes. It saves a lot of time and budget since you only have to invite a couple of influential speakers to your event. This will bring a level of authority to your brand.
If you are new in the industry, you can invite a guest speaker who is a leader in your industry. The goal needs to be to get a speaker who will bring value to your potential customers. Such events include time before and after the event for networking as well.
You can form expert panels and hold panel discussions. You can also add a meal to your event and interact with the attendees. We recommend that you organize a breakfast or a dinner since it is difficult for people to get out of their offices in the middle of the day.
Want to get people talking about your business? Award ceremonies are a great way to do so. Winners absolutely love sharing their success with everyone – you won’t even have to ask them to share it on social media.
You will get amazing publicity. Apart from the winners & nominees spreading the word about the award ceremony your company is hosting, the ceremonies provide an excellent opportunity for press coverage and publicity.
Invite the media, give them something to write about, and Viola! Your company will be splattered all over the major news channels driving maximum attention to your business.
We are going through a global pandemic which has made it very hard to get together with our potential customers. Apart from holding socially distanced events, you can host webinars & virtual events to interact with the audience.
You can invite people from all around the world in these virtual events, which might not be possible with physical events. Moreover, they are cheaper as well. You will certainly have to pay the speakers, promote your event, etc. but you will end up saving venue cost, travel cost, hotel cost, and a lot more.
The opportunities that a webinar holds is the same as that of a live event. It helps to grow brand awareness, educate customers, and generate leads. Once the webinar is over, you can share a recorded version of it on your website to bring in more customers.
When you are launching a new company or a new product, a great way to bring attention is by holding a launch party. You can keep the launch party private or open it to all members of the public.
Do invite some key people such as fellow business owners, local journalists, etc. to get the word going about your business. Don’t keep the launch party overly salesy or formal. They are parties – so use them as an excuse to have fun.
Do give a presentation or a speech to let the people know what the event is about, and then let the party work its magic. Launch parties are networking events and you should let the people mingle with each other.
You can also hold fundraising events as they will bring positive brand affiliation. Another great marketing event is having pop shops all over a town or city. Pop-up shops are fun, experiential & ephemeral.
Make sure that whichever event you choose adds value to the lives of your customers for this way they will keep coming back for more and might even bring their friends!
Now that you know what the common forms of event marketing are, you might be wondering about the benefits of event marketing. There are many potential benefits offered by the events we discuss above and a few of them are as follows.
One of the most important benefits of event marketing is sales. Since the ultimate goal of any marketing strategy is to increase the ROI, people consider this one of the most important benefits. When you hold an event, the customers get an opportunity to learn more about your company and services face to face.
This increases the conversion rates since people love knowledgeable staff and quality products.
Even if a potential customer doesn’t convert at the end of the marketing event, you still get the opportunity to add them to your database. They can become a lead, and you can nurture them into a customer through the sales pipeline
Get their email addresses and then use various direct marketing strategies to convert them into permanent customers.
The market is full of companies and businesses trying to get customers to sell their products. Marketing activities and events are the perfect way of getting prospects & customers to discover you and your business.
By hosting a marketing event, you are giving the audience an opportunity to interact with your company and brand. Give out free samples and see the sales increase exponentially when the customers go out and buy your actual product.
Want to know how to be a master at your marketing events? We will give you brief yet comprehensive tips that will help you make your marketing event a success. You need to remember that the pre-event details such as marketing, registration, etc. are as important as the event itself.
Long before you even start to plan the event, you have to create a list of the KPIs (key performance indicators) for the event. These will help you measure the success of your event both during and after the event.
The number of registrations for your event will show you how effectively your marketing efforts are paying off. The better the marketing of the event, the more the number of registrations. Promote your event on various social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.
You can keep an eye on the registrations every year and compare them with the figures of the previous events. This way you’d know how to plan the event and whether your event will be a success or not. It will help you keep an eye on the direct revenue and the direct costs of the event.
By keeping an eye on the number of attendees you can predict future leads and sales trends. The behavior of the attendees, the type and demographics, etc. will help you keep your event interesting for the people.
Event success is determined by the number of attendees to a great extent.
Get feedback from the attendees. Have them fill out survey forms before and after the event so that you would know how to improve in the future. Measure the leads that the event brings in and figure out whether your event gave the people what they were looking for.
This will tell you a lot about the success of event marketing strategies that you employed and help you plan future events.
With the help of marketing events, you can give your business a much-needed opportunity to become a success through valuable face-to-face relationships.
In this complete guide, we have discussed the various types of marketing events along with event marketing examples, the benefits of these events, and how you can make them a success.
