Event marketing plays a critical role in most marketing departments. In fact, 80 percent of marketers believe live events are critical to their company’s success. But, despite being a cornerstone of the job, event marketing budgets and processes are often overwhelming and tough to quantify. Luckily, geolocation solutions, like Geopointe, have entered the picture to optimize event marketing efforts for good.
If you’re a marketing professional looking for a solution to improve your event marketing efforts, here are a few ways geolocation can help you out:
Identify an Ideal Event Location
Nearly every successful event marketing plan begins with the selection of an ideal location. With the help of a geolocation solution, like Geopointe, marketers can efficiently analyze their venue options with the help of geoanalysis, which allows you to easily visualize location data in areas surrounding prospective locations. The key is to observe the data with an eye toward the metrics that matter most to your organization and its specific goals for this event.
For example, if a jewelry company is hosting an event to promote a Valentine’s Day sale, their approach would likely be to focus on income and age-related data, since those metrics will steer them toward their target audience and the areas they reside. Conversely, a B2B organization hosting an invite-only event for high-profile customers and prospects would likely focus on the target audience and a venue centrally located to their attendees. In this scenario, you’d create your target list in Salesforce to find the regions containing your largest customers and top-tiered prospects to invite. Once you add your search results to the map you could cluster your results or use a heat map to quickly identify areas with the right target audience of customers and prospects. Once you drill down on the area, use the Geopointe search to find a high-end restaurant or meeting venue to host your event. You can also view data such as driving distance and average traffic conditions to help determine the most optimal location. Bottom line, regardless of your company’s size, strategy or audience, geolocation technology provides a solution.
Personalize & Segment Promotional Content
Once you select your venue, it’s time to promote the big event! And, you’ll be happy to learn that geolocation technology has made it easier than ever for marketers to promote their event with the help of personalized content and audience segmentation. For example, a gym chain hosting a grand opening party for their new club can gather demographic insights to help decide which areas of town they should send their promotional flyers. From there, they’re able to use that same data to design and print brochures that appeal to the specific interests and trends of the people in those neighborhoods.
What’s more, geolocation provides the same applications for B2B companies with promotional needs. For instance, a large manufacturer hosting an event for loyal customers at an exclusive Hawaiian resort can entice potential attendees living in cold weather regions by sending them an invite displaying sunny beaches and outdoor island activities. Then, while other customers living in warm-weather climates may be less receptive to the same strategy could be sent an entirely different card. Either way, by promoting events with a personalized approach based on location, you’ll entice potential attendees with information that resonates specifically with them on an individual level.
Strategically Follow Up with Event Guests
After you’ve hosted a successful event, you’ll undoubtedly want to follow up with your guests to reap the rewards of your hard work! The options for customizing your follow up is endless, but personalizing it is the key. For example, you might send a thank you package containing a few of branded items tailored to the regional location of guests. Maybe some warm, winter socks and a scarf for your Midwest and East coast attendees, while other regions receive a few branded items relevant to their geographic location. Additionally, your follow up messaging should also include other upcoming events nearby where your contacts could meet up with you in the future. The extra thought and attention can go a long way.
There are also non-digital and snail mail outreach options to consider. B2B companies with field sales teams can prioritize leads that attended an event with the help of a geolocation solution. After all, the fact that they attended the event is a sign that they are likely closer to giving you their business. In this scenario, geolocation can assist your efforts to follow up by placing a visual map marker on the attendees to signify that leads high-level of interest. From there, your team can add them to the top of their priorities in the week’s following your event. And schedule a visit when the timing is ideal.
