There can be little doubt about the monumental scale of today’s corporate event industry; the UK events sector alone is worth more than £40 billion, according to Eventbrite. Meanwhile, the worldwide business-to-business (B2B) events industry generated revenue of $30.3 billion in 2016, as stated by the EventMB blog.
But why should your own organisation look to host corporate events? Isn’t digital marketing alone now an adequate way of reaching new customers and selling products and services?
Here are just a few of the real advantages of organising a corporate event.
Greater brand awareness
When your prospective customers, clients or partners have the opportunity to experience your brand ‘in the flesh’ instead of simply on the pages of a website or in the slightly distant text of a press release, they are likely to feel more engaged and associate your brand with the event.
The more memorable – in a positive sense – your corporate event is, the more warmly attendees, or even just those who picked up on the hype associated with the event second-hand, will reflect on your company and what it stands for.
Flaunting your venue – or taste in venues
If your business is a restaurant, hotel, bar or similar entity that has a venue open to the public and is dependent on generating awareness of this, a corporate event such as a product launch, fashion show or networking event could be ideal for immersing people in the wonders of your setting.
Alternatively, if your firm is office-based or simply lacks premises suitable for hosting a corporate event, organising such an event could be an invaluable opportunity to showcase your fine taste in venues. In so doing, you will also be associating your brand with the finest quality experiences.
Our very own Château Bouffémont, for instance, is a renowned chateau for corporate event days, offering a range of sophisticated function rooms with refined interior decor, in impressive surroundings of manicured French gardens.
Maximised face-to-face connections
This is closely tied to the ‘brand awareness’ point above. The reality is that while you can build a formidable online presence for your company with compelling written and video content, nothing surpasses face-to-face contact for heightening engagement among your target audience.
If you depend solely on the virtual world for reaching out to potential clients and contacts, these people may rarely or never see your face. The personal touch remains crucial for cultivating meaningful and long-lasting business relationships, as corporate events can help to foster.
Revenue generation
You are unlikely to be convinced of the merit of holding a corporate event at all unless there is a clear potential benefit to your firm’s bottom line. Thankfully, there are many ways in which such an event can enable you to make money.
One of those options is, of course, charging admission to your event. However, by holding a product launch or fashion show as part of your event, you may also secure lucrative orders for your products or services on the day itself. The heightened awareness of your brand that the event enables could also be instrumental in your company’s ongoing efforts to maximise profits.
While holding a corporate event is not a ‘catch-all’ solution any more than any other form of marketing such as writing press releases or producing corporate videos, it is a strategy that can nonetheless play a key role in your organisation’s continued growth.
