With all of the attention being given to marketing buzzwords such as content marketing, visual content, and storytelling, it is easy to overlook old school, offline forms of marketing. Event marketing, however, is a form of traditional marketing that seems to have staying power. According to SocialFresh, 67% of B2B marketers think event marketing is the most effective marketing strategy.
Event marketing combines the best of every marketing style, old and new. For example, you can easily integrate content marketing, visual content, and storytelling into any event marketing strategy. In addition, events are valuable because attendees are able to build real relationships during face-to-face interactions. Events also give participants all of the perks available in the digital realm, such as social media communities, online forums, interactions via apps, and much more.
Face-to-face interactions however are likely the most valuable element of events for marketing teams. A study by Oxford Economics in 2009 found that every dollar invested in business travel results in $12.50 in added revenues and $3.80 in new profits, according to The New Face of Face-to-Face Meetings, a Wall Street Journal article. Of course it is not the travel itself that drives profits. Instead, profits grow when trust is established between involved parties. One of the best ways to establish trust is to look into the other person’s eyes, and let them look into yours. Body language, eye contact, and physical appearance all play a crucial role in developing trust, and establishing a genuine connection.
Gaining trust and building connections with other people at events can lead to an increase in revenue. According to the key research findings noted in The Return on Investment of U.S. business travel, more than half of business travelers stated that 5-20% of their company’s new customers were the result of trade show participation.
Since the Oxford study, The Return on Investment of U.S. business travel, was conducted six years ago, some people might argue that face-to-face meetings and trade shows have lost some of their value. However, I would argue that the opposite is more likely true. The best way to stand out in an increasingly digital world is to make someone feel like an individual, and a real person.
Even though conferences and trade shows seem to be all about getting back to the basics, and are marketing models that have been around for decades, modern marketing practices should still be leveraged when marketing at events.
Storytelling, content marketing, and visual content should be all be priorities within your event marketing plan. In addition, when possible, avoid handing out paper brochures, and junky swag. Instead, use digital, interactive content to educate new prospects, and provide high-quality giveaways, if freebies are absolutely necessary to engage your target audience.
To get the best return on your event marketing investment, submit an application to be a featured speaker, and/or apply to be a breakout session instructor. Being listed among the highlighted speakers for a respected event is a great credibility booster for any professional.
If accepted as a speaker, use professionally designed, highly-visual slides during your presentation. In addition, tell a story, or multiple stories, to give your presentation emotional appeal. Most importantly, develop your presentation content specifically for the demographic of the attending audience.
While you are delivering your presentation, someone from your team should be live-tweeting pictures, slides, quotes, and stats from your presentation.
Remember to use the official hashtag for the event. Also, use the event’s Twitter handle to tag the event in each tweet. If you have a large enough team, consider commissioning real time updates for all of your social media profiles, in addition to Twitter.
Don’t let your presentation die after you leave the spotlight. Prepare to flip through your slides while talking to attendees at your booth in the vendor area of the event. If your presentation content is relevant to the event, and valuable for the attendees, many attendees will want to engage in follow-up discussions with you after you present on stage. By sharing slides during the follow-up discussions, you can avoid the small talk trap, and keep the conversation moving in a productive direction during your valuable face-to-face meeting.
To maximize on the buzz about your presentation, have your slides handy on your mobile device so you can discuss your presentation at networking events, or even while standing in line for coffee. You need to be prepared to have face-to-face interactions at any moment when investing in an event. Do not waste a single opportunity to develop a real world relationship.
Lastly, keep your presentation alive even after the event. Share your presentation online by uploading your deck to SlideShare, embedding your deck into a blog post, or hosting webinars using your already prepared slides.
No matter how you choose to reuse your deck, the only bad decision is doing nothing at all with your valuable slides.
Conclusion: To be a B2B champion, go old school, with new school style. Go to events and talk about your ideas and your business. Also, talk to other people about their ideas and businesses. If you can, introduce yourself to other people by being featured as a speaker. Then, continue to develop relationships during follow-up meetings about your presentation. Leverage technology by live tweeting, utilizing SlideShare, and hosting follow-up webinars. However, keep your eye on the prize, by focusing on face-to-face interactions at respected events.
