Event Marketing Boosts Business During Challenging Times

The economic crisis is taking its toll on nearly every industry, and many companies are slashing their marketing budgets to save on expenses. But if we all turn into penny pinchers and scale back on relationship building, our customers are likely to, well, forget about us. Tough times give companies a great opportunity to step out and get noticed; those who keep building relationships are the ones that can fly ahead of the competition.

Research shows that recessions rarely have an adverse impact on spending overall. In fact, studies in every recession since 1940 show that income – and possibly expenditures – rarely declined more than 2 percent. People are still spending money and event marketing can get your company in front of clients so they remember you, connect with you, and most importantly, turn to you first with their dollars.

If your marketing budget is still fairly small, a strategy that typically generates a high return on investment is planning an event. There are plenty of ways to work around even the tightest marketing budget, and creating meaningful events is essential to your success. Whether you’re sponsoring an event or hosting your own, a special event generates immediate interest from potential clients and positions you as a leader in your industry. The result? Brand awareness and maintaining a ‘top of mind’ status.

Staging an event also offers networking benefits; your company can work with local vendors and develop some co-marketing or co-branding initiatives in the future. One of the biggest benefits of event marketing is the word-of-mouth effect that ensues; when clients are excited about a sensational event or interesting activity, they are more than likely tell friends, family members and business associates about it – and are promoting your business as a result. Simply put, hosting an event can be a powerful marketing strategy.

As an event and marketing professional, I understand the importance of building relationships with vendors and collaborative marketing efforts to get in front of the clients by planning vendor meet and greets, client socials and industry expos. By developing one-of-a-kind experiences for your clients, you’ll naturally increase your ROI and can measure the success of the event with surveys or tracking purchases. Event technology can easily log client activity to determine if purchases were made after the event, and tally survey results within seconds.

I encourage businesses to get in front of your clients by planning events during these turbulent economic times. Here are some helpful tips to get you started on your event:

1. Plan it out. Set attainable goals and expectations for your event and give yourself plenty of time to plan out what you want to achieve by having the event, putting together a budget, and ways to be creative to wow your guests.

2. Collaborate your efforts. This sets the stage for sponsorships and co-marketing ideas by teaming up with vendors. This is a great way to cut costs, build a relationship and rely on each other for referrals as you both grow your business.

3. Hire an event planner or dedicated team member. The last thing you want to do is execute a bad event; you want people raving about the experience, not complaining! If you’re on a very tight budget, consider hiring an event planner only for the day of your event to make sure everything runs smoothly.

4. Promote your business before the event. Plan ahead to create marketing materials and get the publicity you need to promote the event long enough to generate strong interest. Call campaigning is a great strategy to personalize the invites by calling attendees to confirm attendance and provides them with the ‘ultimate’ experience from beginning to end.

5. Be resourceful and fun. Consider hosting an event at a restaurant instead of a hotel to save on room fees; most restaurants don’t charge a room fee for private rooms. Having your event at sites that provide entertainment such as a private charter, upscale venue or cooking school can also help provide a unique experience for your guests.

6. Host a late-afternoon soiree. If you can’t afford to host a luncheon or dinner banquet, consider hosting the event from 2:00 – 4:30 so you can serve lights snacks and non-alcoholic beverages instead.

As John F. Kennedy once said, “When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters-one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”

By building lasting relationships with vendors and clients through event marketing, we can truly see the value in keeping our marketing budgets and seeking opportunity during challenging times.

Select Motivational Speakers for Future Events

People are negative and in the economic downturn, motivational speakers are in huge demand.  So huge, in fact, that well-known conference centers are booked up quarters in advance, necessitating effective orgainzing to guarantee successful symposiums.  But more vital than ideal conference venues are the right motivational speakers.  And yet again, if you like the best of the best, you have to select your motivational speakers well in advance.

Motivational speakers come from all industries and segments of life.  Some are athletes; others are average people who have broken through impossible hurdles - whether tough personal circumstances, severe illnesses, or difficult careers.  But they share one commonality - all have a personal story to share - and audiences can relate to this.  Big corporations are utilizing these stories to develop, educate and train their teams.

The drive behind having talks by motivational speakers is to inform and train employees on relevant issues in the marketplace, increase motivation of people, or share best practices to the benefit of the company.

Motivational speakers are in touch with audiences.  They facitlitate improvement during conferences.  Event planners do careful planning through their spreadsheets before placing motivational speakers.  You also need to do your homework well before you choose your motivational speakers and make sure that they are worth the financial investment.

Charisma Productions Network is Expanding

Over 25 years ago Charisma Productions Network opened their doors for business, providing a unique service: Live corporate meetings and special event production. Over the years CPN has acquired many dedicated clients.


Facing the tough economic times, business meetings have been getting a lot of bad press. Many companies have cut back budgets for meetings. But there is much added value when you have off-site meetings. In this tough economy, when CPN produces an event it brings temporary jobs to the local economy. Every event that CPN produces, they partner with a corporation which brings funding to the local community they are in by utilizing local talent and services.

Now, after many years, corporations are finding it necessary to hold corporate events and meetings to keep employees motivated and to close the gap in bringing employees closer to the business part of the company, letting them know that they are the foundation of the growth of the company. Meetings are held for many different reasons: to promote new products, to honor employees, to provide continued education in the business, etc. These meetings are such a vital part of the corporate environment; they are designed to have a lasting effect on all attendees. After the meeting is over employees and staff members should be able to take back with them new ideas, become more innovative and efficient. It seems that it is truly an essential business tool. Charisma Productions Network will be there to provide the service they need.

Due to the growing demand by corporations and their understanding of the added value to maintain their employees and keeping clients informed, educated and motivated. Corporations are demanding more sophisticated and technologically oriented presentations. In growing along with corporations and their needs CPN stays a step ahead in forward thinking and technological advances. People are much more receptive to sit in a room with lights, sound and visual effects than to sit in a sterile conference room, looking at a power point presentation with a small hotel note pad, pen and a glass of water in front of them.

Charisma Productions Network has expanded in staff, technology and talent. So why do we do it? There is one big reason: Meetings are stimulating and productive. Meetings with clients help us understand their needs in a way that phone calls, e-mails and web meetings can never quite equal. What sets Charisma Productions Network apart from its competitors is the constant communication with its clients and it’s honesty in pricing. Rarely will a client see any back-end fees.

In September 2009 Charisma Productions Network launched a website (www.charismaproductionsnetwork.com) that is both informative and entertaining. The website displays an array of services that CPN provides as well as clips from recent events produced. CPN is a premier live corporate meeting and event production company with over 25 years industry experience. They have an incredible team of talented individuals worldwide that will make any event completely unforgettable. It will make all attendees talk about it long after the event is over.

Searching all Corporate Event and Meeting Planners

CPN Events is a premier live corporate event production company with over 25 years in industry experience.  We have an incredible team of talented individuals nationwide that will make your event completely unforgettable.  Your clients and staff members will be talking about it long after the event is over.