Which event communication strategy adopted?

When a company decides to exhibit at an event, be it a trade fair or a convention, it is necessary that it adopts an effective communication strategy in order to promote its participation. By reading this article, you will have the keys to building your communication strategy as well as evaluating its success.

How to run a good event marketing campaign?

Ideally, your communication plan should be developed even before you register for an event. This is because you need to know why you are going to attend this trade fair or convention, what are you looking to achieve by going there? Is it to gain visibility? Is it to acquire new customers?

The answer to this question is important, because the communication you are going to adopt depends on the reason you are going to an event. Indeed, the messages, the targets, and the means of communication that you will mobilize will not be the same depending on the business objective you are trying to achieve.

So the first thing to do in running a good event marketing campaign is to know why you are participating in an event and to know exactly what it is you want to achieve. Once you have the answer to this question, 3 things should make up your campaign.

1. Your targets
   An effective campaign has a clearly defined target, and you need to know what audience you are trying to reach by communicating about your participation in an event. If not, you will send bottles overboard without seeing any results appear. Your target will undoubtedly be a customer segment that you want to acquire or retain, but it is necessary that you know it perfectly in order to be able to define the following two elements.
   
2. Your key messages
   Knowing your target will allow you to develop key messages. Concretely, what type of information is your target sensitive to? What kind of information is most likely to convince her to come to your booth at the time of the event? Focus on one or two key messages and avoid getting lost in too much different information.
   
3. Your communication channels
   Finally, the third and last element of your campaign, the channels that you will mobilize. Based on your target and your key messages, what are the most effective and relevant communication tools to achieve your goal? Are you going to go through email? Through the social networks that are Facebook and Instagram? If your website has high traffic, are you planning to advertise there? In short, it is important to build a synergy between several communication channels that will allow you to reach your target audience. It is important to mobilize several channels because it is through the repetition of your key messages that you will be able to get into your target's mind: repetition leads to memorization.
   

How to measure the success of your event marketing campaign?

Measuring the effectiveness of a communication campaign is crucial, and participation in an event is no exception. Indeed, your participation in an event is part of a quantifiable process of seeking a result, you seek to achieve a goal. It is therefore necessary to choose key indicators that will allow you to measure your return on investment.

We offer 3 key indicators to measure the success of your participation in a trade fair or congress:

1. The scope of your stand
   The first key indicator is that of reach. Concretely, how many people were you able to reach thanks to this event? How many people visited your booth, how many interactions were you able to create, and how many leads were you able to register? If your communication campaign has been effective, you should have a certain number of people at your booth, as you will have been successful in generating curiosity and interest around your presence.
   
2. Net income
   The second key indicator is the net income generated. Concretely, how much money did you get from participating in an event? Having a booth at a trade show is usually expensive, and it should be profitable to avoid making an unsuccessful investment. This key indicator should therefore always occupy a corner of your head.
   
3. Media exposure
   Depending on the event you are attending, you may be able to gain some media visibility by taking advantage of the fame of the event in question. If media are present, you should approach them in order to build relationships with them, if your goal is to gain visibility of course.
   

Conclusion

This article will therefore have introduced you to the 3 elements necessary to build an effective event marketing campaign, namely the targets, key messages and communication channels, as well as the 3 key success indicators that you can use: reach, net income and media exposure.

If you want to know more about event marketing, we invite you to consult this article written by Allostand, available on the Sortlist blog.