As businesses inevitably commence or continue their digital transformation journeys to be in step with the times, it is only natural that marketing spends of organisations are also increasingly going to digital. This reallocation of marketing budgets in favour of digital often happens at the cost of traditional offline marketing and advertising channels. While there are several reasons that possibly justify this shift, there is a business case for continuing to in traditional marketing channels in your marketing mix. Events- not limited to large trade shows/exhibitions- such as round-table format meet-ups can be quite an effective channel in our experience.
The small-scale events that bring together anywhere from 5 to 20 people can give businesses the opportunity to interact with key stakeholders in a fairly closed/ intimate setting, where they can get quality time with each of the attendees. Such events could target some prospects, partners or external ‘influencers’ for example.
Being a small-scale event, the corporate marketing team does not have to have either a long cycle time or expend a lot of costs to reach the people they would like to attend. In fact, a few personalised e-mails and calls should be able to do the trick. Moreover, such events can usually be organised successfully within a full cycle time of 3-4 weeks, compared to a few months for organising large scale events.
These meeting-type events can be positioned as an opportunity for information/knowledge sharing and networking. These could also be educational in nature as well with one or two people making informational presentations or a free-flowing interactive exchange that is lightly moderated (purely to ensure that everybody gets an opportunity to communicate and engage in the discussion).
Of course, these meeting events can also be smartly integrated into a company’s digital content marketing/ inbound marketing strategy. Every such meeting presents an opportunity to create useful content either in the form of comments from the participants or summary of a presentation made at the event and so on. Content thus created can easily be distributed via social media — it is likely that the participants at the event will also share such content, and thus amplify its reach. Links obtained as a result of such distribution and amplification will undoubtedly benefit the company’s organic search marketing efforts. Effective use of these meeting events as a vehicle for content generation is the great intersection of offline and online marketing.
Amidst all this, it must be remembered that marketing is afterall about building connections and a relationship. What better way to forge a connection with an audience than in a small-group setting, which is the next best thing to a one-on-one meeting.
Event marketing, whether it is organising a corporate event or participating in one, is often frowned upon because of high cost considerations. However, these small-format meeting events can address this concern right away, because the costs can be kept fairly low. Meeting rooms on rent, including fairly spacious and well-equipped conference rooms and boardrooms, are now readily available at a fraction of the cost of renting a meeting venue at a decent hotel. Moreover, most of these meeting room rentals in a corporate office complex can often be rented for even a couple of hours, unlike say, half-day or full-day bookings that most hotels require. While a company has the option to use meeting rooms within their own premises, if they have, a third-party meeting venue is more appealing to the prospective attendee.
So, the next time you think of marketing approach for your business, don’t let costs stop you from organising a highly cost-effective event that benefits you, online and offline!
The Empire Business Centres offers high-quality, cost-effective office rental packages in Mumbai, at its office complexes in Lower Parel and Andheri. It also offers a choice of meeting venues on rent, including board rooms and training rooms, with a host of facilities, including video conferencing. Get in touch with one of our office space consultants today to discuss your requirements!