Digital marketing has completely revolutionized the way that companies foster relationships with existing customers and seek new ones.
The power of data facilitates personalized sales and notifications that make customers feel like brands are really getting to know them (or at the very least, familiar with the products they buy on a regular basis.)
This has drastically changed the way that brands approach inbound marketing and getting insight on what customers want.
But something that never changes is the power of making connections in person. Meeting people in person whether they just discovered your brand or have been doing business with you for years is an effective way to strengthen relationships.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 68% of B2B marketers make event marketing part of their overall strategy. This is unsurprising since there are so many aspects of meeting current and prospective clients in person that make the time and financial investment in live events worth it.
In tying event marketing to content strategy, live events make it easy to acquire demographic information about your client base that can’t be determined online.
When you incorporate live events into your content strategy, you can produce admirable results by offering an experience that goes beyond a simple trade show booth.
Event and content marketing can work in tandem. Using your content strategy to promote your presence at the event, but turning events into an experiential aspect of your content strategy should be the end goal.
You have to make the most of a live event and do things that can’t be done digitally. Here’s how:
- Have your promotional goods tie in with current content marketing campaigns. Every company has the usual printed marketing materials and promotional goods that get given away at events like tote bags, key chains, and so forth. Have something totally unique made that no one else is likely to have, which also happens to tie in with a campaign you are currently running.
- Make your booth an extension of your brand. Your booth should have the same colors and overall aesthetic associated with your brand. Depending on the size of the booth that you have, there are many possibilities for making it feel like visitors are definitely not in a convention center. What kind of experience are you going for that can create a positive connotation with your brand?
- Get creative with offering an experience that ties in with your content marketing. Hire actors to play characters that you created for campaigns and have them interact with visitors. Build a booth that resembles the kind of world portrayed in your content and puts visitors in the midst of it all. This all depends on what type of business you have This kind of memorable experience is going to leave people talking about it more than a forgettable branded coffee mug or tote bag.
- Incorporate a virtual reality (VR) experience with context. In making your presence as experiential as possible, a VR experience can bolster your event marketing or take the place of a live experience (using actors, a well-designed booth set, etc.) depending on your budget and the space allotted to your company. VR experiences are innovative forms of content but make sure that the experience has context. Tell a story with the VR experience or add to what is already being done with your booth instead of having VR for the sake of it.
We hope to see you at Content Marketing Conference in Boston!
You’ll learn all about the different aspects of creating quality content from storytellers like Ann Handley, and crafting campaigns and experiences that have context.
To register and learn more, head over to Content Marketing Conference 2017.