subject: Effective Business Promotion & Advertising [print this page] Advertising is essentially a form of communication utilized to persuade an audience to take action or continue to action. Typical methods include newspaper ads, magazines, TV commercials, direct mail, or online ads. These all serve their purpose in one way or another, theres no arguing that. But the effectiveness of the method itself? Thats debatable because there is one very distinct difference between all the typical methods of advertising and the method that is the main topic of this article: event promotions.
The difference lies in the level of engagement the audience has with the advertisement. Ads and commercials work because they are able to reach an absurdly high volume of people. Though everyone may not want the product or service that is being offered, there will always be people who do want it and being able to get your advertisement out to a massive audience will generally bring in business, assuming your marketing team didnt bomb the ad.
So why use event promotion? Imagine a scenario in which two defense contractors have developed an effective mechanism for countering cyber terrorism and they want to sell it to governments. Defense contractor A decides to send a message out to all the governments informing them of a new way of countering cyber terrorism while defense contractor B organizes an exclusive event for governments to see the new mechanism in action along with other technologies theyve developed to enforce the projection of their expertise. Defense contractor B more than likely made more sales than defense contractor A because they truly engaged with their audience and allowed the audience to experience their product first hand.
The analogy, while in an entirely different industry, uses a concept that applies to any industry when it comes to marketing. Humans are social creatures by nature and are usually open to connecting and new experiences. Theyre also more likely to take action when theyve experienced first-hand what a product or service can do. Event promotion can have a large audience, but the strength of this marketing tactic is how they engage their audience. It gives knowledge, reassurance, and most of all, a good bit of fun. The event doesnt always have to show case the product or service as long as there is an engaging experience to be had and a connection made, then the event promotion has served its purpose. Its like if everyone were to sample all the food they buy before they actually buy it. Of course, its not entirely practical when it comes to food, but the point is that when people can try out what they want, it makes the decision process that much easier and better for both the consumer and the seller.
In the end, its not about which method is better, but rather which method is better for a particular situation. Its about when quantity matters more or quality. However, in some cases, event promotion can bring both quantity and quality to the table. Nobody wants to buy a car without test driving it first including yourself, so extend the same courtesy to your customers and apply the concept to your marketing efforts.
