Building a strong presence in the events industry is very critical to the sustainability and performance of your business. A well-designed and strategic technique can trigger an emotional response to prospective clients, creating a level of engagement that’s almost unfeasible to achieve using any other marketing medium, hence the need to factor these 5 important activities especially if you are a startup. In our recent article on 6 important tools to start an event business, we mentioned Key Partners and Market Segmentation. In this session, we will explore these business tools and how to incorporate them in building a strong business presence in the events industry.
The first question, what is business presence? I define business presence as a set of advertisement/ marketing tool that enables one to engage existing and prospective client as well as the public, increase brand awareness, build profitable business affiliations, and make a brand first to think of. Further, a good business presence keeps the brand on the lips of people, in the diaries of prospective clients, and chosen among the best 5 in the industry in terms of recommendation and attestation. Let’s look at the 5 most important brand building and marketing strategies in building a strong presence in the events industry.
TAKE TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Social medial is now the most important aspect of digital marketing which exposes your brand to billions of customers not only in your country of operation but worldwide. Any successful business in this century would agree that without social media marketing your brand is just limited to your locality, hence; anyone not applying these tools is missing out big time on the world of countless possibilities. According to Sharron Helson, Social media is one of the most stress-free and profitable digital marketing platforms that can be used to increase your business visibility. To get started, create social media profiles for your business and start networking with others. By applying a social media strategy, it will help you significantly increase your brand recognition.
The cost associated with social media is quite reasonable compare to the traditional means of advertisement. Creating an account and signing-up is almost free for all social media platforms unless you want to place a paid add or boost a product. Social media makes your market segmentation easier by selecting who sees your ads, the age rage and the demography in some settings. By signing-up and socializing on platforms like, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap chart, among others, you have the opportunity to build your business society and brand presence by posting of flyers, photos and other materials with the intention of building your business brand.
Social media has complimentary tools that allows you to link several accounts from other platforms together making it easier to manage all your accounts with limited time and resources and getting better understanding of the events industry. Exploring digital marketing with the intentions of brand presence is a good source of measuring your Returns on Investment (ROI); in this way you can evaluate and choose where to do more of your brand building and where your prospective clients may be. Without your marketplace awareness and observing the activities of your customer’s interest and opinions, you might not know otherwise if you didn’t have a social media presence.
EXHIBIT YOURSELF
Exhibiting your brand can be quite expensive but has proven over the years very effective on building a strong presence in the events industry, hence the need to save quite some funds to pursue this tool. You can however start by printing of flyers and business cards and sharing them at exhibitions, fairs, and gatherings that involve large crowd of people as well as having a one-on-one interactions with persons attending these functions. Again you can build pull-up banners and place them at vantage places where you think your target market would be, example; marriage counseling seminars, wedding ring stores, bridal stores for social events business, and corporate meetings, hotels, and other corporate events that have potential customers for corporate events business.
For startups, you can share a stand with another vendor for event exhibitions and share your advertising materials. This will save you some cost as you explore the countless opportunities during an exhibition of your target market. Make sure you have your elevator speech ready as discussed in our previous article as it’s the main effective tool during these activities. Take advantage of event activities during gatherings/ meetings and always do your elevator speech before you do main activities as; leading an opening prayer, introducing a guest. Take interview sessions on in-house radio or broadcasting during an event and get bloggers to talk and post something about you on their social media platforms, among others. Don’t forget your main aim is to bring your brand to light and be on the lips and mind of people at the gathering.
Attend conferences and meeting that exposes your brand and offers you with opportunities to meet stakeholders and other inspirational persons in the industry. Take advantage to joining groups and associations in the events industry and the hospitality industry at large to build recognition and identity. Always keep souvenirs that has your business logo and name and give them out as gifts to make sure your name and business brand don’t ever depart from the minds of the Key Partners you meet along the way in building your brand.
Build Key partners that involve everyone you would need to make your events production successful and profitable such as, logistic vendors, event planners, meeting planners, and other key persons your business can not survive without and make sure they remember your brand as and when the need be. Follow and learn from brands that are doing better than you in the industry and integrate ideas and activities that can help bring your business to the light.
SPONSOR SOMETHING
One of the things many companies do to come into the light is exploring the opportunities of sponsoring something. As huge as this might sound, there are a couple of high rise events you can sponsor that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. You can sponsor ‘in kind’ especially for beginners and intermediates; you don’t necessary have to put cash into the event, you should target an activity within the event you can do or afford and take care of it. Example; provision of flowers for a high table for an occasion, provision of décor for half the price, providing an ushering service for half the cost, planning for free as you make your returns on vendor contract percentages, and in return putting your company logo on all social media platforms while marketing the event, as well as adding your brand name and logo on all audio or video marketing materials. This would build a more visible brand awareness and exposure for your company.
You can also choose events to fully sponsor if it will give your brand the needed exposure and you have the funding. Sponsoring an athletic activity like marathon race, bicycle race and other corporate or social gaming or sporting activities with sponsorship like branded free fruits stand , branded free water stands, and other vital but cost effective activity would gain you the recognition and needed brand attention. Whiles undertaking this activity, make sure you connect with the event’s organizers and other sponsoring companies as you might need them to sponsor your event when the time comes.
INVEST IN PROMOTIONS MERCHANDISE
Investing in promotional merchandise can be a great way to saying thank you to existing and prospective clients for doing business with you or the opportunity to do business with you and to know more about your products and services. Giving promotional items can also mean giving some gift items to radio stations, TV stations and other organization to give to their cherished customers on special occasions like, Mother’s Day, Father’s day, Valentine day, Christmas and other importantly celebrated occasion. This would mean your brand name would be mentioned and acknowledged on these platforms, creating a positive strong image to the public and customers. These can go a long way to building alliance with radio, TV station and other organizations and building profitable business relationships.
However, it’s important you don’t give inferior or items which is of less or no value as it will depict a wrong and negative image on your brand. Eventbrite believes don’t scrimp too much, cheap and cheerful can be a false economy. There’s no point giving a really cheap pen which is going to run out of ink really quickly – not only will your brand exposure be short-lived, giving low-quality items reflects badly on your company. It’s always advisable to pick gift items of value that fits your budget as well as the occasion by been creatives and exploring a wide seasonal range of ideas available through research. Excited recipient would go the extra mile by putting them on social media and writing a well note which would give your brand the needed attention and image.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become the new trend in business practices in this age. For companies committed to it, it’s a thumbs up for them as well as their brands, and a sign of making a positive statement about its image to its competitors. CSR strategies has become crucial to brand building and must be done by the organization itself, meaning; you would have to research and find out what other competitors are doing and what you can also do within the community to make a positive statement. Fraser Tennant agrees that having policies and procedures in place which integrate social, environmental, and ethical, human rights or consumer concerns into business operations and core strategy – all in close collaboration with stakeholders is the way to go.
Taking up CSR is a very fantastic way of promoting your business image. CSR has shown over the years a very effective tool in brand building and using your demography to your advantage. Though it usually comes at a cost, you can still explore a more cost effective activity in your environment to embark. Some of these activities can range from organizing a cleanup exercise, community walk, among others and in collaboration with other organizations or authorities create awareness of pressing challenges facing the community. As the popular saying ‘Charity begins at home’ you can take advantage and promote your companies image by participating in activities locally.
Not so long ago, the European Commission defined CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”, I couldn’t agree more to this definition as it details ‘impact on society’. Whiles selecting a project or activity to embark on, remember you are doing it for the benefit of the society. When your activity impacts the society, you can be rest assured your firms image is as well impacting the societ. Again, a positive CSR sends a message that the company acknowledges its responsibility of leadership, hence gains the respect of the community in which it operates in. CSR practices can spear the firm’s position and make it a leading firm among competitors.
In conclusion, there are numerous concepts and activities to building a strong presence in the events business but with my over a decade of experience in the hospitality and events industry at large, these 5 activities should give your business a strong presence in the events industry. I will be sharing exciting articles on the events planning and management business and unfold the nitty- gritty of what you need to know about the events industry.
Join and subscribe to my YouTube channel ‘Events Boss’ as we explore the exciting topics in the events industry.
Columnists: Ishmael Kwasi Hanson
Events Professional/ Consultant
CEO, Eden Events Gh.
