Many of the companies do the mistake of excluding events from their annual budget. They don’t want to spend much and don’t even consider event as an important marketing strategy. But have you ever thought why big brand spend such huge amount of money to conduct an event? It is because events offer good return on investment at the end of the day. It not only helps you to promote your product or service but also your company image. Any successful marketing strategy is incomplete without events.

Event marketing is a social tool that attracts potential clients since people are more likely to respond to in-person contacts than to media advertisements. Other than increasing your sell it also gives you the opportunity to perform your social responsibility and it will undoubtedly leave a good impression in the people’s mind.

It is an important marketing strategy since it helps you to increase your business network. The crowd attending the event is an important source of getting new contacts. You can find customers interested in your products or services. Even if they don’t buy anything they come to know about your company. You can be sure that they will talk about your event outside. Word-of-mouth promotion is always the best way to earn customers’ faith. Events will surely broaden your social base.

Events are the perfect place for any kind of announcement. If your company is launching a new product or service or taking up some new project the best way to get the attention of the people is an event. Not only the ordinary people but event also helps you to get the attention of the media. You can directly talk to the reporters and if you satisfy them you are sure to get a good public exposure. You can also check the reaction of the people towards the announcement immediately. When you get an idea how the market is going to receive your product you can better decide when and how to launch it.

While hosting an event always invite your competitors. This will give you the chance to learn about your competitors. You can get an idea about their objectives, marketing strategies, their strengths and weakness, their products and services. When you get this information it becomes easier for you to plan your marketing strategies. You can make some changes to the old strategies as well as introduce some new plans.

Events give you the opportunity to share your success with the community. It is a great way to show people that you are thankful to them for their support. It makes them feel important and respected. You can repay their loyalty by hosting an event. This will improve your company image. You can also get new friends here. Organizing an event is a real good way to perform your social responsibility.

Event is a great way to maintain business relationship. You can keep in touch with your providers, customers and competitors. It helps you to remind people about your market presence. Even if you don’t have anything to announce hosting an event will offer you long-term benefits.

Events not only earn you customer loyalty but also employee loyalty. This is a great way to show your gratitude towards your employees for their hard work. It will give you the opportunity to showcase your contribution to the industry.

Above all event marketing is the best way to demonstrate your public presence.

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With the uncertainty of the economy, legal marketing agency Beyond All Reasonable Doubt Marketing is advising law firms to take a serious look at their budgets. While marketing, advertising and public relations dollars frequently are cut to reduce expenses, marketing experts agree that a down economy is actually the time when marketing efforts should remain in place, and if anything, be enhanced.

“When other law firms reduce their spending and cut their marketing, they have less presence in the marketplace,” explains BARD Marketing founder and president, John Sailer. “This means the time is ripe for a savvy law firm to grab market share – to reach the audience that is still there but who is hearing from fewer of your competitors.”

When planning your law firm’s budget, you should start by identifying how much you want to spend. While there are no hard and fast rules across the different types and sizes of law firms, it makes sense to budget your marketing as a percentage of expected revenue. Several studies have pegged overall law firm marketing budgets to be between 2 percent and 3 percent, with leading firms spending 5 percent or more.

Second, prioritize your initiatives by looking at both costs and expected benefits. This is easy if you tracked your efforts in past years. Remember that some of the lower cost initiatives may bring strong value while some of the higher cost initiatives may bring very little value. With this said, it is imperative to track outcome of every initiative.

BARD Marketing is experienced in budgeting and planning for short- and long-term marketing and advertising plans, and enables law firms to achieve and track ROI for their marketing activities. For more information or to request a report on Yellow Page Advertising Costs and Effectiveness, please visit www.bardmarketing.

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Perhaps you’ve got a small business and it’s been thriving with your own marketing and research efforts. But if you want to boost your business marketing, consider the services of a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants who’ve been trained and experienced in marketing research and business marketing — particularly through the Internet — can be invaluable to growing your business. It would take time for you to learn and do everything yourself, time that you could put to better use by focusing on the aspects of your business that you enjoy and are an expert at.

For example, not everyone is adept at using Web 2.0 for business marketing. Besides, it can eat up a lot of your time every day. Wouldn’t you rather use that time to develop your business in other ways or even relax and enjoy your family?

Here are a few marketing and research tasks that a virtual assistant can perform for you:

* Promote your business in social networking sites, a very time-consuming task
* Produce a podcast which will expand your business’ web presence
* Look at competitors’ websites and report on what they’re doing – so you can analyze what your competitors’ approaches and come up with strategies to outdo them
* Find information you need to grow your business, such as identify affiliate programs that are relevant to your business and could increase your market reach
* Look for websites or blogs relevant to your business where it might be profitable for you to advertise your products or services

Could you do all this yourself and still live the life you want? Probably not. Yet these things could take your business to the next level and ultimately increase your income. You should certainly be familiar with these processes in order to effectively hire and supervise somebody to do them for you. However, you don’t have to do them yourself.

Let a virtual assistant declutter your mind of the minute but essential details of business marketing and research. Then you can focus on work that have greater impact on your business, such as monitoring and evaluating your marketing efforts and those of your competitors, formulating strategies, and mapping out growth directions.

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Today’s consumers are inundated with media messages.  We get bombarded from all sides with advertising, so much that we end up tuning out most of it.  This fact isn’t lost on corporations.  They are hungry for new ways to more directly connect with their customers.

These companies are learning that branded photography is an ideal way to create a personal, one-on-one connection with their customers.  And because the connection is created with a photograph, it’s personal, tangible and lasting.

So who’s doing this, and how?  Here’s a round-up of some recent events we’ve produced using branded photography for large corporations.

Verizon

Remember the old phone company’s “Reach out and touch someone” campaign?  Verizon is still living the slogan, using branded photography to create a more personal relationship with their current and potential customers.  They turned to the creative team at www.marketingwerks.com” target=”_blank”>Marketing Werks to execute a series of sponsored events that directly reach and involve consumers.

In October, Verizon used green screen photography at an Islanders game to reinforce their support of the Islanders “Stick Kid” program, and create a one-on-one customer experience.  First, to create the green screen background, we went to the Nassau Coliseum and shot the hockey rink when it was empty, and then added the Verizon and “Stick Kids” logos.

The green screen background put people where they usually can’t go, right in center rink – virtually, if not for real.  The photos reinforce Verizon’s community involvement and commitment to the Islanders “Stick Kids” program, as well as their branding.  And as you’ll see, people loved it!

In August, Verizon sponsored an Air Supply concert at the Westbury Music Fair, and gave some concert-goers an opportunity to meet the band backstage – and get their photos taken with them to commemorate the occasion.

For fans of the band, a huge thrill made even more memorable by having a photo of the event.   For Verizon, the pay-off is in goodwill built, and with their logo included on the photos, consistent brand visibility – for years to come.  The branded photography create an immediate association with their brand and this fun experience.  See for yourself!

Marc Ecko and Rolling Stone

Designer Marc Ecko teamed up with Rolling Stone Magazine to launch his new men’s cologne, Ecko by Marc Ecko.  As part of the launch event at Macy*s Roosevelt Field Mall, they offered branded photographs of anyone who purchased the new cologne, putting each customer on the “cover” of Rolling Stone.  Again, branding was reinforced and brand loyalty encouraged by marrying the customer and brand images – a match made in marketing heaven!

HP and Microsoft

You cannot find a more perfect example of linking event marketing with media advertising than the green screen photography we executed for HP, at the launch event for HP and Microsoft 7.  The event was held at the Museum of Natural History, and the green screen image tied into this location as well as the imagery used in HP’s new print ad campaign.  We formatted the image to create maximum play between it and the people photographed, to great effect as you’ll see below.

Who wouldn’t want to keep one of these fun photos around?  Again, brand reinforcement as its best!

These large corporations realize the power of  branded  photography for their events, how it reinforces relationship marketing, experiential marketing, word of mouth marketing, promotional marketing, direct marketing, retail marketing and brand marketing.  They know how to harness this power, and so can you!

Watch the video related to experiential marketing

Freeze/Flash Mob campaign for More Magazine with Michelle Obama on the cover. Executed in Chicago, IL. For more information about Attack! Guerrilla Services, Nationwide Staffing, & Out-of-Home Media www.attackmarketing.net

Help answer the question about experiential marketing

Dear Mr. ______:

I would like to thank you for taking the time to interview me today for the ________________ Manager position.

I appreciate the time that you spent discussing your specific expectations for the ________ Manager position.
I am more convinced than ever that I will fit in beautifully as a member of the team and contribute my skills and talents for the benefit of the _________________ program.
I believe that my credentials make me an ideal candidate for the position.
As I mentioned in my interview with you, I have 11 years experiential marketing experience working with more than 100 different products and clients. These campaigns have ranged from local weekend sampling to multi-million dollar nationwide tours.
Over the past eight years of my career I have successfully trained and managed staffs of more than 50 including managers, brand ambassadors, technicians and talent. Being extremely organized with a high attention to detail has allowed me to thrive under intense work loads while being creative and adaptable in an consistently changing work environment.

I look forward to learning of your decision soon. Please feel free to contact me if I can provide any additional information about my qualifications. Again, Mr. ________, thank you for taking the time to talk with me about this exciting opportunity.

About Author

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I am right there with you, executing daily my To Do List that consists of what I feel will get my product line the attention it deserves and so desperately needs. We all churn away at the endless list of things that we hope and, often times feel certain, will drive our companies to that next level and beyond. And yet, do you ever find yourself stopping in the middle of the day and asking yourself the question: What can I do to shake this up some? Feeling perhaps that the results are not quite what you were hoping for?

More than three years ago I paid some pretty pennies for one-on-one coaching with a well known contributing writer for Entrepreneur Magazine who enlightened me to the ways of experiential marketing. First of all, many of you might be phonetically stumbling over how to even SAY the word, much less execute it! Let us use the following, very basic pronunciation key (compliments of yours truly, an elementary school teacher forever at heart!): ek-spear-ee-en-shuhl. Now please note. You will not find that pronunciation guide in Websters! But it works! Because if you are going to use experiential marketing, you need to know how to say it!

I implemented this type of marketing into the plan for my business, and we have experienced exponential growth every one of the six years we have sold our products. The simplicity of why and how experiential marketing works is the key to making it possible for each and every one of us to use it right away. It offers the consumer engaging, entertaining and interactive experiences with your product which helps create a stronger relationship with the consumer.

In a simple step-by-step process you and your team create a plan to bring the experience of your product to your target market. You then activate the plan by finding the venue where you will demonstrate and bring your product to life for your potential consumer along with conceptualizing how you will make the demonstration interactive. Once there at the time of the actual experience, you engage the consumers in attendance by allowing them to try, to sample, to hear, to play with (you get the idea!) your product. Once back in your office you measure the results to check your return on investment.

Call it what you will, some refer to it as guerilla marketing, some say it is out-of-the-box marketing, and many of us refer to it as experiential marketing. The bottom line is it improves your bottom line! And is that not what we all are searching for? Starbucks, Harley-Davidson, Kraft Foods, T-Mobile USA and many others use it regularly to connect with their consumers; you should too!

Not sold on this idea yet? Check out the psychology associated with the success of experiential marketing which reflects a right brain bias as it aims to fulfill the desire your consumers have to experience comfort and pleasure. Research suggests that this type of interactive marketing creates a stronger relationship with the consumer by delivering a deep and connected meaning which is instrumental in brand-building. Contrast this with traditional product-centric marketing that many of us still use, and you will note that it reflects a left brain bias because that style seeks to persuade a consumer to buy your brand over that of a competitor. Consumers buy more often based on emotion than on rational thinking.

Think about your own buying patterns and how often that statement is true. Have you not found yourself more often buying things because of the connection you have with the product, the feeling it creates within you once you see the packaging or smell the scent of it or hear the sound it creates or feel the texture of its fabric? Just imagine allowing several hundred of your potential consumers experience your product with you right there to share your passion about the product and the story behind it. Now you are most likely asking the question: Where do I find those hundreds of people?

Experiential marketing can start off for you as simply as calling a local moms groups and asking to share part of your morning with them. Sure, it might be only fifteen or so families represented, but it is a great way to get your feet wet. Once there you demonstrate your fun product, allow the moms and their children to experience it (if applicable), and share your true story of how this product came to life and how cool it is. As you become more and more comfortable with the live demonstrations and fielding all of the questions, the sky is the limit!

Local craft fairs, expos and associations that deal directly with your target market are excellent ways to build your audience numbers. Offer to speak at these events for free where in turn you get to set up a booth or a trade table with your terrific product front and center for people to interact with. The speaking aspect of these types of venues increases your visibility as an expert in your field. Now is not the time to be shy! You believe in your product, and you are the best one to demonstrate to others just how necessary it is to have it!

Be innovative, make your target market smile while in your presence, and be certain that human interaction takes place. If you remember to do those three things, things that used to be considered alternative approaches for good marketing, you will blaze a trail to higher product sales!

Watch the video related to experiential marketing

This is the section on Experiential Marketing from the seminar Lobby Makeovers: A Cutting Edge Marketing Tool. The presenter is John Roberson. The seminar was hosted by Advent, LLC, on September 12, 2007.

Help answer the question about experiential marketing

About Author

Beth Butler is the founder of The Boca Beth ProgramScoop your child up onto your lap and
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