If you’re running an online business, then you’re still going to want to have some form of presence in the offline world. This helps to humanise your business, and humanisation is something that will encourage people to buy your products or hire your services.
It gives customers a chance to see the people behind what you do, and it’s also a lot easier to sell a product or tell a company story in person. For these reasons, giving your online business some form of offline presence could be just the thing you need!
The Benefits Of Attending (Or Hosting) Events
There are many benefits to attending an industry event. Here’s a list of some of the biggest reasons, for those who are yet to be convinced:
Clarity: Is it kind of hard to explain what your product does? Or what your service is? In person it will be much easier to verbally articulate these benefits – or to physically showcase them.
Sales: Have you got a salesperson’s charisma? Are you great at closing a deal when you’re speaking to somebody in person? If you’re running an e-commerce site, arranging events could be one of the best ways for you to use theses personal sales skills.
Awareness: If your business is 100% online, then the only reason somebody might come across your website would be if they found you via an internet search or you reached them through social media marketing. Arranging and occupying a physical space will mean that you’re exposing yourself to a much larger group of people than you would have done otherwise.
Connections: It’s not just customers that you might reach at these events. If you arrange something that’s also open for other local businesses to attend, you might meet people from non-competitor businesses who you can form mutually beneficial relationships with. It could give you the opportunity to grow in ways you never imagined.
Memory: If somebody sees an appealing advert or social media post about your business, there’s a small chance that you’ll stick in their mind after some time has passed – but maybe not. However, if they encounter your business in real life at an open public event, the chances of them remembering you are significantly increased.
Brand Awareness: It is quite possible for you to attend an event with the single goal being that you want to raise awareness for your brand. Things like this help create an actual moment in people’s memories, which is why they’re so effective. The great thing is that you can do whatever you want too as well, as there are so many different possibilities – take a look at Uber for some inspiration.
These are just six general points that will apply to all businesses, but the list of benefits for individual niche businesses would be even longer.
Types of Event to Organise
If you’re not sure what sort of event might be best for your business, here are a few ideas that might help you to ‘find your people’:
Arts & Crafts: If you sell homemade products, you might want to host an event where you and other independent traders can sell arts and crafts products. Just make sure that you’re all selling different things, so you’re not directly competing with one another. People will love the opportunity to see and touch your products for themselves and to speak to the person who created them
Entertainment: When you consider arranging an event to promote your business, it doesn’t have to be super serious or corporate. You might like to do something quirkier, with more of a focus on entertainment. If you sell your own clothes, for example, you might like to host a fashion show in which to showcase them? Think about how you can use the local community and business partnerships to your advantage. You might find that selling tickets and hosting events becomes a bigger part of your online business than you first imagined — if that’s where the money is, then go with the flow
Seminars: You may be an expert in your industry. You’ve probably got some great insights that people would love to hear. Host an engaging seminar or a talk, and you can plug your product or service at the end (or throughout). It should be a valuable experience for attendees, as well as a persuasive one
Fundraisers: Doing something in the name of raising money for a good cause (especially a local one) will do a good job of cementing your business as a catalyst for change in the world. In terms of people’s perceptions, this will be very different to simply having a good business website
That’s four solid (and very different) ways that your business could be making an impact in the real world. You could donate money and then make the fact known online, or you could write a detailed blog post covering some key industry lessons – but the impact would be significantly reduced compared to getting out there and doing it for real.
Spread The Word; Arrange An Event
So if your business is exclusively occupying a digital space, it may be time for you to start looking to arrange an event. InAnyEvent London can help you to get the ideal event for your business arranged as quickly and conveniently as possible. Once that’s done, you can send out a newsletter, post some tweets, make some posters and spread the word.
If you want to set yourself apart from all of the other startups and freelancers on the internet, you’ve got to get out into the world as well. It’s those human connections that could make a real difference to your business.
When you communicate with somebody in person, you create a bond that cannot be created using a website. There are so many benefits to hosting an event for your business and so many different avenues to take. If you’ve got room in the budget, this is absolutely something you should be considering.
Have you ever held an event before? If so, how did it go? Leave a comment and let us know.
