With so many low-energy and low-cost ways of promoting your small business brand on the internet, many people assume that they don’t need to promote their brand ‘in person’. While internet branding and marketing venues such as social networking are certainly important, live events can also be valuable in building your corporate image. Whether you choose to be a sponsor of a live event or set up a booth at a local convention or show, live events can help make that personal connection that is so important to your customers. Here are a few of the advantages of live event marketing:
- Live event marketing allows you to get to know your consumer base. It is easy to lose touch with your customers when they are merely numbers in an analytics report or faces you see only in business contexts. However, getting to know your market a little more intimately will help you to lead your business in directions that are more customer-oriented.
- Live event marketing allows your customers to get to know you. Have you ever bought cookies from a Girl Scout? Sure, they’re a little over-priced, but the salespeople are undeniably customer-friendly. You are probably even more likely to buy the cookies if it is a niece or a friend’s daughter selling them. While you can never match the cute factor of a little girl, you can bet that your customers will be more likely to buy from you if they have met the people behind your business.
- Live event marketing builds buzz. In a consumer survey by Jack Morton, eight out of ten people said that they tell others after participating in an ‘experiential marketing event’—that is, a live event that allows them to see, sample, or otherwise interact with products. People remember and discuss real life experiences. If you have a great product but just cannot seem to generate that all-important word-of-mouth advertising, this may be the missing link.
- Live event marketing promotes brand recognition. What do you remember most: things you read about, or things you actually do? Allowing customers to interact in-person with your small business brand will make it more memorable to them because they have an experience (hopefully a positive one!) to associate with your name and logo design. Live events set you apart from every other name in the industry and plant the seeds of brand loyalty.
- Live event marketing allows customers to get to know your products. If you are having trouble generating sales, the problem might not be your products. It might just be that customers don’t know enough about them to really want to buy. If you set up a booth at an event and allow customers to interact with your products, they just might decide that they need them. This is the concept that makes all of those home party sales work so well. When consumers actually put their hands on a product and experience how it works, they can then picture how it would benefit them in their day-to-day lives.
