4 Ways to Retain Customers with Event Marketing
There’s a massive emphasis on event marketing to attract new customers, but what about your current customers? Don’t they deserve some tender loving care, too? After all of the effort that you’ve put in to turn your leads and prospects into paying customers, it’s easy to allocate all of your efforts into the other areas of the funnel or to forget about them altogether.
Yet customer retention is usually faster and costs a lot less than acquiring new customers. By putting your customers through the funnel, you’ve already done the hard part. To keep the momentum going, it’s important to create a set of initiatives that increases customer value, encourages further purchases, and fosters brand ambassadors to promote your company.
Experiential marketing through events helps brands achieve these goals. The aim is to create memorable experiences that engender high degrees of loyalty. Here are four ways you can leverage event marketing to retain your customers.
Exclusive access to new products
Launch a new product at an event for existing customers. The exclusivity of these events shows that you’re willing to invest in your customers and that you genuinely value them. This goes a long way in showing trust and how reliant you are on them to expand and improve. Successful events will foster a loyal group of advocates who can vouch for your company.
Affiliate programs
If you’re a success with your customers, then you should consider special affiliate programs for those who want to become brand ambassadors and promote your event. Since they’ve attended your event, they can get a specific link or code through which to sell your product and get a higher percentage than the usual affiliate programs.
Invite VIP speakers, and offer your guests the opportunity to network with them
Have you asked your customers why they attended your event? The answer is going to be the speakers, who are typically the major pull factor for attendees. For this reason, VIP speakers and business leaders are an event’s hottest commodity.
Provide your customers the opportunity to network with VIP speakers. This can either be at an event with a special session dedicated to your customers or it can be an event designed specifically for your customers. This gives customers the opportunity to get insights from industry experts and leaders — something that is often difficult to organize or very costly to do.
Provide exclusive brand elements
Spoil your customers with rare events like helicopter trips or banquets, and throw in surprises that will leave a lasting impression. Everyone likes getting unexpected gifts. It’s little surprises like in-room gifts and personalized experiences that build long-term relationships with customers.
Thomas Davey is the Content Manager at Eventtia.
