Why event marketing is important for your business!
Did you know that the UK events industry is worth £42 billion! With a huge percentage likely to be corporate events.
The question is, why are events still so important in such a digitally focussed world?
First, let’s explore what exactly event marketing is. I think you will be surprised at the huge variety!
What is event marketing?
In its simplest form, event marketing is an event where a company’s product or service is being promoted to help make people aware of your company or product. Importantly, the marketing process of an event doesn’t just take place during the event, equally important is the pre and post-event promotion. Sounds like a lot of work right?!
Events can take many forms, for example:
- Workshops
- Presentations
- Conference
- Online zoom event
- Webinars
- Be a sponsor of an event
- Trade show
- Seminar
- Networking event
- Product launch
The event you decide to create depends on your business objectives. Do you want to get new leads, create loyalty or raise overall brand awareness?
Benefits of Event Marketing
The key benefit of event marketing is to raise your brand and product awareness.
If you’re looking to build and establish your brand, product and relationships, event marketing is one of the most impactful ways to bring a brand or product story to life.
Let’s explore some of the specific ways that event marketing can benefit your business:
Generate Leads
A key reason to introduce event marketing into the mix is to generate leads. This is an opportunity for you to target your consumers, and even collect data (with their permission) to continue to market to them in the future.
Introduce new products and services to customers
Events give you a chance to engage your customers in a much more personal way. It’s also a chance to inform and educate them about your products and services in a place where they’re more likely to be engaged.
Boost customer loyalty
Events are a fabulous way to really engage your customers on a higher level, creating loyalty and trust. Ultimately, the experience is what has an impact on customer retention and loyalty. Whether it’s a company conference or a product launch, you need to ensure that your customers or employees are having a great time! Make your event one to remember.
How can you market your event?
One of the most important ways to ensure you have a successful event is about the promotion you do ahead of the event. There are many ways to promote this, and we always suggest using a multi-channel approach in the days and weeks leading up to your event.
This could include:
Email marketing – you could send out communications about your event, from a teaser email to an invite. You even have the option to segment your email list, so you can send out a more personalised email to those who will be most interested and likely to attend.
Social media: 73% of businesses use social media to promote specific events and features during the event, 55% use it to post photos, and 35% use it to amplify product announcements. (Source Hubspot). You can use Use Facebook for a paid and targeted event promotion, with the ability to target your event based on demographic, location, and interest. Social media should be a key part of your event promotion strategy to ensure that those local to your event can hear all about it.
Make use of event websites: There are many websites available to promote your event, such as Eventbrite and so on. They usually charge a small fee for this, however, it can help you to reach a much wider audience.
Internal communications: Promote your event internally as well to maximise employee engagement. This could be done through email communications and competitions which enable staff to win event tickets!
Post-event, make sure you follow up with both attendees and non-attendees. The best event marketing strategies will include a thorough follow-up plan to keep your company top of mind for prospects. This can include email follow-ups, sending out promotional offers, and nurturing your leads by telephone.
Considering an event?
If you are considering an event for your business, we are here to help. From helping you to understand what event would be best suited to your business objectives and target audience, to planning your event schedule and arranging your event venue, to all of your pre and post-event marketing campaigns.
Whether you want to entertain new clients, nurture or build leads, or raise money for a non-profit, event marketing could be a fantastic solution for you — and really fun for your customers.
Read more here www.evolvetogether.co.uk/events
Evolve Together can help with one-off events or regular event marketing throughout the year, whether that is acquiring new leads or building customer loyalty, we have years of experience in event marketing.
We would love to help! Contact me to find out more! www.evolvetogether.co.uk/contact
