MARKETING 101: STRATEGY TRUMPS TACTICS

Distinguishing between the two will make a huge difference in the sucess of you event.

By Charles W. Allen

When marketing doesn’t work, it’s usually a failure of content-not the medium – a simple but critical distinction. Strategic marketing is what you say-and how you say it. It is the content of your marketing message, no matter if you are marketing an event, a product, or a service. Tactical marketing is where your marketing message is placed (i.e. a specific exposition or a magazine or a billboard, etc.). This distinction is huge. Yet the vast majority of people mistakenly equate marketing with tactical marketing.

Whenever “marketing” doesn’t work, it’s the medium that is almost always blamed for lack of performance. We hear things like “that magazine doesn’t work for us,” or “that show doesn’t really meet our needs.” Such statements are made without any regard whatsoever for the actual marketing message itself. Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean that it won’t! Almost always, the strategic marketing component is far more important to ultimate success than the tactical element.

In fact, case study after case study demonstrates exponential increases in response by simply changing “what you say” and “how you say it.” Here’s the formula for an effective strategic marketing message:

Interrupt: The first thing you need to do is to get qualified prospects to pay attention to your message. This is accomplished by hitting your prospect’s hot buttons.

Engage: Give prospects the promise that information is forthcoming that will help facilitate their decision-making.

Educate: Identify the important and relevant issues that prospects need to be aware of. Then demonstrate how you stack up against those issues. Build a solid case for your business.

Offer: Give prospects a low-risk way to take the next step in the buying process. Put more information in their hands and allow them to feel in total control of the decision.

This formula (in its entirety, and with all of its nuances) should be applied to each and every aspect of your total event marketing campaign-including your printed collateral, your signage, your website message, and your sponsorships.

It’s very easy to see where exhibitors consistently fall down in this area. Walk the aisles of any trade show, and notice just how many booths have the company name or logo as the most predominant visual message.

The fact of the matter is that people don’t care about a company’s name until they know what the company can do for them. Also, notice how many booths rely on gimmickry by simply using a weird or unusual theme. Capturing the attention of the target market is step one, to be sure. But once this “interrupt” has been accomplished, all too many exhibitors fail to effectively take the next steps: to engage and educate prospects.

Charles W. Allen is the chairman and CEO of The C.W. Allen Group, Birmingham, Alabama, which specializes in sponsorship sales and event marketing. Contact Allen at charles@cwallen.com.