7 Event Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Participating in certain types of events can be an extremely effective marketing strategy. From trade shows to industry conferences, having thousands of target customers in one place can grow your customer base.

But there is a right way and a wrong way to market your business at an event. If you want to make your time and money work for you during events, there are event marketing mistakes you need to avoid at all costs.

Wondering what these mistakes are, and what you can do to ensure you don’t make them? Keep reading to discover the best event marketing strategy that will boost your business today.

1. Poorly Designed Booth

Having a booth at a trade show or sponsoring a conference can get the word out about your business to thousands of prospects in a short period of time. It can even work to close new sales, capture new leads, and increase revenue immediately.

But if you don’t put enough effort into designing a booth that attracts attention, no one will even know you are there. You can’t just set up a table with a sign containing your business name and expect people to stop what they are doing to come to see you.

You have to work with professionals to design a booth that stands out from everything else around it. It needs to convince people that what they are doing isn’t important and that they need to see your booth instead.

An exciting booth can also lead to many people taking photos and sharing their experience as a form of user-generated social media marketing, furthering growing your brand and reach.

2. Not Wearing Matching Uniforms

Every member of your team should be wearing matching uniforms at every event. At a minimum, this means a branded company polo shirt, with matching pants and shoes.

By wearing a consistent uniform, you convey professionalism to prospects. Uniforms make it easy for people to find the right person to talk to, preventing confusion and frustration.

Depending on the type of event and the design of your booth, you may be able to create themed uniforms that add an element of fun and flair to your team.

3. No Merchandise to Pass Out

Event marketing is all about the merchandise. After all, when people walk by your booth or have a conversation with your team, they aren’t sharing any information, such as email addresses or phone numbers.

In order for you to follow up with attendees, you need them to visit your website later on. One of the biggest ways this takes place is by passing out merchandise.

When you give away free items that contain your brand name and contact information, you’ll remain top of mind. So later on, when they are home or at work, they’ll have your pen, your notepad, or your water bottle. As a result, they’ll remember who you are, and go check out your website.

Not sure where to start when it comes to investing in merchandise for events? Check out this guide to event merchandising so you can take your marketing game to the next level.

4. Not Enough People Staffing the Event

Another mistake many businesses make at events is understaffing. They’ll send two, maybe three, people to handle the booth and have conversations with attendees.

But depending on the size of the event, you may need much more than this. This is especially true if you have an eye-catching booth that actually attracts attention and draws people in.

In this case, you need as many team members hanging around your booth as possible, so that nobody has to wait around without speaking to anyone. You also want to have teammates that can walk around the event starting conversations elsewhere, and handing out merchandise as they go.

Most employees love the opportunity to attend events. Treat your staff by giving them time away from the office to go enjoy an event, make connections, and draw in new business. Depending on the event date and location, your employees may be able to spend half the day at the office and half the day at the event, switching with others.

5. Not Capturing Leads

One of the difficult aspects of event marketing is capturing leads. It’s much easier on a website where you can offer a lead magnet or a discount in exchange for an email address.

Obtaining an email address and permission to market to an individual is what builds trust and leads to new customers. But you can’t do this at events, can you?

Of course you can. One of the best ways to do this is having multiple iPads or tablets available for people to join your mailing list. And of course, you still need a lead magnet.

This could be a physical piece of merchandise that people want to get their hands on. It could be a raffle for a grand prize at the end of the event. Or it could be a killer discount on your products or services.

6. Overpromising

One of the biggest problems with event marketing is that companies will overpromise, and then under-deliver. Rather than doing this, you should be underpromising and overdelivering.

When you produce results for a new client, you want to blow them away. You want the results to be far bigger than they anticipated. This is what they will then share with others, increasing your word-of-mouth marketing.

7. It’s Not About You

The temptation when hosting or participating in an event is thinking that it’s all about you. But people aren’t there for you. They aren’t there to be sold. They are there to solve their own problems.

Make the event, your booth, and your strategy to be that of providing value to people. Give, give, give and you will find yourself growing your brand and business.

Avoiding Common Event Marketing Mistakes

It’s not that hard to avoid the most common event marketing mistakes. You simply need to be aware of them and be intentional about how you plan and execute your strategy.

It starts with marketing events online, building anticipation, and following through in person. Just provide people with a unique experience, making them feel valued, and you will have been successful.

Looking for more tips like this? Be sure to visit the rest of our blog today to keep reading.