Gain new customers, fans, and followers with event marketing!
April in North Central Washington marks the beginning of many annual outdoor events, fairs, and festivals. Aligning your business with a regional event may be a great way to reach new customers and emphasize your brand to your current clientele. Event marketing is a strategic initiative to promote your product, service, or brand with real-time engagement. These events can be in-person, or virtual. Event marketing provides consumers with a means to have a greater affinity for your brand and increase overall morale internally and externally.
There are a few factors to consider before aligning or producing an event. A well-executed event can reap rewards, but an unorganized event may leave a bad impression on your brand for months to come. Consumers may want to taste, touch, feel, or understand your product or service better at an event. Make sure you plan for the weather, location details, and vast number of attendees. Allow attendees to thoroughly enjoy the experience and ask questions to the right people. Be careful not to overbear or use hard sales tactics. Event marketing can be daunting, but using the principles of marketing (i.e. Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) coupled with marketing planning will ensure success.
When a business aligns with event marketing, here are three practical ideas that can help maximize the impact of the strategic initiative:
Sponsor an event- Align or produce events that mirror your company's mission and vision statements. The relevant event needs to reach your target audience and brand values. It may not be the largest event in the region, but the purpose of the event or fundraiser is exactly what your customers, neighbors, and employees want to see in their day-to-day atmosphere. It might be a small budget allocation, but it makes a significant difference for the greater good. Unlike large events, smaller, intimate events might provide more opportunities to talk one-on-one with potential customers who may not be familiar with your product or service. Regardless, the event sponsorship should be an extension of your marketing and promotions. Look for opportunities that showcase your logo, image, and people, and allow for giveaways. Make sure you have the right brand and message to support the event.
Measure Interactions and Engagement- Identify ways your brand can create an engaging and interactive experience to attract attendees. If you are not physically present, how can your digital marketing and other marketing help drive eyeballs to the event to maximize your exposure? At the event, consider collecting data such as contact information or asking inquiries to follow your social media pages. Look for ways to gather the information so you can better plan for future events. This could include key performance indicators such as brand awareness, new sales, new sampling, or customer retention.
Team management- Make sure your entire team clearly understands the purpose of the sponsorship or why the event is being held. Event marketing allows team members to practice their communication skills, meet new potential customers, and gain feedback for future programs or services. Employees may have new campaign ideas, giveaways, games, and themes, to help showcase the product. Event marketing can raise morale and help give a sense of pride to the brand.
Event marketing can be an excellent way to drive results and reach new audiences. Select one a quarter or one a month and put effort into maximizing every avenue. Most importantly, events are a way to bring people together to enjoy. Ultimately, event marketing should be fun. It can be a lot of work, but fun needs to be at the heart of the event too!
Jennifer Bushong, MA is the owner of JBe Marketing Group, LLC., a full-service marketing and communications firm in Washington State. Bushong earned a Master of Arts in Journalism with a concentration in public relations from Kent State University and graduated cum laude with a communication degree from the University of Washington. To connect, email jennifer@jbemarketinggroup.com or visit www.jbe-marketing.com