The Ultimate Guide To Event Marketing

As an event organizer, you try your best to pull off a great event. You have secured the best venue, sponsors and speakers. Now, the time has come for you to market your event to clients, customers and your target audience. Understanding how to correctly and accurately market your event will help you to attract the right audience to your event. 

What Is Event Marketing?

Event marketing is the process of organizing, planning and promotion of a product, service or brand for your company. Your event can either take place in person or virtually. Event marketing can be done in a variety of different ways; a small panel discussion or having your company sponsor an event at a school are great examples of event marketing. 

Why Event Marketing Is Important 

With event marketing, the main objective is to achieve your business goals. Whether your company is B2B or B2C, with event marketing you are sure to see results through your consumers. Event networking can connect you with new customers, as well as returning ones. Using personalization marketing for your events should be a top priority for your company! 

How Effective Is Event Marketing? 

Event marketing is effective in the way you promote your future events. Using digital event marketing like email and social media are not only a popular way to market, but it is also cost effective! Using your company logo, tone and color scheme to promote your event digitally will get the word out about your event quickly! Driving engagement within your customers is the most important part of your event marketing. 

Benefits Of Event Marketing 

Marketing your event has proven to be successful for your company in a multitude of ways. Although there may be a lot of pieces to this puzzle, the benefits that you will end up with will help to greatly increase your brand awareness. Having your target audience in mind and knowing how to market to them will help with audience engagement and retention. Here are some fantastic benefits that can come from event marketing: 

• Creating New Business Opportunities -

You can create endless business opportunities with event marketing. Connecting with other customers and businesses through these events will help you create connections throughout your entire professional career!

• Increasing Customer Engagement -

Events are a great way to boost customer engagement. Customers who join your event will associate it with your business and want to work with you again!

• Promoting A New Product Or Service -

Marketing events are a great way to launch a new product or service. You can center your entire event around this new product, or include it in whichever event you chose to host. 

• Generating Leads With New Customers -

Marketing is crucial to obtaining new customers. In today’s digital world, if you’re not marketing your event online then you’re missing out greatly on leads and customers!

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• Building Brand Awareness -

Marketing is a key way to increase brand awareness. The more you post about your event and your company, the more people will see and want to learn more about your company. 

Common Problems That Event Marketing Can Help Solve

Hosting an event can present many problems and challenges. How you handle those challenges as a company sets the tone for how your audience, sponsors and customers see you as a whole! Facing problems head on with a calm mindset and fixing the problems will be beneficial to everyone involved. If you do experience any sort of problem with hosting your event, this we can help you troubleshoot those issues. 

1. I’m Struggling With Event Engagement

Take a networking event, for example. People attend networking events to meet new people, learn and grow. Be mindful of the registration process when planning your event. If you notice you have low attendance leading up to the event, securing popular influencers and high-profile speakers will draw a crowd for your event! The more people at your event, the more people you have to network with and make long lasting connections with. 

2. I Need To Generate Leads With Clients 

At any type of event, with the help of networking, you are able to generate new leads with clients. If you are a company looking to attend an event, rather than host, research events that cater to your target demographic. Choosing an event with your target demographic will allow you to interact with people who have an interest in what your company provides and values. 

3. I Need More Brand Awareness

Your brand, no matter how new or old your company is, can always use more brand awareness. Hosting or even attending an event can help to build brand awareness. Building your brand awareness allows you to expand your brand to a larger audience. Once a larger audience has been reached, your company will start to generate leads and clients. 

Types Of Event Marketing

There are several different types of events that you can hold to help market your business even further! These can include: 

1. Internal Company Meetings

Internal company meetings are a great way to get everyone in your company together and spread any important information like company updates. 

2. Galas

A gala is a type of formal and sophisticated event where everyone gathers to either fundraise for a cause or meet before another event. 

3. Job Fairs

Job fairs are held to bring together companies who are actively hiring with people on the lookout for a new job opportunity. 

4. Conferences

A conference is typically a large sized event hosted by one company. Most conferences have important speakers come to present as well as multiple sponsors and partners. 

5. Product Launches

What better way to launch your company’s new product than holding a fun and informative event? Product launches are a great way to get exposure and engage with customers. 

6. Expos & Trade Shows

Expos and trade shows are an especially great way to showcase any type of product you’re selling by letting businesses have their own booth at a showroom. 

7. Workshops

What better way to market your business than hosting a workshop where attendees can learn a new skill or improve on one!

8. Seminars

Seminars are typically an event used to educate an audience about a certain issue, topic, or product. They usually involve in-depth discussions with a smaller group of attendees. 

The great thing about event marketing is that the way you market your company is completely customizable! Depending on the type of event, you are able to bring materials, products and information to market your company and brand in the best way. 

Creating An Event Marketing Plan

When you begin to market your event, having a plan on how to execute the marketing will help you along in the planning process. Following these points will help you to build the perfect event marketing plan. 

1. Think About SMART Goals 

SMART goals stand for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Any goal that you set within your marketing plan should follow these goals. Setting a goal too big may not be achievable. Therefore, setting smaller goals will help you to achieve those goals and your event will be an overall success. Just because you have set SMART goals for your event does not mean that you should limit yourself to just one goal. Using SMART goals allows you to choose smaller, more manageable goals for your business to achieve! 

2. What Is Your Budget?

Everyone knows how important it is to create a budget and stick to it. Many factors go into determining a budget for your event. Thinking about branding, signage, swag bags, food vendors, etc. all goes into finalizing your budget. Having meetings to discuss the budget and finalizing every detail will keep everyone involved on the same page and know exactly where the funds are going. If you find your company needs funds for your event, reaching out to sponsors is a great way to fund your event. 

3. What Is Your Event Brand And Theme?

Before you throw any kind of event, determining what the brand tone of your company is will help set the mood for your event. From there, you’re able to start setting up your goals for your audience. Will your event be formal or informal? Will your audience be listening to speakers or will they get the chance to move around and network with one another? Once you finalize your brand tone and theme of the event, all of the other details for the event will simply fall in place and will be easier to plan! 

4. Who Is Your Target Demographic?

As previously mentioned, events can come in many different forms. In order to determine what kind of event you need to host, finding out your target demographic will help! A networking event will be beneficial to new employees who are looking to expand their network. Guests who would like to learn more about your company would benefit from attending a conference or seminar. In order to find this information out, sending out a pre-event survey to your guests will determine what they are looking for. With this information, you can begin the planning process for your event! 

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4 Event Marketing Strategies And Ideas

Now that you have the tools to accurately plan your event, you need to shift gears to getting the word out about your event! In order to market your event and not seem too pushy, following these event marketing strategies will help you to promote your event in the best way! 

1. Use Email Marketing 

Email marketing is a great way to market your event! Not only is it cost effective, but you can also get the word out about your event to several people all at the same time! You, as an event organizer, can customize the email with things such as your company logo and color scheme. Providing your guests with all of the information for the event including date, time and any guest speakers will keep them in the know! 

2. Take Advantage of Social Media

There are so many different channels of social media that your guests may use! When it comes to marketing your event, be sure to have your company on all social media channels! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are the four biggest social media apps, and by marketing your event on any one of these platforms, your guests are guaranteed to see your marketing! To further the marketing for your event, developing a hashtag for your event will provide data on how far your marketing has gone. 

3. Go Live During Your Events

When the time comes for your event to be held, a great way to promote your brand even more is to go live during your events! As previously mentioned, social media is a popular way to market your events. If you have guests who are not able to attend for any reason, going live across your social media platforms can bring the guests at home right into the event. Broadcasting your event live will also show potential guests how your events are handled and it may bring new guests in for future events! 

4. Promise And Deliver

Planning for your event can bring many different ideas for speakers, influencers or networking opportunities. Whatever you market your event for, be sure that you deliver that during your event. If you promise to have a guest speaker or an influencer, finalizing the details for them to attend your event will be crucial to your guest attendance. If you promise these things, and you don’t deliver, they may affect your guest attendance going forward for future events. 

How To Accurately Measure Event Marketing Success

So you pulled off a great event - congratulations, that’s no easy feat! In order to accurately capture the success of the event, set some KPI’s (key performance indicators) to measure your event’s performance and success. 

1. Registration vs. Check Ins

When your guests register for an event, circumstances may arise that they are no longer able to attend your event. By cross-referencing your registration forms vs your event check ins, you can determine who came to your event and who did not. No need to ask why your guests didn’t attend, but sending out a “Sorry We Missed You” email is a great way to keep in touch with your guests. 

2. Attendee Satisfaction 

Finding out how well you pulled off your event will only help you plan future events. By sending out a post-event survey to your guests, asking them to rate different event aspects on a scale of 1-10 will accurately determine attendee satisfaction. If there were certain aspects of your event that a large number of guests didn’t enjoy, you may want to omit that from any future events. On the other hand, if there are aspects of your event that worked well and everyone enjoyed, then make that a priority for your next event. 

3. Budget Review 

Your budget is a large part of pulling off a great event. After your event concludes, doing a complete budget review will help you to see how your money was spent. Keep in mind that you should stick to your budget as close as possible. When you properly manage your budget, you will have the know-how to stick to your budget for any future events. 

4. Social Media Mentions

We’ve talked about the importance of using social media before, during, and after your events, but now social media feedback is another part! If you developed a hashtag for your event, you can then go back and collect data from that hashtag and check how often it was used. If you find that this strategy works for your company, creating a new hashtag for any new event will always give you the data you need to collect after your event. 

5. Lead Acquisition & Customer Conversion 

A great way to measure the success of your event is to view the number of customer conversions or lead acquisitions you received. By keeping track of how many customers completed your ideal action, you can utilize this information for your next event going forward. 

6. Revenue & Cost-to-Revenue Ratio

One of the most important ways to measure the success of your event is to review the amount of revenue that is brought in. Calculate the difference between what the event actually cost to put on to how much money it actually brought in. 

Event Marketing Best Practices And Tips 

If you’re not sure where to begin when planning on how to market your event, this guide will help you plan your event in the best way possible! Following these tips will ensure that you have both a fun and successful event that has been marketed in a fun and engaging way. 

1. Be Clear And Concise

When planning your event, remaining clear and concise is the best way to go! Your goals should be clear and manageable. The funds that you have available for your event should be clearly communicated with everyone involved in the planning process. Being as transparent throughout your planning process will be beneficial to everyone. 

2. Invite Guest Speakers To Dinner

If you’re planning on having guest speakers at your event, inviting them to dinner before or after the event is a nice gesture to thank them for being a part of the occasion. Developing a relationship with your guests speakers and talking to them about your brand will make them more inclined to return to future events. 

3. Make Your Event Page User Friendly

Nobody likes a website that’s difficult to use or isn’t user friendly. By working on your event website, complete with registration tabs and FAQ’s, it will answer any and all questions about your event. Having your guests prepared as much as possible will have your event run smoothly from start to finish. 

4. Use Guest Speakers Photos On Event Website

If you plan on having guest speakers, promoting your event by using headshots of those guest speakers on your website will draw a crowd to your event! The event home page is the best place for the headshots of your guest speakers, along with a small blurb of what they are going to speak about. 

Get Ready To Market Your Event!

You now have all of the tools to begin your event marketing! The marketing for your event can be done throughout many channels, and picking the one that works best for your company is the one you should stick with! While there are many factors to consider when you’re beginning your planning and marketing, working together with your team can make the process easier. Embrace technology, think about your goals and how to achieve them, and remember your budget to market your event successfully! If you need more strategies on event marketing, check out our blog on how to do so!