Why Hosting an Event Could be the Key to Your B2B Marketing Mix
Customers and potential clients are continuously searching for specific products or services and events are the perfect way to showcase all offerings under one roof, not to mention the opportunity for yourself and attendees to network and discuss potential business. Event marketing can involve displays, exhibits and presentations that can be held either in person or online thanks to the capabilities of live streaming.
Brand Building
Although there is an option to host an event online, face-to-face experiences tend to be more engaging and informative, as you are able to assist customers in establishing a much more personal relationship with your brand than if you were to host an online event.
Events also offer the perfect opportunity to generate brand recognition, most likely due to word of mouth. If someone attends an outstanding event hosted by a brand, they were previously unaware of, they are likely to tell their friends and colleagues about the event.
Engage with the right audience
Social media isn’t always the most efficient way of gaining your target audience’s attention, unless you place a strong budget behind social advertising campaigns. However, hosting an event allows you to invite a specific guestlist and directly engage with your target audience. Think about it; only people who are interested in the subject area of the event or your company’s offering will sign up to attend, so you will never struggle to connect and network with your delegates. Events don’t need to break the bank. Keep it simple, but informative.
There’s something for everyone
RegTech Talks, a Halston Marketing brand, was launched to spark conversation around the emerging technologies that are being developed to ease compliance and drive operational efficiencies in highly regulated sectors. Now, this isn’t a brand that everyone will want to engage with, which is one of the reasons why RegTech Talks was created as a separate brand to Halston Marketing. As interested as we are in creating discussions surrounding this topic, we knew that only a specific audience would be interested in attending events that focus on RegTech. So far, we have run 3 successful RegTech Talks events in Leeds at Squire Patton Boggs, Pinsent Masons and RSM- all of which are brilliant venues to host small, more intimate events.
As Halston Marketing, we have held events aimed at the marketing industry in Leeds, alongside assisting in the planning and execution of events for Hark, Dell and Intel as a collaborative effort and hosted corporate open days for Production Park. We are also co-hosting an event on Monday 25th November with the IABC to discuss our professional speakers’ experiences and their tips for crisis comms in a digitalised world.
Why Leeds?
Channel 4 has relocated its fresh national headquarters to our city, bringing along 300 members of staff. This decision gives confidence to businesses in the Yorkshire region. Imagine organising an event to showcase your company’s offering or services and you’re given an opportunity to engage and build relationships with connections at Channel 4.
There is also Leeds Digital Festival, which hosted over 200 events this year and attracted 25,000 attendees in just one week. Due to the amount of interest and delegates that Leeds Digital Festival organiser, Stuart Clarke, is expecting, Leeds Digital Festival 2020 is due to be ‘bigger and better than ever’!
Don’t forget the afterparty!
It is important to network and create lasting relationships at each of your events, but it’s even more important to follow up on these new connections. There’s no point spending time, resources and meticulously planning a great event if you’re not going to use these new connections to your advantage. You should always follow up with each individual you networked with to further discuss business opportunities.
Our team of event management experts have a wealth of experience and can create a brilliant event that will get your company in front of the right people, allowing you to gain valuable brand awareness and capitalise on your corporate sponsorship deals. If you’re looking to run an event or need help with your corporate sponsorship, then get in touch with us today and we’ll get you on the right track!