According to the Event Marketing 2019: Benchmarks and Trends Report, most marketers believe event marketing is the single-most effective channel for achieving business goals. The same report found that the number of companies organising 20 or more events per year increased by 17% between 2017 and 2018.

An essential marketing channel for B2B and B2C businesses, event marketing is the promotion of a product, brand or service through face-to-face communication and interactions. There are many forms of event marketing, each catered to address different business goals.

Event marketing can be hosting an in-house business event to connect with prospects or build stronger relationships with existing customers. It can be attending an event as an exhibitor to educate your target market on your business or a product. Event marketing also includes digital events such as webinars and live-streamed webcasts.

With so many forms of event marketing, how do you determine which event will best achieve your business goals? Whether your brand is big or small, B2B or B2C, these steps will help you find the right event marketing for your business to invest in:

1. Determine your event goals

Without a list of event goals, it can be hard to determine what type of event marketing will have the biggest impact and the best outcome. Event goals make the planning process easier and the event more worthwhile.

Event goals prioritise everything your business hopes to achieve by hosting an event. Perhaps you're a new company looking to generate awareness? Or you're launching a new product and looking for investors? Maybe you're launching a campaign and want to generate sales?

Whatever your event marketing goals, list them and number them by importance as this will help you understand what event marketing will be the most beneficial.

2. Understand your market

Another vital step to ensure your brand chooses the right event marketing is knowing your target audience. Your event cannot cater to everyone, but by pinpointing your ideal customer, you can determine what event marketing will most appeal to them.

Start by rifling through existing customer data and seeing if there are any noticeable common characteristics or interests. Perhaps a large percentage of your customers are female, aged 20-30, located in the South with a strong interest in classic rock music. Other people fitting these characteristics would likely benefit from your brand or product/service and be more inclined to attend your event marketing.

If you don't have any existing customer data or are looking to target a new audience, you will need to invest time in pinpointing your ideal customer. Think about your ideal customer and their demographics; age, location, gender, income, education level, marital or family status, occupation, ethical background, as well as their personal traits; personality, attitudes, values, interests, lifestyle and behaviour.

Targeting a specific audience does not mean that you're excluding people who do not fit your criteria. Rather, it allows you to focus your event marketing on a specific audience that is more likely to help you fulfil your event goals in a more affordable, efficient and effective way.

Knowing your target customer and audience is important. If your ideal customer is from the South and has a strong interest in classic rock music, hosting your event marketing at a Southern classic rock festival would be perfect. The smallest personal attributes matter too, if your ideal customer is an avid reader of local news, advertising your event in their local newspaper or handing out newspaper-style pamphlets on your product/service would appeal to them.

3. Do competitor research

It's always a good idea to research and keep tabs on your competition. Look on your competitor's websites, blog and social media channels to see what type of events they're planning to host or attend and look at past events too.

While looking for your competitor's event marketing past and current activities may take some time, the research can help you draw inspiration for your event. If your competitor exhibited at a tradeshow last year, there's a good chance the tradeshow will be relevant to your brand. Visit the tradeshow website, look at the businesses exhibiting this year and the customer base the event attracts. If relevant, it may be a good idea to request a sales brochure or exhibitor pack.

When researching your competitor's event activities, look at what they are doing at events and who they are targeting. Perhaps they are handing information leaflets or offering free product samples? Don't copy their activities, but rather use it as a benchmark to separate your business from theirs. Experiential marketing activities are a great way to stand out from the crowd and engage attendees.

4. Outline a budget

Once you have an idea of the type of event marketing that will help you attract your ideal customer and help you achieve your goals while helping you separate yourself from the competition, you must establish a budget.

If a tradeshow has caught your attention but exhibiting there isn't within budget, contact the tradeshow to see if they have different exhibitor packages available in budget. If not, consider attending the event as a customer and use it as a networking opportunity. Or look for cheaper and similar tradeshows.

Events can be a huge marketing expense, with the average percentage of the marketing department's annual budget spent on events being roughly 21%. Depending on your brand and event goals, you may spend more or less than the average budget. A new clothing business may spend a majority of their marketing budget hosting fashion events in order to increase sales.

5. Do your research

It's essential to research all potential event marketing thoroughly to ensure they fit your brand values and caters to your audience. If partaking at an existing event such as a tradeshow, delve into the event's statistics as well as the type of exhibitors that have attended in previous years and look at online and social media feedback to see if the event has a good reputation.

The best way to establish if an existing event is right for your business is by attending the event and seeing for yourself. By attending you can get a feel for the audience, the event's successes and exhibitors and how well the event will fit with your brand.

The best way to establish if a hosted event is right for your brand is by asking customers. Send a survey to your current customer base to see if they would be interested in attending. It would also be beneficial to attend the venue and see if it fits with your business. For example, if you're planning to host an event at a shopping centre on a Tuesday afternoon, attend the shopping centre on a Tuesday afternoon to see if the footfall is right for your brand.