Event Marketing & Experience

How to Transform Your Events into a Powerful Lead Generator

Victoria Rudi
April 5, 2018

Table of Contents

Tell me: What would you consider a powerful lead generator?

What practices do you use to get more people opt in or engage with your brand? Do you generate leads through inbound and outbound marketing? Do you have success with social media outreach? Or do you focus all of your efforts on content marketing strategy?

No matter what your strategy is, you’re doing it right.

However, there’s one tool you might be ignoring … Have you ever thought that planning events can serve as powerful lead generators?

Here are some Markdebrand statistics you’ll find interesting:

  • 98% of people feel more inclined to purchase your products after attending an event.
  • 74% of attendees have a better opinion about a brand after an in-person event.
  • 70% of guests become regular customers after an experiential marketing event.
  • According to 80% of attendees, live demonstrations and free samples significantly help      define their purchasing decision.
  • 71% of event assistants will share information about their experience with their peers and family members.

There’s a correlation between attending brand events and garnering interest in a specific service or product.

Planning meaningful events for your brand can become a powerful leader generator strategy that will get you a ton of leads and potential customers.

Why events are an efficient marketing tool

As statistics show, “75% of B-to-B marketers say that in-person events are the most effective      tactic. Events have been rated the highest for effectiveness since 2010.”

Let’s explore why.   

Reason #1. Events are a natural response to a fragmented world

People receive more and more online messages, updates, and advertisements every day, and if you think your brand can compete with that, then good luck.

Breaking through the information clutter has become extremely difficult. That’s why planning events is the natural response to an increasingly fragmented world where attention has become a luxury.

Reason #2. Events help create brand experiences

According to Marketo, “When done well, events have the power to create a lasting and powerful impression of all that your company can deliver. By allowing people to experience and interact with your company, product, or service while participating in an event, you are connecting with potential buyers.”

Reason #3. Events provide face-to-face interactions

Planning events is a powerful lead generator mainly because of the live engagement between attendees and brand representatives. The event may offer you an efficient platform for building meaningful contacts with your leads.

By interacting with you and your colleagues during the event, attendees will “put a face to the name,” which humanizes the brand experience.

Imagine how much easier the social selling process will be after the event if you’ve already established valuable connections with your guests during the event.

Reason #4. Events draw in high-quality attendees

If you’re trying to promote your business brand or attract more people, obviously, you’ll want to find qualified leads.

Events will allow you to invite those attendees who have an interest or affinity toward your products or services.

Reason #5. Events strengthen your authority

As Marketo highlights, “Event marketing allows your company to cultivate and express its identity firsthand. Through events, you gain the perfect venue to share your ideas, thoughts, and name in the exact manner you want to present them.”

Considering all these reasons, is there a quick way you can turn your events into powerful lead generators?

The answer is “Yes.”

How to transform your events into powerful lead generators

Congratulations!

If you’ve decided to advance the marketing potential of your live events, consider yourself several steps ahead of the competition.

To help you accelerate the process and get the most out of your brand events, we’ve put together a list of quick steps for you to follow.

Step 1. Build a compelling narrative

Brand events aren’t about displaying your product.

You must use this strategy wisely and know how to efficiently design a compelling story that hooks your attendees.

When engaging in a narrative, a person’s dopamine and serotonin levels increase. Moreover, as Nancy Duarte highlights in her book Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences, “Ever since humans first sat around the campfire, stories have been told to create emotional connections. In many societies, they have been passed along nearly unchanged for generations.”

When planning an event to generate new leads, think about the narrative you want to share.

Start with identifying your brand’s “why” and then wrap your goals into an engaging story. This story can be anything from the way you plan the event activities to the moderator’s speech.

For a greater impact, your event must be packed in a beautiful and coherent narrative that will get your attendees to engage in further interactions with your brand.

Step 2. Design transformative brand experiences

To transform your event into a powerful lead generator, you’ll have to rethink the brand experience in terms of attendee engagement.

According to Freeman, “Each and every audience touchpoint is an opportunity. An opportunity to engage, to educate, and to build brand affinity. And there is no more engaging way to maximize those opportunities than through brand experience. Immersive, personalized brand experiences help foster meaningful relationships, drive sales, and appeal to new audiences.”

Step 3. Offer your attendees the things they want and expect

Although this may sound obvious, you’d be surprised to discover how many brands actually plan events that  focus exclusively on their products and services. This approach is totally wrong.

The main reason you should plan brand events is to lead your attendees (aka leads) to know that you care about them.

If you want to plan events that will become powerful lead generators, you must focus on your attendees and highlight the solutions you have to their problems. The event must be about them, not your products or services.

Step 4. Use all-inclusive event management software

If you’re not a professional planner, the last thing you want is to get wrapped up in the event logistics.

Believe me: It’s a nightmare you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemies.

Don’t be afraid to admit you could use some help. To eliminate the planning stress and avoid wasting time on tasks that are totally different from your daily assignments, think about choosing good event management software.

This will cut down significantly on your planning troubles and ensure a flawless experience for your attendees.

Whether you are gathering renowned experts or focusing on providing valuable solutions for everyone (customers or people who don’t want to engage with your brand), your brand event can be more than a powerful lead generator.

It can actually help you develop a meaningful line of resources that will help you position your brand as a thought leader.

From event-related videos and podcasts to articles and interviews, you can generate an important volume of content that will prove your commitment to making your leads’ or customers’ lives better.

Wrap-up

If your brand or company has never planned events or you’ve only run events as an awareness-raising tool, be aware that this strategy has much more potential. Events can be powerful lead generators and a way to break through the social media noise.

As an exercise, try to envision your (first or next) brand event and align it with your goal of attracting more people who’d be interested in trying your products or services.

Don’t wait until tomorrow—start today.

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Discover how Eventtia helps world-leading brands digitize and scale their events

Victoria Rudi
Senior Content Specialist
With a Master’s degree in Event Management and a keen follower of SaaS technologies, Victoria is an event content master, producing insightful and valuable for Eventtia’s blog and beyond

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