Types of events that help your business grow
Event marketing is more than just sales. It's about building relationships, creating a community, and turning customers into brand advocates. We can classify events into three categories: online events, offline events, and hybrid events.
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These events are hosted on internet-based platforms without the need for a physical venue. Examples include the following:
Webinars
Webinars typically involve providing training or instructing users on how to use a product or solution to enhance their business or life through online web conference platforms such as Zoho Meeting, Zoom, or Google Meet.
For example, if your business specializes in Japanese utility knives, you can host a webinar covering topics such as how to properly wash vegetables and fruits before cutting, techniques for slicing and mincing various vegetables based on their hardness using Japanese knives, and tips on caring for your knives post-use.
Even though your business revolves around selling knives, you've created content that focuses entirely on vegetable preparation. This demonstrates your commitment to cooking and implies that your knives are designed for optimal culinary experiences.
Webinars have the potential to boost your sales if you deliver a compelling pitch through high-quality educational content. The primary objective of webinars should be to educate users and help them understand the problems your solutions aim to address.
Best practices for webinars
Do a live webinar instead of an on-demand webinar. In an on-demand webinar, the video or content is typically pre-recorded and then broadcast.
In a live webinar, all actions unfold in real time, without pre-recordings. While the risk of making mistakes during a live show is higher, audiences tend to appreciate the authenticity and practicality of the live experience.
Create a dedicated landing page for your webinar, incorporating details such as the webinar's topic, target audience, and expected duration.
Use a clear, clutter-free, and simple registration form on the landing page. When users register for the webinar, promptly send an acknowledgment email. You should also send a reminder email that contains the webinar link 15 minutes before the scheduled event to ensure participants are prepared to join.
After the webinar, share the recording with the attendees, as well as any accompanying notes. Don't forget to gather valuable feedback from participants to enhance future events.
Live streaming
Live streams on mainstream television or social media channels such as YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn represent the most effective form of online events for engaging with your audience in real time. The appeal lies in the instant responses your viewers can get from you.
Live streams can significantly benefit your business, especially if you have the resources to hire celebrities or influencers to host events, or if key leadership figures from your team address the audience live.
For example, if your cosmetics business is introducing a new sunscreen, potential users might have questions such as its suitability for dry skin, anticipated results, or potential implications for vitamin D deficiency. Having someone respond to these questions immediately can be mutually beneficial for both the business and customers. Live streaming is particularly well-suited for product launches, where the dynamic nature of real-time interaction enhances the audience's overall experience.
Best practices for live streaming
Publish your live stream schedule well in advance. Prior to the live stream, prepare thoroughly and conduct a dry run. Live streams commonly encounter issues due to inadequate software systems. If your live stream takes place on a social media platform, allocate dedicated resources to engage with users through comments and chats. This ensures a more interactive and responsive session for your audience.
Online meetings and conferences
Online meetings and conferences are typically invite-only events designed for a specific group—usually existing customers. Their purpose is to provide personalized one-on-one experiences with solutions or to facilitate meaningful conversations. This approach is beneficial for strengthening relationships with existing customers, gathering valuable feedback, and iterating on solutions to enhance outcomes.
For example, a customer success manager could engage with a group of customers who have the same health insurance policy. During the session, the manager can assess the customers' satisfaction with the premium prices, inquire about how easy it is to submit insurance claims for hospital bills and medical supplies, take detailed notes, and use the gathered insights to improve the solutions offered.
This interactive approach fosters a deeper understanding of customer needs and contributes to the continuous improvement of the provided solutions.
Best practices for online meetings and conferences
Inform attendees in advance regarding the time and agenda for online meetings and conferences.
Keep the discussion concise and focused on the topic, and ensure that the end goal is to assist the attendees.
Opt for the attendees' regional language when conducting meetings and conferences to ensure that everyone can easily comprehend the discussion.
After the meeting, make sure you send a meeting summary to the attendees along with a plan of action.
Community discussion
Online community discussions typically involve familiar customers and users who are gathering to ask questions about your services and get responses on a live chat or real-time Q&A platform.
During these events, participants often discuss pressing problems in detail to arrive at potential solutions. Community discussions prove particularly effective for software businesses.
For example, if your service is a marketing platform, a community discussion could focus on the impact of AI in marketing. Topics might include how AI influences marketing, the role of AI in content creation, the automation of mundane tasks, and how AI can empower marketers to enhance creativity. The discussion would aim to provide valuable insights and conclusions on these topics.
Best practices for community discussion
Build and maintain a thriving community of like-minded individuals on any online community-building platform.
Organize regular events to ensure active participation and a constant presence in the minds of community members.
Identify relevant problems related to your business, prepare effective solutions, and discuss them during community meetings.
Promote inclusivity by providing opportunities for every community member to host events and thereby foster a sense of shared ownership and engagement.
Offline events
Offline events are traditional gatherings that require attendees' physical presence and involve designated venues, speakers, screens, and all the necessary accommodations. These events are conducted in a physical space rather than in a virtual or online environment. Examples include the following:
Seminars
A business seminar is a small event that mainly serves to educate new customers about the value of your product or solution, or to educate existing customers on how they can use it more effectively. They're usually low-cost events that require investment in a venue, seating, a projector and screen, a whiteboard, and stationery. When conducted online, a seminar is often referred to as a webinar.
One of the advantages of seminars is the opportunity they provide for networking. Attendees often come from diverse backgrounds and industries, offering a unique chance to connect with peers, experts, and potential collaborators. These interactions can lead to valuable professional relationships, opening doors to future opportunities and collaborations. Additionally, networking during seminars can help participants stay updated with industry trends, gain new perspectives, and share best practices, further contributing to their professional growth.
Best practices for seminars
Print booklets, worksheets, or hard copies of files you need to educate users about your solutions.
Ensure that your seminar is interactive rather than simply a lecture to the audience members.
Always include a Q&A session after your seminar so that attendees can get answers to all their questions.
Workshops
A workshop is an interactive meeting or session with a small number of attendees (typically customers) that serves primarily to educate or train them on how to use your product/solution. Workshops are highly effective opportunities if your product has multiple use cases or requires training for adoption, as they can help your customers gain a better understanding of your product/solution.
Workshops are versatile and work well for all industries. For instance, if your business sells fertilizers for industrial agriculture, you can conduct a workshop for farmers and train them on how to use fertilizers for better yield. Similarly, if your business sells a marketing software solution, you can organize a workshop to educate digital marketers on how to use your solution to generate high-quality leads and drive sales.
Best practices for workshops
Deliver practical, hands-on training and step-by-step instructions rather than relying solely on theories or explanations.
Develop straightforward, actionable items that enable audience members to apply what they learn from you.
Provide post-workshop materials to aid in reinforcing and remembering the key concepts you've taught.
Conferences
Conferences are theme-based events that focus on multiple topics and agendas. Businesses typically invite field experts to present ideas to people who share common interests.
For instance, a conference's theme might be related to climate change. Accordingly, the conference's agenda might include a panel related to an ecological topic, a seminar on carbon footprint reduction, a roundtable discussion about sustainable shopping, and more.
Conferences are great opportunities to display your company's core values, ideas, and thought leadership, and to attract the right audience. You can either arrange your own conference or participate in a conference hosted by another company and share your values there.
Best practices for conferences
Conferences typically involve meetings or discussions focused on a particular topic. Therefore, it's better to keep the discussion focused and to the point.
Conferences can be more interactive by gathering input from all participants. Ensure that presenters engage with attendees to provide more dynamic sessions.
MICE
Meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) is an event marketing approach that serves as an excellent opportunity for your brand to host various events in one place. It's particularly effective for large businesses aiming to engage stakeholders, conduct award shows, run fun events, showcase products at expos, and discuss specific topics in a conference setting.
Let's say an automobile brand wants to organize a MICE event. They can maximize their benefits by holding meetings with customers, suppliers, vendors, and dealers, rewarding the best salespeople with incentives, discussing topics like electric vehicles in conferences, and showing and selling cars or accessories at expos.
Best practices for MICE discussion
The MICE approach can help drive brand awareness, improve customer loyalty and retention, educate your users, and boost sales.
In general, hosting a MICE event is expensive, whereas participating in other trade shows or expos—or conducting a simple seminar—tends to be more cost-effective. Plan accordingly for your business.
Hybrid events
Hybrid events combine the elements of both online and offline formats, providing convenience for audience members. The mix may include an awareness webinar paired with an offline conference, or a straightforward meeting combined with an expo. There's no fixed order for events; online options are often cost-effective, making them advantageous for those with tight marketing budgets, whereas offline events offer the benefit of establishing personal connections with people.
Ultimately, your event should serve to benefit your customers, irrespective of the event format.
How marketing platforms can help you manage your events
Marketing platforms like Zoho Marketing Plus can assist your marketing teams manage end-to-end event marketing for your business. From promoting your event via email and social media to hosting it online or managing your event inventory, attendees, and offline aspects like backdrops, all the way to measuring returns using analytics—Zoho Marketing Plus enables you to do it all in one place.
