According to LevelUp Marketing, “Event marketing is a promotional strategy that involves face-to-face contact between brands and their customers at events like conferences, trade shows, and seminars.” By leveraging the power of events – especially in-person events – companies can create memorable, educational and immersive experiences; these experiences can create deep emotional connections between the potential customer and the brand, making potential customers feel connected, rather than sold to – a key step in “warming up” the lead and significantly shortening the sales cycle. There are many stats that support these statements:
- “85% of leadership (senior managers, executives, and board members) believe in-person events are essential to their company’s success.” (Bizzabo)
- “95% of marketers believe in-person events have a significant impact on achieving primary business goals. (Bizzabo)
- “78% of in-person attendees prefer to network with other in-person attendees.” (Bizzabo)
There’s no denying that, especially in response to pandemic-related isolation, meeting potential clients at events and interacting with people face-to-face, gives salespeople a fantastic opportunity to leverage the power of in-person events for significant financial gain.
The downside is that events are expensive, at least relative to other forms of promotional activities; therefore, it is incumbent upon meeting and event planners to update their event planning strategy to deliver more value and ROI to their clients, using fewer resources. The future of the event industry lies in trimming the excesses of past extravagant event planning strategies and embracing a new way of organizing and executing events, that focuses on delivering measurable ROI and cost containment strategies, aligning event planning logistics with marketing outcomes.
Planners must restructure events to align with the strategies and objectives of marketing principles: increased brand awareness, credibility and engagement with potential customers.
When the Marketing and Event Planning departments work as a team to define and deliver on business objectives, prioritizing key business outcomes, while delivering a fantastic event, it will have a significant impact on clients’ bottom line and add a much-needed boost in ROI, making this shift in strategy an operational imperative in today’s challenging marketplace.
