There are numerous benefits to be had when taking your business on the road. In today’s highly competitive market, having the ability to take your product directly to your customers, be that through events, expos or roadshows, is key to staying ahead of the curve. It’s mobile event marketing specialists like The Events Structure that provide leading businesses with the capacity to beat the competition, maximising their impact and boosting brand awareness.
However, as with all marketing activities, poor planning and execution can result in a poor return on investment. That’s why the experts at The Events Structure have summarised some of the most common mistakes organisations make when hitting the road. Whether your business is an experienced exhibitor, or totally new to the concept, these rookie errors provide valuable lessons for anyone who wants to make their marketing activities a real success.
Poor Planning
The importance of strategic planning cannot be emphasised enough when it comes to event marketing and roadshow promotion. Many businesses blow their marketing spend on flashy promotional materials and merchandise and end up achieving very little.
As with all marketing activities, identifying and targeting your audience is key. Businesses need to identify their customers, goals, key messages, desired results and plan of action before they take to the road. Goals may be increasing brand awareness, growing a database of potential clients or even physically selling your product. Either way, only when your goals are identified, can you plan how you’re going to achieve them.
Failure To Engage
A vital point of taking your business on the road is engaging with your audience, whether your roadshow is a corporate communication, or you’re parked up on a busy high street targeting consumers – where any passing footfall should be considered a potential customer. The problem that befalls many businesses when conducting events, is neglecting to engage with this passing trade. A passive approach leads to an uninvolved audience, who fail to convert to customers.
We recommend taking a creative approach - instead of trying tired tactics like needless greeters and meaningless giveaways - opt for something which will have an effective and engaging impact. Events and roadshows provide the perfect environment to take a creative approach, the more differentiated and wild, the better. By giving potential customers a unique and engaging experience, you’re building their appetite to learn more about your business. Just describing your product doesn’t go far enough, in order to drive conversions, the benefits of your product need to be clearly illustrated, in unique and creative ways.
No Follow-Up
Possibly the biggest mistake any event marketer can make is to fill their proverbial wallet with new leads - and then forget about them. Just because someone doesn’t immediately become a customer during your event, doesn't mean they never will. Businesses can maximise the impact of their events by ensuring they follow up each and every lead generated. In other words, the event doesn’t stop after your promotional activities have finished.
The bottom line: treat every business card you get like an exclusive invitation to get in touch, you’ll be surprised how well it pays to be proactive. The fact is, a successful the event is only half the battle, in order to get the most out of your promotional activities, you need to reap the benefits of your networking and data capture afterwards.
Failing To Evaluate
Evaluation of an event's success is essential to both the long and short-term goals of any business. A thorough cost-benefit analysis should be conducted after every event, otherwise you could literally be throwing money away on ineffective promotion - that does nothing to benefit your business. Evaluation not only includes evaluating successes for the business in terms of sales, exposure and data capture, but also evaluating from the customers perspective. Customer feedback on your event provides valuable information which can inform your future marketing activities and any changes that need to be made in order to make your next roadshow an even greater success.
It’s clear that planning, customer focus and evaluation are key to successful events and promotion on the road. Event marketing is a process, with each stage informing the next. By starting with the right plan, it’s more than likely you’ll end up with the right results.
Ready to hit the road? The Events Structure are professionals when it comes to events on the go. Our range of roadshow trucks, exhibition trailers and self drive promotional vehicles can be fully tailored to suit your branding and event marketing needs, delivering the ultimate in flexible and interactive event marketing. So if you’re looking for exhibition trailer hire, look no further than The Events Structure.