Establishing a solid brand is one of the primary goals of a company. Your unique brand identity serves as your face and name in the market – one that people will remember and should find in all communications related to them.
But developing your brand may not be so easy. It involves more than just designing a logo and writing a tagline. And it takes much more to build it into a household name.
Fortunately, there’s event marketing.
Events can serve as an integral part of your brand strategy in Dubai. This article will teach you all about event marketing, including what it can give your brand and what you can do to maximize its benefits.
What is event marketing?
Many companies spend a large percentage of their marketing budget on corporate events. They allocate between 20 and 50 percent to create brand experiences, the majority of which involve events.
Marketers spend this much money and a lot more because of events’ potential to become a powerful component of their marketing strategy.
Like many marketers, you can use events as a channel to reach your target audience and forge personal connections with them.
Holding events also helps the company build a stronger relationship with other stakeholders, including sponsors, suppliers, and investors.
5 benefits of event marketing
Events have the power to bring people together. Marketers leverage this by getting people together to support their brand.
But how can events help your company accomplish this? Below are the five key benefits of event marketing you can take advantage of:
1. Boosts brand visibility and credibility
Events serve as a medium for forging connections between the company and its target audience. When done right, they also foster excellent first impressions, which, as you probably already know, is a step in the right direction towards a better position in the market.
Having your brand’s presence in an event will increase awareness and recognition. This also allows the audience to associate your brand with things that they care about. It also allows them to get up close and personal with the people behind the brand they love.
A shared principle or mutual position on a specific issue will make it easier for the audience to like you and, therefore, remember you when the time is right. In other words, events are your opportunity to put your best foot forward.
More importantly, events help develop the brand’s credibility as an industry authority. You can achieve this by inviting an influential speaker during a convention. Presenting innovations that solve real-world problems also matters.
2. Opens opportunities to foster relationships with customers
Hosting events is an effective way for your target audience to know you. It also allows you to establish deep connections with them.
Events can help boost the level of interest your target audience has in your company. This can be achieved by treating these gatherings as a way to build relationships rather than just selling products or pitching services.
To do so, you must make sure that the events are interactive. This means you should plan more than just the presentation – you must also have a way of gathering information from the people who see or attend them.
Get feedback straight from the audience by setting up a channel for your company event. You can also gather intel on what is important to your audience and how your company can help.
Ultimately, company events let you make an indelible mark on the market.
3. Establishes a solid network
Besides relationships with potential customers, events also help you build connections with other businesses and professionals. This solid network can be your gold mine for different resources, including:
- A-list talent
- Reliable suppliers and vendors
- Potential investors and business partners
Networking allows you to connect with more people who may be helpful to you in the future, both industry-wide and within your company itself.
The bottom line? If you plant seeds of friendship today through these events, you’ll surely reap the reward in the long run.
4. Builds company culture
Company events also help highlight and nurture your company culture and core values.
Defined as the combination of beliefs, symbols, traditions, and taboos, company culture helps guide the organization’s day-to-day activities and shape the general mindset of employees.
Using corporate events like team-building activities, employee award ceremonies, and even company excursions to iconic places like the Formula 1 race track, you can solidify what your company stands for and put your most essential values into action.
5. Keeps employees engaged
Studies show that employee engagement and empowerment affect company growth.
Firms with engaged employees have been found to make 2.5 more profit than those that don’t. Plus, if they are engaged enough, employees are 87 percent more likely to stay in a company and contribute to its overall growth.
Events are considered one of the best ways to maintain engagement within the workforce. You can highlight excellent performance and the company’s core values during events. By recognizing your staff’s achievements within the organization during these gatherings, you’re helping improve employee morale and the company’s chances of success.
After all, what better way is there to foster productivity than by keeping your employees happy?
3 tips to maximize the benefits of event marketing
Besides choosing from among the best event venues in Abu Dhabi, creating a smooth program flow is necessary to make sure you have a successful event. To do this, you must:
1. Define your goals and focus on those.
Goals are crucial to having a carefully planned event. They help you make the most appropriate decisions on the essential elements of an event, including the following:
- Event name
- Event Type (e.g., virtual, in-person, or hybrid)
- Theme
- Color scheme
It also defines what you need to look for in an event venue, as well as the target audience for the gathering (which is a big thing for your brand, as already established).
Having a specific set of goals also allows you to measure the success of the gathering and adjust future versions of it accordingly to make the latest one better than the last.
2. Know your audience.
Like most things related to communication, events need to be designed based on the preferences and unique characteristics of the people participating.
To do so, ask yourself this: “What is important to my target audience?”
Planning an event for employees? Consider what they like based on their age group, cultural backgrounds, and unique lifestyles. If you have an adventurous crew, go on a desert excursion to the majestic Liwa Desert.
Don’t forget to determine how the audience prefers to join the event. Are they into passive listening or more active participation?
Figure out how to balance delivering content your audience would like and foster a healthy network of relationships.
3. Have an online platform for the event.
Whether or not you’re holding a virtual gathering, you must always have an online event platform. This not only serves as a marketing channel for the program but also stirs up different forms of marketing among your target audience, like word-of-mouth and social media.
An event website can serve as your primary touchpoint with prospective attendees. That means it must:
- Contain information pertinent to the event.
- Be convincing enough that attendees will want to register for the event.
- Reflect on your brand and company values.
Plan a successful event
Planning a successful gathering depends on several factors, including your goals, target audience, venue, activities, etc.
Make sure you create an outstanding event your audience, employees, and brand will also benefit from.
