Did you know business growth events are one of the easiest and fastest ways for you to grow your business (especially when you combine them with email marketing and social media)?

Why is that?

According to many companies — Constant Contact included — events are brilliant for growing your business because they allow you to . . .

  • Scale up your sales and find your niche. When you run an event, you get a whole group of people together instead of trying to sell your products/services on a one-to-one basis. This is a much more efficient use of your time and will speed up your customer sales process.
  • Get a higher level of trust much faster. As humans, we are psychologically predisposed to respond better to people with whom we have eye contact and whose faces we can see. So, if you let people see you (and hear your voice, etc.), they will automatically have greater trust in you than if they’ve just visited your website.
  • Tell your audience what you have to offer. While you have a captive audience, use that time to tell them about your product or service and any new changes you have.
  • Get signups/sales. You can actually make an offer at that event for instant signups. This doesn’t have to be a pressure sale. You can just tell people about the benefits and ask them to signup for more information if they’re interested.

I believe 99% of businesses can use event marketing to help grow their business, but they have to choose the right kind of event for them.

Business growth events you can run now

Here are seven different event types — which one would work for you?

1. Host a customer panel

Get a few of your best customers together and provide drinks and nibbles. Tell them about your newest plans and ask their opinions. You will get really useful feedback to help you in your business AND you can offer them a good deal if they decide to take up your newest product or service if they book now.

This is a great way to present an offer without doing a “big sell” but if they want to take up your offer they will.

2. Share best practices

You are an expert at what you do, simply by virtue of making a business out of your knowledge. So, you have lots of great information you can share with your clients and potential customers. You can run an event where you teach them about the best practices in your industry. This shows your audience you really know your stuff and gives them confidence in you as a business.

You don’t have to be a B2B (Business to Business) company to use this — for example, a wedding photographer could run an event for brides on how to look great in their wedding photos. By the end of that session, their audience will feel comfortable with that photographer and know they are great at what they do. So, attendees are more likely to book them for their weddings.

3. Put on a getting started with … or “how to” event

Often, your customers will really like the idea of what you do but aren’t really sure how to best use your products and services. So, simply taking them through that is a way to move them closer to buying.

Similarly, a “how-to” session can be very effective. With this approach, you talk about how to address a specific issue and then talk about your products or services as the answer.

4. Have an open house

If you have a venue or business location, an open house is a fantastic way to let people see “behind the scenes.” They will feel like they know your business better and be more interested in what you do.

You will be surprised at how many of your customers and potential clients would LOVE to know more about what goes on in the background — and this will make them more likely to buy from you.

5. Host a seasonal or holiday party

The simple act of getting people together to meet you and talk to each other can be very effective, and a seasonal or holiday party is the perfect way to do this.

Whether you host this at your own location or host at an outside venue, think about holding a party and inviting customers, as well as your “business friends.” People will talk to each other about how great you are and will take the chance to speak to you about specific questions they might have.

6. Put together a networking event

You have a group of people around your business who would probably like to meet each other. This is particularly true for B2B companies but also applies to many B2C (Business to Consumer) organizations as well. If you can facilitate that meeting, by getting them in the room together and making some useful introductions (because you know them all), then you will become THE person in the know in their eyes.

And, if you are the person in the know, then they’ll think more highly of you and your knowledge, and be more likely to come to you in the future.

7. Create a “taster” event

If you sell anything you can break down into smaller bits, then you can run a taster event. This includes trial classes for training programs or wine tasting events where you sell cases of wine. This is a perfect way to try a product or service for a smaller cost, so potential customers are taking less financial risk.

At your taster, you can provide an offer on your full service and give them a discount or something extra if they book on the day.

Now get growing

Business growth events don’t have to be large or complicated. They only have to fit your business.

Choose something from the above list — or brainstorm your own event — and think about how soon you could host it. I suggest trying something small and simple at first. Like an open house or an intimate customer panel with your best customers. Set some SMART goals for the event and measure its success. Then grow from there.

Constant Contact’s event management tool is a simple and easy way to manage event registrations.