How Your Organization Can Benefit From Holding Events
Organizing events is the literal point of many business out there, but that doesn’t mean you have to be an event planner or a venue to find value in holding events. Businesses and organizations of all kinds can gain a lot from hosting events.
Cut Through The Noise
It’s harder than ever to build an audience, and if you’re only relying on your online presence to attract and maintain an audience, good luck! You’re competing with everybody else, since everybody else is online—because it’s easy to be. Events, meanwhile, are more difficult. They take organizing, usually some up-front costs, and there are more risks (“What if folks don’t show up?”). But the payoff from organizing events can be immense, and can truly help you cut through all of the noise of online promotion and advertising.
Having people come to your event will ironically boost your online efforts anyways, since it’ll attract an audience and create a core group of people who are aware of you.
Be Amplified By Your Audience
The more folks you have in attendance at your event, the more folks there are who could potentially talk about the event on their own social media networks and channels. You can play this up by having Instagram-worthy sights and sounds at your event—just don’t be tacky about it. You can even incentivize folks to share by having a specific custom hashtag for the event!
Additional Revenue
If you’re in business, then your bottom line is your bottom line. But if events aren’t intended to be a main part of your business, then you don’t have to try and make your event a profitable venture—for many businesses, it’s a worthy investment for the above reasons alone and the potential marketing/sharing boosts that come from it.
But if you are trying to turn a profit (or just break even),then events can be an excellent source of revenue. You can charge for attendance, of course. But think more broadly than just selling tickets—is there merchandise you can sell at the event? Are there sponsorships you can sell? What about charging extra for food or parking, or VIP seats/access? If you have services that you’re selling, how can you tailor a promotional offer or pitch just to event attendees? Events provide lots of opportunities for revenue.
Events Build Trust
At the end of the day, there’s just something viscerally more trustworthy about a brand or organization whose constituents you can meet in person. If you’re hosting events and doing a good job of it, your attendees will trust you more.
There’s not a ton of hard data on this, but one sliver of an example is just how much people respond to brands that sponsor live music events—almost 80% of respondents on a survey admitted that the best and most effective way for brands to connect with them is through a branded live music event. The focus here is on live music, but the point generally stands that interacting with brands in a live setting boosts folks’ affinity for those brands. Meet your attendees and customers in person, differentiate yourself from competitors who just stay online, and enjoy the experiences and benefits you’ll gain.
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