The secret to business success lies in an effective sales and marketing strategy. Whether you're a startup or a well-established company, the right approach can help you reach your target audience, build strong relationships with customers, and drive growth for your business.
In the ocean of "proven" sales and marketing tactics, it is normal for businesses to experiment and fail. Dynamic markets and evolving customer expectations further worsen the problem, leaving strategists to wonder what exactly works.
This is precisely where the dynamic marketing duo of events and growth marketing is helping businesses regain their edge. Gloria Zhu (Director of Demand Generation) and Rachel Ring (Senior Brand Events Manager) joined Kathleen (Timbol) Abdeen, our Director of Field and Product Marketing, to share precisely what this combination is and the right way to use it as a powerful marketing tool.
Growth and event marketing are two essential aspects of a successful marketing strategy, and when combined, they can create a powerful mix that can lead to exponential growth for businesses.
"Every business wants to grow and incorporate events, and working with your events team is one of the best ways to do that. It's like killing two birds with one stone. You are boosting brand recognition and growing on the pipeline generation side," Gloria says.
Growth marketing uses data and experimentation to rapidly grow a business, while event marketing focuses on creating engaging and memorable experiences that can drive brand awareness and customer loyalty. By combining the two, companies can leverage the power of data-driven experimentation to develop innovative and engaging events that attract new customers, drive sales, and increase brand loyalty. This approach can help businesses stand out in a crowded marketplace and drive long-term growth.
How do you plan your events? One big annual gala or through multiple touchpoints to stay at the top of your customer's minds?
Experts Gloria and Rachel believe that an always-on event marketing strategy lets you connect with your audience and communicate your value proposition better. An always-on event strategy is a marketing approach that involves holding events regularly rather than as one-off occurrences. Instead of waiting for a significant product launch or industry event, businesses using this strategy will host smaller, more frequent events throughout the year.
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Multiple touchpoints allow you to build long-lasting customer relationships to engage and connect with the leads. It will also enable each event to be cohesive and flow into each other. This approach can create a consistent presence in the market and keep a brand at the forefront of customers' minds. It also allows businesses to experiment with events, from webinars to networking sessions to product demonstrations. Companies can build stronger relationships, gain valuable insights, and create new growth opportunities by constantly engaging with customers through events. Ultimately, an always-on event strategy can help businesses stay relevant and competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.
Following up with the attendees promptly and personally is essential to keep them engaged and build relationships that can lead to future sales. This may involve sending targeted emails, making phone calls, or scheduling in-person meetings. The key is to provide value to the attendee based on the insights gathered during the event, such as their interests and pain points.
According to Gloria, lead nurture is an opportunity for brands to think out of the box and be creative in the way they want to keep the customers hooked. Rather than just thinking about emails, she suggests going beyond and including LinkedIn outreach, gifting, retargeting, and more as an essential part of lead nurturing.
Rachel says, "People need that refresh of their memory of you, what your brand does, and what you can offer them. It's also an excellent way to tie it back into that always-on strategy: to invite them to your next event. Invite them to that brown table or the webinars you have coming up; that way, it doesn't feel like a hard-push sale. You know you're making that relationship and continuing to invite them into your network and community."
"With virtual events, you have a lot of data that you can leverage to personalize your sales pitch to really strike a chord with your audience," she continues. "If they commented on a particular subject, use that to your benefit. Really start using that to build that relationship, and it's also really nice because you can continue to use that guest list for future events for speakers, anything like that."
By tailoring the follow-up to the specific needs and interests of the attendee, businesses can increase the likelihood of converting them into customers. A well-executed post-event lead nurturing strategy can help businesses build strong relationships with potential customers, increase brand loyalty, and ultimately drive revenue growth.
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Return on investment (ROI) and attribution are critical considerations for any event marketing strategy. It's essential to track the performance of events and measure their impact on business outcomes such as revenue, lead generation, and customer retention. This involves collecting and analyzing data to determine which events deliver the most value and where improvements can be made. Attribution is also crucial to understand how different marketing channels contribute to event success. This allows businesses to determine which channels are most effective at driving event attendance and conversions and to optimize their marketing mix accordingly. By understanding the ROI and attribution of events, businesses can make data-driven decisions that help them maximize the value of their event marketing efforts and achieve their business goals.
In a nutshell, the mantra of creating influential events and growth marketing strategy includes four crucial aspects:
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