The Impact of Event Marketing

What is Event Marketing?

Event marketing, also known as experiential marketing, uses events (both online and in-person) to promote a brand, product, or service. It's a strategy that leverages live and virtual experiences to connect with audiences, build relationships, and drive engagement.

Companies can participate as hosts, co-hosts, participants or sponsors. Event marketing is known to be particularly successful with creating connections, connecting with your audience and showcasing your brand, ultimately driving results.

"60% of companies that hosted a blend of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events noted in-person get-togethers have been the most effective for generating revenue." Splash

What is Event Marketing Important?

Event marketing is important because it creates direct, engaging, and memorable experiences that help build stronger connections between a brand and its audience. Here's are the key benefits:

Branding and awareness:

The key benefit of event marketing is the ability to establish and build a strong brand. This is particularly crucial because most industries have an overwhelming number of competitors, so it provides a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd and clearly showcase your USP.

There are a few reasons a brand may attend an event, and these usually depend on who they are looking to spread awareness to:

• Specific Category: Looking to implement your company into a specific ecosystem. Target is to sell to their target market and customers. Also, looking to be established in that area.

• Large Audience: The event is known for the large amount of tickets sold. Attendees range of different types of people. Target is to reach a broad audience. Also, to associate with the other brands attending, who are usually large, trusted companies.

When thinking about what event is most suitable for your company to attend, whether that is as an attendee or as an exhibitor, it's important to think of who your customer is, and put yourself in their shoes - what event would your customer most likely attend? That's where you would want to be.

Another key technique, which is important not to forget, which is important to building brand awareness is connecting with journalists or bloggers. If successful, this can help establish relationships with influential journalists or bloggers in a specific industry, get press coverage and help position themselves as thought leaders. All great things to help build a strong brand presence and help stand out from competitors.

"It takes 7 seconds for customers to make an impression about a business." Forbes

Customer Engagement: 

Another key benefit of event marketing is the ability to humanise your company and create a more personal and stronger connection with potential and current customers. Although communicating via email is important and crucial, it is difficult to build a true personal connection. For event marketing, that's quite the opposite. By creating strong personal connections with customers, they are more likely to have an emotional link to your brand/company, helping you stand out from other competitors. Also, it increases the chances of customers to share their experience/knowledge of your company/brand mission with friends, businesses, colleagues, and other potential customers.

To increase customer engagement was a key reason why electronRx attended CES in 2024 and 2025. Having a booth at CES allowed us to stand out against our stronger competitors. Many visitors complemented our stand, saying we stand out particularly in the start up area. Standing out from the crowd makes you memorable and trustworthy, increasing the chance of a successful follow up post event. I discuss more in my blog "A Review of CES 2024" on how successful the event was and my contributions.

Improve Understanding of Target Audience: 

Event marketing is a great way to get to know your target audience, by speaking directly to them. Through conversation, you can further understand their pain points, and explain how your product/service can help relieve this.

Furthermore, it is important to listen out for feedback, whether positive or negative, which your customers may provide in conversation. Have they suggested any feature which they think will transform your product/service? Have they singled out a specific feature which they see as a differentiator from other brands - something they have never seen before? All of this feedback is invaluable and could be transformative at future brand development.

"71% of younger generations say their trust increased following their interaction with a brand at a live event, and 85% say trusting a brand is critical for purchase." Freeman

Seminars

Events often offer seminars, business conferences or public talks on a range of different topics, including new business strategies, new evolving technologies (particularly within the use of AI), or promoting their product/service.

• If you are speaking at a public talk, it is transformative for both your company and your own personal professional growth. It highlights yourself as a key speaker and shows thought leadership within a specific area. It is important to have someone who represents your company well in these areas, and is happy to be the face of the brand - CEO. It is important to ensure your talk is both informative, interesting and gripping. These attendee's have most likely been to hundreds of public talks, so it is important to present a unique, captivating point-of-view, insights, or discussing a new perspective on a technology or service. It would be much more effective if you discussed a trending topic, which would currently be AI. Engaging with your audience is a great way to be captivating, instead of speaking to them for the entire talk. Ask questions during or after the talk.
  

• If you are attending a public talk, it is transformative for both your company and your own personal professional growth. It is important to attend events which are relevant to your companies mission - you can learn new perspectives and insights from influential thought leaders. The other people listening to these talks will also, most likely, have a similar interest or company mission, so it could be impactful to talk with other listeners, before or after the talk. For me, it is particularly impactful to listen to these talks when it comes to new business strategies, as I am at the start of my career.

Types of Marketing Events:

• Online marketing events

• Webinars

• Live streaming events

• In person marketing events

• Trade shows

• Conferences

• Meetups

• Appreciation events

Conclusion:

In conclusion, event marketing is a powerful strategy that allows brands to build meaningful connections, increase visibility, and gain valuable insights into their audience. Whether through in-person experiences or digital events, the ability to engage directly with potential customers, showcase thought leadership, and gather real-time feedback makes event marketing a vital tool for any company looking to grow and stand out in a competitive market. By choosing the right events and participating in a personal way, businesses can leave a lasting impression, foster trust, and drive long-term success.