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Whether it’s a trade show, a conference, a VIP dinner, or even a roadshow, an event is an opportunity to boost lead generation, enhance brand awareness, retain customers, or evangelize new concepts… provided it is organized according to best practices and accompanied by a well-crafted communication plan.
To discuss this, we interviewed Patricia Raphel,
Sales Director of the Manufacturing Division / Specialists Division at Infopro Digital Media. She assists companies in developing their multichannel communication strategy. She shares the golden rules of communication around Event Marketing, the challenges, common mistakes, and best practices to maximize the impact of the event through communication. Let’s get started!
How to leverage the communication strategy to achieve event objectives?
I believe that companies must first return to the fundamentals of communication strategy.
The event being organized or participated in is not an end in itself. It must fit into a broader strategy that serves commercial, marketing, HR (employer branding, for example), or other objectives. These objectives should guide the development of the message and its dissemination to the right target audience.
Timing is also crucial. Generally, for an event that a company is organizing, it’s recommended to announce it early (several months in advance), send progressive reminders, and intensify communication as the event approaches and even post-event to maximize impact. These reminders should include teaser elements but, more importantly, provide value to potential participants.
The communication surrounding an event can have multiple objectives, each with its KPIs. For instance, for brand awareness, one might look at website traffic variations, brand mentions on social media, Google search volumes, etc. For lead generation objectives, metrics like the number of completed forms, content downloads, and contact requests are measured.
Finally, the company must choose the most relevant media according to the habits of its audience, the type of content to be disseminated, reach, engagement, and budget.
What are the most common challenges for companies communicating around their events?
Each year, more than 338,000 corporate events are organized in France, which averages to about 1,000 events per day. It has never been more difficult to “surface” and stand out from the competition. This is undeniably the first challenge.
Secondly, I would say that engaging a relevant audience is a major challenge, especially when the event is part of an industry with high event activity.
Finally, there is the question of ROI in a broad sense, from setting up the KPIs to measure it to the marketing and sales aspect to convert visibility into tangible business opportunities (qualified leads, sales, strategic partnerships, etc.).
What are the mistakes to avoid when communicating about an event?
The biggest mistake is improvising and erratic communication, driven by the availability of different team members, without a formal communication plan that builds anticipation, encourages engagement during the event, and extends the event’s impact for several days or even weeks afterwards.
If it’s an event you’re participating in, the mistake would be failing to communicate about your participation before, during, and after the event, thus missing a major opportunity to position your company, gain brand recognition (and legitimacy), and ideally, generate leads.
What communication strategy do you recommend for companies to capitalize on their events?
To start, focus on a communication campaign centred on the solution presented or the value proposition highlighted during the event. The goal is to channel the communication towards the essentials to avoid confusion and ensure message coherence.
Next, to disseminate this message in a B2B context, I recommend leveraging specialized press that targets the specific audience to capture the desired audience and generate highly qualified leads through various solutions:
- Press: position yourself in an issue of a magazine or specialized journal with a dossier related to the solution, including a commercial angle as well as value, experiences, and useful advice for the targeted audience;
- Digital: Increase visibility and generate traffic and leads through “Display” formats that redirect traffic to the company’s website, a landing page, or a catalogue;
- Emailing: Directly reach the core target with this high ROI lever;
- Video: This format is essential in B2B. For 70% of buyers, video is “the best format to discuss a business issue or learn about a complex topic”. Additionally, 93%, of them state that video is “very important for building trust with the brand,” according to a study by Brightcove and Ascend2. The video can then be reused across all platforms and support other communications.