A data-driven event strategy!
Business events go beyond fun and friendly gatherings with your customers and other relations. You want an event that deiver results, right? The contribution of an event to the business is often unclear or invisible. As a result events are mainly seen as a cost item.
Did you know that 70% of all companies don’t have an overarching event strategy in place?
To solve this you need to translate your events into a successful live communication channel by building a clearly defined event strategy. Events are the only personal and interactive touchpoint with your customers and prospects. No matter if it is an onsite event, digital or hybrid. A well-organized event delivers a shared meaningful experience and emotion with your audience. Secondly it adds value to your brand and company. With live communication, you can directly influence your participants and change existing perceptions, while activating your brand. As a result you can guide your participants in a pre-orchestrated desired direction, which results in conversion over a predefined period. It is the most impactful instrument for direct communication.
However there are a number of important steps, before a marketing department comes to a decision to organize or participate in a business event (B2B) in alignment with business units and sales teams. Steps that you as marketeer often take for granted. That you don’t think about or simply don’t come up for discussion. Or which you can’t influence or there is no specialist in your team. But which you should answer to become an equal interlocutor for your board of management to explain why a certain event or more events contribute to the business objectives, and are not only seen as a cost.
Include events in your marketingplan
In general, middle-sized and large companies develop a yearly Annual Operating Plan (AOP) that is linked to the business strategy and its market segments. This annual plan includes among others growth targets, budgets, investments, product development, sales and marketing strategy and go-to-market segments and channels.
As a marketing department, you develop your annual marketing plan, that supports the marketing strategy and growth objectives in the AOP. You make choices like go-to-market segments, infrastructure, marketing mix, communication channels and the associated online and offline activities based on the available marketing budget. This is always difficult and not at all an easy process. Because you have to prioritize what marketing budget you spend and where to spend it, to get the best results. There is always too little budget and you have to deal with your business units and sales teams who wants to do everything. And of course everything is equally important.
Investing in events without goals and measurable results is a waste of money
And this is where the first step begins to think about events as an impactfull communication channel. Does a certain type of event contribute to the marketing strategy and objectives as part of the marketing mix? Can it be an important touchpoint in the customer journey of your client or influencers like media? And where in the marketing funnel does the event has the largest impact. If we start looking at events in this way and make it part of your marketing plan and integrated campaigns, you will automatically make strategic choices whether events have added value or not. Just like you already do for social media, advertising, public relations, web, content, e-commerce and email marketing. Even if you only organize one event per year it is worthwhile taking this approach.
An event strategy is born
This is how you develop an event strategy. You make well-considered choices about the use of events and you can turn it into an annual event program. Besides it gives you a good insight as well to determine which events can take place online, live or in a hybrid format to realize the right mix or have multiple scenarios available. Very convenient in this disruptive period with lockdowns and many limitations to reach your audience. As a result an event strategy prevents you from organizing an event ad-hoc, because there is a compelling demand.
What I currently see around me is that companies are shifting their marketing mix to other instruments and channels. Because marketing budgets are scrutinized, team capacity is reduced, live events suffer from budget restraints. Furthermore it is difficult to prove the return of value. For that reason other communication channels seem more effective for direct growth. It’s also not a secret that events consume a large part of the marketing budget. Therefore it is understandable to think less strategically about events or worse you even don’t focus on it in the short term.
But the great power of live communication remains. This is also backed up by Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2021 where events are still 8.4% of the total marketing channel spend. An event is the only and most valuable communication channel for every company to get direct contact with customers, prospects and other stakeholders. Here you can share knowledge, inform, build stronger relationships and get instant feedback. It is essential for the future of any company that invests in long-term and lasting relationships. And a perfect fit when you operate a 360 degrees omnichannel community strategy.
Do you want to discover more about event strategy and marketing? How to develop this in your company? Or you want to be prepared for the plans of 2023? Please feel free to contact me by clicking below button.