Many people assume a few online ads and social media posts are enough to get your brand recognized. However, starting a business is now easier than ever and the competition is stiff. This means that if you want your business to succeed, it’s critical that you implement some of the best marketing practices that’ll help your company grow. And one of them that have proven to be extremely effective is event marketing. Well-organized events don’t only help you promote your brand but build long-lasting relationships that can help take your organization to a new level. Here are five tips that will help you create a great event marketing strategy for your business.
Define your goals
One of the most important things you need to do when creating your event marketing strategy is to define your goals. Every business has its own reasons for hosting events and if you don’t know what yours are, you won’t know the impact of your events in your marketing strategy. So, do you want to gain more Facebook followers? Do you want to develop important B2B relationships? Or you want to increase sales by X%? Figure out what your goals are and hosting effective events will be a lot easier. Ideally, you should be able to come up with specific goals that are quantifiable and measure the end results.
Choose the right event type
If you’re new in the corporate world, chances are you don’t know that there are different types of events and each of them is effective at achieving the desired results. In other words, not every event is just about speaking in front of an audience and having people socialize. For instance, there are appreciation events which are usually informal and have for a purpose to show clients just how important they are to the company. Product launch events are, on the other hand, formal and they’re used to introduce a new product and explain exactly what that product is about. Some other popular types of events include company milestone celebrations, trade shows, seminars, and conferences.
Get online
The internet plays a huge role in our everyday lives, making it a perfect place to promote your events and ensure enough attendees show up. Just the fact that the word can spread so easily on the web makes marketing your events online a smart thing to do. The good news is, you can now use event management software and make sure you generate enough buzz about your every event. This tool can help you promote your event on social media, send automated email invitations and manage your bookings. You can even create event designs that can get you more engagement and ultimately make your event more successful.
Invite local influencers
There’s no doubt influencers are the next big thing in the world of marketing. According to last year’s reports, 30% of consumers are more likely to buy a product recommended by a non-celebrity blogger and we can only expect this number to increase in the future. This makes inviting local influencers to your event an amazing idea. Not only will their followers think about attending your event but they’ll share news about it as well. The best thing about it is that some local influencers won’t even require you to pay them in cash. Instead, they’ll be happy to attend and speak at your event in exchange for freebies and discounts.
Measure your success
As mentioned earlier, measuring the results of your event is extremely important. Collecting data on your event makes it a lot easier to figure out what changes in approach you should make in order to make your events even more successful. Luckily, measuring results has never been easier and you can now get almost any data you want. Some of the most important KPIs for measuring event success include attendee satisfaction survey, speaker engagement, and social media engagement. Also, evaluate every team member’s performance and ensure they keep getting better at it. This will improve your events and show your employees that you care about their careers.
Final thoughts
There are reasons why hosting an event was and still is one of the best ways to promote your brand and grow your business. Creating a good event marketing strategy is the key to success and the five tips covered in this post are guaranteed to help.
Dan Radak
Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and a regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.