It’s one thing to just see something or hear something. It’s a whole other thing to experience it.
While conventional advertising such as print, web, radio and TV media still has a place in a marketing plan, experiential marketing is emerging as a crucial means of engaging consumers to increase revenue and build brand loyalty. In this post, we’ll discuss the importance of experiential marketing, its benefits, how to create memorable experiences and more.
Understanding Experiential Marketing
As the name implies, experiential marketing deviates from traditional marketing mediums and essentially creates an experience for the existing customer or the prospective customer. Also often known as “engagement marketing,” think of experiential marketing as a technique to encourage direct participation from the customer as a way to build brand interest and, ideally, loyalty.
Rather than a conventional print advertisement or a radio hit, experiential marketing may consist of a product sample, product showcase or brand tour – something that can facilitate engagement and drive sales. It’s more of an “in your face” type of marketing method where you’re not so much relying on the consumer to find you, but you’re finding the consumer and engaging directly with them – yet not in an intrusive way.
And there’s data to back up the effectiveness of experiential marketing. According to a study by EventTrack, more than 90 percent of consumers noted that they had more positive feelings about a brand after attending a live event and experiencing it. Furthermore, about 85 percent of consumers noted that they’re more likely to purchase a product after experiencing it live.
Key Benefits of Experiential Marketing
Some of the key benefits of experiential marketing include:
- It helps increase brand awareness.
- It helps build a positive brand.
- It can help drive word-of-mouth marketing, which can be one of the most impactful tools.
- It can drive brand loyalty and create repeat customers.
- It engages multiple senses.
- When done correctly, it can increase revenue.
We’ll cover more of the benefits of experiential marketing done well throughout the rest of this post.
Creating Memorable Experiences
Creating memorable experiences can help form a lasting, personalized bond between a consumer and a brand. And when this happens, a brand is able to create “customer cheerleaders.” Customer cheerleaders are more than just loyal, repeat customers, but brand ambassadors.
They’re people that sing a brand’s praises via word-of-mouth marketing, people who share positive stories about the brand on their social media networks and people who will go out of their way to tell others about how much they love a brand.
So how does a brand go about creating these memorable experiences? It can help to work with an experiential marketing agency, also known as an XM agency. A good agency can help plan a campaign around a certain product or service offering to create these memorable experiences that engage current consumers and create new customers in the process.
Some ways to create memorable experiences include:
- Hosting live events where consumers can see, touch, taste, hear and truly experience a product or service.
- Creating a game or competition.
- A virtual or augmented reality feature or event.
- Photo or video marketing
- Stunt marketing or creating a viral campaign.
Engaging Customers Emotionally
According to a study conducted by Motista, a company specializing in predictive intelligence solutions, customers who are emotionally connected to a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value than those who are not. It’s a powerful reminder of just how impactful experiential marketing can be.
So how do you engage customers emotionally? As we said earlier in this piece, it all boils down to creating an experience that they’ll remember.
We mentioned earlier in this piece how one of the nice things about experiential marketing is that it can engage multiple senses. Rather than just visual or audio, like a conventional print or TV advertisement, experiential marketing can engage multiple senses at once. Sight, touch, taste, smell and sound can all be influenced during a good experiential marketing campaign, creating an experience to remember.
A quality campaign can hit on key emotional triggers, which can make consumers want more. These triggers may include:
- Surprise
- Comfort
- Empathy
- Connection
- Belonging
Focusing on Customer Needs and Preferences
A brand needs to know its audience. It should identify who its target customers are and identify its needs and preferences – and then look for ways it can outshine its competition and create competitive advantages. Focusing on customers’ needs and preferences – and then exceeding them – does more than just help the bottom line. It also helps anticipate any problems or pain points consumers may experience and works to help prevent them.
So what are the best ways to tailor a marketing campaign to your audience? How can you focus on customer needs and preferences and build a long-lasting and impactful relationship with the consumer? Remember, any campaign or event doesn’t have to be big to be impactful – it just needs to connect with the consumer in the ways that we’ve mentioned throughout this piece. That’s where the true impact is.
Encouraging Customer Participation and Feedback
Experiential marketing is hardly a one-way street. Brands should be actively engaging consumers for their participation in their campaigns – and they should also be engaging them to solicit feedback.
There’s arguably no more important stakeholder for a brand than the consumers that are using or experiencing it – and they should be treated as the important resource that they are when it comes to learning and improving for future marketing plans. Furthermore, making the customer feel appreciated and valued can also increase brand loyalty – because consumers want to feel valued.
Here’s a look at some ways to encourage participation and feedback:
- Host surveys to solicit feedback
- Engage consumers on social media
- Host focus groups with certain demographics of consumers to get direct feedback
An authentic brand experience can create a lasting emotional impact – and when this occurs, it can lead to brand loyalty. That’s the difference an effective experiential marketing campaign can make.
But creating an effective campaign is easier said than done. That’s where it can make sense to partner with a qualified experiential marketing agency. Contact an XM agency today to learn more about how you can implement experiential marketing strategies for your brand.
