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What is Event Marketing and How Can it Secure You a Power Position in
Your Niche?
by: Dina Giolitto
If you're not exactly sure what event marketing is, think of Earth Day, the
Renaissance Faire, Woodstock, Shop Rite's Can-Can Sale, President's Weekend
at Macy's... and let's not forget Valentine's Day, that "Hallmark Holiday"
disguised as a day of Love but really meant to boost candy, card, dinner
and gift sales.
I'm going to be blunt with you here, hope you can handle it. ;) Event marketing
is not just an excuse to cheer about something. Your motive in "inventing"
and promoting a market-driven holiday or celebration is to gain new visibility
in your niche, drum up excitement with your target audience, and ultimately
increase profits for your business.
If you're still a little guy just yet, you may have to wait on those cash
sales until next year when people know you better... but revenue earned by
way of new customers who notice you during the event counts as profit and
makes the event worth the effort in the long run.
Generally, your goal is this: Position yourself at the helm of the event
and drive mass traffic to the event so that folks develop an association
between the event and your brand.
Event planning is a highly effective networking strategy in itself. In promoting
the event and encouraging participation, you will become acquainted with
many, many new faces and forge more solid bonds with old faces. In coordinating
the event, you will learn who the "ideal" colleagues are to work with, and
how your strengths can best be leveraged while putting other people to work
on the tasks you find more challenging.
You may wonder how on earth you could possibly execute an event "virtually."
The truth is... with so many active online networks and Power Groups forming,
the internet is possibly the simplest and least expensive venue for your
"invented event." Instead of a convention center, you have a "home base"
website. Instead of live public speakers standing on a rented out podium
in a rented auditorium, you have virtual "spotlight guests" on your blog
or website. Your event won't require costly shipping of hard goods and
transportation, because your "trade show booth" can be managed from a website
that's launched once and remains live all year to generate residual traffic
and help you rank better for the following year.
Who might want to join you in promoting an event, and what type of holiday
or celebration could work with your niche? Basically, the idea is to just
zero in on what your audience would find most valuable and attractive, in
the celebratory sense. Following are a few ideas off the top of my head,
but I'm sure that you can come up with something fabulous to fit your market.
If you sell gourmet pies, you could invent "Pie in the Sky" or a Month-Long
Virtual Bake-Off. Complimentary vendors who might join your celebration:
gourmet coffee distributors, Longaberger reps, companies who sell baking
and kitchen equipment, folks who run dessert websites, other pie sellers
(sorry, in event planning, you often have to deal directly with "the competition"
but it's so much fun that nobody ever seems to mind.)
If you normally target the "alternative health" or audience of herbalists,
a health fair has the potential to lure potential buyers in droves and get
them on your mailing list. If your website is focused around writing or design,
you can hold a contest to attract fresh talent. I've come across websites
where designers are encouraged to "submit entries" which are then posted
and judged, with prizes handed out. The creations are often very funny and
a great way to scope out up-and-comers. Don't forget: contestants should
be encouraged to sign up for your paid memberships or at the very least get
on your mailing list; otherwise the event is "virtually" pointless.
Planning an event on the internet requires someone with dynamic leadership
skills, a good sense of timing, a solid "people network," the ability to
mesh with a variety of personalities, strong organizational skills, and of
course- an expert handle on all the traditional means of online marketing.
Skills needed for proper event execution: website design, copywriting, email
and list management, blogging, publicity, brand-building. If you possess
these skills yourself, wonderful, but know there is an incredible amount
of work involved, so getting backup assistance is imperative.
Necessary resources: web hosting, FTP (file transfer protocol), blog hosting,
word processing, a good graphics program, numerous article marketing directories,
several memberships to major web PR sites, a pdf creation tool, an advanced
email management program (such as Microsoft Outlook), an online discussion
forum, a subscriber sign-up form, file backup.
Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.
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About The Author
Dina Giolitto
You want killer content and you want it now. Dina at
Wordfeeder.com is driving
mass traffic to the first annual Web Content Awareness Day and she'll drive
it to your website next. Count on Dina to deliver laser-focused copy that
will emotionally snare your readers. Convert visitors to subscribers... and
subscribers to paying customers. Visit
http://Wordfeeder.com for
lip-smacking web copy served up quick.
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