Somewhere back in the past, some guy had a crazy idea to let the people know about his company. He probably stood on the sidewalk and handed out fliers to the people who passed by. Sure enough, some if not plenty more showed up and his event could be considered a success, and he probably got a few good sales and leads out of it. Today, we emulate the same thing and try as much as possible to maximize lead generation results.
Today though, getting the word out about your company is a little bit different than it was back then. Nobody really stands somewhere handing out fliers nowadays, usually we take to the Internet to get the job done, as well as make use of other means to get people to go to our events. On the Internet, we have social media, one of the prime drivers of human-to-human interaction.
Even with social media at our fingertips, marketers that make use of it to announce and get people to go their events still doesn’t seem to work. The problem is that some focus too much on the “lead generation from events” aspect of things rather than how they market their event to people.
So is social kicking the bucket? We don’t think so. It’s all about coming up with the right marketing mix.
Balloons and all those shiny stuff still count.
Social is not dead. It’s just that some marketers have gotten out of touch with what it really means to market an event. Do you remember the times when people would go through all the effort of stringing up balloons, streamers and all those other shiny, sparkly things just to attract our attention? Well, social isn’t shiny. Neither is it sparkly.
Sometimes it pays to just go with traditional media, along with a bit of social media. Rather than solely relying on Facebook to get your business to business leads to head on over to check out your company event, why not take some time to set up a booth outside and actually attract people? Once you have people coming to your stall, then you can pounce and tell them you can also find us on Facebook for more information.
Personal invites and human interaction matter.
Once again, social is not kicking the bucket anytime soon. In fact, social media helps to drive your relationship with your business contacts. However, if you want to start getting social with events, mixing it up with some real person-to-person interaction helps greatly.
When was the last time you picked up the phone to do telemarketing? Well, maybe that was just five minutes ago but instead of trying to get a lead, invite your prospect to an event. Sounds familiar? You’re right because this is basically just event telemarketing. It gets good results because it fosters communication between you and your prospect. Communicating with them will get you on their good side and thus get you more chances to give out that invite and get a yes! What happens after that? Connect with them more through social media if they need more info about your upcoming event.
Be “social” with social.
Marketers make the mistake of being leaning too much towards the “business” side of things, even on social media. Promotions here, promotions there; here an ad, everywhere an ad. But isn’t social media supposed to be used to be “social” with your market?
If you’ve already invited a lot of people, then you are going to have to interact with them all if they have questions and whatnot. It takes too long to respond to every single email. It takes too much time to pick up the phone and dial everyone individually. Thankfully, you have social media to help you. That’s why it matters to actually interact with people through social channels even if in a non-business manner. Don’t miss out on your chance to be “social” on social.
If you have a good event planned, and you know it’s going to be a spectacular hit, then lead generation should not be a problem. So remember this young marketer: social is not dead. You just need to find the right marketing mix to get social activity going.
