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The Demise and Rise of Event Marketing

For a while it looked as though online marketing had replaced event marketing. Trade shows, expos and other event style gatherings took a bit of a nosedive while everyone was distracted by these powerful digital tools. Marketing has since shifted towards creating experiences and using emotion to enable interaction, which are both more personable features of the marketing spectrum. However, once trade shows and expos stopped happening, their true strength was realised and their return has only further emphasised their value and worth.

Why Use Event Marketing?

While the internet offers a vast reach, you could find yourself to be a small fish in a rather large sea. Getting your voice and message out to the right audience can be tricky. Companies that are solely digital can feel remote and faceless. However by inviting your target market to a trade show or expo, you can significantly boost your presence. Customers still value face-to-face interaction and this is a powerful arena for lead generation – especially as events of this nature attract like-minded attendees with similar interests from within the industry. As a result,  they offer a wealth of close-able leads – provided that communications are handled well.

Networking is Crucial

Event marketing brings industries together and gives the opportunity for networking, something that remains quite elusive in the competitive world of online marketing where it is everyone for themselves. Common issues are inevitable when you bring people from the same industry together. This was made evident at the Zero Outage Industry Standard (ZOIS) Executive Summit where Black Cliff Media assisted with its marketing and provided conference materials. The event provided the perfect environment for experts within the IT sector to meet and discuss the increasingly common problems associated with outages.

80% of businesses that are over-performing in regards to their company goals will increase their live event budgets next year. (Endless Events)

How to Make Event Marketing a Success

It goes without saying that just turning up to, or hosting a marketing event is not enough to ensure success. It is vital you introduce an element of storytelling to the brand’s messaging to excite your audience and use keynote speakers to hold their attention. New technologies are proving to be critical for engaging with your target market. Therefore, consider using cutting-edge tools such as interactive Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and 360-degree video content to make the most of your product or service. Gamification is a buzzword for this year, so consider how this could enhance presence at an expo or trade show.

Benefits to the Brand

There is something about event marketing that not only creates a more personable and approachable image for brands – but it also provides a strong sense of giving back to the industry that it belongs to and enriching the community that surrounds it. By doing so further positive  benefits are sown which increases a brand’s visibility and these can be transferred back to your online marketing arena in the form of videos and reports taken from the event.

Event marketing is therefore  also a solid source of curated content that can be used in promotional material moving forward to raise brand awareness. All the evidence indicates that event marketing will continue to go from strength to strength. There has never been a better time to incorporate this powerful medium into your marketing strategy.