They say mistakes are essential to the growth of every entrepreneur. That being said, there are certain areas of the business where you want to reduce the number of mistakes you and your employees make as much as possible.
Marketing is one of those areas. Consistently making mistakes with your marketing strategy and execution is not good, and if you don’t right the boat, you’ll be forced to declare bankruptcy sooner than later. Today, we’ll focus on the mistakes most small business owners make when hosting an event, as these events are a key part of your marketing strategy.
Why, you might ask?
A properly planned and executed business event is one of the best routes to generate top-of-mind awareness for your company and leads for your pipeline. To ensure you make the best out of this marketing opportunity, here are four mistakes you must avoid.
Poor Planning
Emily Giffin once said, “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”. Proper planning is essential to the success of your business event. Delaying on this process is a sure-fire recipe for disaster, as there could be tons of stuff that could go wrong. Planning mitigates this by creating fail-safe options for anything that goes wrong. It also ensures you have thought through everything that you need to make the event a success.
Most of the time, business owners lack the expertise to plan for an event, so it might be wise to look for professional event services near you.
Not Getting Enough Help
If you are struggling alone, it is time to ditch your ego and ensure you hire enough hands to make the event a resounding success. A business event usually requires a lot of planning. Don’t suffer in silence or be stubborn. Get enough staff and helpers to ensure that things don’t go wrong.
While this might cost you some extra cash, you can explore temporary or contract offers. Or, if you have a compelling story, you could pitch for volunteers within your community to support the planning process of your business event.
Not Promoting Your Event
How do you expect people to know about the event if you don’t get out the word?
People are not just going to show up at your event out of the blue. They need to be informed and given plenty of notice. Depending on your target audience, the amount of time they need to prepare can differ.
If you are inviting CEOs to your event, you probably need to give them ample time to prepare. Their calendars usually fill quickly, and it will be extremely difficult for them to change plans suddenly. Make sure you do your homework.
Not Creating Any or Enough Marketing Collateral
When planning a business event, you should aim to have one or two takeaways to send home with every attendee. Your marketing collateral is one way to ensure that happens. It also serves as a reminder of those key takeaways or messages days or months after your event.
You want to ensure you have these printed out on your brochures, flyers, or any other material you’ll be distributing to everyone who attends your event. Most importantly, you want to ensure you have enough of these materials. You want everyone who attends to be able to know about your business and the services/products you provide for months or weeks after your event.
The Bottom Line
Events are a great marketing opportunity for every small business owner, and you can take full advantage of them to bring huge attention to your business, as long as you avoid making these four mistakes.
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