Investing a substantial budget – not to mention time, money and sleepless nights is the norm in the corporate event planning industry. But one crucial element often isn’t considered, despite that fact that it’s probably the most important quality of a successful event. We’re talking about emotional engagement – your event’s ability to resonate and form an emotional connection with your guests. In other words, if your event leaves guests unmoved, unexcited and blasé about your brand, you’ve just wasted not only their time, but yours too.
Your guests aren’t just names on a list – they’re human beings who are powered by feelings. And if you want to convert them into customers and brand advocates, you need to make sure your event plays to the right emotions.
To get your guests to make an emotional investment in your brand, you need to focus on these four primary drivers of emotional investment:
Invoke FOMO from the get-go
The Fear of Missing Out is a powerful emotion. Much like retail stores use the word “sale” to convey a sense of urgency, your corporate events need to relay the fact that anyone who doesn’t attend will be missing out. Just what they’re missing out on, however, is up to you. It could be an exclusive audience with a world-renowned speaker, a hands-on demo of a product not yet on the market, or a chance to rub shoulders with industry leaders.
Whatever it is you’re offering, you need to make sure your intended guests know what to expect, and what the stakes are if they don’t. The first place to do this? Your invitations and Save the Date.
Build anticipation
If your guests aren’t counting down the days to your event, you’re off to a dismal start. It’s your responsibility to create anticipation for the upcoming event. That said, corporate event guests are often invited to several events a month. Your challenge is to 1, make your event stand out (see point above) and 2, keep your event top of mind in the run-up to the day. Running a count down campaign on social media, an email campaign with sneak peeks of what to expect (a short teaser video packs a punch), or enlisting the assistance of industry leader to tout your event on their own social platforms, make it as easy as possible for guests to anticipate your event.
Relevance, relevance, relevance
Emotional engagement hinges on relevance – if you’re not speaking your guests’ language, it’s naive to think that they’ll fall in love with your brand. An MC who’s known for outlandish pranks won’t go over with potential investors, but would very likely be a hit with millennial influencers.
Make sure that every single element not only enforces your brand’s personality and unique offering, but that they’re communicated in a way that’s fitting to your attendees too. Getting this right requires some extra work on your part, but done properly, is an exercise that pays off ten-fold. Find out as much about your guests as you can, looking at past event attendance, the subjects and content they gravitate towards online, as well as the challenges and obstacles they face in their daily lives.
Deliver tangible value
Your guests are attending your event for a reason: a desire to climb the corporate ladder by networking, a thirst for knowledge about your product, a desire to take part in an exclusive experience or the like. But when a guest attends an event and their expectations aren’t met, their experience is akin to receiving a beautifully wrapped present that’s filled with nothing more than hot air. You need to make sure that your corporate events not only meet their expectations but exceed them too. Ultimately, your guests should walk away from your event feeling like the effort of attending was more than offset by their experience.
We create emotionally engaging events for some of the country’s top brands – get in touch and find out how we can do the same for you.
