Hosting an event is a genuine way to build direct connection with customers that digital marketing alone can’t replicate, but different event formats serve different goals, and choosing the right one for your actual objective matters more than simply hosting an event for its own sake.
These are the main formats and what each genuinely achieves.
Product launches and pop-ups
A launch event creates genuine excitement and urgency around a new product or service, giving customers a specific reason to engage at a particular moment, which digital marketing alone struggles to replicate with the same immediacy.
A pop-up, a temporary physical presence, lets a primarily online business create real, tangible connection and, for many customers, a first genuine encounter with the brand in person.
Educational workshops and demonstrations
A workshop that genuinely teaches something valuable positions your business as a credible expert while building goodwill, and it attracts an audience specifically interested in your actual area of expertise, a genuinely qualified lead by their own self-selection.
This format works best when the content is genuinely useful, not simply a thinly disguised sales pitch, since customers can tell the difference and the goodwill only builds when the value is real.
Networking and community events
An event bringing together customers, partners or industry peers builds a genuine community around your brand, which creates loyalty and word-of-mouth value that lasts well beyond the event itself.
This format requires less direct promotional content and more focus on genuinely facilitating connection between attendees, since the value to attendees is largely in each other, not only in your business.
Choose based on your actual specific goal
Match the event format to what you’re actually trying to achieve, immediate sales, brand awareness, community building, or positioning as an expert, rather than defaulting to a generic format regardless of the underlying goal.
Any attendee data collected at an event must be handled in line with the Information Regulator’s requirements. Our guide to how small businesses can get sponsors for events covers offsetting the cost of a larger event through genuine sponsor partnerships.
Frequently asked questions
Why host an event instead of relying only on digital marketing?
It creates genuine direct connection and immediacy that digital marketing alone struggles to replicate.
What does a workshop achieve that other formats don’t?
It positions the business as a credible expert and attracts a genuinely qualified, self-selected audience interested in that specific expertise.
What does a networking or community event actually build?
Genuine loyalty and word-of-mouth value, since the value to attendees is largely in connecting with each other, not only the host business.
Should an event format be chosen generically?
No. Match it to the actual specific goal, immediate sales, brand awareness, community building or expert positioning.
How can the cost of a larger event be offset?
Through genuine sponsor partnerships, covered in a dedicated guide to securing event sponsors.
