Since you can do almost anything on the internet these days, it’s easy to forget about more traditional ways to market. As a small business owner, you may not have the time, money, or resources to get to know your customers.
Even though event marketing takes a long time, it still has a lot to offer. This is a great way to show people what your business is like in a real place.
Event marketing lets you reach out to customers, talk to them in person, get immediate feedback, find out what people at the event think of your business, and share ideas in real time.
How do you market an event?
Event marketing is a way to promote a brand, product, or service by making live events. Companies can build their brand and identity by going to events or putting on their own.
Event marketing comes in many forms, such as industry events hosted by one company, trade shows, and digital experiences like virtual conferences and live streaming workshops.
When deciding which approach will work best for you, you should think about who your ideal customer is and what kind of event they are likely to go to.
As part of a successful event marketing strategy, promoting events well encourages people to buy tickets. The event is promoted through both inbound and outbound marketing methods, such as email, social media, event discovery sites, retargeting, and SEO.
How to Market an Event
There are different ways to market events. For example, a brand can host its own events. Depending on the type of event you hold, it can help you find new partners, get leads, and build stronger relationships with customers and prospects.
You can also go to events as a guest. The company rep can promote products or services by showing that they know a lot about the field. Sponsoring events is another way to get people to know about your brand.
Even if a brand uses a different strategy, 95% of marketers think that event marketing is the best way to reach business goals.
Different ways to market events
In the meantime, let’s look at some of the different ways your company can market events. All of these kinds of events can also happen online.
Conferences
A conference is a big event that is usually put on by a big company and sponsored by a long list of smaller brands and businesses. Conferences are good for both B2C and B2B companies. Most of the time, these events are full of speakers, workshops, and chances to meet new people.
Trade shows and exhibitions
A trade show or exposition is a big event that focuses on a certain industry or type of product, like sales technology or medical devices. Most of the time, trade shows, where companies show off their products and services, are where the best leads can be found.
Most people who go to trade shows are pre-qualified buyers, company reps, and salespeople. The general public usually goes to conferences.
Seminars
When held online, a webinar is often called a seminar. It is an educational event for a small group of people. Participants will be able to talk, listen to lectures, and meet new people.
In contrast to seminars, roundtables tend to have fewer people with similar “levels” like CEOs, doctors, and teachers. Most events last for one day.
“Pop-up” stores
Pop-up shops are temporary retail locations where companies can sell their goods in a controlled setting. Most of the time, they are put on by online businesses that don’t have physical stores.
Also, pop-up shops give people who would normally only interact with a brand online a real, immersive place to do so.
Parties and celebrations
Celebrations or launch parties are small, personal events that are held to announce the start of a new business, to celebrate a success, or just to mark a milestone. A lot of businesses throw a party for their clients or customers once a year.
Even though these kinds of events shouldn’t be about a product or brand, a keynote address or presentation can tie them to a company and remind people why they’re there.
Workshops
Like seminars and roundtables, the goal of a workshop is to share knowledge and teach the people who attend. They are different from seminars and roundtables in that they are usually open to the public.
The workshops can be held in person or online. They aren’t usually used to promote a company, but they usually cover a topic related to the company, which makes the company seem more trustworthy.
Event marketing also includes job fairs, conferences for customers only, networking events, VIP experiences, sponsorships, award ceremonies, and competitions.
How important it is to market events
Event marketing is important because it helps you build your credibility. Partners and customers can talk to brands in person, which makes them more trustworthy. So, events are a great way to make connections.
75% of business owners say that the main reason they go to events is to meet new people they can do business with.
A good way to get leads is to go to events and put them on yourself. People who are interested in your business, product, or new opportunities in general get together at a big business meeting. You can count on these people to become loyal customers and hot leads in the future.
Having events can make people more loyal to your business. People go to conferences and seminars not only to learn new things and meet new people, but also to get out of their normal routines and have fun. This makes people feel very close to a brand. Event marketing could be a good way to market relationships.
Event marketing is a surprising way to make your brand more visible online. Four out of every five millennials go to events so that they can post about them on social media. As a result, brand awareness and reach will grow.
Why you need strategies to market an event
Multisensory experiences get people interested in a way that other types of marketing can’t. You can reach important business goals with events, such as:
- Getting more people to buy or use your products or services
- Getting customers to recognize us
- Getting more people to know about you or your clients
- Making money from the event itself: Marketing events are a good investment if you have a clear goal and a plan for how to get there and can measure the results.
Event Marketing Plan
Marketing is important
Your event will fail or succeed based on how well you market it. It can be hard to figure out where to begin. Plan your event well from the start. It’s an important step in the process. Without a well-thought-out plan for promoting your event, no one will know about it.
Learn more about your event.
The first step in planning an event is to know why you are having it. Then you can choose things like the event’s name, themes, slogans, and color schemes. Your plan for marketing your event will be based on this list.
Learn about the buyer’s path.
To make a plan for marketing an event, you need to know how customers act. Make a marketing plan based on how people find out about your event and decide to go. If you know your attendees’ demographics, geographics, and psychographics, you can learn more about them and what drives them.
Learn about the content and technology they use to move prospects through your marketing funnel. All of this information can be put to use by making buyer personas for each customer.
Make good connections with people
Events are the best way to connect with customers and keep in touch with them. If you host the event, you may make some good connections with local media, caterers, and business owners. Your virtual Rolodex will fill up quickly since there are so many important people in town.
Having the right contacts can help you in many ways. If you want to move your business or start a new one in a new place, people who live there can help you learn about the market and make connections.
Reach out to the people you want to reach.
A successful event is also a great way to get new leads. People who attend will probably be potential customers looking for your products or services, especially if your business offers a specific set of products or services.
Give quick answers to questions, make suggestions, listen to what your potential customers have to say, and ask them to fill out a short form so you can follow up with them after the event.
Work with other companies.
Having two heads is better than having one. By working with other brands, you can use their online and offline networks. Also, you can use each other’s strengths to help you.
When you work with the right partner, it can also help you reach new audiences, cut costs, and build your brand’s credibility.
Promote content made by users
By using user-generated content, you can make the work of your team that makes content easier. Plus, you can reach more people, build social proof, and get the word out about your event in a natural way.
You can easily get user-generated content by making a hashtag on social media and encouraging people to use it. Another way to get people talking is to have a competition. If your posts get the most likes or reposts, you may be able to get free tickets.
Use tech to your advantage
With the right technology, you can make an event that is both exciting and unique. New and old technologies can be used to make sure that marketing lives up to expectations. To reach the right people, you need to choose the right platform.
It is possible to promote the event on social media or other platforms, but you should make sure that the message and timing are right for the people you are trying to reach. You should also make sure that the content you make is useful and easy to share. If you ask people to spread the word about your event, they will do it for free.
Keep track of your progress.
By looking at what worked well and what didn’t, you can change and improve the campaign. You can use metrics like web analytics and the amount of time people spend on social media. You should also test your ideas before putting them into action so you don’t waste time and company resources.
Influencer marketing can help.
Influencers make it easier for people to believe what they say. If you want to use influencer marketing for events, it is always best to work with micro-influencers.
You can use their followers and learn from their expertise, which will help your posts reach more people and get more people interested in them. Trade shows and conferences are also places where conference speakers have a lot of power.
The best plan for marketing an event
You should promote your event in the weeks and months leading up to it to get people interested. Having a plan for when and what to release helps you plan your marketing. You can also get people interested by giving out new names or information at different times.
It’s also smart to set up promotions that reach many people. Make sure to use more than one way to reach as many people as possible, such as email, social media, direct mail, phone calls, paid ads in print, and paid ads on the internet. By spreading the word, you can get a lot more people to sign up.
Events that have been marketed
There are some events that not only help brands reach their goals, but also become legends that everyone has to go to. Here are some tips that will help you use their tricks to make your event marketing work better.
Google I/O
Google’s developer conference is held in person, but it is also shown live online. Google uses a 360-degree camera to broadcast high-quality video and create a sense of being there.
There are videos from previous years on YouTube. These are good for people who couldn’t go to the event in person or who want to remember what it was like.
Summit of Forbes Under 30
The Forbes Under 30 Summit is a great example of a place to share ideas and meet new people. Also, this event is a perfect fit for the interests of the people it is meant for.
Fuckup Nights
This format is proof that a new idea can completely change the way you market an event. The idea for Fuckup Nights came from a group of professionals who were sick of hearing only success stories at conferences.
As they talked about how their plans had failed, they decided to try something different. Fuckup Nights are a popular event format that many businesses want to use for their own events.
Conclusion
Event marketing is one of the best ways to build a better relationship with a group of people. Marketers and executives agree that businesses should spend more money on live events, so they do.
For an event to go smoothly, all of its moving parts need to be oiled while it is being planned. Planning an event that will last no more than a week will take a team of professionals from different fields who can work together well.
Planned mistakes will have a big effect on the event itself. You can cut down on these mistakes by using technology.