First thing’s first. Before you start brainstorming your event’s hashtag or searching for the photobooth company with the funniest props, take a step back to look at the big picture. After all, events are not a one-type-fits-all business. Depending on your industry and business type, your organization is expecting you to produce certain results, and your event type has a lot to do with it.
In this chapter, we go through the ins-and-outs of building your event strategy. Here's what we cover:
• Why are you throwing an event?
• Who is your audience?
• What do you need to meet your goals?
• How will you measure your success?
These will help inform your entire event strategy, including the type of event you should throw and who you should invite (more on that later).
Oftentimes, the type of event you should throw is directly related to what you’re looking to get out of it. Keep in mind: you don’t necessarily need to choose just one goal (i.e. a community event can also be educational, education events can drive sales, etc.), but you need to understand that not every type of event produces the same results.
The best in the business — Event Optimizers — use many different types of events to target their different core audiences and the different stages of the funnel. Mix goals for what works best with your business.
While hosted events are known for being best at accelerating sales cycles and increasing customer engagement, they can touch every single stage of the marketing funnel.
Before you can choose what kind of event you should throw and for whom, it’s helpful to understand the marketing funnel and where events fit in.
This is a simplistic view of the funnel. In reality, and depending on your business, sales cycle, and industry, a buyer can go through several stages and touchpoints that aren’t necessarily linear. Nonetheless, this should help you understand that (1) events can be effective at every stage of the buyer’s journey, and (2) you need to be smart about how to use them.
Friendly reminder: your events shouldn’t be the ONLY thing your guests are interacting with. Make sure you’re working with your greater marketing team or organization to understand where events best come in.
Tech giant, Tableau, uses various event types at every stage of the funnel. See the 6 event tactics that turned them into a billion dollar company.
We like to believe that events have a lot of benefits (we’re biased!). But here are some of the more common reasons companies throw events (plus common event types for each).
From professional networks to new friendships, events naturally connect people. Every guest is a potential Twitter fan, newsletter subscriber, product user, website visitor, or customer. Use your events to bring people together around a cause, a brand, a new product, or just a time to meet and mingle with new faces.
Events are a great way to get your brand’s name out there (and associate it with a memorable experience). If you’re looking for the press’ attention, make sure you invite the media (and/or influencers in your industry) to ensure you’ll be seen, heard, and noticed within the community.
Events give you the opportunity to connect with prospects in-person, and also let you create the ideal environment for your prospects to connect with your customers. Whether you have a 90-day sales cycle or are looking to drive more in-store sales from a retail event, in-person events can benefit every stage of the sales process.
Your customers are your number one priority, but how often do you get to actually spend time with them in-person? For some businesses, retention is often more of a focus than getting new customers. Your event goal might simply be to drive engagement with the people who are already using your product, receiving your services, or following your brand (for example, an exclusive event for a retailer’s loyalist members).
Many people turn to events to expand their knowledge and connect with other professionals in the industry. If your company focuses on a certain profession or has a deep understanding of a particular topic, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and bring people together through panels, workshops, and other educational events.
Bringing people together to meet and mingle is a tried and true way to connect companies with potential employees. Job fairs and networking events are the classic recruiting styles, but even industry conferences have become a breeding ground for talent looking for their next role, and brands have found success throwing VIP events specifically targeted to top talent.
Event partnerships can change the outcome of an event for the better — it can help attract new audiences, decrease costs, and boost brand authority. Choosing the right event partner and aligning around a common audience and goals is key to ensuring success.
Driving net-new leads from your events is tough, but possible. Net-new refers to people who are brand new to your database. Sponsoring large industry events or partnering up with another brand are two great ways to acquire net-new.
Here's a nifty chart that will help you better understand which event types will drive which expected outcomes. Download it now.
At Dreamforce, we opted to throw our own satellite event, rather than sponsoring a booth — and still drove 400K in new opportunities and 140% ROI 😮. See how we did it.
The smartest publishers are diversifying with events and working with partners to throw great ones. Get The Publisher's Guide to More Ticket Sales and Better Partnerships.
Salesforce's Trailblazer Community — made up of approximately three million of its users — is the perfect example of customer engagement and community-building. They have more than 840 user groups in 80+ countries that meet up in-person to share ideas and network. Read more of Salesforce's event success story in this report.
You’re competing with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of brands on the exhibition floor. Here are four ways to make your trade show booth unforgettable.
Every company — no matter how big or small — can reap the benefits of event marketing. The question is, how? And what’s the difference?
Sponsoring: usually this means you’re paying another organizer, company, or organization to participate in their event. This could come in many forms (e.g. a booth, an experience or service (like an espresso machine at an industry conference), sponsored session or speaker slot, a satellite party, or VIP dinner).
Hosting: when you host an event, you have full control over the entire event experience: promotions, branding, content, and guest list. This means you are responsible for everything — driving attendance, finding the venue, scheduling speakers, booking talent or food vendors, managing the guest list and event pages, branding swag, and more.
What are the disadvantages? More time and manpower. But, there are several ways to offset these costs like offering partnerships or sponsorships, using event technology to scale manual processes, or hiring an outside event production agency.
Curious about what the most popular event types are for sponsored vs hosted events? According to 739 global enterprises:
While most companies are doing a mix of both sponsoring and hosting events, more and more companies are shifting to take more control of their events. According to HBR's Event Marketing Evolution report, four in 10 enterprise companies plan to spend more on hosting events in the year ahead, while only three in 10 plan to spend more on sponsoring events.
Take it from one of our customers:
99% of the time I say ‘no’ to sponsoring a general event. I’d rather invest our budget on an event where I can control the content.
Even if your company does decide to sponsor an event, it’s always best practice to go beyond the booth and throw your own satellite event (see how Splash did this at Dreamforce).
Get a behind-the-scenes look at our killer conference strategy from our VP of Marketing, Amy Holtzman in one of our most popular webinars ever (spoiler: we reveal all our secrets).
If determining your event’s goal is step #1, think of developing your event value proposition a very crucial step #2. This is essentially your mission statement — aka what your guests are going to get out of your event.
By building a clear value proposition, you and your team will not only have a better understanding of your event’s purpose, but you’ll also be better able to express this value in your pre-event promotions (and drive more regs!).
Want to learn how to create a great one? Check out this video from our CEO Ben, who breaks down his go-to strategy for building an event value proposition.
We like to think of an event’s goal as its superpower. Discover your event’s superpower, plus how to leverage it to maximize your entire event program.
Take our 3-minute assessment, and we'll compare your event marketing to 700+ global brands. Get your score now.
According to a report that surveyed 739 global brands, those who adopt event technology are better at measuring their events from top-to-bottom of the funnel (so, event success is more than the number of RSVPs) .
