By Koketso Mamabolo
Events such as business conferences, masterclasses, and product launches are excellent ways to position your brand at the forefront of your industry, increasing brand awareness, generating leads and shortening sales cycles. Whether in-person, virtual or hybrid, they are proven ways to build new partnerships and market your brand.
Here are three ways to use events to grow your brand:
- Partner with event specialists
- Be deliberate about making connections during and after the event
- Create, create, create
1. Partner with specialists
When planning an event, why get someone to do it when you could do it yourself? When you start unpacking the details – the time it takes; the resources and expertise required; the capacity to reach a wide audience – it may be time to call in the experts.
The experience and knowledge it takes to put together an event is not something most businesses have inhouse. By outsourcing an event to a group of experts, you can focus on what you do best: running your business. Everything from marketing campaigns, press releases, speakers, session content, exhibition booths – all of that will be handled for you.
Events that have been around for years, which attract industry leaders from various sectors, offer you the opportunity to benefit from being associated with a respected institution. You also gain from associating with non-competitors who are leaders in their own niche markets.
When you partner with a B2B event you get the results without having to put in as much financially. You save money, reach a wider audience, generate more content and can get a great return on your investment.
Events can take months to organise and the costs can add up. From something as big as the venue or virtual conferencing platform, all the way to the “swag packs” attendees get. All these costs will fall on you when you organise your own event. But when you partner with experts, who understand how to navigate the costs of hosting the event, you just have to pay for the naming rights and everything else will be covered for you.
The brand visibility that comes from partnering with an event can lead to an uptick in sales. Before, during and after the event your business is on display, bringing in both old and new customers. You put a little in and you get a lot out of it.
2. Be deliberate about making connections
Events offer an opportunity to build relationships and engage with potential partners. In one room, or many, you will have a chance to speak to the people you want to be speaking with to help your business grow and improve. Attendees and exhibitors are at an event with your name on it, which does wonders for brand awareness and networking. Besides potential partners, events are also a great place to meet and attract top talent and share knowledge.
See every conversation as an opportunity to connect. You never know who you will meet. You could find yourself having a conversation with the CEO of a multinational corporation who is hiring, or looking to form new partnerships.
Have a good idea beforehand who will be attending the conference, which allows you to be more direct in who you network with and possibly set up meetings with beforehand. While it is important to know who you want to meet or what you want to discuss, you need to be open to meeting people you weren’t planning to.
Following up after the event is key. Once you’ve exchanged details and discussed partnerships, make sure you reinforce. Whether that be an email or a message on LinkedIn. Being in a room with a range of industry stakeholders is rare. Don’t let the opportunity slip through.
3. Create, create, create
Events can be an indirect way of advertising your brand. While advertising online, in newspapers or digital magazines, allows you to speak directly to customers and potential partners, events allow you to speak to them in indirect ways.
With all the content created comes web traffic and engagement on your social media accounts. From press releases, web posts, interviews, competitions and more, the chance to drive traffic to your website and increase sales is ever present.
All the exposure you get at the event will also provide an opportunity to present your products and services in different ways. You’re able to market new and existing offerings in indirect and direct ways.
If you’re working with an event partner, their marketing and PR teams will create content, attendees will create content, speakers and exhibitors will create content, everyone creates content. All that content is available for you to leverage. Your brand’s message will get across to many people across the world in various formats and platforms through marketing campaigns.
Topco Media has solutions that can help you get a return on your investment, build relationships, reach a wider audience and generate more content. With our solutions you get the benefit of having your brand associated with an event that attracts top decision makers from the public sector, private sector and everyone in between.
You can do it yourself – but the experts can do it better. For enquiries on how you can partner with us on one of our B2B events, contact Twaambo Chileshe and let us help your business reach its goals and further its reach: twaambo.chileshe@topco.co.za
