Top Tactics To Use Live Events To Promote Your Brand

The value of live event marketing is difficult to overstate. In fact, some 67 percent of B2B marketers believe that event marketing is the single most effective strategy at their disposal. This is because live events provide the platform for businesses to network, spend face-to-face time with potential customers and receive press coverage.
With that being said, generating a positive return on your investment and achieving what you want from a live event requires careful planning and hard work. In this article, we take a look at some of the best tactics you can use to promote your brand through event marketing and maximise your chances of success.

1. Know What Your Objectives Are

Two of the most important prerequisites to success in event marketing are having clear objectives and being able to measure the extent to which you achieve them. For this reason, it is important to establish goals and decide on what aspects of your event you are going to measure ahead of time.

The two most common metrics to assess event success are the amount of media exposure gained and the amount of social media buzz generated, with 70 percent of marketers using those, according to MarketingProfs. Yet, rather than measuring alone, you should set a specific target and compare it to your eventual results.

2. Be Clear On What You Want to Say

In addition to being able to prove a return on investment, live events that are designed to promote your brand need to have something to say to attendees. Therefore, it is important that you establish what the overall message you are trying to put across is and gear everything – your stand, your exhibition services – towards this.

“Think about what you want attendees to say about your brand when they leave your event,” says Howard Givner Founder and CEO, the Event Leadership Institute, writing for Entrepreneur.com. “Every element of the event should be designed to support this message…avoid anything that might detract from it, or confuse people.”

3. Do Not Focus Solely On Attendees

When a business has a live event with an attendance of several hundred people, it is natural that they would prioritise those who are physically present. However, for every person in attendance, there are potentially many more who can be reached through social media, which is why shareable content is so crucial.

According to research carried out by FreemanXP & Event Marketing Institute, 54 percent of marketers use social media to relive the highlights of their events after the fact. However, features like ‘Live’ on Facebook and ‘Stories’ on Instagram and Snapchat now make it just as easy to share event content as it takes place.

4. Nail Your Post-Event Follow Up

Finally, it is absolutely essential that you have a plan in place for how you are going to follow up your live event. An event company that fails to follow up on their event is not only robbing themselves of a huge amount of exposure, but also throwing away potentially valuable emotional connections from attendees.

Despite this, a staggering 80 percent of companies do not follow up with their show leads. To avoid this, you should have a plan in advance for contacting leads, communicating with prospects, showcasing your event on social media and talking to media companies or trade publications about the key points after the event.

Author Bio

Reno is a founder and director of a leading exhibition and event company Enigma Visual Solutions, specialising in retail designs, interiors, graphic productions, office refurbishment, signage systems, event branding, exhibition services and much more. He specialises in experiential marketing and event productions. He enjoys sharing his thoughts on upcoming marketing ideas and design trends. Feel free to follow him on twitter.