marketing-ideas

We’ve written extensively about event marketing in the past twelve months (because not all event planners are natural marketers) in order to equip you with the tools necessary to create a potent marketing plan. To make sure that your events are a resounding success, we’ve rounded up the most important factors to consider when marketing your next event.

A successful event marketing strategy consists of several equally-important factors

Think of your marketing plan as you would a first date with someone you’ve been swooning over for months – every action, and every word spoken – needs to convince them that you’re a perfect match. In order to do this, you have to know as much as you can about the person (read: guests) you want to woo. Establish: who you’re talking to, what they want to hear, what you need to say, and the best way of saying it.

Delving straight into a marketing plan of action isn’t advisable – you need to decide what you want to achieve, and the best way of going about it

In our blog Event marketing ideas: harnessing the power of your corporate events, we discussed the most effective way of approaching the marketing of your corporate event. A tangible, interactive experience makes far more of an impact that a campaign that solely relies on intangible factors. By using your event (a tangible brand touch point) to kick off your entire marketing strategy, you’re able to create something that lasts far longer than merely for the duration of an event. In other words, your event marketing strategy needs to fit seamlessly into the larger marketing picture.

We wrote about how to construct a flop-proof marketing campaign in our blog The six essential ingredients for a potent event marketing plan

Here’s what you need to take into account:

• Your event’s objectives
• Your event’s positioning
• Your promotional plan
• Suitable marketing tools
• Your budget
• Measurable goals

For a full run-down on what each of these factors entails, as well as the best way to go about combining them for a fool-proof marketing recipe, read the full blog here.

Event marketing involves all of your event content – from your invitations, to your social media campaign, to the event itself and importantly, your post-event communication

All communication you have with your guests – both intangible and tangible – needs to work together to showcase your brand in the best light possible, in order to achieve the event’s objectives. The best marketing strategies are: tailored to their audience, emotive and importantly, cohesive.

Once you’ve got a clear goal, an actionable plan and a competent team, you’ll have the right tools with which to implement your marketing campaign

A successful marketing campaign relies on having adequate insight into your market. In order to do this, you need to make sure that you’ve got the tools to collect this data. The quality of the guest list management software you’re using determines whether your marketing efforts succeed or fall flat.

Compared to traditional advertising campaigns, an event provides your market with a brand offering that is tangible, interactive and hopefully, emotive. In other words, an event can be far more powerful than any other marketing medium. If you want to make the most of your event and turn it into your most powerful marketing tool, you’ll need to adopt a strategic, data-driven approach.

First things first; devise a marketing strategy and campaign that uses your event as a launch pad, instead of the other way around.

Many events are held with the sole aim of launching a new advertising or marketing campaign. While this can be effective, many of these campaigns soon lose traction. They often start out with a proverbial bang, only to fizzle out into a campaign that’s impact is diluted at best, as print, TV and radio ads are passive ways of relaying a message.

When brands hire agencies to provide them with marketing ideas, they’re often seduced by big-budget, above the line concepts that look and sound great in theory, but aren’t always effective. Using an event on which to centre your entire product launch and subsequent campaign, is one of the marketing ideas that is fast becoming popular – due to the fact that events are multidimensional experiences. Ultimately, if done properly, an event has a substantially higher chance of garnering ROI compared to even the most (seemingly) innovative marketing ideas.

Events that successfully convey a brand’s message and then convert people into customers, are strategically designed to appeal to a very specific audience.

Instead of casting a wide net in order to catch the attention of your entire target market, identify which niche groups have the potential to become influential brand ambassadors. By honing your focus on a core group, and on their unique demographics and interests, you’ll be able to concentrate on providing them with brand touch points that are genuinely relevant and engaging.

Concentrating your efforts and focusing on a small portion of your target market means that the chances of your event – and entire marketing strategy – being successful are that much higher than if you were to dilute your marketing campaign in order to appeal to the masses.

Once you’ve successfully created an event that resonates with a specific section of your target market, you’ll be able to roll out a marketing campaign that maximises on its impact.

By virtue of the fact that events are tangible experiences, they’re that much more powerful in conveying a message in a memorable way. Compare your impression of a brand or product after driving past a billboard, versus your impression of a brand after spending several hours at an event that engaged all five senses.

Just as crucial as an event that successfully engages your target market, is ensuring that your event isn’t a one-hit-wonder.

Once you’ve held your event, use all of the information you’ve gathered about your guests in order to ensure that the rest of your campaign is just as relevant and engaging.

By making use of the right event software, you’ll be able to capture invaluable information about them – and then turn that information into future marketing campaigns that are based on hard data.

Want to find out how our event management software helps big brands to turn their events into their most powerful marketing tools? Find more info here. Alternatively, drop us a mail, tweet, or comment.