How to Create an Event Strategy That Will Win You Customers
At their core, events are an integral part of marketing for SMEs and bigger brands alike. The main approach in planning your events should be on merging your messages from other marketing channels, online and offline, and translating them in event form.
This is a process that we have found produces the best results by following the steps we've outlined here. This strategy will define what events you should attend and how you will present your brand there, and in turn, what will win you customers.
1. Start with Brand Purpose and Identity
The best branding, and events play a big part in this, starts with the 'why?' - the purpose of your brand and product. Once you're clear about who you are as a brand (your identity) and how you're helping others (your purpose), you're one huge step closer to knowing who you're targeting and how to win them over to your side.
Use these findings to guide the decisions you make from here on.
At Quirky Group, we translate a brand's positioning and target audience into cohesive long-term event strategies and then make sure everything is planned out and delivered with excellence and attention to detail.
2. Find Your Target Audience
Who is your target audience? Where will you find them hanging out, online and offline alike? Those are the places that your event strategy needs to focus on.
Knowing the answers to these questions will help you both in knowing which events to attend and how to present yourself there to maximise your return from the experience, and win the biggest number of new fans and loyal customers possible.
It will also make for a clearer strategy for your marketing, which brings us to point #3...
3. Promote Your Presence
As we mentioned, a brand's event strategy is a blend of what you're trying to achieve through your online and offline marketing. And when you're promoting your event, that should also be a part of your overall strategy.
Try and promote the event everywhere that seems appropriate. Talk about it on your social media channels and include it in your newsletter. Offline, you can invite people that you meet in person to come to your event. Especially on the day of the event these can prove very productive. Try and get mentioned in online and paper newspapers or magazines, or place ads. If the event you're attending is a trade show, exhibition or anywhere that releases its own materials, make sure your brand name and all the correct information are in the programme or on their website, and place ads as well if that might help your goals.
4. Deliver a Great Event
This is another part we're experts in. With years of experience under our belt, and a multitude of brands we've helped manage their events and strategy, we've become quick at thinking on the spot.
This is something any event manager should be good at as well. Improvising and the ability to remain calm at times of stress are some of the most important skills you can develop.
5. Analyse the Results
After the event is done and gone, put together all the data and observations you and your team collected and create a detailed report. By analysing how the event went, what your ROI was both in sales and in marketing parameters (such as collaborations, mailing list sign-ups or social media metrics), it will become clear where you need to improve next time. All you need then is an action plan of how you'll achieve that.
Would you like someone to do all this for you? We're an end-to-end events services agency and can take the hassle out of any or all stages of your event strategy, planning and delivery.
You can email us for more details on hello@quirky-group.co.uk or check out our website for more details, www.quirky-group.co.uk