Events can be a great way of engaging with potential customers – provided that you promote yourself effectively and get the basics right. Here are ten bits of advice from Marketing Donut which will ensure that your events are a real talking point.
1. Location, location, location: give careful consideration to the events and trade fairs that you decide to attend. Give yourself the best marketing opportunity from the outset by ensuring that your target market are likely to be in attendance. It will make it much easier to promote your product or service.
2. Advertise: if you’re attending an event, make sure people know about it. Tell people about the event on your website or in a blog post in the run up to the event. Engage with potential attendees via social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, and get people interested before the day. There’s more about making social media work for you and your business on our website.
3. Staff: Make sure that the people representing your business at the event are motivated and enthusiastic. They need to be willing to approach members of the public and engage them in conversation.
4. Have clear objectives: make sure you know what you want to gain by attending the event. This will ensure that you work productively, stay focused and make the most of the opportunity you have.
5. Have an events manager: someone should be overseeing the logistics of your event. This person needs to be decisive and able to use their initiative, as events can be unpredictable. If for example, there should be a problem at the event venue, someone needs to take the lead and implement a plan B.
6. Make sure that you can be found: there’s no point in attending an event if your stand isn’t clearly advertised and easy to locate. Approach the stand from different angles as a member of the public might, to ensure that your stand is clear and inviting. Use signage and posters with your businesses branding to make your stand eye-catching. Discover more about branding here.
7. First impressions count: make eye contact and smile at those who pass your stand. Everyone is a potential customer! Our article ‘It’s not what you say, but how you say it’ outlines the importance of making a good first impression in business.
8. Talk less, listen more: listen to the questions of those who approach you. Identify their needs and think about how you can be of use to them. It’s certainly preferable to the hard sell and will leave people with a more favourable impression.
9. Promotional items: make sure that your business name and/or logo is on all promotional items. Try to be original too – you need to stand out from the crowd and be memorable, especially if there are a number of other businesses at the event.
10. Look to the future: make sure that any leaflets or brochures you give out feature contact details to all of the platforms your business utilises – telephone, website, email, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. You could include a QR code on leaflets, which takes people straight to your website when scanned, or advertise a promotional code at the event, which might encourage people to bear your business in mind once the event is over. You can find out more information about how to create a QR code on the IT Donut.
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