When you're in charge of planning an event for your company, it seems like your to-do list doesn't have an end. It's your main goal to have a successful event that drives sales and increases your company’s revenue.
You're busy dreaming up themes and double-checking sponsorships. However, while you're focused on the budget and location of your next event, you might be missing the bigger picture — what is the real strategy behind the event?
Nothing in planning high-profile events is straightforward, and that’s especially true when it comes to putting a strategy around the event. Throughout the planning process, you get bogged down in the details of planning, potentially making it easy to overlook the strategy.
It isn't just you. This is common for many corporate event planning teams. Many are lured by the shiny “how” before the unpolished “why.” However, staying true to an event strategy throughout your planning can return massive results. Here are some things to consider:
What Is Event Planning?
Event planning is all the tasks that go into holding a corporate event. This can include a conference that goes for several days with speakers and special activities to a series of digital content offerings.
When you're planning an event, you are concentrating on the details, including:
- A convenient location for the event
- Theme
- Determine activities and speakers who offer value to the attendees
- Decide between a high-touch and a low-touch event
- Catering
- Decorations
- Sponsorship giveaways
- Agenda management
From first-time customers to your company's biggest client, you want to drive leads to your sales department and build awareness of your brand or products, and that means planning an event that engages the participants. As an event planner, you focus on the essentials to make this happen, including:
- The costs of the event
- Staying within your determined budget and/or finding cost savings
- Timelines and deadlines
- Resources needed to execute and improve engagement, including product demos and industry speakers
It's also important that you find the right guests and entice them to attend your function. You need a mix of current and potential clients who also find value in networking with each other during your event.
The content of the event takes up a lot of your time. From speakers to meet and greets, the content needs to keep attendees engaged. How you manage the run-of-show and last minute details impacts how well attendees stay engaged.
Businesses Need More Than Event Planners
You know that any corporate event needs to drive opportunities, but you may get bogged down in the logistics while there are other ways to drive event performance to business objectives. . Your company needs more than an event planner to make the most of the opportunities available.
Event planners are essential in creating an exceptional function. However, while they are likely aware of the role an event plays in the bigger picture of holistic marketing and business objectives, they may struggle understanding how to connect the dots and deliver impact to the bottom line.
Event strategists understand how the event holistically drives revenue growth and works in concert with the business's marketing strategy. Everything that goes on during the event should be related to the company's current marketing initiatives, drive demand, and deliver leads to an eager and ready sales team.
For your event to benefit the company, there must be a strategy that includes these goals. This is where event strategy begins to play an essential role in making your event not just a success for the attendees, but also for your business. Without a strategy, your business may not find the financial outcome that you had hoped to receive.
What Is Event Strategy?
Event strategists create clear goals to get the highest return on your investment. Their main responsibilities include:
- Combining the available resources to focus on achieving holistic event goals
- Developing a detailed plan on how to reach your event goals
- Determining how to use your marketing strategy to see the plan through to fruition
- Creating cohesion between all events, not just a single one
It isn't enough that the event runs smoothly. Without an event strategy, you might not achieve any increased sales or identify long-term customers.
A good event strategy puts the capital "M" in Marketing. We operate under the belief that marketing, and thus your corporate events, should make you money. However, there are multiple ways to generate revenue in addition to generating new leads, including:
- Minimizing client turnover
- Improving client satisfaction and upsells
- Increasing product adoption
Marketing becomes a part of the entire business ecosystem, and a good event strategist will be able to integrate and identify those hidden revenue-generating opportunities. Event strategists view the function as a way to notice these extra opportunities.
Find Your Team of Event Strategists
Event strategy extends beyond the conclusion of the event. It should be closely aligned with your company's annual marketing strategy, making it easy to build and keep momentum before, during, and after the event.
When you work as an event strategist, you make marketing part of the business ecosystem and incorporate your strategy into every aspect of a corporate event and beyond.
When your role is to plan the event, you can adopt a strategy as well. You may need to coordinate with the marketing department or take a few minutes to step back and see how the event you're planning works with the goals you've created. Ultimately, the two roles must collaborate together to deliver the best results possible.
At Impact Point Group, we can help you understand and implement a holistic event strategy. Contact us to schedule a consultation.