Welcome to the experience economy – where more than 8 in 10 millennials (82%) attended a variety of live events in the past year! And since they command more than $1.3 trillion in consumer spending, they have a lot of say in what matters and what doesn’t.
So are you taking advantage of this trend through experiential marketing or not? If you are, then you need to keep reading this article for 5 experiential marketing mistakes that you are probably making or you have the potential to make.
1. Don’t Skimp on the Planning Stage
What is your experiential marketing strategy? This is a common marketing mistake that newbies in experiential marketing end up making.
Just because an event is fun to organize, doesn’t mean that you can forget all about the strategy behind it. For example, one marketing don’t when it comes to events is to ensure you don’t compete with any national holiday or religious festival. But if you don’t plan properly, you might just end up doing that.
Don’t rush through the planning process. Build everything down to a T – this doesn’t mean that you are not going to have street team mistakes or other event marketing mistakes pop up on the day of the event, but it should mean that you at least take care of the foundation.
2. You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone
When you are reading a book on marketing blunders, the first one that comes up is not being selective enough in your marketing strategy. Every business wants to throw the net as wide as possible. They want to capture all the fishes in the sea, from the little ones to the Blue Whale.
But experiential marketing doesn’t work that way. In this arena, you need to hunker down and make your target audience as small as possible. This way you will be able to create an event that entices your target audience and no one else, allowing you to get at their hearts and wallets easier.
For instance, Glenfiddich will not be targeting the same audience as someone on the Smirnoff marketing team. It’s like comparing apples to orangutans. It’s not even in the same category.
3. Measure Your Event’s Success and Learn From Your Mistakes
Many beginner experiential marketers are satisfied when their events get rave reviews from everyone who attends. But then they realize they didn’t get any real sales or anything tangible from the event.
It’s great if you can create a unique experience for your target audience and that shouldn’t be dismissed as unimportant. But more than that, you want to ensure you create an event that gets you to your desired goals.
It could be more views on a web page geared towards the event and audience. Or it could be improved sales on a new product that you recently launched. It could even be as simple as increased traction on social media channels with hundreds of tweets, social media shares, and Instagram posts about your event.
All this counts as engagement and it’s a sign that your event wasn’t only fun, but was successful as a marketing campaign.
4. Location, Location, Location
When you are thinking about a pop-up event or a sampling event, ensure that you don’t make the mistake of choosing the wrong location. This is even more important to an experiential marketing event than it is for real estate.
For example, one of the primary pop-up event mistakes would be to hold it in an area where there’s already a lot of other more popular retail stores or in an area where there’s not a lot of foot traffic.
Some sampling event mistakes include giving out samples in a location where there aren’t enough spaces for a person to sit and enjoy the free treat, or giving out samples that create a lot of garbage with no waste disposal possibilities around.
Keep your location in mind when doing experiential event planning. It can make your campaign and get you hooked on the idea of events as ideal icebreakers for new audiences or break your campaign and put you off doing them forever.
5. Going at It Alone
Do you remember the first time your business heard of Instagram and you balked at the thought of making colorful, delighting posts to entice your followers? And now you are a pro at it.
That’s what experiential marketing is like. You are going to feel like you are bungling it up at first. It will feel like you are walking around in shoes that just don’t fit right.
But as you get more experienced with it, you will become an expert in no time.
If you don’t have time to bungle things up at first though (and to be honest, who has the time), then consider hiring an experiential marketing agency to help you with your first few campaigns. They have been through it all and have done it all.
They will be able to help you figure out what campaign would work best for your market and niche and what your target audience would enjoy best. There are many ways to mess up an experiential campaign, especially since it’s still a new thing.
The Dos and Don’ts of an Experiential Marketing Campaign
With this, you are now a mini expert on experiential marketing campaigns. How does it feel? This crash course might have you hankering for more, or you might be feeling nervous and overwhelmed already. If you fall in the latter group, contact Auctus Agency to get your first experiential marketing campaign off the ground. The experience economy is calling you and we are here to help curate events that will garner awe, engagement, and entrancement from your target audience.
