All the changes to marketing approach are driven by a change in consumer behaviour.
One such crucial change in consumer behaviour is arising out of the success of e-commerce and technology centred consumption. Today, your customers are not only purchasing on various channels but switching from one channel to another and accessing different channels simultaneously throughout their buying cycle. This has resulted in the necessity of creation of a seamless, integrated and consistent approach across various marketing channels.
In such a scenario, omnichannel marketing is the most logical destination for a consumer centred brand. In simple words, Omnichannel marketing aims to - “Ensuring [retailer] marketing strategies are geared toward enabling customers to convert on any channel.”
A brand that focuses on optimizing the consumer decision journey across multiple decision points and multiple channels has to create an omnichannel marketing strategy. Only such a strategy can ensure to retain consumer enthusiasm and automate sales to the maximum extent.
Why events should be at the centre of your Omnichannel marketing strategy?
Events have been proven to possess the potential for driving sales & ROI, boosting consumer relationships, and improving the effectiveness of other marketing channels. In fact, we at Onspon believe that events are the 4th piece of omnichannel (after traditional retail, modern retail, e-commerce) - and will add distinctively to the way India consumes content and consumables. Just consider the numbers -
As you can clearly see, marketers across industries and budgets are increasingly relying on events to lead their omnichannel marketing strategy. So, here are the five reasons that will convince you to join them and create an event centred marketing outreach -
1. Hyper-Personalization
Today hyper-personalization that reaches out to the specific preferences of consumers has become a crucial marketing strategy. Events might be one of your best bets for reaping the benefit of this kind of hyper-personal targeting centred around a particular city, age group, gender, income level, taste & preference etc. For example, having the DJ play local hits at an FM radio event or creating dishes with local ingredients/cuisine in a cooking event adds to the impact of marketing communication.
For small businesses, apart from driving sales at the venue, the events also provide an excellent opportunity for local exposure and cross-marketing amongst different consumer groups. For large organisations, events are the perfect opportunity for designing highly localised and appealing marketing content for a niche audience and thereby expanding their footprint.
2. Selling Without Selling
When the potential consumers are at an event, product consumption becomes a part of the event experience rather than a conscious purchasing decision. For instance, buying beer at a music festival, purchasing a dress at a fashion event, signing up for a CrossFit class at a fitness event, or buying supplements at a wellness event etc. feel like an organic part of event experience. Your audience is more likely to make impulse purchases or not care about the price when they feel like they are buying a piece of the event rather than being sold something.
Additionally, thanks to innovations like event apps you have the option of designing extended, deep, and diverse engagement strategies throughout the event life cycle. This will help you get the consumers excited about purchasing your product long before they walk into the venue, thus increasing your potential for conversion.
3. Exponential Reach
Approximately 2 million events happen in India per annum and 3 billion people attend them. They are a captive audience for anyone who wants to service them. No matter what your target audience is in terms of profile or numbers, there is an event that gets them together. Similarly, irrespective of your budget, product, and geographical reach, events provide you with the opportunity to create focused engagement with either niche or a cross-section of the audience at a single point of interaction.
Events stand out among marketing channels by facilitating the curious combination of ever-expanding reach and personalized individual impressions at the same time. Sheer reach and frequency of events also provide an opportunity to collect and curate an exhaustive database of customer behaviour. This input is invaluable for designing best suitable marketing messages across channels to minimize the gap between advertising and purchase.
4. Purpose centred
Events are usually specialized and purpose centred in terms of objectives, sponsorships, collaborations, logistics, downtimes, and outreach. Therefore, you can be sure of attracting the demographic that is an enthusiastic participant in your marketing overtures at the venue. For instance, setting up a VR booth at a gaming event or promoting protein products at a fitness event, automatically fits in with event experience and improves your openings for organic interactions with potential consumers.
Being part of a focused event gives you the power to ensure that your product and message have the maximum appeal and relevance. In short, connecting with an event audience is like reaching out to a highly curated customer group that is highly motivated and needs very little persuasion. Additionally, it is easier to design time-sensitive and audience-specific offers/outreach for the event audience. This results in the creation of a channel that appeals strongly to the consumers and meets their specific expectations from the brand.
5. Stimulates Transition
Today no marketing channel works in isolation. Whether it is directing traffic or driving sales, all your channels would be most effective when they feed into each other and work in a cohesive manner. This approach is one of the most powerful ways of driving ROI without breaking the bank. Events, in particular, are perfectly positioned for transitioning your customers into other marketing channels like your app, store, website, social media etc.
For instance, a customer who tries out your product at an event could be influenced to visit your local store or follow you on social media for updates. Or, you could share discount codes for your app or website at the event and induce the customer to buy from there. Thus, events are an opportunity for creating perfect congruence among your channels for achieving maximum engagement and conversion.
In our technology-driven and intensely integrated world, only omnichannel marketing can act as a viable option for retaining consumer attention from the initial trigger to the point of purchase. As a powerful point of congruence in both digital and real-world scenario, events are already becoming the key to both consumer satisfaction and higher ROI.
So, stay ahead of the curve and design a comprehensive and consumer-focused marketing strategy by creating an event centred marketing infrastructure. Head to Onspon.com today to find the best events and opportunities for marketing and promotion of your brand.
