What is Event Marketing? Event marketing describes the process of developing a themed exhibit, display, or presentation to promote a product, service, cause, or organization leveraging in-person engagement. Events can occur online or offline and can be participated in, hosted, or sponsored. The promotion of these activities can occur through various inbound and outbound marketing techniques.
Why is Event Marketing important? Events enable you to create a lasting and powerful impression of all that your company can deliver. By allowing people to experience and interact with your company, product or service while participating in an event, you are connecting with potential buyers.
TPS Public Relations specializes in event marketing and will help you plan, market and execute your event from start to finish. If you need help planning your next church function, book signing, or auction fundraiser, don’t hesitate to call us. Let us help you make your event a success!
Common Types of Event Marketing
Events come in a large variety of flavors and can be held in countless venues, whether online or off. Below are some common types of events you can expect to participate in.
Physical Events
Offline events require physical attendance and interactions take place in person. While they often require more investment than virtual events, offline events allow face-to-face relationship building. Don’t underestimate the impact a handshake or a personal meeting can make on a prospect or customer.
Book Signings
Are you a self-published author? TPS Public Relations will organize a book signing event in a bookstore in the Atlanta area. Our agency will be responsible for finding, securing and hosting an organization or a bookstore to hold the book signing event.
Tradeshows
A tradeshow is a physical gathering of individuals in a particular industry or profession in a forum that typically features numerous companies in a specific market. A business may sponsor or participate in a trade show to show off a product or simply to network and strengthen its presence in a market.
Conferences
Conferences are often company-specific marketing events that gather attendees for the purpose of delivering information such as a user summit. These events tend to be on the larger side, and are held by companies for training or educational purposes.
Seminars
The term seminar is usually used to describe smaller meetings, roadshows, or field events. Some seminars are set up similar to a classroom lecture, where an expert shares information with the audience in a traditional more formal style. Others are styled as roadshows, where marketers take their company’s message out to the public or to employees or partners.
Breakfasts, Lunches, and Dinners
These are typically smaller, more targeted events. They can be both customer and prospect focused. These events are usually very intimate with 8-10 people or can be larger with 50 or more attendees. For the smaller functions, these tend to be high level and provide executives a private setting for networking. On a larger scale, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners can include thought leadership presentations as part of the event.
Online Events
Online events connect presenters and participants through a web-based interface. Common types of online events include webinars, virtual events, and live streaming events. Online events are often less costly than in-person events and can enable you to easily reach a geographically dispersed audience.
Webinars
Webinars revolve around presentations, discussions, or workshops that are delivered via the web. They can happen in real-time or on-demand and typically last from 30-60 minutes. Real-time webinars enable interaction among participants, provide the opportunity to receive and discuss information on a topic that is presented through web-based conferencing tools. Real-time webinars can be interactive on many levels and typically allow attendees to ask questions directly to presenters.
Virtual Events
Virtual events enable individuals in different locations to participate in a virtual environment that has the look and feel of an offline event, by combining education, networking, and interactive features. Participants visit a virtual booth where they can collect materials, meet the staff, ask questions, and even pick up some virtual swag. These programs tend to happen in real-time for all participants.
Live Streaming Events
These are live events that you can stream to your viewers. You can conduct these with a simple webcam or employ a full production crew for higher quality broadcasting. Applications such as Livestream and Ustream, as well as new options like Google+ Hangouts, offer a live service that allows you to fully stream, record, and engage your audience with chat and social media functionality.
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