Marketing a product or service is often not easy. Many roads lead to Rome, but many also lead nowhere. However, marketing through an event, the so-called event marketing, works very well. This way you can offer your visitors a unique experience that will be positively remembered. How to get from the invitation to the successful data analysis of your event and how to proceed best, we explain here.

What is Event Marketing actually?

Event Marketing is the experience and goal-oriented planning, conception and staging of events or happenings, for a special target group, to achieve goals within the framework of communication policy. The idea behind it is to come into direct emotional contact with the customer. Event marketing includes a goal-oriented pre- and post-processing. It is always helpful to proceed systematically in order to have a well thought-out process.

Why do I need Event Marketing?

Event Marketing offers you the possibility to make your communication even more diverse. By the goal to address the visitors, above all emotionally, you succeed in keeping your product in the memory of the visitors in different ways. It gives your event a special character that is not easily forgotten. Event marketing is a unique way to combine your product with an exciting experience. As soon as we connect something material with an emotion, it is even more deeply anchored in our memory. Therefore you should use event marketing purposefully and well planned for you.


We recommend that you ask yourself the following 5 questions:

- What do you want to achieve with the event?

- Who should be involved in the event?

- How do you connect an event with your actual product?

- What makes your event special?

- Why do the guests want to attend your event?

So if you want to organize an event to promote your product, it should not only be a pure product presentation. Offer a unique and original experience that entertains the customers. Touch your guests on an emotional level and make them remember you. You will not be the only one who wants to invite potential customers to your event. That is why it is so important to convince already at the invitation.

Digital invitation management plays an important role and helps you to cover everything from the invitation to the evaluation. How you can do this is explained in the following paragraphs. We have created a guideline for you, which you can use as a basis for successful event marketing.

5 steps to successful event marketing

With the following suggestions nothing stands in the way of your successful event marketing!

Step 1: The invitation

The basis for successful event marketing begins long before the actual event. Since, of course, a great many companies use the same strategy, a so-called communication competition occurs. The decision, to which events the customer finally goes, falls with it, how promising the Event sounds already with the invitation. So make absolutely sure that an individually adapted invitation is sent out for each marketing event. How this looks like is up to you. Whether you choose the postal or digital route, for example, or whether you address each visitor personally, is up to you. Sweap can also be a great help to you. Sweap offers many different ways to make your invitation unique.

Here is an example of a beautifully designed invitation with a personal salutation, simple text, large date and a clearly visible registration button.

Step 2: From the invitation to the website

If the customer now goes from your invitation to your landing page, this must also be individually adapted to the invitation. It should give the guest a good overview of what is happening at the event. A good image-text ratio is always very advantageous. Attract with promising pictures and well written texts. A professionally designed website gives the visitor an inviting insight into what to expect on site. In addition, the operation should be understandable for everyone. A simple and self-explanatory registration is the basis for a successful login. Sweap can also help you with this.

Let your creativity run wild and create a website that matches the style of the invitation, which is not only visually convincing but also includes an interactive registration form.

An exemplary landing page with a comprehensible registration form, countdown and a speaker overview.

Step 3: On-site and digital marketing

Your product or service is the center of your event. It must be presented in the same way. A good marketing event cannot live on entertainment and food alone. Your product must be the center of attention at all times!

Through event marketing you do not only want to convince your visitors on site, but also to shine outwardly during your appearance. That means: create high-quality photos and videos and distribute them on your social media channels. In this way you can let others participate in the event. By incorporating social media, you not only capture unique memories for your guests, but you can also convince outsiders to attend the next event.

Make sure you use the right channels for the right media. For example, Instagram and Tumblr are great for photos and videos with a brief description. However, if you want to go into more detail in writing, LinkedIn, Facebook or even a whole blog article are more suitable.

Do not forget the target group! Instagram posts are more likely to reach young people, whereas LinkedIn is more likely to appeal to potential business partners. An especially good tip: Link! Link participants, such as partners, and thus increase your reach.

Step 4: The right event schedule for your product

Red Bull shows us a very good example of clever event marketing. The energy drink giant from Salzburg organizes the so-called "Red Bull Flight Day", which is based on the advertising slogan "Red Bull gives wings".
At this annual event participants try to cross a lake with self-built airplanes. This is a very original and unique event offer, which also makes the headlines again and again.
Do the same for your event! Create a program that fits your motto and brand. In combination with the right mix of branding, communication and entertainment, the visitor will be reminded throughout the event for what reason exactly he/she chose your event.
As mentioned in the beginning, it is important in event marketing not to lose sight of the target group. Every target group needs different program points that are specifically tailored to them.

Step 5: Final success analysis

After you have successfully completed your marketing event, only one thing remains to be done: the final analysis, where you evaluate the success of your event based on data. How many potential participants accepted the invitation? How many have you already lost with the invitation? What is the so-called "no-show rate"?

Evaluate your event's success carefully and draw instructive conclusions for yourself as to where there is potential for improvement. Sweap offers you a professional success analysis, which you can use to evaluate your data.

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Conclusion

In event marketing, it is important to develop the right event idea at the very beginning of the communication strategy. A clear and informative landing page increases the number of participants.

Always adapt all factors relevant to your event to your target group. The right marketing of the event as well as your own product plays a very important role. The already present guests should remember the event for a long time and in the best case new ones should be won over.

In order to measure the success of the event, carry out an informative success analysis. If you keep these points in mind, your marketing event will be a complete success.

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Article by Mia Vassiliou-Gioles
Working student at Sweap in marketing, specialising in social media. Currently studying sustainable management at the TU Berlin.