And will hit you if you don´t hit it first!. This are from our point of view and from the Event Marketing Institute the key opportunities you should have to be writing in your next projects to your CEO or CMO. Don´t loss this opportunity to be water my friend.
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” Bruce Lee
The actIon Isn’t all on facebook.
Yes, 86 percent of consumers polled use Facebook, but their Facebook usage is up just 10 percent, compared to LinkedIn, which jumped 33 percent. Twitter and YouTube usage went up 18
percent. Instagram made the list for the fi rst time this year with 45 percent of consumers using it. And Pinterest usage even saw a 20 percent boost since last year.
- Action Item: If you’ve been focusing all your efforts on Facebook, now’s the time to diversify and capture some of the fast-moving momentum being seen on other social platforms. Look out for up-and-coming platforms like Vine, Instagram and Snapchat to make an impact on the EventTrack list next year.
Event marketing drIve sales. but you have to poInt the way.
A whopping 96 percent of consumers said that participating in an event made them more inclined to purchase a product or service they were interested in. Over half of consumers surveyed said they eventually purchased the product or service marketed at the event or experience.
- Action Item: If there’s no easy path to purchase that begins and ends with your event, you’re missing out. Make the journey from the live experience to the cash register fast and painless. Consider doing what a lot of b-to-c and b-to-b brands are doing today and integrate product sales right on site, and then use a slick technology like Square or PayPal’s mobile offering to make the purchase quick and easy
Event Marketing Create Loyal Customers, But It’s Not a Key Objective.
We know that events generate sales, but the EventTrack study also revealed that events create repeat purchasers. In fact, eighty-four percent of consumers purchase the product promoted at the event again, after their first purchase—up 51 percent from last year. Interestingly, repeat purchase and loyalty are not key objectives among event marketers, according to the survey. Sales and brand awareness are the top two goals among event marketers.
- Action Item: If you have a sales strategy tied to your events, consider imbedding a loyalty strategy into the mix. Build a tracking mechanism into your events that tells you who purchased after or, even better, during the event, monitors their purchase cycle and enables you to touch them again as they’re nearing a repeat purchase. One sale is good. A formidable 84 percent of eventgoers who buy again and again? That’s an opportunity you can’t afford to miss.
Measurement is Up, But There’s Still Data (and Money) Left on the Table.
Seventy-eight percent of brands report that they measure their events, up seven percent from 2013.
But we gotta ask, what’s up with the rest of the 22 percent? Not interested in keeping your jobs? Have millions to spend and no one’s watching? The fact is, companies that have “above average data quality” can realize 70 percent more revenue (source: Sirius Decisions, 2012). So it’s not just about the event measurement, it’s about the bottom line.
- Action Item: Event measurement and smart data collection is critical to generating revenue. If your measurement tools and strategy are lacking, you’re losing money. It’s time to get with the program.
Nearly Half of Brands Stop Using Social Media After an Event.
EventTrack revealed that nearly 77 percent of event marketers use social media as a key engagement strategy before an event. But that number drops to 61 percent after the event. Event attendees are never more primed and ready for engagement than they are just after they leave a great event. The lesson here? Dropping off the social graph means losing out. Big time.
- Action Item: Build a post-event social strategy into your events that takes advantage of that post-show glow. Even a simple thank you note as folks leave the show or festival goes a long way towards boosting loyalty—and opening the door to future conversations
Source: Event Marketing institute 2014 trends