Unsure to why event marketing is crucial to your overall marketing strategy? Event attendance gives marketers the opportunity to build relationships and trust with a prospective customer.
Now you know why it’s important, but what exactly is event marketing?
“Event marketing is the planning, organising, and execution of an event for the purpose of promoting a brand, product, or service. Events can take place in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid format.”
(HubSpot)
Typically, companies attend an event as an exhibitor or participate as a sponsor.
With 75% of marketers believing that in-person events are the most effective marketing strategy, it is crucial to incorporate event marketing into your overall strategy.
Event marketing comes with several key benefits ranging from lead generation to building thought leadership within the fintech industry, and maintaining brand awareness.
When choosing what fintech events to incorporate into your marketing strategy, ensure you consider the following:
1. What are your objectives?
Before embarking on your events marketing journey, make sure you have an events marketing strategy in place first.
Think to yourself, what do you want to get out of the event?
This can be anything from brand awareness, which is especially important during a fintech’s growth stage, to lead generation. Whatever objectives you decide on, it’s imperative to have that in mind before continuing with the project.
If lead generation is your goal, make sure you’re exhibiting at the event and networking throughout. Ensure that a member of your sales team is manning your stand and pitching your unique selling points (USPs) to prospective customers and clients.
Also, think about having a member of your team on the exhibition floor to network with other attendees that may be potential clients.
But if brand awareness is your goal, consider sponsoring an aspect of the event. 81% of marketers believe that sponsorships have ‘moderate’ to ‘significant’ potential in the context of event marketing. Getting your fintech name out there will help build brand awareness.
The available sponsorship packages at Pay360 are a great example of this. They give brands the opportunity to sponsor the media lounge, lanyards, and many other elements of the event.
2. Is the event industry appropriate?
Make sure that the events you’re attending are appropriate and beneficial to your business.
Research the event you’re planning on attending or exhibiting, in-depth. Look into the themes as well as who is exhibiting and speaking.
If the key themes and attendees align with your key business goals, then it is likely that the event is worth attending.
It is also important to be aware of the flagship events in the fintech and payments industry, such as Fintech Connect and Money20/20. Your presence in the industry can be maximised by participating in these events in some capacity.
3. What are the key event themes?
Investigate the event’s key themes and topics. Are they hot topics or buzzwords in the fintech industry? Such as the metaverse or ESG.
It is important that your fintech gains something from the event themes. How will it benefit your business?
Think:
- What’s the agenda of the event?
- What topics will be covered at the event?
- Are these topics of any use to you, your team, or your business?
- How will they add value?
The panel discussions may help with knowledge gathering, which can help benefit different funnels of your business or produce thought leadership content, such as blogs and eBooks.
4. Who will be there?
Take a deep dive into the exhibitor, sponsor, and partner lists featured on the event’s website.
If these lists aren’t readily available on the site, reach out to the event organiser, they’d be more than happy to share them with you.
Ensure that those attending are part of your target audience. If the attendees are not in that remit, then reconsider the choice of event.
An exception to this rule is if your clients or potential clients are involved in the event. In this instance, attend to continue nurturing the client relationships and demonstrate that you are there to support them.
It’s important to see if your competitors will be attending the event. If your competitors are attending, then it’s likely that the event has the right audience for you too.
5. What’s your budget?
Your event marketing budget plays a huge part when deciding what fintech events to attend, sponsor, or exhibit at.
Those with a very minimal budget may want to consider attending free events and networking on the exhibition floor.
If more budget allows, a fintech scale-up may want to have a stand at the event and exhibit.
Financial institutions with a larger budget will sponsor the event, or parts of it, or possible a arrange a bespoke event partnership with the organiser.
Asides from event fees, you must take travel expenses, food, and accommodation into consideration.
It’s also important to remember that you may not be able to conduct your usual work commitments whilst attending the event, which can add additional cost factors.
After calculating all the above expenses, ask:
- Do you have sufficient budget for the event?
- Do you think the event will be able to deliver a great return on investment (ROI)?
Top tip: Decide and plan which events you’d like to attend approximately 6 months in advance as the majority of event organisers have early-bird discounts and promotional offers.
Conclusion
Event marketing is a crucial part of your overall events strategy and should not be neglected.
This is evidenced the fact that 87% of C-Level who executives believe in the power of event marketing and are planning on investing in them more in the future.
When selecting fintech events to attend, consider the following:
- What are your objectives?
- Is the event industry appropriate?
- What are the key event themes?
- Who will be there?
- What’s your budget?
By asking yourself these questions, you can establish if the event you’re planning to attend will be beneficial to your business and an effective use of your time and budget.
Blue Train Marketing is experienced in helping our clients maximise the value of their participation in a range of fintech and payments industry events.
From event research and planning to co-ordinating and managing fintech marketing event activities, we’ve got you covered.
