In response to the Occasion Advertising and marketing 2019: Benchmarks and Developments Report, most entrepreneurs imagine occasion advertising and marketing is the single-most efficient channel for attaining enterprise objectives. The identical report discovered that the variety of corporations organising 20 or extra occasions per yr elevated by 17% between 2017 and 2018.

An important advertising and marketing channel for B2B and B2C companies, occasion advertising and marketing is the promotion of a product, model or service by face-to-face communication and interactions. There are lots of types of occasion advertising and marketing, every catered to deal with totally different enterprise objectives.

Occasion advertising and marketing could be internet hosting an in-house enterprise occasion to attach with prospects or construct stronger relationships with current clients. It may be attending an occasion as an exhibitor to coach your goal market on your small business or a product. Occasion advertising and marketing additionally contains digital occasions similar to webinars and live-streamed webcasts.

With so many types of occasion advertising and marketing, how do you establish which occasion will finest obtain your small business objectives? Whether or not your model is large or small, B2B or B2C, these steps will make it easier to discover the suitable occasion advertising and marketing for your small business to spend money on:

1. Decide your occasion objectives

And not using a listing of occasion objectives, it may be laborious to find out what sort of occasion advertising and marketing could have the largest influence and the most effective consequence. Occasion objectives make the planning course of simpler and the occasion extra worthwhile.

Occasion objectives prioritise every little thing your small business hopes to realize by internet hosting an occasion. Maybe you are a brand new firm trying to generate consciousness? Otherwise you’re launching a brand new product and on the lookout for traders? Possibly you are launching a marketing campaign and need to generate gross sales?

No matter your occasion advertising and marketing objectives, listing them and quantity them by significance as this can make it easier to perceive what occasion advertising and marketing would be the most helpful.

2. Perceive your market

One other important step to make sure your model chooses the suitable occasion advertising and marketing is understanding your audience. Your occasion can not cater to everybody, however by pinpointing your excellent buyer, you may decide what occasion advertising and marketing will most attraction to them.

Begin by rifling by current buyer information and seeing if there are any noticeable widespread traits or pursuits. Maybe a big share of your clients are feminine, aged 20-30, situated within the South with a robust curiosity in basic rock music. Different individuals becoming these traits would doubtless profit out of your model or product/service and be extra inclined to attend your occasion advertising and marketing.

If you have no current buyer information or need to goal a brand new viewers, you’ll need to speculate time in pinpointing your excellent buyer. Take into consideration your excellent buyer and their demographics; age, location, gender, revenue, training stage, marital or household standing, occupation, moral background, in addition to their private traits; persona, attitudes, values, pursuits, life-style and behavior.

Focusing on a particular viewers doesn’t imply that you just’re excluding individuals who don’t suit your standards. Slightly, it permits you to focus your occasion advertising and marketing on a particular viewers that’s extra doubtless that will help you fulfil your occasion objectives in a extra reasonably priced, environment friendly and efficient method.

Figuring out your goal buyer and viewers is necessary. In case your excellent buyer is from the South and has a robust curiosity in basic rock music, internet hosting your occasion advertising and marketing at a Southern basic rock competition could be good. The smallest private attributes matter too, in case your excellent buyer is an avid reader of native information, promoting your occasion of their native newspaper or handing out newspaper-style pamphlets in your product/service would attraction to them.

3. Do competitor analysis

It is at all times a good suggestion to analysis and hold tabs in your competitors. Look in your competitor’s web sites, weblog and social media channels to see what sort of occasions they’re planning to host or attend and take a look at previous occasions too.

Whereas on the lookout for your competitor’s occasion advertising and marketing previous and present actions could take a while, the analysis may help you draw inspiration in your occasion. In case your competitor exhibited at a tradeshow final yr, there is a good probability the tradeshow can be related to your model. Go to the tradeshow web site, take a look at the companies exhibiting this yr and the client base the occasion attracts. If related, it might be a good suggestion to request a gross sales brochure or exhibitor pack.

When researching your competitor’s occasion actions, take a look at what they’re doing at occasions and who they’re focusing on. Maybe they’re handing data leaflets or providing free product samples? Do not copy their actions, however reasonably use it as a benchmark to separate your small business from theirs. Experiential advertising and marketing actions are a good way to face out from the group and have interaction attendees.

4. Define a funds

Upon getting an concept of the kind of occasion advertising and marketing that may make it easier to appeal to your excellent buyer and make it easier to obtain your objectives whereas serving to you separate your self from the competitors, it’s essential to set up a funds.

If a tradeshow has caught your consideration however exhibiting there is not inside funds, contact the tradeshow to see if they’ve totally different exhibitor packages out there in funds. If not, think about attending the occasion as a buyer and use it as a networking alternative. Or search for cheaper and related tradeshows.

Occasions could be a large advertising and marketing expense, with the typical share of the advertising and marketing division’s annual funds spent on occasions being roughly 21%. Relying in your model and occasion objectives, it’s possible you’ll spend roughly than the typical funds. A brand new clothes enterprise could spend a majority of their advertising and marketing funds internet hosting vogue occasions to be able to improve gross sales.

5. Do your analysis

It is important to analysis all potential occasion advertising and marketing completely to make sure they suit your model values and caters to your viewers. If partaking at an current occasion similar to a tradeshow, delve into the occasion’s statistics in addition to the kind of exhibitors which have attended in earlier years and take a look at on-line and social media suggestions to see if the occasion has a superb popularity.

The easiest way to ascertain if an current occasion is correct for your small business is by attending the occasion and seeing for your self. By attending you will get a really feel for the viewers, the occasion’s successes and exhibitors and the way effectively the occasion will match along with your model.

The easiest way to ascertain if a hosted occasion is correct in your model is by asking clients. Ship a survey to your present buyer base to see if they’d be fascinated with attending. It will even be helpful to attend the venue and see if it matches with your small business. For instance, when you’re planning to host an occasion at a purchasing centre on a Tuesday afternoon, attend the purchasing centre on a Tuesday afternoon to see if the footfall is correct in your model.