Event marketing today and for the foreseeable future looks vastly different than it was just a few short months ago. Instead of flocking to conferences and trade shows several times a year, people are now tuning in online from the comfort of their home or alternative office, for at least a fraction of the cost and time. Event marketing is not anything new, but the methods have certainly changed. Online event hosts must now keep people engaged not with snacks and freebies but with a host of other things to combat our typically short attention spans.
What is Event Marketing?
It is a marketing strategy where marketers host events to promote their brands, products, or services. These events can be hosted online or offline, depending on sponsors, business stakeholders, and hosts. It guaranteed real-time engagement of the audience.
Why is Event Marketing Important?
An event marketing strategy helps your company to stand out in the industry. By hosting successful events, you can foster long-lasting relationships with sponsors, customers, and business stakeholders.
Why Choose Event Marketing?
It offers real-time engagement with consumers. Attendees get to know about your brand and you get to know their opinions on your product/service. Moreover, it creates authentic communication with customers. The experience will have them tied in an emotional bond with you. Conferences, seminars, and webinars are powerful enough to engage with the audience, gain reputation, and make sales.
Types of Marketing Events
Here are several formats for online marketing events (or any time of the event for that matter):
-
Digital marketing events
Online events are inexpensive and allow attendees to participate easily, from their houses. Through online events, you can address product updates and educate customers on timely topics.
-
Web seminars
Webinars help facilitate engagement from potential buyers around the world. They revolve around a timely topic, a presentation, or a product demonstration. It lasts for 30 to 60 minutes.
-
Live streams
Live streaming events allow users to gain information in real-time. You can see a person’s presentation and even behind the scenes.
-
Personal events
Nothing is quite like meeting prospects and customers physically and having to make an emotional bond with them through face-to-face conversations.
-
Trade marketing events
The purpose of hosting a trade show is to increase brand awareness and lead generation. It is often hosted by multiple brands or companies.
-
Conferences
An engaged customer-based, company-specific event is known as a conference. Here, brands deliver info about their products and services.
-
Casual meetups
Casual meetings are a great way to know your audience from the inside out. These can be 1:1s for lunch or a small group setting either in-person or online.
-
Appreciation events
An appreciation marketing event is about rewarding customers and employees for their dedication to the brand. Appreciation events include fun activities, awards, and prize bonds to build a strong customer base.
-
Seminars
When wanting to talk about industry-specific topics, product demonstrations, or updates, brands host seminars.
-
Physical evens
It is a professional event with a proper setup, followed by speeches from some of the thought leaders of the industry. Here, stakeholders, employees, and customers get a chance to interact with each other.
Advantages of Event Marketing
There are a number of advantages to event marketing that you may want to consider. These could also be reasons you choose to put on a virtual event next year.
- Generates sales and increases lead generation
- Increases customer engagement
- Builds brand awareness
- Promotes industry-specific education to customers
How to Build an Event Marketing Plan
Here’s a strategy to build a successful event marketing strategy
-
Determine SMART goals and set a budget
Make all the marketing goals specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Your marketing plan is based on your budget. So, it’s better to make one after deciding on tangible goals. Can your host 700 attendees or are you looking for an event to strengthen relationships with your business partners?
-
Decide on brand, theme, and schedule
Being ahead of time is important when it comes to hosting an event. You have to send emails as reminders to the attendees mentioning all the details such as the theme, the purpose of the event, and the schedule for the day.
-
Determine ways to reach the attendees
How are you going to promote your product and educate attendees at the same time? What channels are you going to use? Are you going to leverage event speakers to educate the audience about your product?
-
Curate a content creation and management plan
Highlight key messages and prepare the speaker list. Decide on the type of resources you want to include in the speeches. Do you want to play videos, testimonials, or just demonstrate to the audience through pictures?
-
Determine the promotion timeline
Promoting your product at the beginning of an event is strange and unethical, especially if you have invited the audience to educate. Create a specific timeline for product promotion. Create a plan of promotion practices after the event.
-
Decide on ways to promote your brand during the event
You need to promote your product tactfully during the event. Are you going to distribute product pamphlets or invite a speaker to educate about your product?
How to Measure the Success of an Event
Here are some ways to know if the event was successful or a failure:
-
Number of check-ins and registrations
Maintain a log for the people who attended the event. You can check the number of registrations online. Other than that, you can take a look at Facebook check-ins.
-
Generated revenue
How many people bought the pass to your event? Is the ROI good enough? Calculate the cost-to-revenue ratio and see if you have made profits from the event.
-
The satisfaction of the attendees
Distribute surveys asking attendees about their experience at the event.
-
Social media engagement
Is there talk on Facebook about your event? Did it go viral? How many people you know from social media attended the event?
-
Customer conversion rate
When customer engagement increases, the conversion rate increases automatically. Measure the conversion rate and the number of sales you made after the event.
How to Find the Right Venue for an Event?
There are a number of ways to go about finding the right space to hold your event. If you are having an in-person event, you would consider some venues by going through reviews online, having an interior designer scope out a place and make it yours, and how easy would it be for customers to register. An online event would obviously not need a venue, but you should take a similar approach by scoping out the right software for live and on-demand recordings, developing digital meetups for attendees and having a mechanism for people to ask questions.
Conclusion
Event marketing is important when it comes to building brand awareness and a loyal customer base. It is an ideal way to interact with your customers closely and help them to remember you the next time you host an event. If you are looking to attract more attendees to your event, consider submitting your event for free placement here on List.Events.