Takeaway

When choosing a marketing strategy, localization brands often consider the size of their budget as their first priority. That is why many marketers opt for online marketing — because it requires less manpower and to some extent, minimal effort.

However, event marketing — sponsored community programs, conferences, incentives and trade shows — have proven to provide better ROI than internet marketing. Here is why.

[ 1. Face-to-face connections are still vital in the business

According to Hubspot’s sales statistics in 2019, at least 79% of prospective buyers make their purchasing decisions after meeting face-to-face with a salesperson. This means that although you still can generate substantial business leads through online marketing, you still need to make meaningful, in-person connections with your target clientele if you want optimal results.

The human touch in event marketing is very effective when it comes to explaining your company values and objectives to your target audience. Your customers get to ask questions, affording you the chance to offer them real-time, fruitful and personalized engagement with your services or products. Your website may not tell the entire company narrative, at least not as effectively as in-person marketing does.

[ 2. Event marketing is the most effective way of building brand equity

Your business success is heavily dependent on customer perception. Event marketing enables you to cultivate positive brand perception among your target audience. Statistics collected in 2015 showed that at least 74% of a given clientele got a more positive perception toward a given brand after interacting with the brand’s representatives at a marketing event.

[ 3. Through events, brands engage deeper and more productively with clients

Conversations during an event help you to put a face to your brand. Most people are skeptical about doing business with a faceless organization.

Once your brand gets a face, stronger business-customer ties are developed, customers are able to give you valuable feedback, and you are able to explain the defining features of your products or services more candidly. You can even organize an event where a few customers, preferably regular ones, get the chance to try out a new product before you launch it to the world. This will not only be a fun and exciting experience for your loyal customers, but also a chance to get honest, truthful feedback in real time. You need such information to further improve on your products.

[ 4. Events help you expand your content strategy

Social media marketing is integral to the growth of any brand. Without regular, fresh and engaging content for your social followers, chances are they will get bored and disinterested in your page. That is where event marketing comes in.

Live-streaming a company event on Facebook or Instagram is one way of expanding your content strategy. Sponsoring popular events attracts social media engagement, which allows you to promote your brand through hashtags. You can also create content themes around a popular event.

On top of the content expansion possibilities that event marketing presents, it also attracts free advertising from the event attendees. Everyone has a smartphone these days, which makes taking photos or videos from marketing events seamless. Often, these get posted on social media and, sometimes, the brand sponsoring the event gets a tag — a great deal, really.

[ 5. Events attract community goodwill

Customers will love your brand more if you show genuine effort to help your community. When your company is associated with a worthy cause in society, it attracts positive media attention.

In order to get the most out of your sponsored event, it is important that you hire the services of a professional event production agency. Such agencies bring color to your event, make the visual display and sound output more prominent, and ensure that your social live stream is perfect.

Event marketing in China

China, for example, has always been a tough nut for Western companies to crack. However, with the increasing live streaming apps in China, luxury brands are now able to deliver personalized content to their social media audiences. Event attendees now share their experiences seamlessly via social platforms such as QQ, WeChat, Miaopai and Weibo. The ripple effect of this is increased business leads and improved returns.

“If you want to expand in China, you will need to devise ways of leveraging the great opportunities that China’s events industry is offering,” say experts at New Horizons Global Partners. Experts predict that the industry will have a market scale of at least $100 billion within the next five years. Events — including localization and similar events — in major cities will definitely increase as investors continue to build modern convention centers.