Planning and Executing Successful Events
Even in this age of Internet communications, events, such as trade shows and seminars, are still valuable marketing programs because they give you the opportunity to connect with prospects face-to-face. This service enables us to help you plan and execute any type of marketing event that will get you in front of your key prospects cost-effectively.
There are two aspects of this service – event plan development and event execution.
We can help you develop your overall event plan, doing the legwork necessary to identify events that get you the best exposure and high quality leads. We can develop an event plan that focuses on your target audience and gets you the highest return for the least amount of marketing dollars. From our experience, we will make recommendations on which events will make the best use of your marketing resources and help you determine if each of the identified events is feasible in terms of time and available resources (both people and money). For the overall plan, we will identify the following information for each event in order to prioritize the list:
- Why this event?
- What is the goal of the event?
- What is the budget and resources required to effectively execute the event?
- What is the effect of implementing or not implementing this event?
Once the plan is developed, we can help you implement the individual events. Our experience enables us to plan and execute each event quickly and cost-effectively. If you want someone to manage your presence at targeted trade shows such that you engage your customers and capture the mind share of the press and analyst community, we can ensure that you get the most out of these events. We can also help you plan and execute seminars that result in high quality sales opportunities. Events that are important to your marketing mix include trade shows, seminars, Web casts and executive breakfasts.
Each event needs its own implementation plan which identifies all the key deliverables and deadlines that must be met. For each event, we will take you through the following process:
Event Plan Development
Detailed, insightful planning is the critical engine that starts your program on the path to success. For each event, we develop an event plan. The plan outlines the fundamental goals of implementing this event. In addition, we ask questions such as:
- What is the budget and resources required for this event?
- Do we need to promote the event?
- Will we need a public relations plan for the event?
Depending on the type of the event, the answers will help us determine the activities that need to be
accomplished in order to succeed.
If this is a trade show, we also include plans for pre-show, at-show, and post-show activities. The pre-show plan includes all activities required to successfully get there, including submissions to “Best of Show” awards and lining up press and analyst interviews. The at-show plan is what you want to accomplish at the show – lead generation, demos, staffing, attending press/analyst interviews, etc. The post-show plan identifies the programs aimed at the leads you generated at the show.
Event Plan Execution
Once the event plan is completed, we then produce an event checklist. This checklist is is a timeline-based list of tasks that need to be accomplished in order to successfully produce the event. All tasks must be assigned to an individual responsible for ensuring completion. Tasks range from booking the venue and food to producing the key materials for the event, such as collateral, presentations, signage or giveaways.
Up until the date of the event, the event team meets regularly to ensure that all tasks are successfully completed. These meetings enable the team to identify issues and obstacles that are preventing completion of the tasks and get them resolved before they can hamper the success of the event.
Finally, the team meets after the event to discuss how the event turned out, what went well, what could have been done better, and what results we achieved from the event, such as how many leads were generated, how many sales were made due to the event, and how much publicity was generated from the event.
Let us help you create an effective event plan that makes your product or service visible to your target market. Contact us to discuss your requirements.
