Events can be a brilliant way to support the growth of your small business.
They can help you meet potential customers, build relationships, raise your profile, demonstrate your expertise and create all kinds of opportunities you possibly haven’t even thought of!
But they can also be an expensive way of being busy.
Doing your research and putting some strategy behind your event marketing can make a massive difference and make the events you do work harder for you and your business.
Just because an event is popular, everyone else is exhibiting, or someone has told you that you “should” be there, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing for your business.
In Season Three of the ‘Everyday’s A Business School Day’ podcast, (myself) Nicky Thomas (Founder of The Growth Community) and my good friend, James Marriott (Podcast Expert and Founder of Sound Media), sat down with event and marketing specialist, Zoe Wadsworth, from Ask Zoe to talk about events from a marketing perspective.
The key message that came out of the discussion was about being ‘more intentional’ about how we utilise events in our marketing. It’s not just about simply turning up, it’s about how they fit into and support your overall marketing goals.
This blog highlights some of the practical insights that came out of that discussion with Zoe. You can also listen to the full podcast episode, where you’ll be able to take part in Zoe’s useful homework which gives you some simple event marketing strategies to get going with straight away.
So, here are EIGHT ways to ‘up’ your event marketing game!
Quick Article Summary
Events can be a powerful marketing tool for small businesses, but only when you approach them with intention. This article shares eight practical event marketing strategies to help you choose the right events, make the most of your time there, create meaningful connections, follow up effectively and measure what you actually get back from your investment.
1. Start with the “so what?” of your event marketing
Before you book a stand, buy a ticket or organise an event, ask yourself a very simple question:
What’s the ‘so what’?
Why are you doing this?
What do you want it to achieve?
Who do you want to meet?
What would make you come away thinking, “That was worth my time and money”?
As Zoe said during the podcast:
“If you don’t know what that ‘so what’ factor is for you and your business, you’re wasting your time and your money.”
It’s very easy to become a busy fool when it comes to marketing. You see everyone else attending an exhibition, sponsoring an event or running webinars and think you should be doing the same.
But your marketing needs to support your business, your audience and your current objectives.
The right event for someone else might be completely wrong for your event marketing strategy.
2. Choose events based on your business, not everybody else’s
One of the most useful things we discussed in the episode was the importance of measuring your own experience of an event.
An event isn’t necessarily good or bad. It’s all relative. It depends on what you want from it, who is there and how you use the opportunity.
I’ve lost count how many times I’ve attended an event and some people have raved about the experience while others have felt it didn’t generate what they had hoped.
It’s rare that you’ll get 100% agreement on anything. That’s just human nature!
Zoe gave the example of changing the way she approached a local, oversubscribed business expo. After exhibiting herself and supporting clients at the event, she realised that she actually got a better return from attending and spending her time having conversations rather than having her own stand.
That’s a real lightbulb moment.
Someone else might tell you an event was brilliant. Someone else might tell you it was a complete waste of time. Neither experience tells you whether you should go.
Your job is to test, measure and learn.
As we said in the podcast, you’ve got to “go with what’s right for your business”. And that might change over time. Your business changes. Your audience changes. Your goals change. So, your event strategy should evolve too.
3. The event is only part of your event marketing strategy
This topic is really close to my heart. Most people only do one part of the event marketing strategy and that is often why they feel short changed by the event experience.
In the podcast, Zoe describes the event as “the filling in the sandwich.” But you need to remember that the filling needs two slices of bread around it to be complete.
You’ve got something happening before it.
You’ve got the event itself.
And you’ve got everything that happens afterwards.
The event is simply the middle.
Yet how often do we concentrate almost entirely on the event itself?
We book the stand. We turn up. We have some conversations. We come home with tired aching feet. And then… nothing.
And to be fair, that’s really just scatter gun eventing… it’s not really event marketing.
If you’re exhibiting, what are you doing beforehand to make sure the right people know you’ll be there?
- Can you find out who else is exhibiting?
- Is there anyone you’d particularly like to meet?
- Can you create content around your attendance?
- Can you give people a reason to come and find you?
- And afterwards, what happens to all those conversations?
The event should create momentum; create a pipeline; and start lots of different sparks off – some hot, some warm, some cold. And they will all need a slightly different response to ensure that your event marketing strategy is achieved.
4. Go to events with a clear intention
You don’t need to meet everybody in a room. In fact, trying to meet everybody is counterproductive.
One of the things we talked about in the episode was the idea of going into an event with a very simple intention, such as:
“I want to identify two or three people I’d like to have a further conversation with.”
That’s it.
Having a quality over quantity approach will definitely make events work harder for you and your business.
If you just go into a room to collect business cards and contacts, you’ve barely scratched the surface of the potential. But if you can have a handful of genuine conversations, where you are genuinely curious and interested in the other person, you’ll leave the event with a couple of people to have a deeper conversation with.
And don’t underestimate the power of this. Even if someone doesn’t look synergistically useful to your business on the surface, you’ll be surprised where a conversation goes when you get beneath the surface.
As James said during the podcast:
“It’s good you don’t have to do the volume follow-up, but you definitely do need to follow up.”
A successful event isn’t measured by how many people you get to speak to.
It’s about the couple of brilliant conversations, with people you sparked with in a busy room, that turn into something useful six weeks, six months or even two years later.
It’s not about pitching your wares to anybody who will listen, it’s about listening, asking questions and getting that gut reaction that you’ll get on with someone – and acting on it.
5. Look beyond immediate sales
This is where event marketing comes into its own.
Of course, we want to generate sales from attending events. They should work hard for us.
But if you judge every event purely on whether somebody bought from you that day, you will easily fall into the trap of thinking that events don’t work.
As Zoe said in the session. People don’t necessarily arrive at an exhibition or networking event thinking, “I’m going to buy what you’re selling today.”
They might be researching.
They might be looking for ideas.
They might be thinking about a problem they haven’t quite decided how to solve yet.
They might meet you and remember you six months later when they realise they need what you sell.
Or they might introduce you to somebody else and start a chain reaction that leads you to your best ever client.
Events can create opportunities for:
- New customers
- Collaborations
- Partnerships
- Referrals
- Suppliers
- Expert connections
- Brand awareness
- Community
- Customer retention
- Business knowledge and experience
It’s also important to remember that some of the return will be intangible (which admittedly makes it harder to measure but it’s still really relevant to your event marketing strategy.)
For example:
You might meet someone who gives you an idea that saves you money.
You might find a supplier who solves a problem.
You might have a conversation that changes the way you approach your business.
You might meet someone who offers you support with a personal issues that without that help your business would have suffered. (I’ve lost count how may times my network have come to my rescue on non-work related matters!)
Not every return comes with a pound sign attached to it immediately.
6. Make your brand memorable – not just visible
Here’s where we got onto everyone’s favourite subject: merch.
Giveaways are very much entrenched in the event marketing business. Let’s be honest, we’re all on the lookout for a good merch item when we are perusing the stalls at an expo – aren’t we?
Branded pens are by far the most popular item… but could you make your event work harder by thinking a bit more out of the box?
Now, there’s nothing wrong with a pen. As Zoe states in the podcast, “A pen is useful. You use a pen. A pen will reach 11 different people in its lifetime,” So, a good branded pen can work really hard for your marketing pounds!
But before you spend money on something simply because “people like free stuff”, ask yourself:
Why this?
Does it fit your brand?
Is it useful?
Will they remember you?
Does it give you something to talk about?
Zoe gave some brilliant examples during the podcast of merch she uses and why, including trolley tokens because they’re genuinely useful on a weekly basis and create lots of opportunities for brand touch points.
James talked about giving away mints because what he does is all about conversational marketing – and good breath certainly helps with a conversation!
On the flip side, Zoe also shared a great example of a mortgage adviser who was considering giving away branded biscuits.
The biscuits were a nice idea. But they would be quickly eaten and forgotten. Instead, they came up with stress balls shaped like houses – a much stronger connection to the business and the stressful experience of buying or selling a home.
This is a great example of making events work harder for you. It’s the difference between just giving something away and using something tactical as part of your event marketing strategy.
Before you do your next event, think about how your merchandise could have greater purpose.
7. Follow up with people
This is probably one of the biggest missed opportunities in event marketing. It amazes me how infrequently I am followed up after an event – even when I’ve asked them to connect with me!
This is what tends to happen all too often:
You have a great conversation.
You exchange details.
You promise to get back in touch.
And then… nothing.
Or worse, your details disappear into a database and a day or so later you receive a generic ‘thanks for visiting our stand, let us know if you want us to sell you something’ email that has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation you had.
Good follow-up starts at the event.
Make some notes. I often either write on the business card itself or I staple it to a small follow up form, so I remember what I’ve got to do.
Star the people who are ‘hot’ and need a proper timely follow-up.
And, most importantly, make a note about what you talked about.
Zoe shared a lovely example in the podcast of meeting someone at an exhibition who needed support with social media.
It wasn’t a case of putting the contact straight into a generic marketing database.
She remembered the conversation, understood what the woman actually needed and brought another relevant expert into the conversation. That eventually led to a client relationship – but it took six months to come to fruition.
But that is a really good point.
Event marketing success isn’t usually delivered at Amazon Prime speed. It creates acorns that with some nurture will grow into oak tree opportunities.
Event Marketing creates next steps.
Sometimes it leads to a sale.
Usually it’s a useful cuppa.
Often it leads to an introduction or a collaboration.
Mostly it’s simply staying in touch and going on the journey.
Most people are not in the buying cycle for what you sell (yet)… but they might be in the future. So don’t just smash and grab. Go on the long journey.
8. Measure your event marketing ROI and learn from it
To make your event strategy work harder, you must have some form of measurement in place. Without any data, you have nothing to base your future decision making on.
But measuring event marketing ROI isn’t completely straightforward. While there are some really tangible numbers to crunch, there is also a lot of intangible data too – especially as some prospects can spend money with you months or even years down the line!
So, measurement shouldn’t just be how many people came through the door or how many business cards you collected. Or based on whether you “had a good day”.
More usefully ask questions like:
- What did I invest in this event?
- What did I want it to achieve?
- Who did I meet?
- What conversations came from it?
- What happened afterwards?
- Did it generate sales, leads, referrals or collaborations?
- Did it strengthen existing relationships?
- Did it raise my profile?
- What did I learn?
- Would I do it again?
And if you do it again, would you do it in exactly the same way?
Reflecting on what went well and what could improve is something you should apply to everything in business – and it should definitely be part of your event marketing strategy.
Events should create momentum – not just memories
Events can be one of the most powerful forms of marketing available to a small business because they give you something that digital marketing can’t completely replicate:
You get to be human.
You can talk.
You can listen.
You can demonstrate what you’re like to work with.
You can make introductions.
You can build trust.
You can give people an experience of your brand rather than simply telling them about it.
And you get to speak to the people whose problems you need to solve and maybe even identify new growth areas for your business.
As was said during the podcast:
“Events allow you, the human, to be seen and heard.” The human touch is what differentiates small businesses from the big guys.
But we definitely need to be very intentional about events.
Don’t attend one because everybody else is going.
Don’t exhibit because you always have.
Don’t give away a branded pen because that’s what everyone else does.
And don’t measure success purely by how many people you spoke to.
The best way to make events work harder for you is to ask yourself some really simple questions:
Why am I doing this?
What do I want it to achieve?
What will I do before, during and after the event to make that happen?
And, as Zoe said…
“What’s the so what?“
Reflecting on that question can change an event from being something you ‘simply attend’ into a successful tactic that supports delivery of your marketing strategy.
Listen to the podcast
This article is based on Season Three, Episode Four of Every Day is a Business School Day, where James and I chat with Zoe Wadsworth about how to use events more strategically – from choosing the right events, planning your approach, following-up, event merchandise and measuring your return.
It’s a lively conversation with plenty of practical ideas, examples and a few strong opinions along the way!
Want to get more from your business networking and events?
At The Growth Community, we’re big believers in purposeful networking.
If you’d like to connect with other small business owners, build relationships and grow your business through a more proactive approach to networking and some excellent conversations, you’ll love using up your six annual free visits at our relaxed but structured meetings. Find one near to you on our locations page.
Event Marketing FAQs
What is event marketing?
Event marketing is using events as part of your wider marketing strategy to build awareness, relationships, leads, sales, partnerships and community. It isn’t simply about attending an event – it’s about being intentional about what you want it to achieve and what happens before, during and after the event
How can events help a small business grow?
Events can help small businesses meet potential customers, build relationships, raise their profile, demonstrate expertise, generate referrals and collaborations, strengthen existing customer relationships and uncover new opportunities. Some returns may be immediate, while others develop over months or even years.
How do I choose the right event for my business?
Start by asking what you want the event to achieve and who you want to meet. Don’t choose an event simply because it’s popular or because other businesses are attending. Consider whether the audience fits your business and measure your own results so you can learn which events genuinely work for you.
How do I measure the ROI of event marketing?
Look beyond immediate sales. Consider your investment, who you met, the conversations you had, leads, sales, referrals, collaborations, new relationships and what happened afterwards. Also consider intangible returns such as useful advice, new ideas, increased visibility or valuable connections.
What should I do before and after an event?
Before the event, decide what you want to achieve, research the audience and exhibitors, and think about who you want to meet. Afterwards, follow up with the people you had meaningful conversations with, make use of any information you’ve gathered and measure what happened as a result. As the blog says, the event is only the filling in the sandwich – the activity before and after is just as important.
How many people should I try to meet at an event?
Quality is generally more useful than quantity. Rather than trying to speak to everyone or collect as many business cards as possible, go in with an intention to have a few genuinely useful conversations. The podcast suggests identifying two or three people you’d like to have a further conversation with.
Further Resources
This blog is based on an episode which is part of Season Three of Everyday’s A Business School Day podcast. You can listen to move episodes on Spotify or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.
Why not have a read of some of our other blogs in our library.
Ten tips for getting more from attending an expo
Identify the right networking format for you
Decide if networking groups are worth the effort
How to get the most out of your 121s
Ways you can build trust with your connections
Learn more about Growth Community member only meetings
