Are you feeling confused about how to incorporate an events strategy into your business? Are you feeling stuck trying to figure out how to get your brand seen and heard in a noisy world? I get it, it’s tough out there!
We get stuck wondering things like, how can I make my brand standout or can I use events to grow my brand?
When you’re unsure what to do, it’s hard to move forward.
The good news is, you can easily bring order to the chaos by planning and incorporating a strategic mix of events to grow your brand and business.
In this post, I’ll define the elements of the perfect event strategy and provide 3 event formats you can use to help skyrocket your brand’s visibility.
This post gives you a roadmap so you can start putting your own event strategy into practice and start building that coveted buzz around your brand.
What is the perfect event strategy for brand-building?
It’s a strategic mix of digital and in-person events.
In other words:
You need a combination of online and offline gatherings to increase awareness and conversions (um, yes please!).
The added benefit is you get to connect with your audience on multiple levels.
Let’s break it down…
#1 Webinars
The Virtual Foundation
A webinar is an online event, such as a presentation, workshop, or meeting, that is either live-streamed or pre-recorded. (Fun fact, a webinar is a combination of the words “web” and “seminar”).
This is a crucial component because webinars allow you to reach a wide audience from anywhere.
Many entrepreneurs who are new to events and event planning start out on the right track then get stuck.
This is because they either focus heavily on in-person networking and conferences and neglect digital events, OR vice versa.
And then they wind up missing out on creating important connections with potential customers who prefer connecting virtually and/or in-person.
The key to building sustainable brand and business growth is to balance both online and offline/in-person events and gatherings.
Start planning one monthly webinar (remember, it can be pre-recorded or live) around a hot topic for your niche.
For example, if you’re a content creator you could create a webinar or YouTube video around how other content creators can start using the latest Artificial Intelligence tools to make creating content easier and more efficient.
#2 Conferences and Workshops
In-Person Relationship Building
In-person conferences are a dynamic gateway to forge meaningful connections with industry leaders and potential clients.
This significantly enhances your business opportunities and client engagement.
It also provides the opportunity for personal interactions that build trust, foster genuine connections, and cultivates powerful transformations.
If you’ve spent countless hours only focusing on your online presence but something still feels off – like you’re not getting traction or excitement around your brand, this might be the missing piece.
It’s easy to hide behind your computer as an entrepreneur. But making authentic connections takes courage and conviction to get out there.
Without this in-person element, you can talk about how great your product or service is on your Instagram till the cows come home.
But it won’t create the kind of impact you want to have.
What can you do?
A really useful tip if you’re planning your first conference is to start small.
Host a workshop for 10-20 of your top clients.
Plan a creative in-person experience for a handful of your top customers as a thank you for being so awesome. From there, you can grow into bigger conference-style events if you so choose.
A big mistake I see a lot of entrepreneurs make is biting off more than they can chew when it comes to planning an event. Their thinking is (God bless them, truly) is the bigger the better!
And they soon realize planning and executing a large conference when they’ve never planned any kind of event before was more overwhelming and stressful than they realized.
The times that that can work is if you’ve already built up a large audience and brand recognition. If you’re just starting out, I recommend planning a smaller workshop and building from there.
Or partnering with a complementary, larger brand and putting on the event together.
#3 Retreats
Next-Level Transformations
Retreats are immersive multi-day experiences that foster and cultivate powerful transformations, aha-realizations, and next-step clarity.
Retreats are my favorite to plan because the more intimate nature of a retreat allows you to provide even more meaningful details and focus even more on your attendee’s experience, ultimately creating a one-of-a-kind transformation.
Here’s where you’ll really start to forge deep relationships with your customers and clients, which is what creating a killer event strategy is all about.
This is because the smaller nature of a retreat helps you to focus on what is most important: the customer experience.
Of course, this requires significant planning and resources. And many entrepreneurs either don’t have or are not willing to invest in just yet.
Consider starting with a half-day local meetup that you can host for free at, say, a public park if the weather is nice, or your apartment building’s complimentary meeting space.
Another free venue option is your local public library. Many will have private rooms with free wifi.
The process you can use to keep your in-person event affordable is:
- Conduct an internet search of local free meeting spaces
- Then select a date and book it with the venue
- Then, in order to keep costs down, you can seek sponsorships from local vendors who may be willing to provide food, drinks, swag, etc. in exchange for marketing and exposure to your top clients/customers.
You’re now well on your way to building buzz for your brand because of the exceptional customer experience you provided, even if it is just for 5 people. How you treat just one person is how you treat everyone.
Putting it All Together for Your Perfect Event Strategy
There you have it! The 3 components of your perfect brand visibility-boosting event strategy.
It may sound like a lot, but like most things consistent practice makes perfect. Just focus on hosting small virtual events before moving to in-person events. This will help you gain confidence in becoming an incredible event host and creating a valuable experience for your attendees who could go on to become customers and clients.
What’s next? Download The Ultimate Virtual Event Planning Checklist
To help you get started, my Ultimate Virtual Event Planning Checklist will show you how to host a virtual event with ease and confidence. Start building buzz around your brand and grow your business like a boss.
>> CLICK HERE to download the Ultimate Virtual Event Planning Checklist now <<
