How to Choose The Right Event Planner for Your Brand
As a marketer, you know your brand better than anyone else. You know how you’d like your audience to perceive you and how you want to achieve this. Events are an effective way to nurture loyal brand advocates as well as connect with customers and suppliers – but only if they are planned correctly. Choosing the most professional event planner is the first step in making sure your marketing objectives are reached. Here are the things you need to know before choosing an event planning professional.
Do your detective work before contacting potential event planners
Before enlisting the help of an event professional, you need to do extensive research. First check their websites and social media channels – an unattractive website that hasn’t been maintained in several years or an extinct Twitter account reflects a sub-par level of professionalism. A decent website and lots of engagement on social media, on the other hand, signals a professional event planner worth their salt. Word of mouth is another reliable way to suss out the ideal candidate to plan your event. Think back to any killer events you’ve attended and find out which agency organised them. In addition, talk to their past clients to get feedback about what they’d like to work with.
Your chosen event planner needs to be an appropriate fit
Narrow down your selection by carefully looking through the previous events they’ve worked on. This will give you an idea of the style of events they create, the type of budgets they work with and the areas that they excel in. If you’re planning a 400-person gala dinner to celebrate your company’s ten year anniversary, there’s little point calling a professional event planner who specialises in small corporate skiing weekends in the Alps. Bear in mind that the location of the event planner you hire is just as important as the types and size of events they do.
Being on the same wavelength is crucial if you are to work closely during the planning of that spectacular event
Once you’ve made a shortlist of potential professional event planners it is important to meet face to face before signing any contracts. You will be working closely with them during the planning and execution of your event – if you have trouble getting through a half hour meeting with them, chances are you just aren’t on the right wavelength to get through several months of working together.
Your chosen event planner must understand your brand and messages you want to convey at your event
Getting on well is important, but just as important is whether your chosen event professional is able to plan an event that is in total alignment with your brand values and the messages you aim to convey through your event. The best event planners thoroughly understand your brand and stick to the budget you set them. Of course, being able to generate fanastic and original ideas is another prerequisite, but make sure these ideas serve your company and not the creative whims of your event planner.
As with many aspects of our daily lives, software lets professional event planners take event planning to the next level
The event planner you pick might have the most talented event professionals behind it, but without the right tools they won’t be able to create an event that delivers sound ROI. By choosing a professional event planner who makes use of event planning software, you can guarantee that the organisation of your corporate event will be based on solid data about your guests and their preferences. What’s more, the time an event professional saves on the admin of manually managing RSVPs can be spent creating an incredible event for you.
RSVP is happy to advise you about its Guest Concierge Management software today. Simply contact us and we can answer any of your questions.
