Events, Exhibitions and Networking
Anything but a free lunch?
With the UK still reopening, face to face events are back on the agenda once again.
While we can’t wait to physically meet our partners once again and we’re looking forward to the handshakes confirming business agreements returning, the last eighteen months has allowed us to analyse the real costs (and benefits) of attending or exhibiting at events.
We know that exhibiting is often habitual, i.e. you’ve done it for years, so what will be the impact of non-attendance and to whom? Will your company be missed for the right reasons? Or just missed because you’re not there?
We believe that there are also habitual attendees. The same faces, from the same companies who attend exhibitions and events: without any real purpose.
If you’re considering exhibiting, what are the real costs of doing so?
So, you’ve signed on the dotted line and very soon, you’ll be heading to an arena, hotel conference suite or exhibition centre to present your company to an invited audience: so let’s have a look at costs:
- Opportunity cost of removing employees from their work environment to host your stand or desk.
- Lost Opportunity cost of employees potentially missing leads from new or existing clients whilst out of office.
- Travel, transport and subsistence costs of supporting these employees whilst out of office.
- On-costs for promotional items.
- Data gathering costs. Consider the cost of gathering the data, entering into CRM and then creating post-event mailers and campaigns to re-establish connections or remind attendees of your brand.
- Continued costs. Assessing the contacts gathered for future campaigns and understanding the real lifetime value of each contact gleaned.
If you’re attending an event, have you considered:
- The real purpose of attending? Is it a day out of the office or a way to establish new business contacts?
- What are the potential upsides and opportunity costs of attending the event?
- If there is another way to develop value from existing contacts or find new contacts by other forms of marketing?
Aren’t Momentum just party poopers?
No! But there’s no such thing as a free lunch!
There’s nothing we love more than a party, and many of our team are itching for working away from their homes, but the reality is that especially in a time of recovery, where the demands on our time and funds are stretched, there are potentially more beneficial ways to generate income or support our partners than being at an event.
The pandemic has taught us that there are many more ways to create business and grow relationships than being present at events and exhibitions. Of course, this doesn’t mean you’ll never see our beaming smiles at your local arena again, but we’ll be carefully choosing our appearances more carefully in the future!
Shall we address the elephant in the room?
For many companies, there is a reluctance to change a physical promotional stance, mainly due to nervousness about non-appearance. In the last 25 years, we’ve worked with many companies who have never reviewed or change their traditional marketing campaigns, ad placement or attendance at events, simply because they think their presence will be missed.
With sophisticated Account-Based Marketing and other proven marketing methods, we can place your brand into the mailboxes or digital timelines of those attending exhibitions without the costs and efforts in doing so.
With a combination of tactics, our team can ascertain the likelihood of success when developing targeted campaigns or undertake a broad-spectrum marketing campaign to place your marketing messages in front of the widest possible audience too.
But is there nothing like a face to face approach?
Yes and no.
A quantitative and qualitative analysis of data from previously attended events suggests that non-attendance for Momentum will not affect our own business performance, and we’d encourage you to do the analysis before doing more of the same.
We can help you undertake this analysis by undertaking a range of activities to help you understand the real value of attending past events and the costs of doing similar events in the future.
Of course, networking events may be valuable to your company and actual value-based analysis may not be possible as ‘results’ are often far more ethereal and may take time to develop into deeper business relationships.
A partnership without the small talk, finger food or faff!
If you’re thinking that a day out of office isn’t great value right now, why not consider partnering with Momentum?
Our unique partnership approach is designed to work in a multi-disciplined way with every team within your company. With over 25 years of experience, there are few scenarios in which we’ve not been involved, so if you’re ready for a new sales partner, call us straight away: 02476 662 004
We can’t wait to help your business move forward with Momentum. Get in touch soon with one of our team, or schedule a Discovery Meeting with Heather, our Operations Director now: discovery@momentumpartnership.com