One of the most effective ways for brands to engage with their audiences is to hold events. Given that the situation in the world is changing over time, traditional ways of holding events evolve, and new ones appear. Thus, online events have been gaining momentum for a while, though a slight shift back to offline meetings is also noticeable. There are also so-called hybrid events that combine the best of two worlds.
To shed light on the event, marketers utilize various methods such as paid advertisements, e-mails, social media announcements, and others. However, the involvement of influencers in marketing campaigns has recently become one of the most frequently used approaches due to its effectiveness. Consider promoting your event with influencers to reach a wider audience and enhance your brand awareness.
What is event marketing?
There are many ways and tactics used by marketers for boosting sales, expanding the target audience, and improving brand image. While some methods do not prove to be effective, others evolve or transform. Event marketing has always been a qualitative strategy with immense potential for business development.
The primary purpose of event marketing is to promote the upcoming gathering, whether online or in-person, to the target audience. The events help convey the brand message to people in the form of a group or one-on-one conversation. Throughout such in-person gatherings or online occasions, a closer connection to the brand is created. Events also ensure better customer loyalty, lead generation, partnership creation, and other benefits for each party involved.
When a company organizes an event, this is an outstanding opportunity to stand out from the crowd. The market is currently overloaded with millions of emails, advertisements, and banners, which sometimes get lost in a bunch of other promotions. However, an event is always likely to attract the attention of the target audience, investors, potential partners, and other stakeholders.
It is considered that event organization is usually a resource-consuming occasion that requires plenty of time, effort, and money. However, those investments are worth the outcomes as an event brings astonishing results for the companies.
Types of events
Several years ago, the companies primarily relied on in-person events. Since 2020, when the world was hit by an unexpected pandemic, the focus has shifted to online occasions. However, everything is slowly returning to normal, so planning offline and hybrid events is common again.
In-person events
Depending on the scope and the number of invited people, an in-person event takes place at an offline site that satisfies the organization’s needs and requirements. Within such offline events, people get acquainted with each other as the networking opportunities are appealing. Getting to know people personally gives brands a chance to establish new partnerships with other brands and gain more trust from consumers.
Conferences
This type of in-person event is usually associated with large sites such as hotels, conference halls, or even concert arenas. Conferences are usually dedicated to gathering professionals in a certain sphere or adjacent industry for the sake of sharing experiences and collaboration. Usually, conferences last for several days and have many speakers from various companies.
Seminars
The primary purpose of practically every seminar is to gather a community interested in a specific subject. A seminar usually lasts for several hours with one professional speaker or several experts from the same company. A brand organizes seminars to bring attention to a particular topic and build partnerships for further development.
Product presentation
When thinking of this in-person event, the Apple presentations of new products come to one’s mind. Indeed, the product presentation event is a very common way to highlight the release of new products and their features.
Virtual events
Modern technological advancements make it possible to hold virtual events and even gather a great number of people there. According to the study by Markletic, around 80 percent of people are joining online events for education purposes and networking. Even though online events are held in a different way, their primary purpose remains the same as for in-person gatherings. However, unlike the latter, virtual ones can unite a greater number of people.
Webinars
This type of virtual event was very common before, especially among international companies with audiences worldwide. These days more and more brands take advantage of webinars as they bring plenty of benefits and generate leads.
Each webinar is usually dedicated to certain features or product applications held by the company. This greatly helps existing consumers to get in-depth knowledge of the product and conceals great potential for prospects by emphasizing on benefits they may get.
Online conferences
The name of this virtual event speaks for itself – that is, the conference held virtually using software for online communication. Sometimes online conferences are called online marathons as a series of interrelated sessions. As a rule, streaming services are used for online conferences.
Hybrid events
This type of marketing event combines the best of two worlds. An example of a hybrid event is when a conference takes place physically at the site and is simultaneously streamed online to the guests in other parts of the world.
How to promote an event with influencers
When organizing an event, it is natural that the brand would want to create an announcement about it. One of the ways is to create sponsored blog posts with adsy.com so that a large audience of the popular websites gets your message. Another promotional tactic is to involve influencers in your marketing campaign.
Attracting influencers is always a win-win strategy because this method has proven to be effective. According to the survey conducted by Digital Marketing Institute, influencer marketing campaigns earn $6.5 for every dollar spent. Depending on the audience you aim to attract to your event, consider the right influencer for promoting it.
Influencer events are a great way to promote your product or brand not only by creating a buzz around the event itself but also through various channels that influencers use to connect with their audiences. Inviting influencers to your event means you have a chance to gain considerable exposure online.
Many companies and brands enter long-term partnerships with influencers, for example, by inviting them to be their ambassadors. This is another good way to promote products and services. Inviting influencer ambassadors to your brand’s event strengthens your relationship with them as a company and allows your customers to build positive, long-lasting associations with your brand through the lens of such a relationship with an influencer.
It is also necessary to consider the marketing channels for advertising your event. In case you want to promote the event using visual attributes, consider Instagram or YouTube platforms. Otherwise, pay attention to the influencers with large audiences on Facebook – the largest social network.
As you have already noticed, in any of the promotion methods, visual content appears. If you have chosen social media as a way to promote your product, enhance your photos using a service of a retouching studio, or hire a freelancer on UpWork or other freelancers exchange. High-qualitatively processed photos can increase conversion by 30% or even more.
Macro-influencers
The influencers of this type usually have millions of subscribers over their social networks. Thus, if your product or service is about everyday use, then feel free to reach out to macro-influencers.
Micro-influencers
Those are usually niche experts in a certain industry with a smaller but more dedicated audience. In case you need to promote, for example, a presentation where a product would be of interest to the experts only in a certain sphere, consider reaching out to micro-influencers.
How to find influencers for your event
Of course, one of the easiest ways to invite influencers to your event is to simply extend an invitation. It can be done online, by reaching out to them or their teams. Another opportunity to build these connections more personally is to attend influencer conventions.
Influencer conferences are a great place to network and meet people: both the influencers themselves and their teams. There are many influencers events held every year so it might be a good idea to choose one or a few dates and meet with people you would like to invite to your event.
Focus on the influencers that have something in common with your brand, its message, and its products. This way you’ll be able to reach a wider audience of people that may be interested in what your brand has to offer. They even might be enticed to attend your next event.
Other things to consider when promoting an event
Before contacting the influencer, you need to create a clear, concise, and persuasive message. It should contain a brief description of your event and its purpose. Along with that, it has to clearly state the benefits the influencer will get as authoritative people receive plenty of other engaging offers daily.
Think of whether you would like to involve an influencer for the event promotion before the start or meanwhile running it. Everything depends on whether you would like to attract more people to the event or just emphasize the brand message with influencer support targeted at existing consumers.
When the event is over, collect feedback from your existing customers and prospects. This will help you to evaluate the current campaign and also create suggestions for future events.
Try out our event management software and see how organizing events can be easy. With the right tools, your influencer event will be one to remember!