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Guide to Event PlanningA step-by-step plan to help you host your perfect event!

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Guide to Event Planning

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LOGISTICS

Why are you holding this event: To have a successful event you need to have a clear purpose for the event. Are you promoting a particular product? Are you looking to grow your customer base? Generate new leads? Creating a theme for your event will help you establish a solid list of goals to work toward.

Who is in charge of planning? Are you a business owner handling it all on your own? Do you have a person or team to carry out the event you envision? Identify a leader to turn to with questions and concerns... even if that person is you. Once a leader is established he or she should develop a timeline for everything that needs to be done. Planning takes time and depending on the various elements involved in the event you will need a schedule to keep it all organized.

When are you holding your event? Date and time can mean everything for an event. For retail it’s often valuable to plan an event on busy shopping days – such as on the weekend. Once you identify the date and time you can better distinguish who your target audience is. Also make sure to be aware of the other events being held in your area. You want to make your event the place to be!

Where are you hosting your event?Is the event going to take place at your store or showroom? In your parking lot? Will you need a tent? At a local hotel? Your venue matters, and will impact your budget.

Make sure to allow ample time for planning. According to Hubspot, B2B companies spend 5-8 weeks planning an event.

If you are thinking about doing on-site demonstrations of new products, ask your factory or local representative to come out for the event. Reps have excellent knowledge of your products and showcasing them not only benefits you, but also them. Reach out to your reps and coordinate the event with their schedule.

Smart Tip

Hosting events can be a very effective way to generate interest among your clients and

reinforce relationships. Events engage your customers in new and exciting ways, while

keeping your business top-of-mind. Remember, when you have an event you are the

host. The people attending the event are your guests and this “party” is really about their

experience. That said, you need to make sure your business stands out. The key to a

successful event is successful planning. However, event planning is no simple task with so

much to consider. Who is your audience? What products do you want to promote? When are

you hosting your event? Sometime all those details can become dizzying. Luckily we have a

step-by-step plan laid out to help you host your perfect event.

Step 1: Event Plan

Guide to Event Planning

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BUDGET

Swag: One of the best ways to entice people to attend your event is through giveaways. Decide far in advance of your event if you are going to have swag (you really should have swag). This gives you plenty of time to decide what you want to give away and to order the items. You may even want to personalize them for you business by adding you logo.

Activities: What are you going to be doing at your event? Getting your guests involved in an activity is an excellent way to make and event both memorable and enjoyable. For example you can have a raffle or games with free give-aways. Whatever your activity, use it to collect the email addresses of participants by having a sign-up sheet for the activity that requires both name and and email. That way you can connect with attendees post-event.

Food: Let’s be honest, food is one of the biggest draws for any event. Your event should have food, even if its just coffee and donuts! If you want to go up-scale for food have the event catered, or invite a food truck. No matter what you order you need to make sure you have enough utensils, napkins, plates, etc. You don’t want to hit the day of the event unprepared so be sure to get these details in order ahead of time. If you plan to serve adult beverages, check out local laws regarding alcohol.

Event marketing usually consumes around 20% of a company’s budget, according to Hubspot. Make sure you take all costs into consideration ahead of time.

Money Saver: If your factory or local rep will be attending you can ask them to provide swag and product giveaways for free.

Smart Tip

Step 2: Event Invitation

Who are you inviting? Now that you have the event set you need to figure out who to invite! Do you have an email list? Do you know how to promote in your store and in your community? How are you going to reach your target attendees? That’s where Revenew’s event-in-a-box service comes in handy.

EMAILS

Email list: Once you decide who you are inviting, you need to compile a list of guests. You likely already have an email list for promotions. To grow this list look to your QuickBooks for previous customers, business cards you have gathered, other local businesses, and friends. Revenew can actually turn your residential customer addresses into email addresses!

Custom template: Revenew can develop a custom email template to reflect the theme of your event. You can even incentivize your emails by offering attendees a special or coupon to use.

In the weeks prior to the event you may even consider keeping an email sign-up list next to the register or near the door to gather more local customers.

Smart Tip

Guide to Event Planning

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Your invitation schedule:• Save the date email- about a month or two before the event • Invitation email - about 2-3 weeks prior• Reminder email - a few days prior to the event • Thank you email- within a week of the event

Landing page: Your emails should link to an RSVP page where clients can let you know they will attend. Revenew can create a landing page that is formatted similarly to your email to create cohesiveness. The landing page will convey all the information about the event and will provide a place for invitees to RSVP. This can even be linked to your Facebook page so that your social media followers can register as well.

Direct mail: If you don’t have an email list, you can still invite your local community, or past clients via direct mail. Send them a flyer in the mail to promote your event. You want to make sure your event is the place to be so invite everyone and ask them to bring their friends and family!

Pick up the phone: Your sales consultants should pick up the phone and call their favorite customers to personally invite them.

CREATE AWARENESS

You will want more than just the people you have invited to become aware of the event. Build up local awareness to ensure you are optimizing this opportunity.

Press release: If you want to create buzz around the event you need to promote it to the right people in the right places. Local news sources, like your area newspaper or community newsletter, are often a good place to start. Simply submit your press release and follow-up!

Collateral: • FLYERS – in the weeks leading up to your event post flyers locally

to promote the event. Ask other small businesses, coffee shops, and public spaces if you can advertise on their bulletin boards or in their stores. Create as much awareness around your event as possible!

• IN-STORE POSTERS – your store is the easiest place to market your event. Hang posters around the store and keep a stack of flyers and coupons next to the register or near the door.

Blog for website: If you are active on your website you might consider posting a blog for visitors to read about your upcoming event. Just keep it short and sweet… talk up the event, provide the details, and link it to the RSVP page.

“Reminder”“Thank you” “Save the date”

CUSTOM EMAIL

TEMPLATE

To create buzz, use multiple channels. Hubspot reports that businesses use an average of 5

promotional methods for events.

Guide to Event Planning

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Social promotion: In the weeks leading up to your event you NEED to be posting about it on your social media pages. This may be the best way to reach some of your customers. Post on each of your social media pages such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Make sure to attach the link to the RSVP page so they can get all the details. If you have the budget for it, consider doing promoted posts on Facebook, or even customer targeted Facebook ads.

Social tips:

Don’t miss out on your chance to learn more about our products! Join us at #YourEvent http://bit.ly/15D4TVy

Come and experience the latest in______ at #YourEvent http://bit.ly/15D4TVy

REMINDER <your dates> join us for #YourEvent to learn more about our_____ products http://bit.ly/15D4TVy

Local broadcast: Contact your local TV station to see if it’s possible for them to promote your event!

• Research the producers and reporters that regularly do remote broadcasts. Some may host segments every day while others may report from locations once a week.

• Develop a “pitch” that has a compelling news angle and visual components. Include photos and links to video demonstrations.

• Once you have confirmed interest and booked the segment, the producer may ask for you to provide a “rundown” for the segment. This should be a very detailed description of the suggested segment(s) during the filming.

Radio: Contacting local radio stations to promote your event is a great way to create buzz. Keep your message short, informative, and exciting!

Create an event on Facebook and invite all your followers

Tag sponsors or the product you are promoting

Tweet, Post or Plus+ at least once a day

Add images of products that will be demoed

Always add a link to your landing page for signup

Shorten your URL’s (www.bitly.com)

Create a hash tag! Have an event hash tag that people can follow to get news about your event or to chat with their friends about. Below are sample tweets:

According to a survey carried out by FreemanXP, Facebook is considered the most effective social media platform leading up to events. The second and third highest rated platforms by the survey respondents are Twitter and LinkedIn.

Guide to Event Planning

877-794-8556877-794-8556 | www.revenew.com

Step 3: Event

The planning is all done! Now you can enjoy all of your hard work. On the day of the event make sure that you have everything you need in order.

CHECKLIST

Instruct your staff to arrive early to the event so that they can take care of all the last minute details

Make sure decorations and the venue looks polished and well-organized

Have the food out and ready, with extra napkins, plates, and utensils on standby.

Get the raffle or activity ready to go with all your promotions and give aways displayed

During the event take photos of attendees enjoying themselves and engaging with your products.

Gather feedback at the end

DOCUMENTNow that the event is going off without a hitch, you want to be able to show your success. Assign someone to take photos during of attendees enjoying themselves and engaging with your products.

Research by Media Blog, which analyzed the content of over 2 million tweets sent by thousands of users over the course of a month, shows that adding a photo URL to your tweet can boost retweets by an impressive 35%.

Guide to Event Planning

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Step 4: Post Event

Everybody loved your event! Your store is the talk of the town and you don’t want that buzz to die down. Use the material (feedback and photos) from the event to highlight your success!

FOLLOW-UP EMAILSWith your new email list from the event, send a thank you email to attendees. This keeps your event and business top-of-mind and shows your customers how much you value them. Thank them and ask for feedback. The key to future success is to know what worked and what didn’t work so that you can build on that knowledge for the future.

SHARE SUCCESSNow that the event has passed you do not want it to be forgotten and also show anyone who wasn’t able to attend what they missed. Use the feedback you gained to write the success story of your event. Share the photos from the event via social media and email!

ABOUT REVENEW:

Revenew® is a cutting edge cloud-based marketing platform that allows you to easily and effectively promote your brand, products and solutions. We provide the right digital marketing content, targeted data, fund management and services required to market, compete, and grow awareness within your local community.

To learn more about Revenew, visit revenvewmembership.com

FreemanXP, 2015 – The Viral Impact of Eventshttp://cdn.freemanxp.com/documents/1382/the_viral_impact_of_events_study_freemanxp_and_emi_final.pdf

Hubspot, report based on 2010 CC survey - Fascinating Event Marketing Stats

Patricia Redsicker, 2014 – Social Photos Generate More Engagement: New Researchhttp://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/photos-generate-engagement-research/

FreemanXP indicated that about half of event marketers use social media to relive highlights and leverage influencers.

Revenew’s event-in-a-box service is designed to help you get people to your event so you can promote your products and increase your sales. Contact your marketing advisor for more details on how Revenew can help you.