| Hey there everyone…so…even I’ve surprised myself by not talking about organising real-life events yet… Because if the truth be known… I love attending events, I love organising events, and I love the energy and opportunity that comes along with hosting them. I love meeting new people, I love being able to make a business and the team behind it come alive – and I love the opportunity to hopefully give attendees something truly unique, that they won’t ever forget (that creating a ‘watercooler’ moment is going to be another blog post coming at you super soon…) I actually worked it out recently and it turns out I’ve organised, hosted or attended over 700 work-related events over the past 20 years…that’s a lot of random conversations and a lot of meeting and greeting… A lot of people think running events is a fairly superficial thing, always focused on the end consumer, customer or community member – you know, all about balloons, beer (and some I’ve been to) boring panels. And sometimes, let’s be honest, this isn’t too far from the truth…But this is where this week’s RocketTips comes into play… Because I believe that if you run an event and put the effort into thinking about what you really, truly want to get out of it, then the ROI should be well and truly stacked in your favour! This week I’m going less on the abstract, and more on the impact – sharing below some of my top tips on why you and every business should be truly investing in an events strategy to unlock all the deep, deep value that is sitting there available to you! It’s time to get that notebook out…because here are… 12 Event Tips That Could Transform Your Business 1. A regular event will help you build a recurring narrative with your audience and customers week to week, month to month. In business, you need to be creative in engaging your audience in a non-spammy email way, and events will help you do this. (Don’t forget, even an invite to an event is another way to remind them that your business exists!) 2. Leverage your attendee insights to gather product feedback, and industry mood and to get intel on what your competition is doing well/badly. For anyone who’s been at a conference before, you’ll know the real conversations and deals happen at the bar, or in relaxed conversations away from the booth…Hello, product market fit and finding out what your customers actually want! 3. Gain early thoughts and testers for a new product or service you have coming up/on the drawing board. Offer this ‘behind the scenes, first hands on it’ opportunity to add value to your audience and get great feedback. You can also start to build a waitlist for pre-orders if this makes sense! 4. Events can be a great way to activate lead generation. Simply offer +1’s on the night to invite friends and family to join your guests. Hey – you’ve just doubled the ROI of your event! 5. Building brand equity. Running an IRL event can really make your company come alive and give an insight into the personalities of your founders and team. You may be able to ‘tell’ people what you’re about online. But can they ‘feel’ what you’re about and your passion? 6. Launching in new markets. Put the effort into finding those early adopters and ambassadors that will help to turbocharge your activations, giving you invaluable local market knowledge, and boots on the ground, feeding up ideas and insights to your HQ. 7. Finding your next top employee. Did someone really impress you with their networking on the night and knowledge of your company? Why not invite them for a formal interview or internship? Failing that, they could be your first new ambassador of which to build a squad around! 8. New team member onboarding. I think it’s perfectly ethical to throw newbies in at the deep end and get them to meet your customers and members to learn more about your org! They’ll get more insight into your business and customers at one 3-hour event than they will in a whole week of staring at a laptop. 9. Building partnerships – invite a segment of your collaborators along, or run a B2B event just for peeps you want to work with! Events don’t always have to be about the end user so you could even create an industry get-together or a shindig for complementary businesses that would be a dream partnership for you. 10. Education and training for those people wanting to learn how to use your product or engage with your business, plus sharing your company news once a quarter at a live AMA etc. 11. Celebrate your business’s anniversary – these ‘birthday’ events are a great way to get people together, celebrate what you’re up to and get media coverage and local participation. 12. Creating content in terms of post-event videos, photos, testimonials and social posts – keeping the engagement going until next time… ps – my bonus tip is less is more – don’t go batshit crazy into doing hundreds of events a year unless, you know, events are your business focus…Make sure you plan on making your get-togethers memorable, special and something that your audience will truly look forward to attending due to scarcity. You got this! Speak soon Jonny ps – know other people who’d like to receive weekly community growth and event tips in their inbox? Please do spread the good vibe |
|  Whenever you’re ready…there are 3 ways I can help you… 1. Consultancy – I can work with you in several ways to strategise and execute a growth plan that will help you transform the relationships you have with your customers and community. Book an intro call today 2. Join our growth program and invest in the future success of your business 3. Tell me what your biggest single customer/growth pain point is, and I’ll send you a quick community-led solution to help! |