3 Top Tips for Planning a Business Marketing Event

These days there are so many ways of marketing your product or company that it can be overwhelming. Even with the onset of online social marketing, holding an event still reaps a fantastic return on your investment as there really is no substitute for face to face interaction.

Meeting your potential customers and interacting with them in person will allow you to build up a rapport with them. Statistics tell us that this rapport is usually the thing that makes the sale more than the quality or price of the product. There are many different types of business marketing events such as product launches, training conferences and trade exhibitions.

Set a budget and stick to it

We all have grand ideas and it is really easy to get carried away. Yes, you do need to wow you potential customers and yes, you do need to show that you are a creditable and trustworthy business but in doing you do not need to break the bank. Sit down and write a list of everything you intend to do at your event and then assign a cost to it. Remember to include your time on the day as well as time spent in planning and preparation. When it comes to booking venues or stands don’t be afraid to haggle and don’t feel the need to accept every bolt on they try to sell you. Do a lot of research and find out what the market average is for venue hire, brochure printing and so on.

Pick the right staff

The people who work or help out at your event will really make or break it. For that hour, day or weekend they are an ambassador of your business and they need to leave people with a positive image of you. If you are a small business or sole trader then you may be considering asking your family and friends to help out. This is a fantastic way to save on costs but occasionally relationships can be strained under such pressure, especially if they are not sued to you being the boss! A lot of larger companies will actually hire professional events staff. This has 2 main benefits. Firstly, it frees their own staff up from tasks such as serving refreshments and greeting delegates and allows them to focus on selling and building customer relationships. Secondly it means that they get a trained events professional who is purely there to manage their reception or hospitality areas and so the pressure is really taken off.

Decide on the right level of selling

There is nothing worse than going to an event under the pretence of being given useful information and then listening to a sales pitch for hours on end.  Many people do not like the ‘hard sell’ and in doing so you can actually alienate them from your company and products. If you provide high quality and useful information and really establish yourself as an expert in your field then you will be the one that people look to and get in touch with anyway. Give people a chance to try your products during refreshment breaks and at every opportunity and they should hopefully sell themselves! You could also consider offering a discount to all those who attend your event or consider a giveaway that will leave people wanting more!

Image Source: