Experiential Marketing Events 101

Looking for an effective marketing strategy to give your business the boost it needs? There is a trending marketing method that has potential to strongly influence consumers’ buying choices. It’s called experiential marketing. Experiential marketing seems to have become the top strategy and an efficient approach to promoting your products or services.

Experiential Marketing – A Unique, Functional Tactic

Experiential marketing has been a part of the advertising industry for a long time. However, the current advanced technology has revolutionized this marketing strategy and made it the backbone of numerous branding plans. Being much more than event marketing, experiential marketing is all about engaging your customers with your offerings or brand. So you want to promote your new fall line of clothing? Instead of just putting them in your storefront, hold a fashion show to make it an experience.

How Experiential Marketing Works

Experiential marketing incorporates different elements of logic, emotions, and the overall thought process to get linked with customers. The objective of this form of marketing is to create the link in such a manner that the buyer reacts to the offering both emotionally and rationally. After all, what would really influence you to make a purchase – trying the product out yourself or watching an ad about it?

A simple comparison would be a person in a mall walking past an advertisement for ice cream, compared to a friendly group of experiential marketers handing out samples. Which would entice you more? When compared to other advertising campaigns, experiential marketing typically communicates on a more personal basis. This greater emotional engagement leads to higher conversion rates at a reasonable cost. What’s more, experiential marketing events can vary from high profile celebrity functions to a carnival at a local market.

Why Choose Experiential Marketing?

Wonder if experiential marketing events can take your brand to great heights? This strategy has become an important component of most marketing plans.

The saturation of media channels has reduced the efficiency of conventional advertising methods. Consumers are no longer attracted to traditional TV and radio commercials. They can spot print advertisements and know how to mentally see past them. They usually ignore or block internet advertisements and don’t pay much attention to loads of promotional messages they come across on a daily basis.

In such conditions, experiential marketing tactics can prove to be a great help. It’s a special communication channel that consumers wouldn’t want to ignore. After all, it doesn’t bombard them with promotional content, but engages their attention on a personal level. Here are a few other benefits that this branding strategy can offer you:

• Create customer relationships

• Augment loyalty

• Boost brand awareness

• Encourage product or service trial

• Ensure constructive word of mouth

• A direct means to reach a target audience

• Generate product desire

A Few Experiential Marketing Ideas

Here are a few tips that can help you get the most out of your experiential marketing event:

1. Offer Something Special to Consumers

Your marketing event should provide people with something they would love to talk about. No matter whether it is a distinctive feature, offer, or benefit, consumers are able to discuss their personal experience with others if it is worth sharing. The ice cream idea above is a great example, but what if you don’t have a physical product that’s so tasty? Think outside the box. If you’re a graphic design company and you’re attending an industry conference, don’t just set up the standard booth or display. Play up your technological abilities and create an app or game such as a drawing or coloring contest. Users will share their drawings with friends and on social media.

2. Use Social Media

Speaking of social media, you should use these networks to encourage people to share their experience. This will help you get the desired feedback publicly, thus making it visible for everyone. If you want to ensure the use of social media, make it an integrated part of your experiential marketing event. For example, host an Instagram photo contest or require a like to enter your booth or get that free taste of ice cream.

3. Enhance User Experience

Allow users to experience your offering. This will dramatically encourage them to talk about your brand. So you run the local animal shelter? Obviously you don’t need to market to those coming in your door. They already know about you and you have a good product to sell! But what about getting those puppies and kittens out to the masses at a local store? Ask the store if you can set up a fenced in area on a busy Saturday. The furballs will drive traffic to the store and you’ll get new eyes on what you have to sell.

4. Accept the Good and Bad

To ensure the success of your experiential marketing event, be prepared to accept both the good and bad. Remember to address and deal with negative comments. This will help you improve your product or brand. Respond to questions, accept suggestions, and deal with complaints. One way to look at negative press is that any press is better than no press. Get people talking about your brand, and if you find a lot of constructive feedback, take the Dominos approach and turn it into a marketing campaign in and of itself.

Summary

All in all, experiential marketing is an influential promotional tool that can dominate any marketing campaign. Make sure your marketing events are organized, targeted, and well-run. Manage your event well and you’ll end up forming brand supporters who will eventually convey your brand content via positive word of mouth. Above all, you’ll get loyal, satisfied customers for life.