Events offer great opportunities to market your product or service directly to your target audience. We explore the basics of getting started.
With events, you can start building relationships with both prospects and customers. It also gives your brand a face, enabling you to develop these relationships and boost sales.
Here are the event marketing basics you should be thinking about before you start:
1. Set achievable goals
How will you know if your event is successful if you don’t set targets? Think about what actions you want people to take after the event. What would have to happen to make you not host the event again? What will make you definitely want to host it again?
2. Focus on a message
Think about what you want attendees to say about your brand when they leave the event. It needs to be something short and understandable. If you are the ‘Facebook for the older generation’, your event needs to support this message. Your message needs to be easily shared, so avoid any conflicting content or barriers that can detract from your narrative.
3. Finalise the costs up-front
It’s important to choose your venue wisely as costs can escalate when you figure in food and beverages for all attendees. Many venues have their own partnered companies that they say you must use – i.e. a certain company for the audio/visuals, in-house catering etc. This removes the chance of competitive bidding, which can bring the prices down. Make sure that you check out a number of venues, compare and try to strike the best deal.
4. Plan to get in contact after the event
Often when event organisers pack up and leave the event, they think their work is done – but it isn’t. The next day they should start building on the connection that guests have made with the brand. This can build great relationships, developing prospects into perfect customers or event brand evangelists.
Read and comment on the original Entrepreneur article.