Business events are a great way to attract potential customers and strengthen already existing customer relationships. Not only do corporate events increase brand awareness to the right target market, but they also improve employees’ morale and productivity. However, hosting a business event can be an intimidating and daunting experience for most business owners and management teams. This is because there are quite a lot of activities involved in launching a corporate event, and any mistake made can place the event in jeopardy. This article highlights some useful tips on what you should do for your business events and exhibitions to get productive results.
1. Create Promotions
Come up with ways through which you will market your brand to customers before, during, and after your corporate event. Before attendees get into the venue, for instance, you can use promotional flags to showcase your brand at the venue entrance. You can choose from the wide range of feather flags available in the market to increase your brand visibility from the outside and inside of the venue. You can also issue the attendees with product giveaways, gift cards, discount coupons, and business cards as the event runs. Ensure that you also capture contacts and email addresses from the attendees. Doing a follow-up on the attendees can result in lead conversions.
2. Have a Solid Event Plan
An event plan outlines the means and techniques that you intend to employ to achieve your event goals. To get productive results from your corporate event, you will need to set out a plan on how you will go about the guestlist, food or refreshments, the venue, and entertainment. You want to ensure that the attendees’ welfare is well taken care of. With the event plan, you can determine the scope of the event and identify the resources you need to get things done. For instance, if you have never held a business event before, then you might want to have a workshop that runs for a couple of hours instead of a full-day conference. Not only does the event plan help you in keeping your expenses in check, but it also enables you to delegate responsibilities to your event team.
3. Effective Communication
The success of your corporate event is dependent on how good you are in communicating with people both within and outside your company. Address important issues with your employees, including the scope and goals of the event. Your events team must be updated on every critical matter revolving around the corporate event. You might also want to communicate regularly with your special guests, suppliers, and the venue’s management. The most important thing is to ensure that you inform event attendees on everything that they need to know about your corporate event. Most attendees want to know what they are getting themselves into before participating in any business event.
4. Take Advantage of Social Media
Personal invites go a long way in contributing to the success of your business event. However, it would be of great benefit if you leveraged the available digital channels such as social media to create a buzz for your event. Facebook, for example, hosts over 2 billion active users globally, and it is not a surprise that your target attendees are active members too. Create event teasers and post them online. Design videos and posters that excite customers to attend your corporate event. Make a snapshot of what will be happening in the event. Additionally, during the event, you can create live feeds via your Twitter or Facebook pages to update potential customers on what is happening in the event.
5. Develop Your Event Backup Plan
Regardless of how skilled and resourceful you may be in planning for a business event, accidents may still occur. It is also possible to realise that you missed out on some essential details hours before the event begins. This is why it is fundamental for you to come with a backup plan for your scheduled event. A backup plan highlights the alternative arrangement to some aspects of your event in case things go wrong. Sometimes a technical glitch on your sound system may occur, and having an alternative solution is the only way to maintain your reputation as a business. Ensure that you rehearse your event schedule days before the D-day to ensure that you identify possible challenges. It is also crucial that you and your planning team have an easy-to-rollout plan B to bridge the gap between the occurrence of a disaster and the launching of a solution. You can also hire an event planning service provider to take care of the event as you concentrate on other important matters.
Conclusion
Corporate events are a great way to increase sales by enhancing brand awareness, attracting more customers, and solidifying business relationships. However, setting up a business event can be quite exhausting, considering the numerous moving parts involved. To ensure that you get productive results from the event, therefore, you must be highly proactive. This means having a clear event plan, engaging in effective communication, having a backup plan, and leveraging social media platforms.
