Prior to running Social Media Marketing business Altrincham HQ I ran an events business for 10 years

From 250 capacity venues to 15,000 capacity arts and music festival we delivered 6 events a month in Manchester City Centre and South Manchester

. In that time we put on live shows from members of The Smiths, The Kooks and The Wombats and up and coming performances from bands you’ll know now as Catfish & The Bottlemen, The 1975 and The Ting Tings. At one stage we even put on an outdoor stage in the middle of Piccadilly Gardens

At Altrincham HQ it’s less rock & roll, but the skill set I’ve used whether it be marketing networking groups or organising my own events recently

In 2019 as we celebrate 10 years of Altrincham HQ we’re running 10 events and as midyear approaches we’ve met new contacts and won business as a direct result of running face to face events

The numbers speak for themselves – our 10 Year Celebration events have had 350+ attendees over 5 events. And that’s just the start

Here are 5 Reasons You Should Organise An Event

People Want Shared Experiences They Can’t Recreate Online
Social Media brings people closer and pulls them apart at the same time

I work in the field – I should know

But look at every single area of the town or city you live in. The businesses that are thriving of those that are offering something that can’t be recreated online – coffee shops, gyms, barbers, tattoo shops and any business that offers a specialism or an experience. People don’t want to buy more pointless stuff that they will never use, they want to buy only thing that makes their life better and they want to spend money on experiences. Importantly shared experiences with those people that they care about.

The end goal for your business event might be to get people to buy more stuff, but the gateway is an experience people talk about

Introducing New Customers To Your Business
The great things about events is that if marketing correctly they always attract new people

One event we ran last month was fully booked in 72 hours and I didn’t know over half the attendees before the event

Every single event that I’ve ever run over the past 15 years have always stayed true to the mission statement of “this event must attract new people”. A great event from the very conception will be set out in such a way that your ideal customer avatar is drawn towards you

If it’s successful and you repeat the event then people will come back time and time again, but never lose track of the fact that to grow a business more people must know you exist as there will always be a % of lost clients regardless of how successful you are

Add Extra Value and Re-Engage Your Existing Customers
Imagine you have a database or an existing client list of people that have bought from you previously. They know you, they trust you and they are willing to spend with you. But what more can you do after you’ve made that original purchase. An event should add extra value to these customers and re-engage them in such a way that they look at the whole range of what you offer

One of our best events this year was our LinkedIn Profile Perfection workshop – not because of the number of attendees on the actual event, but because it reminded clients who had bought from us previously that we offered LinkedIn training and we got a large number of 121 bookings from running the event itself

Many of the events we’re running this year for 10 years of Altrincham HQ have been based on the idea of what more can we do for our customers, how can we help their business grow and how can we help the local business community thrive. We’ve answered needs and wants and put our customers first. We did this for them, not us, with the full knowledge that when they grow we grow.

Prime PR And Marketing Opportunities
Whether it’s social PR or traditional PR one of the great things about running events as people immediately start talking about it

It offers a focal point, something new and something exciting. It might be that the social media updates reach an extra 20,000 people or it might be that local magazine comes down and covers your event and suddenly 10,000 people know that you exist

A blogger or influencer may come to your event and give your business a much needed right up and boost

Having a plan around the events marketing is a sure fire way to get vital exposure – most whats on guides are crying out for local events to fill their empty listings pages and if you have something that is shareable it’s a win win for both parties

Generate Extra Revenue
There are two ways you can generate extra revenue from running events

The first way is income directly derived from the event itself. That simply means that you charge a fee to attend the event, enough people attend and you make a profit

This is usually the only consideration that businesses consider when running an event – the profit and loss of that specific event

But there is another way

The second way to generate income from an event is the flow of income that comes as a result from that event. For example you may charge no entry fee to the event that organise, but as a result you make 5 to 10 sales off the back of people attending the event

Don’t always put short term profit before long term success

On 18th September we run our How To Run Successful Events That People Talk About workshop in South Manchester

The Events Success Workshop will take your event from an idea in your head to a successful event in just 8 weeks

Join our Masterclass for just £75

Full info here https://altrinchamhq.co.uk/how-to-run-successful-events-that-people-talk-about/

Alex

Alex McCann is owner of Altrincham HQ – a social media management and training company based in Altrincham, Cheshire that has worked with 100s of local business developing their social media strategy. Alex has 350+ LinkedIn testimonials and is ranked number 1 for Social Media Marketing in the UK via independent customer reviews on Freeindex.