By Josh Sommers
Published 05/07/10
When marketing your business, you have to think big. Part of thinking big is investing marketing resources to create “buzz.” While traditional advertising always remains important, many companies enlist event marketing to generate that all-important buzz in the market.
Do you now have a new product or service you are offering? Are you celebrating a significant anniversary? Is your company opening a new location? Does your type of business fit into a more seasonal classification, and you want people to think of you during the high season? Or, do you have a more direct, relationship-driven business model where building stronger ties to your clients can increase retention and new opportunities?
Strengthening relationships
If you can answer yes to any of these questions, promoting yourself with strategic events is a terrific marketing tactic to explore.
Take, for instance, those providing professional services, such as accounting and engineering companies. If these types of businesses want to create buzz, placing advertisements in the newspaper or business publication may make sense. But an event could very well be an even greater use of resources to procure future references or work, while helping strengthen relationships with current clients.
Events can range from cocktail receptions to group outings at baseball games. What better way to promote yourself with the right people than to buy the drinks and food at an event where the right people are talking about you? While this may seem like a large and expensive promotional element, strong relationships make the world go around in many industries — as long as your work meets standards.
Reaching out to new customers
In the retail industry, an effective marketing technique may include hosting a special event that promotes a particular sale or new product through a multimedia advertising campaign. Having a unique event creates a sense of urgency that motivates consumers. Leading up to the event, companies such as car dealerships, mobile phone companies and clothing stores often leverage live radio broadcasts to drive traffic to their venue, while creating lots of buzz.
With these types of promotions, it’s not just the actual events that the companies can make a sale on — the promotions leading up to the event create the real talk about the company that will result in enhanced marketing awareness over time.
So, create some buzz in the market with well-thought-out event marketing. It can be the best marketing dollar you spend.
Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a leading Hudson Valley advertising and public relations agency. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 294-3342, ext. 303. Read his blog at www.advertisingandpr.com. His column appears Fridays.
