Exhibitions, seminars, product launches, even corporate hospitality events can be a great way to showcase your business and meet new clients. All too often however an event is not maximised and when someone asks whether the event was a success you’re really not sure. So what can you do to make sure that any event you organise to promote your business does just that?
Start with objectives
Why are you organising the event? What are your objectives and have you quantified them?
If you don’t have a clear purpose for the event it’s doomed to failure. If you’re taking a brief from someone else push them to set very clear objectives that you can both sign up to. Obviously you need to make sure they are realistic – but make them challenging too.
Think about the event alongside the other marketing activity you are undertaking, how does it complement these other activities, are there any areas of conflict? If so, resolve them before moving ahead.
How will the event support your business objectives and also think about whether the event is primarily about raising your profile, meeting new clients, making sales or saying thank you to your existing clients and important suppliers.
For many events the answer will be a combination of these things – but do try and be as clear as possible when setting your objectives. And make sure the event will generate sufficient benefit to make it financially worthwhile.
For example, if you are planning an information seminar to discuss a topic that you think your clients and prospects might be interested in it’s probably unrealistic to expect to generate direct sales as a result. In this instance you probably ought to be setting objectives in terms of the number of new contacts made, number of existing clients spoke to and maybe the number of follow up appointments arranged or agreed to at the event.
If you’re planning to attend a major trade fair, used by buyers in your industry sector, then your targets will no doubt be set in terms of the number of new buyers you meet and demonstrate your product to, the number of orders taken etc.
You will know what these targets should be. You just need to instil the discipline of setting them (in clear quantifiable terms), sharing them (with everyone involved in the event) and sticking to them (which means making sure you have systems and processes in place to measure whether you’ve achieved your objectives).
Set a budget If you don’t set and manage a budget for your event you could find yourself facing some nasty surprises, or maybe worse still, failing to meet your objectives.
Here’s a list of some of the things to consider when setting your budget:
1. Where will the event be held?
What type of location and how much do you feel is reasonable to pay for the venue itself? A similar question is relevant to exhibitions – where within the exhibition do you need to be, how large a ...
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