"Events & Their Impact on Growing a Business

• Updated on: 2017-08-19
• Read original article here

"Events & Their Impact on Growing a Business:" The IMPACT Show Ep.15 [Show Notes]
No matter how advanced video chats get, in-person interaction cannot be matched. 
That's why live events are on top of the content marketing mountain. 
In this week's episode of The IMPACT Show, Bob and Nick discussed the latest INBOUND 2017 announcements, Facebook's release of Watch and four publishers who have jumped on board, and our big topic of the week, events and how they can have an impact on growing your business (including of course, some valuable lessons from #IMLive17.)
Just in case you missed us live (or if you want to relive the magic), you’ll find the episode’s show notes below as well as the recording.
Enjoy and make sure to share with your peers! 
Like what you saw? Make sure to subscribe for email reminders and  give us a review on iTunes.
Have feedback or questions? We’d love to hear it. Comment on this blog or email us at show@impactbnd.com
Digital Marketing News
Where each week, Bob and Nick share one thing from the world of digital marketing that caught their eye and found interesting to share.
INBOUND17 Updates
INBOUND is adding a second Spotlight stage and have announced the first 5 sessions from “inspiring business leaders:”
Bozoma Saint John: Chief Brand Officer at Uber and former Head of Global Consumer Marketing at Apple Music
Stewart Butterfield: CEO and co-founder of Slack and co-founder of Flickr
Rand Fishkin: Wizard of Moz (aka Moz's founder and former CEO)
Andrew McAfee: Principal Research Scientist at MIT and author of Machine | Platform | Crowd: Harnessing our Digital Future
Jeff Rosenblum: Author, documentary filmmaker, ad agency founder, and the co-writer and director of The Naked Brand. 
Author, Elizabeth Gilbert had to cancel her talk at INBOUND for personal reasons and they're working to secure a replacement, which they'll be announcing soon.
IMPACT will be there the entire week, and four of our team members are speaking:
Bob: “Your employees need to see their future at (you company here)” - His 6th time speaking at INBOUND
Nick: “HubSpot Reboot: 5 Secrets Successful Marketers Wish They Had Known the First Time Around”
Liz Murphy: “How to Create a Content Style Guide for Your Business”
Which we also have an article about here!
Carina Duffy: “10 Things We've Learned from Doing Over a Hundred Website Throwdowns”
Next  Website Throwdown  is Wednesday, August 30th
Don't forget to submit your website -- Deadline is Next Friday!
Guest: Chris Savage, CEO and Co-Founder, Wistia
Facebook Watch: New Platform For Shows On Facebook
Read more from Poynter
Main Topic: “Events & The Impact on Growing a Business”
Before we dig in, start thinking about how the things we’re talking apply to your company. If you have any challenges or questions that you want us to address, leave a comment or send us an email to show@impactbnd.com . We’ll get to as many as we can either at the end of the show or during next week’s episode.
Business is human and nothing replaces that human-to-human element.
Benefits of in-person events for businesses:
A great way to warm up leads or sales advance someone closer to a sale
Prove your expertise and credibility
Build strong relationships
Home contractor: Home Tour
Piggyback another event….
Find something relevant (like a Dave ramsey event coming to town) and plan a post-event dinner to debrief what prospects heard.
Minor League Baseball Game
You can plan an event that’s large like IMPACT Live (which was a giant investment on our part) or something simpler like a meetup or dinner.
Test your ideas before going all in:
Create a list of 5-10 people that represent your audience and ask them if your ideas are interesting to them and don’t stop until you get a lot of yes’s
“Remarkable offer”
This is inbound-y… creating something attractive that naturally attracts them
Create 2 budgets: one that outlines the costs from the event (and possible revenue), and the second that includes what you would need to consider the event a success ($ post event).
Pro tips for your first event:
Create a “level 10” experience…
Pitch… but keep the pitch short, clear, and concise
Expect to lose money at first
Invest in photography and videography… great tech/lighting if you can afford it
Consider tag-teaming the event to split the work/costs, lessen the risk, and gain a larger reach
Collect information before and get feedback after
Promoting your event…. Should be easy if you created something truly remarkable.
Create that hit-list of who should go…
Start warm first, then broaden your reach
Send personal invitations (snail mail, hand-written would be awesome, personalized emails)
Share on social channels that matter
An example is In-Mail
Don’t be afraid to scrap it and start over if it’s not working… you can always try again
Next Steps:
We would love your comments! Feel free to send us an email or comment on the Facebook thread. 
If you really liked it, please give us a 5-star review on iTunes. Review offer: We have a special price for the first 10 people to leave us reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars). After you do, send us an email at show@impactbnd.com so we know it’s all set.
Join Us Next Week! Topic: Creating an Online Community Using Social Groups
We'll be back again next Thursday, August 24th at 1:00 PM ET. Want to get reminded? Drop us your name and email address below and we’ll make sure you’re notified before the broadcast every Thursday!  
About Ramona Sukhraj
As Content Marketing Manager, Ramona approaches marketing not only as a profession, but as a creative outlet. She has a passion for all things artistic and strives to create content that is educational, yet quirky and entertaining as well. With a B.S. in Marketing from the UCONN School of Business, Ramona is a frequent contributor to the HubSpot blog and a nonprofit consultant. Outside of IMPACT, she is a design, movie, and pop culture buff, and a fierce advocate of free hugs.
Connect with Ramona Sukhraj