The Power of Events Marketing
For many businesses, in-person interaction is the life and soul of the strategy. In-person events present an exclusive array of hyper-targeted, high-value leads with a unique level of engagement which has yet to be replicated in any virtual scenario.
The personal connection that can be formed from a face-to-face conversation often translates into a unique, memorable engagement and potential ongoing relationship between client and customer.
It removes us from the noise and distractions of our day-to-day lives so we can be fully present at the moment with no overrunning meetings or last-minute cancellations. The power of the in-person interaction may even go as far as solidifying a sales meeting there and then.
Making the Most of an Online Marketing Event
Amongst new cost-per-lead considerations and a new scope of audience reach, virtual events offer a variety of benefits as well as obstacles to be considered.
One of the big questions to ask in the new era of events marketing is: Are you getting the most out of digital exposure?
The power of online promises higher reach, and potential for seamless, digitally enhanced conversions if digital brand exposure is utilised, and utilised well.
Building social media into an event marketing strategy is essential now more than ever as it allows brands to connect with attendees both before and after the event.
As a sponsor, negotiating the maximum amount of social posts that mention and tag your brand can increase both reach and visibility to the audience. This provides a platform to open the conversation and continue the communication with not only the attendees of the event but also with a wider audience that may not have been able to attend.
Consideration checklist:
- Agree on a specific quantity of promotional social posts from the organiser tagging your brand
- Negotiate your brand logo and backlink on the organiser’s website
- Negotiate additional promotional content (blog post, Q&A etc.)
Variations of Online Marketing Events
Online marketing events don’t have to be a one-stop shop. There are a variety of traditional marketing events that can be transported into, if not enhanced by the power of the digital world. Each one attracts a slightly different attendee list offering individual benefits depending on the goals of an events marketing strategy.
Webinars
Webinars are often hosted live by one or two presenters who can virtually address a large audience at any one time. While webinars often feature a Q&A at the end of a session, attendees' interaction is typically limited throughout the presentation.
Virtual round tables
Round table events are often made up of a pretty exclusive guest list of VIPs, targeted mainly at the decision-makers of a company. They provide the opportunity to engage in meaningful and thought-provoking conversations and build a solid base of trust with the attendees. With the guest list being about quality, not quantity, the number of attendees is often are the lower side - making it much easier to engage in conversation in a virtual setting.
Online masterclasses
Like webinars, masterclasses usually cater to a specific industry with an even more specific topic area in mind. They typically attract more senior attendees with a singular focus or skill set that they’re looking to expand on, in-depth. Masterclasses are usually hosted in more intimate groups so where more engagement is encouraged.
Online marketing training courses
Online training courses provide a more personalised way to learn than events and conferences. They can be useful for smaller groups and allow you to learn at your own pace, in your own time.
Led by a specialist course instructor to guide you through every step of the way, online courses include on-demand tutorials, access to a library of tailor-made resources, and live Q&A sessions.
The Future of Marketing Events
Marketing events of the future will be even more engaging and immersive than ever before.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are expected to play a huge role in revolutionizing how marketing events are presented. With these technologies, event participants can get up close and personal with products, explore virtual worlds, interact with each other through avatars, and more. Marketers will be able to connect with their target audiences in ways that were previously unimaginable.
Marketers can also leverage data-driven technologies to better understand their attendees’ needs and preferences.
Through the use of AI and machine learning, businesses can tap into real-time customer analytics to customise marketing experiences for individual guests. This kind of personalization is essential for effective campaigns and creates unique opportunities for brands to reach their target markets in meaningful ways.
In addition, the use of mobile technology is expected to continue growing at an exponential rate within the promotional event space.
Smartphones allow marketers to provide their customers with a fully optimized digital experience that can be accessed anywhere at any time. But it's not all or nothing, in-person or virtual.
Hybrid events are a creative combination of both in-person and virtual marketing events.
That’s right, you can have your cake and eat it too. Hybrid events have already proved their success and take place across the globe.
In a rapidly expanding digital world, we’re collecting more customer data than ever before.
Understanding and utilising this data means we can better understand our customers and offer them a more meaningful, personalised experience. With the majority of our customer data living online and virtual marketing events here to stay, it’s time to unite the two and inject a personalised experience into our marketing events strategies.
By viewing both in-person and virtual events as part of a series of connected engagements, marketers will be able to create a connected, omnichannel journey and step out of the event marketing silo once and for all.
Events Marketing Best Practice
There’s no shortage of marketing events to choose from, so selecting the best fit for your brand and narrowing down the most successful marketing events can often seem an impossible task. While the common goal for events marketing is to build brand exposure and generate leads, to measure the true success of an event - there’s more to it than totting up ticket sales and skimming over ROI.
It’s also important to consider getting out what you put in. The best results come from great communication and collaboration between the sponsor and the organiser.
Event selection
The criteria for selecting your events should centre around the attendees the event brings in. Attendees are where you will find 90% of your value as a sponsor, so if the attendees aren’t right for your brand chances are the event isn’t either. Focus on audience relevancy and access to the attendees rather than being blindsided by the size of the guest list.
Quantifying objective measurements and demographics of the type of audience a specific event attracts can determine whether the event is right for you.
Begin with the end in mind. Lead generation and conversion come first.
Make sure the people you’re going to be surrounded by are decision-makers and budget spenders. Ask your hosts the provide job title overviews so you can grasp the seniority of the attendee list.
Event management
Integrate your content marketing strategy with your sponsorship. Think pre, post and during the event. Connecting with attendees starts way before you set foot into the venue and in fact, making the connections beforehand is more vital than ever with virtual events.
Shout out on social media. Follow the event hashtag to connect with those attending before and after the event. DM on the day to meet (or virtually chat) on the day of, ideally by this point you’ve already established some common ground.
Bring your customer journey to life. Make a memorable experience people talk about and stand out from the sponsorship crowd. In the real world think of swag packs and quality merch to bring branding beyond the day.
Have your event follow-up sequences seamlessly prepared to send within 1 hour of receiving attendee data from the organiser. Get app contacts researched and email addresses guessed to speed up the follow-up process.
Measuring success
Marketing events continue to be the hardest channel in which to measure a demonstrable return.
The conversations determining the success of marketing events often revolve around three little letters: R O I. And most of the time, the conversation stops there. But often this doesn’t paint the full picture. If you’re only measurement is ROI, you risk assuming too much.
So, here’s a curve ball: a great marketing event’s purpose is not to get your cash in the door – it's to get you connected to the right people. And as you can imagine, this can be a little harder to measure.
Ultimately, it comes down to making sure you have sales-qualified leads and connecting with people that matter, people who are relevant and profiled against the audience.
Top Questions to Ask your Organiser
- Can I see a sample attendee list?
Asking for the previous year’s attendee list is a great way to gain insight.
- Can you provide an audience overview of the industry, company size and revenue, job title and seniority splits?
- How many attendees do you typically attract?
And many of those are sponsors?
- Who has sponsored in the past, are they renewing?
If not why not?
- Who will speak at the same time as us?
- Do you offer exclusive vendor category sponsors?
- Do we get attendee details?
- How many people can you guarantee at our session?
- What event tech do you use?
- What is the data-sharing process post-event?
- What session topics and themes have been popular in the past?
- Are there opportunities to publish to your audience pre-event?
- Do you share branded assets for us to use across our own platforms?
