How To Plan A Small Business Event

Business events can have a great impact on advertising, especially for a small company. These events are a chance to present your company to the industry and to the world, but also to set up long-term business relationships. It is where most partnerships are started and the company event itself is what seals the deal for the most part. 

It is not inexpensive to set up such an event, but there are ways you could cut costs and still keep all the impact that you have planned to make. 

The Objective 

The first question to ask yourself is what the goal of the event is. Once you know that, all other parts of managing an event will fall into place. For instance, if you plan to use the event to establish your business within the industry or within the area, the event will have to focus on the general audience and on presenting your business in a favorable light. However, if the goal is to establish business partnerships, it can be smaller and less advertised. 

Of course, it’s possible for the event to establish more than one of these goals at once, but that is something to plan for as well. 

A Budget 

Organizing an event means you need to worry about a lot of moving parts at once and have a contingency plan if something goes wrong (and something always will). All of that means you’ll need to set up a budget beforehand and do whatever you can to stick to it. 

It’s impossible to plan a corporate event with such precision that you know exactly how much you’ll need to spend, so it’s best to leave out at least 10 percent of your budget for unforeseen expenses. 

Venue 

Choosing the venue is going to set the tone for the event, both in terms of its aesthetic and its organization. The venue needs to be close enough that you can easily organize carfare for your guests and get a steady supply of food and drinks. However, it should also be a bit outside of commotion that’s usually distracting in a busy area. 

The venue should also accommodate your needs in terms of space, needed appliances and gadgets, as well as theatrics if you plan to set up a stage and have a few speakers or a Q&A at the end. 

You can rent an event space online using websites like getspaces.com or various other sites out there. Compare prices and qualities before booking biz venues.

Refreshments 

Regardless of how formal and structured the event is going to be, you’ll need to leave out some time for the guests to mingle and talk to each other freely. Start by setting up a corporate alcohol delivery from Sydney and finding a caterer that will suit everyone’s dietary needs. 

These are there to provide a comfortable and easy-going atmosphere for the guests to talk and establish future business relationships. It’s rather important for this part of the organization to be as smooth as possible because a lack of refreshments or a bad delivery will be noticed if not commented on. 

Marketing 

The event itself is a marketing tool since it will be the reason your business is talked about. However, the event also needs to be advertised if you want to achieve this effect. How to do it very much depends on for whom the event is made. 

If the event is just for those who are working within the industry, the marketing campaign can be small and only focused on the publications oriented towards the industry itself. However, if the goal is to establish that your business has arrived to the market; don’t hesitate to go big, it will pay off. 

Feedback 

In the end, when the event is over, your work isn’t done until you get the feedback from those who participated. This can be done in the form of a simple survey covering all the aspects of the event you have hosted. It should be brief but informative. 

You won’t get a response from everyone who came, but you don’t need to, in order to extract useful information. This feedback is there to help you make future events better and more organized. It is a survey you need to prepare based on what you know are the downsides of your events. 

Plan Your Small Business Event Right 

A business event could mean a lot for establishing a company in a new market and in a new industry. These events are there to signal that your business is open for cooperation with others working in the same field. 

The event needs to be planned for the purpose it’s meant to serve. Sometimes that’s simply marketing the company, but often it’s about a much narrower set of goals such as finding potential business partners and laying the groundwork for future deals that might be lucrative to your company. The way the event is organized could be how your partners measure the professionalism of your company.

Why Email List Segmentation Is So Important

One of the best strategies that companies can use to boost the efficiency of email marketing campaigns is segmentation. With the increase in competition and changes in consumer preferences, the one size fits all approach has become less fruitful. An email that does not suit the recipient’s specific interest is likely to be ignored. However, many marketers are yet to embrace the strategy of segmentation in their campaigns. If you aren’t already doing it, consider the following reasons why you should. 

Each Customer Has Unique Needs 

One of the reasons why you need to segment your email list is because each customer has different needs. Understanding each subscriber can help in sending emails based on specific needs and this boosts the open and conversion rates. For instance, if you manage websites for companies, sending an email on the best tools for small businesses will not be relevant to all your clients. Why? Your clients are both small and medium size business owners and big corporations. The growing business is more likely to be interested in tools that will cater for their growing needs. Similarly, a customer who buys product A and the one who buys product B are likely to have different needs and interests. Thus, take time to segment, understand the needs and craft emails in line based on those needs. 

Targeted Emails Have Better Conversion Rates 

Sending emails that are in line with the subscriber’s interests, the pages they viewed, location and past purchases is likely to yield better conversion rates when they receive the email notification. The key reason is because they address the specific needs and interests of the recipient. Customization is key for increased conversation and conversion.

Lower Unsubscribe Rate 

General messages are among the reasons why customers unsubscribe. If the subscriber finds most of your emails irrelevant, they will treat you just like spam. 

Thus, work on personalizing your messages right from the first email that you send to the subscriber. Annihilating attrition on your lists is sometimes half the battle for email marketing when the average list loses 25-50% of its subscribers each year. 

Build Credibility 

Segmentation is also a great way to build credibility for your business. Segmenting and sending personalized emails shows the subscriber that as a business you are not only interested in selling to them but you also take your time to look into their needs and interests. This personalization can help in developing better relationships with your customers and prospects. 

To better understand the impact of personalized messages, consider the following two survey results. About 62% of respondents in a survey by Rapt Media revealed that they would be interested in seeking out a brand further if content was personalized. Approximately 63% of the respondents in the same survey said that they are likely to think more positively about a brand that was offering relevant or valuable information. 

In the light of these statistics, it is clear that personalization is not only a great marketing strategy but also something that customers expect from you. Thus, ensure that your messages are tailored to the customer’s needs as this helps meet their expectations. When customers are satisfied, they not only take action on the email but they are also likely to stick with your business for the long term. 

Subscribers Are At Different Stages 

The fact that subscribers are at different stages of the customer cycle is another reason to segment your emails. The email you send to the target you are trying to nurture should be different from the one you send to the customer who just purchased a product. Sending a general email to all may not do a good job in converting the target or gaining the loyalty of the new customer. Always keep the steps of the buyer's journey in mind when implementing an email marketing strategy. 

Reengagement Campaigns 

Through market segmentation, you can identify your inactive subscribers and come up with a reengagement campaign for them. When you send general emails to those who are inactive, you are only wasting your time because they won’t take any action. Customers can become inactive for a number of reasons. Some of them include irrelevant emails, too many emails, poor content or probably someone is giving them better engagement. 

Watching your subscribers grow inactive can be heart breaking for the marketer or the business owner. The good news, however, is that with a good reengagement campaign you could bring them back to reading your emails. First segment your email list to come up with a list of those who have not opened or taken any action on your emails for months. Next define your reengagement strategies. Some great strategies that you can use include asking the subscriber to update their information, giving them an option to choose the kind of emails they would like to receive, inviting them for a survey and reminding them why they subscribed among others. You worked so hard to get people to subscribe, don’t let them stay inactive while there is a chance to reengage them. 

Email Excellence

By segmenting your email lists, you can boost the ROI for your campaigns, keep your customers happy and boost the credibility of your business brand. Therefore, let go of the one size fits all approach and work on sending more personalized emails. Email marketing has some of the highest returns on investment in the digital marketing game, so if you can enhance that even further via segmentation you're setting yourself up for serious success. 


I hope you enjoyed this article about how email list segmentation can improve your overall digital marketing results.

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