How To Leverage Events As A Marketing Channel

Brand exposure is not one easy task, you need to constantly frame strategies and apply tactics to get your brand in the forefront. You try to retarget your audience, increase the customer engagement volume, run social media contests; implement all the possible ideas to scale your business and expose your brand to a larger audience. Apart from all these, there is one more really effective idea that you can use to market your business; which is events.

Events are really effective to catch the attention of the audience. It opens large avenues for the business in terms of growth, exposure and learning about customer experiences. Events give you an opportunity to connect with your potential customers and in some case sponsors, complementary brands and like-minded people as well.

Some of the biggest brands like Apple, Redbull, Google, and Adobe use events as a marketing channel. They organize events to make their product announcements larger than life and to expose their brand to a large audience.

Want to take your marketing game a level higher with events? Here are some of the brands that use events to ace at marketing and how you can learn and use it too:

1. Etsy

Etsy has been in the business for quite some time now and it has made its place in the market for art & craft supplies & collectibles, handmade products, and vintage collections. Etsy has its own fanbase and they are only growing with time. 

How is Etsy using events to grow?

Etsy gives an opportunity to its artisans and other sellers to meet their potential customers by letting them organize events or join events. Here, the sellers get to meet and interact with the audience who are interested in their products. 

1. These events help in the exposure of the business that the seller is dealing with and makes them loyal towards Etsy.  
2. The sellers can join the events of other fellow sellers and get a chance to collaborate and grow.
3. The sellers market their business through Etsy Local Events and these events automatically help in the branding of Etsy.

Apart from that Etsy also organizes meetups for the local artists in the city where they get a chance to learn from each other, market their business and grow their community. This way the sellers can market their products and Etsy being the catalyst can enjoy the benefits of growth and brand exposure.

2. Redbull 

We cannot miss Redbull if we are speaking about event marketing strategy. Redbull aces in terms of event marketing; they do it so well that it’s hard not to notice. Be it in terms of the content or the events that they pull off; they have left their mark and made a significant place in the market through interesting strategies.

How is Redbull using events for branding and marketing?

1. Redbull directly taps their target audience by reaching to places where their audience is. Concerts, parties, music festivals and all sorts of events wherever they can possibly be. They have partnered and provided free drinks at events only for brand exposure and promotion.
2. They equipped Redbull’s Branded Vehicle at events. 
3. They have been event sponsors at some of the popular events. They do not just end at providing the drink, they have event signages at the venue, vehicles, and banners as well. Redbull uses events for branding, increasing visibility, attracting media coverage and for partnerships.
4. Redbull has used small-scale events as well as mega-events for brand exposure. The brand has reached to athletic events, sponsored athletes and created brand awareness by making athletes use the product.

3. Instamojo

Instamojo is a platform that serves e-commerce businesses. It helps in the management and growth of an online business portal. Instamojo started off as a payment gateway and now has climbed the ladder by providing a free online store, logistics & shipping, marketing solutions and a lot more.

How Instamojo leverages events for brand visibility and exposure?

Instamojo brought an opportunity in the form of MojoMeets for entrepreneurs to network, collaborate, and learn through each other’s experiences. 

1. Entrepreneurs who are constantly looking for opportunities to scale their business and learn through the experiences of other entrepreneurs get a platform through MojoMeets, which eventually helps in the branding of Instamojo. 
2. MojoMeets not only gives an opportunity to the entrepreneurs who are attending the event but to Instamojo as well. Instamojo uses these events to network and collaborate with entrepreneurs and convert them into users.
3. Mojomeets or events, in general, make the brand a person. When the audience or users deal with a person and not a brand, they connect. Events build a relationship between brand and audience, it also creates a loyal fanbase.

“We at Instamojo have been doing these small events MojoMeets which give an opportunity to learn from the entrepreneurs. In the metros, there are a number of such events that are held on a yearly basis, but till date, nobody had eyed the Tier-II cities. These events not only added value to the attendees but also for us to establish our brand presence. We have successfully covered cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad to name a few and look forward to many more. We look forward to building a community in these cities via these events.”

– Chayanika Goswami, Associate Director, PR and Marketing Communications  

What Can You Get From Organizing Events?

1. An opportunity to network with like-minded people.
2. A platform to increase brand visibility, brand awareness, and customer relationship
3. Events let you take feedback from experts and even customers. It allows you to engage with your potential customers and learn about their needs.
4. Events give you a lot of CONTENT to share on the social media platforms and otherwise.
5. Events give you an opportunity to grow and bring your brand in the spotlight.
6. You can build anticipation about your event to make it the buzzing topic and enjoy all the attention the brand gets.

How You Can Start Off With Events To Market Your Business?

This might come off as one difficult task but it really isn’t that tough. Small scale business or a popular brand, anyone can use events to their benefit. If you want to start off like now-now then you can:

1. Create and sell tickets online with one of the top global event discovery platforms – AllEvents.in
2. Find out which events target the audience you are targeting and collaborate with them in some way. Provide free samples of your product to increase brand visibility.
3. Be a sponsor at a popular event depending on the product that you are dealing with.
4. Use experiential marketing strategy according to your budget. Since, experiences stay in the heads of the audience, use it to build a relationship with them.

Plan a photo booth at an event, partner with an event & provide an AR or VR experience, organize events based on a storyline that connects with your brand, etc. Do anything and everything that will deliver an impactful and memorable experience to your audience in order to increase the brand value.

Leverage events, create events and do more of it to use it as one of the best marketing strategies to grow your business!