Marketing and PR advice
A good gift
A good gift
Event specific promotions are probably the best known and most used. Nigel Toplis reveals
How many people give and receive corporate gifts at Christmas? Question is can you remember today what you were given and by whom?
There are certain events that automatically lend themselves to promotion
- Christmas
- Conference
- New Product Launch etc
Promoting your business around or in conjunction with an event can be hugely beneficial but can also be a waste of money!
Association with an event allows you to hang your hat - something to magnify your own message. If your brand was linked with a new James Bond movie then you would get magnified exposure. That though is unlikely to happen to most of us so we have to think a little more laterally.
Think back to why you're looking to promote your business - to gain exposure, create awareness and generate brand value, all of which will help us in our selling process to become a supplier of first choice and thus increase sales.
Good marketing is all about standing out from the crowd and ‘event specific' promoting is a great way of achieving this. There are some obvious events for you to associate with but to be you need to think outside the box, be different and be remembered.
Think also that the event may only be a pre-cursor to your marketing activity.
It may be that you're going to be following up the initial promotion with a phone call and/or visit - in which case you want the recipient to at least recognise you or your company - so be memorable.
Event specific promotions can be exciting and fun but my first point is to emphasise that they will be more effective and more financially rewarding if they are done on the back of an ‘on-going drip' activity, ie, repeating the message over and over!
With a solid foundation of constant and focused marketing regularly hitting your customer base you can be far more creative with the ‘event specific activity'.
Secondly, think ‘outside the box' - look for events that you could utilise - not events that everybody uses - for example.
Chinese New Year
Send your customers a message both in Chinese and English.
Oscar night
Ever thought of sending a replica ‘Oscar' statue to prospective customers asking if they would like to be part of a winning team?
Easter
Great opportunity to send out something for over-indulgence!
Thirdly, think of events that are specific to your customers.
- Up-coming exhibitions
- Company conference
- 30th anniversary
- New product launch
- CEO's birthday (more importantly CEO's secretary!)
Finally - know your customers!
Some companies may not appreciate getting something announcing the opening of the grouse-hunting season!
Know their key anniversaries i.e. their conference, AGM...
In summary:
- Build ‘event specific' promotions on the back of ‘grunt' activity
- Think ‘outside the square'
- Know your customers
You're building your promotional strategy with solid ‘on-going drip' activity forming the foundation and now ‘event specific' promotions to add spice.
