Imagine the perfect moment. A beautiful view, the best music, the right people – all working together to create the perfect synergy.
What if you could create this level of experience for your customers?
It’s possible! Creating experiential experiences is a great way to engage your audience. The good news is that if you can understand what they feel (and don’t feel) when they interact with your brand, you’re halfway there.
It takes a little creativity and a little effort. You’ll need to think like a marketer and learn to understand your customers’ needs, wants, and motivations. In this blog post, we’ll look at how you can use your marketing skills to cultivate truly experiential moments that leave a lasting impression.
Follow these tips to stand out from the crowd!
The Biggest Mistake at Trade Shows
The first goal is to understand your audience. Really understand them. What are their needs and desires? What are their weaknesses?
Once you’ve determined who your audience really is, you can start creating an experience that will meet their needs and wants. Keep in mind that your focus should always be on the customer, not the product or service.
THE the biggest mistake What we see at trade shows is that companies are overly focused on their own product. The goal is to create a memorable and engaging experience for the customer, not just a sales pitch.
Create a story-driven experience
People buy from people they like.
It’s just a fact.
To create an emotional, storytelling experiential event, you may need to start with the end in mind. Picture laughter, friendship, or whatever it sounds like in your head. Imagine that perfect experience, then work backwards to get there. Make educated guesses based on their past choices and trends you’ve observed. When you’re getting to know someone, you ask questions about what they like, where they work, etc. The same goes for getting to know your customers. Ask as many questions as you can. There are many ways to explore and get to know your target audience if you’re a little curious and stay invested in the learning process.
As you explore, remember to think about these three facets separately:
- Clients
- Audience
- Culture
It’s not enough to know your customers, you also need to understand their culture and how they make purchasing decisions. You need to identify the people in your audience who aren’t buying yet.
When you feel like you understand your audience well, you may need to adjust your brand identity a bit. Don’t be afraid of change. You want your brand to be unique, but also familiar and appealing. Will they remember your brand an hour later? A day later? Imagine the experience they will have when they interact with your brand.
Tip: Not everything will work for everyone.
Just because it worked for Joe’s brand doesn’t mean it will work for yours. Be careful not to use a formula, because you want your story to speak directly to YOUR audience, and in an authentic way.
Understanding the need for belonging
You have to understand that humans want to feel a sense of belonging. Remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Yes, finding connection is truly a human need. So how can they find a sense of belonging in your product or brand?
Lean into emotional marketing strategies that help create these types of connections. If you aren’t already, develop ways to gather feedback and really listen to your customers to find out what they need. What can you bring to your space to help them feel safer? How can you minimize pain points and become a place where people feel safe? How can you build more community?
When thinking about these questions, remember to always put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Put yourself in their shoes, if you can.
Be constantly curious
Curiosity is a bad thing, but it saves a business’s life when it’s relentlessly interested in its audience. Be open to new ideas (if they’re, you know, really good), no matter who or where they come from. Little by little, you can really build a relationship with your audience that can help you make important business decisions every day.
Simply put, the better you understand your customer, the better experience you can deliver.