One channel we’ve found has great potential is hosting events as a way to market your business. Even if your business isn’t the type you think lends itself to events, this is still a tactic you can use! Watch the video below or read on to learn how we have used this strategy for several of our customers and ourselves, with great success.
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Why Does it Matter?
There are three key goals that we’re seeking to achieve through using events for marketing, those goals being (1) increase first-party data, (2) improve lead nurture options, and (3) build credibility. Let’s break these down a bit.
Increase First-Party Data
First-party data is information you collect directly from your customers and that you own, information like names, emails, phone numbers, and demographic data. It can complement, enhance, and reduce the need for other types of data and is invaluable for marketing in digital spaces.
As a lot of business owners and marketers probably know, over the last several years there have been significant changes in what we can and can’t do in digital marketing, particularly when it comes to cookies. The ability to collect first-party data through cookies following users around has been increasingly limited, so we have to think creatively to find new ways to collect this data. Running events is one way to do it.
Improve Lead Nurture Options
Once you have first-party data collected from event invitees and attendees, you will be able to nurture those relationships directly, engaging users to become customers and repeat customers. The reach and engagement rates we can get by running events through platforms like EventBrite are invaluable to building those customer relationships.
Build Credibility
If you are running an event, such as a webinar or consulting session, you are putting yourself out there publicly as a business owner and subject matter expert in your field. Regardless of your sector and the products or services your business offers, having a public presence such as running this type of event will go a long way toward building your public credibility in your field, which will draw in more customers. People buy from people they trust!
What’s the Approach?
You don’t actually need much to host and promote an event for your business. Think about what topics you as an expert can talk about that will be of interest or helpful to your target consumers.
For instance, if you’re a plumbing company, what are some recent developments in plumbing techniques or technology that you find interesting, or that can save customers time and money?
Or if you’re a cleaning service, what are some home cleaning tips you could share that would showcase your expertise to potential customers?
This tactic can work for any type of business. It just takes a little creativity to think of how you can position yourself as a subject matter expert to reach your audience.
How Do We Implement It?
Let’s look at an example of an event that we hosted ourselves. This is a Facebook ad that we ran for a webinar in partnership with a local college course:
We used EventBrite to create an event landing page and to email invitations to our prospect list.
We were absolutely blown away by the results of our email campaign using EventBrite’s email marketing tool. We saw an open rate of over 50%, which if you know email marketing, you know is an outstanding open rate!
EventBrite also has tools for social media promotion, which we did not utilize, as we ran Facebook ads ourselves. But they might be something to look into for yourself if you want some templates or guidance for promoting your event on social media.
In Summary
Now is the time for business owners and marketers to get creative and think “outside the box” when it comes to new ways to reach customers! Running events is one way we’ve found that can be very effective.
If you want to learn more about how we use events, or are just looking for someone to help out with digital marketing in general, we would be more than happy to help! Just give us a call at (253) 224-4891 or send an email to [email protected].