Of all the ways to promote a business locally, there’s no better way than with event marketing.
And with proper inclusion of digital marketing, your events can access a much wider audience than live events can without it.
Now that everyone seems to be attached physically to their mobile phones, it’s to your advantage to create digital marketing campaigns that will grab their attention.
Adding a digital strategy will greatly increase the attendance of your events and can actually be used as the event independently.
As you read on, you’ll find that event marketing is a promising technique that can quickly help your business get new customers locally.
Here are the 7 ways to promote business locally using event marketing:
1) Exposure in local media –
Newspapers and radio stations are eager to pick up hot new events taking place locally.
Keep this in mind when planning your event. If you can make your event extraordinarily unique it’ll have a greater chance of getting free coverage in local media outlets.
2) Tell your story in-person –
As a local business owner you have to use every opportunity available to communicate the hidden value of your products.
Hosting live & digital events can make building value in your products an effortless process.
With competitors looming both locally and online, it’s essential that you sell value so customers don’t rely completely on price to make their decision.
Events can put you face to face with your prospects, allowing you to share the value of your products. This is beneficial whether your event is live or on a digital platform.
3) Engage with targeted prospects –
Individuals who participate in your events have already pre-qualified themselves as prime candidates for your products.
A good event marketing strategy, using lead capture techniques, will instantly deliver your best prospects directly to you.
Anyone who takes time to sign up or attend your event has some level of interest in purchasing your product. The only job you have left is to convince them that the choice to work with your business is the right one.
Now that you have their full attention, you can interact with them and easily move them towards making a buying decision.
4) Establish valuable partnerships –
Events attract more than just potential customers. In the process of planning and hosting an event, you’ll very likely meet other business owners who serve customers similar to yours.
Partnering with these owners can offer long-term rewards for you both.
You can share lists, cross-market products, or even host a joint event together in the future.
Building mutual relationships with other business owners can be one of the most fruitful ways to promote business locally.
5) Increased rankings online –
As you promote your event to attract attendees, you’ll post your business’s information, including your website, on event calendars, in articles and possibly videos.
Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo will reward you by boosting your rankings; giving your website increased visibility in search result listings.
6) Quality social content –
Many small businesses struggle with the idea of generating interesting posts to share on their social media networks.
Events can provide you with loads of fascinating content that followers would be eager to share with their own friends and family.
You will want to have a specific goal for curating content from your event.
Interview a few of your event participants and ask if you can take pictures of them with your products (if possible).
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to hire a professional videographer/photographer to capture and edit high-quality images from the event.
7) Build a list for follow-up –
Use your event to grow your customer list. Don’t let these highly targeted prospects get away without having the information you need to follow up.
The majority of your prospects won’t buy on the spot, so give them a good reason to give you their contact information.
It’s easiest to collect contact information by designing an effective digital marketing campaign well before your event takes place. This way it’s a fully automated process completed online.
Whether you collect the information online or offline, you’re going to need to create an irresistible offer that your prospects can’t refuse. It could be a special giveaway, an exclusive discount or a prize for signing up.
No one knows what your customers would act on more than you, so make your offer amazing!
As your list grows you can use email marketing to follow up with your prospects to give them, even more, reasons to do business with you.
Hopefully, you can see that event marketing is one of the best ways to promote business locally.
Need a hand creating your live & digital event marketing strategy? You can download our eBook The Event Entrepreneur for more powerful ideas or contact us support@ulivewv.com and we’ll help you design a plan for your special event.
