If you’re like Deborah Pannell of Eventwist, you’ve had it with traditional marketers shouting at you everyday. But are you taking this into account as you plan your events? Here are Deborah’s thoughts on the subject.
This article was originally printed as a guest post on http://lizkingevents.com. Please visit Liz’s site for more excellent pieces on events, event planning and event tech.
We all get marketed to, all the time. Can you feel it? You do know that all of your moves on Facebook, Amazon, Spotify, The Washington Post – they’re all being tracked. If you actively use any social media tools, your thoughts, tastes and preferences have all gone into one central database where a custom marketing strategy is being created just for you.
Don’t you feel special?
If you are conducting any kind of business, you are always looking to locate your market, find your audience, your clients – the pool of available resources that will fund your continued existence. The stakes are high! You may have a great product, but if you can’t connect it to the right people, you will not thrive or profit.
When we hold business events, we are marketing. We market to bring in our attendees, and when we follow up with our guests, we are continuing to market to them in order to maintain a connection around our business.
How we communicate to people during the different phases of marketing to them says a lot about us, our business and our organizations. Do we treat them with respect? Do we honor them as individuals with intelligence and taste? Do we recognize their powers of discernment?
It’s always important to make sure you provide a value exchange to your guests or attendees. Whether a business conference, a product launch or a gallery opening, people have taken the time, energy and expense to be willing participants in your undertaking. You must make sure they come away from that with some valuable experience or insight, particularly if you want to continue a relationship with them.
Posted with the permission of Deborah Pannell. To view the rest of this post, click http://www.eventwist.com/blog/business-and-life/quit-marketing/
(Photo by sh1mmer)
