Event Marketing & Experience

How to Plan a Brand Event that Drives Measurable Business Results

Victoria Rudi
March 21, 2019

Table of Contents

When it comes to running a brand event, you can easily identify two types of people: those who hire an event professional, and those who are courageous enough to try and plan an event between work meetings and other administrative tasks.

“This article must be for the latter,” you might be thinking.

Yes and no.

Even if you usually hire a professional, reading this post will help you a lot.

Before setting up the parameters of a new event or having your first meeting with representatives of a planning agency, you must define a few strategic aspects that will ensure your brand event is a success.

People run events for different reasons.

Some want to increase their revenue; others want to raise funds for a cause. In some extreme cases, you may encounter people who plan events just for the sake of planning, without having any clear goals.

In the case of brand events, you can narrow down the goals to one clear end objective, which is to drive measurable business results (which can vary from transforming prospects into clients to upselling to existing clients).

To achieve these business-growth oriented goals, you’ll want to consider the following steps:

Step #1. Invite the right people

In his book The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steve Blank highlights five types of people who may be willing to buy from you:

  • Someone who has a problem
  • Is aware of having a problem
  • Has been actively looking for a solution
  • Has a part of the solution
  • Has acquired a budget for the solution

Considering these categories, you may easily define different types of event content for attendees whom you can transform into customers based on the problem–solution phase they find themselves in.

You can run a brand event for those who don’t even know they have an issue, or for those who already have a part of the solution.

This way, you make your potential clients aware of the challenges they have, and then help them overcome these challenges by offering them valuable insights.

Step #2. Draft a laser-like communication campaign

71514

By knowing your audience, you have the necessary tools to craft attractive brand communications that will encourage people to pay attention to you, register, and attend your brand event.

Communicating with them in their language helps build a true connection.

Step #3. Provide unique brand experiences

What should you do to make people talk about your brand after attending the event? Provide amazing food, and your guests will recall the different treats. Invite a super-funny moderator, and your attendees will retell his or her jokes.

Provide out-of-the-ordinary brand experiences, and your guests will rave about how cool your company is.

Step #4. Encourage attendance

470169-PG0RI5-712

Sometimes, well-crafted invitations aren’t enough. That’s why you’ll have to think about possibly attracting attendees by offering discounts or a specific time frame to access different products or services.

If you’re planning a brand event for potential customers, you can give them free products or longer trial periods (for services).

This not only encourages them to attend your event, but also gives them a firsthand experience of what your brand has to offer.

Step #5. Decide what data to collect

597489-PMT8NO-200

Brand events are perfect for gathering lots of information about your prospects or customers.

So don’t waste your opportunity to run live polls or surveys to find out more about their problems, expectations, and preferences.

You can also decide to use powerful event management software and collect valuable data about your attendees’ behavior to give you concrete information about what to improve, add, or exclude when you plan your next brand event or marketing campaign.

Magnify your brand event’s attractiveness

You can run multiple brand events, yet if not done correctly, you’ll waste money, time, and resources, without being able to drive measurable business results.

When planning a brand event, your intention is to shape your attendees’ opinion, attitude, or behavior into making them understand why your value proposition is unique, and how their lives will improve or change by purchasing (or advocating) your products or services.

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

Learn more

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

All-in-one event management software