Whether online or in-person, customers adore events. Company leaders do, too, because they drive brand awareness and inspire new parts of their target audience to interact with their latest digital marketing campaign.
Quick Links
But the most difficult part of events is getting people to them. It can be so challenging that it makes you not want to bother with them. That said, event engagement can drive people toward your digital marketing campaigns. So, giving up just isn’t an option.
Your overall marketing campaign can reap quite a few benefits if you focus on event engagement and expanding your digital marketing strategies. Let’s explore nine of those benefits in detail below.
More Opportunities for Data Collection
It’s vital to create detailed plans, establish specific processes, and develop campaign proposals for your digital marketing success. Without these things, your efforts will be unorganized and inconsistent.
Each of the above documents is better prepared with specific data, though. You should already have data analytics tools set up on your digital marketing channels to track performance and collect data on your target audience. But events are another opportunity to gather data.
You can plan better events and boost your digital marketing efforts with in-depth information about your current and potential customers and what attracted them to your brand and events.
Tapping into the power of your online presence can boost event engagement and expand your digital marketing campaigns also.
Tap into the Power of Your Online Presence
Social media is one of the best ways to boost event engagement. You can use your presence on these platforms and other digital channels to relentlessly promote your event.
For example, you can use the story feature on your social media platforms to share what you’re doing behind the scenes to make the event come together. You can post user-generated content on the event page on your website. You can also share updates and other content with your email list that would breed interest in your next event.
In using your online presence to promote your events, you’re also boosting your digital marketing simultaneously.
Boosting event engagement helps you cater to all sides of your audience too.
Cater to All Sides of Your Audience
One of the primary goals of a digital marketing campaign is to develop authentic relationships with as many people in your target audience as possible. Events are that way too. Virtual, in-person, and hybrid events allow you to connect with your entire target audience.
Your digital marketing campaigns also get better because those who engage with your brand offline will visit you online after a memorable in-person event. Additionally, people who generally interact with your brand online will be inspired to see you offline after an excellent online event experience. As a result, you start to evolve an omnichannel marketing experience.
Influencer marketing is also possible through event engagement.
Leverage Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is growing in popularity. It’s becoming one of the go-to types of marketing for digital marketers because of how loyal influencer audiences are. There’s a level of trust there that results in consistent engagement and conversions.
When you host events to connect with influencers directly or are always putting on really cool events that influencers can’t help but talk about, influencer marketing becomes an option to strengthen your digital marketing strategy.
Also, your digital marketing campaigns can grow even more when you boost engagement at community events.
Garner More Local Support
There’s nothing like having the support of neighboring businesses, nonprofits, schools, and individuals in your community. Getting better engagement at these events can garner more local support.
This can boost your digital marketing campaigns because you’ll get more engagement from people who are near you, who know you and are most likely to make a consistent contribution to your online conversations.
In addition to garnering more local support, event engagement can help you grow your professional network.
Grow Your Professional Network
Business partnerships, brand connections, and relationships with other professionals in your industry are integral to your success. Professional networking events like industry conferences or workshops are fantastic for fostering these relationships.
Inviting them to learn more about your brand online can help you discover which parts of your digital marketing resonate with professionals. You can then expand your digital marketing by creating specific campaigns to connect with businesses, brands, and professionals.
Event engagement can improve customer retention as well.
Improve Customer Retention
Events are fantastic for attracting new customers, but they’re even more impactful for your customer retention efforts. From customer appreciation events to exclusive product launches to pop-up shops, rewarding your loyal customers with personalized experiences is a surefire way to increase engagement.
You’ll need to create digital marketing campaigns geared toward returning customers to get them to these events. So, you’ll learn how to connect with returning customers on your digital marketing channels, expanding your digital marketing abilities even more.
Furthermore, expanding your digital marketing campaigns is easier when you’re nothing like the competition. Event engagement can help with this too.
Differentiate Your Brand from the Competition
It’s getting harder and harder to stand out online, even with the best digital marketing tools and techniques at your disposal. But stellar events can help differentiate your brand from the competition online.
Taking the time to put on unique in-person events in an increasingly digital world can help solidify your brand, help you make a name for yourself, and step out of the shadows of your competition.
That uniqueness can also seep into your digital marketing campaigns that promote the events, which boosts attendance and the strength of your digital marketing strategy.
Better event engagement also leads to more customer feedback opportunities.
More Customer Feedback Opportunities
You open up more customer feedback opportunities when you get more people to attend your events. If you ask the right questions, you can learn a lot about your events and digital marketing from attendees.
For example, you can ask people who RSVP to your online events to disclose where they first heard about the event to determine which of your digital channels or marketing messages got them there.
You can also chat with customers face-to-face at in-person events about how the event is going. And don’t forget about sending surveys after an event is over to encourage attendees to open up about their experiences.
When more people attend your events, you have access to more feedback. You can use this feedback to tweak your digital marketing and events strategies to make them more fascinating for your target audience.
Conclusion
Boosting event engagement to expand your digital marketing campaigns is a brilliant business move. Fantastic in-person and virtual events can push your audience to engage with your brand online and offline.
Events and digital marketing feed off each other for success. If you can improve how people engage with your events, your digital marketing will benefit too.