27 Feb How to Uniquely Promote Your Brand at Your Next Public Event
Promote your brand at public events and reach new leads while increasing brand recognition. You likely already know you need a presence at trade shows and local gatherings, but you may be a little uncertain about the best ways of presenting your company to the general public.
Trade shows, for example, let B2B brands reach decision makers. About 82 percent of people visiting trade shows either are the purchase decision makers or directly involved in the purchase process.
Public events don’t just involve trade shows, however. A public event can be something you personally host for your customers, sponsoring a fundraiser or any number of other activities. You can promote your business in many unique ways — here are eight ideas.
1. Define Your Brand’s Identity
Before you attend public event one, make sure you fully define your brand. Your brand logo, color palette and brand mission should all be clear and understood by you and anyone who represents you at events.
Even more than knowing your brand’s identity, you should dig deeper and understand the tone of voice best for reaching your target audience.
2. Purchase Eye-Catching Displays
For the physical part of any booth or event in your store, make sure you have proper signage that draws in foot traffic. Keep in mind the different distances from which people view your booth.
You need a sign hanging high and large enough to read at the end of an aisle or while people drive past your store down the road. You also need signage up close as they approach your booth and finally enter it.
3. Pass Out Promotional Products
One of the quickest ways of attracting people to your booth is by passing out free customized promotional products. Keep in mind that if you offer something everyone wants, you’ll gain the most extensive reach of potential leads. However, you should also think about what items are specific to your industry and what promotional items are most likely attractive to your typical buyer. You don’t just want leads — you want highly qualified leads interested in what your business offers.
4. Focus on Networking
One hidden benefit of public events is meeting other like-minded business owners. Make connections with other business in your community and share ideas of promotions that work and refer clients to one another. One example of this might be a guitar store which refers their customers to a music teacher and a music teacher who recommends the guitar store to students.
5. Tap Into Social Media
Gain even more traction from public events by tapping into social media. Add content from the event to your social media pages, such as a post of your booth. Add a photo booth for people who stop by and ask them to upload their photos and use a specific hashtag or to @mention your brand in their posts.
Drive excitement about whatever event you’re attending. If you’re at a festival, take some snapshots of fun activities, the midway with carnival rides and some of the best food available for snacking. You could also do a countdown until the event and offer photos of last year’s event. For example, you could write that there are six more days until the public event and add a video of a demonstration from last year.
6. Host a Giveaway
Collecting leads from events is one of the top reasons brands attend. If you host a drawing of some sort with a prize everyone wants, you’ll gather leads. Depending upon your business model, you might collect names and email addresses, or you might also collect phone numbers. The collected names are all leads to follow up with after the event ends. While not all will buy from your brand, some might, particularly if you offer a free estimate or consultation of some sort.
The giveaway item should be desirable enough for people to give up their personal information. A large screen television or a trip are good choices. Another idea is to give away something related to your product or service. Only those interested in what you offer to sign up for such a prize, so the leads are your target audience members.
7. Offer Talks
Another idea for reaching out to potential customers is through giving talks at local events. You’ll establish yourself as an expert in the industry. Don’t be scared to share information about what you do with others to help them out. There is always the more advanced knowledge you haven’t shared to attract them to your business and bring them in as customers.
Conduct demonstrations at a local home show, go to a business conference and give a speech, or go around to local nonprofit organizations and provide talks about any number of topics. Anything you can do to get your name out in front of potential customers helps build your brand image.
8. Engage Booth Visitors
Take a step back from your booth setup and figure out how you can best engage visitors as they approach and then enter your booth. Interactive quiz-type questions where the user flips up a panel to reveal the answer are simple to create and help get event attendees involved in the process. Depending on your budget, you could also implement a touchscreen activity.
Have enough feet on the floor to greet people as they enter the booth and answer any questions. Human interaction is one of the best ways of engaging with people and showing them what is unique about your brand.
Follow Up With Everyone
If your public event is a success, you’ll collect a number of names and people interested in your business. Make following up with all contacts a priority. Don’t wait too long to reach out as they may forget their interaction with you, but follow up immediately after the event ends (next business day). A consistent presence at public events, a bit of legwork and following up all mesh together to help your business grow into a raging success.
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