With brands recognizing the large numbers of viewers that proactively fast-forward through TV commercials or subscribe to ad blocking services online, businesses across many different industries are forced to find new marketing avenues to connect their targeted audience with their brand, product or service. Experiential marketing, or engagement marketing, has evolved to serve as an aid in creating direct connections and more meaningful relationships with consumers.
By definition, experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that engages a consumer by creating memorable, real-life experiences. If the goal of experiential marketing is to create unique interactions that consumers want to share with others, then incorporating an experiential marketing strategy into your custom trade show booth design will not only build brand awareness and recognition, but will ultimately transform into brand loyalty. To learn more about how experiential marketing adds to your brand, consider this list of potential benefits.
Building Bridges & Acquiring New Relationships
As in all relationships, it’s imperative that trust between the parties is established. Being consistent and clear in your marketing messages is a direct, proven approach for getting people to trust your brand.
From a consumer’s perspective, interactions with a brand often begin before a product is purchased. Seasoned marketers recognize the value in every touch point and conversation as they provide an opportunity to build a bridge between their brand and a potential customer. Regardless of where the initial interaction took place (e.g., the trade show floor or through different digital media platforms), the goal is to make a connection and build a lasting relationship with the customer. The potential customer may or may not be ready to advance to the next stage of the sales cycle, but it is the brand representative’s job to nurture and cultivate a new relationship, regardless of where they are in the sales cycle.
Useful Analytics
When it comes to marketing strategy, knowledge really is power, which is why collecting and analyzing consumer data has become a top priority for businesses. Since experiential marketing allows you to interact with consumers at live events, acquiring useful analytics in real-time benefits your brand significantly. Marketers need data to know how to effectively research consumer preferences. Product developers need useful analytics to understand the intracracies of product appeal, while business leaders need data to steer the direction of their companies.
Big data is an integral part of experiential marketing, as it gives consumers the chance to learn about products and brands while also enjoying the experience. Moreover, useful analytics provide the tools to deliver real-time data and actionable insights that influence messaging and create additional value with on-target consumer engagement.
Product Knowledge
One of marketing’s main goals is to educate consumers about a product, but this goal can only be achieved if the consumer is engaged. Although most people go out of their way to avoid commercials, many will also go out of their way to experience something new. In fact, about 65 percent of consumers say that experiential marketing events and product demonstrations helped them understand a product better than any other marketing method could. Many businesses are using experiential marketing to transform the customer experience with well-executed experiential activations turning consumers from passive viewers to active participants.
Conclusion
In an over-crowded marketplace, it is crucial for brands to build loyalty with their customers to ensure a lasting and engaging relationship. An effective way to cement the bond is by engaging and exciting the consumer with a fun, memorable and relevant experience. As a result, experiential marketing can be more effective than any other form of marketing. To make sure your experiential marketing strategy is successful, it should have a clear link to your brand, as well as target the right audience at the right time in the right manner.
Looking to implement an experiential marketing strategy into your next trade show exhibit? Contact Exhibitus for assistance in developing an award-winning trade show experiential marketing design today.