For small to medium businesses (SMBs), events and conferences are one of the main avenues to reaching current and potential customers. It's often a shopper's first experience with a brand, and maintaining that connection is crucial. But many small to medium businesses are not equipped to extend their reach beyond the booth.

That's where event activation with Digiphy comes into play. This blog will cover event activation, digital marketing strategies to implement it for your business, and a real-world example from a Digiphy customer. The best guide for any business owner!

What is event activation?

Put simply, event activation is a marketing initiative that leaves attendees with a lasting impression of the event. The point of event activation is to promote brand loyalty, build trust, and gather essential customer insights.

For SMBs, this means patrons remember your brand after the farmer's market, conference, or festival has ended and become returning customers.

Event activation with Digiphy

The best way to stay relevant long after the event is to engage your customers' past by utilizing your digital presence. Now you may be wondering, "how do I get started?"

1. Put QR codes into action

QR codes are a quick and simple way for attendees to scan and access your brand digitally. Almost everyone today has a smartphone, and a QR scan can connect them to a brand's online presence without having to type out or even remember a web address.

Digiphy can generate unique QR codes in seconds so your brand can:

• Track attendees
• Share social media accounts
• Gather feedback
• And more

2. Create multiple touchpoints across your booth

Once you've generated the QR code, display it in numerous places across the booth. Hang it on shelves, hand it out on business cards, share it on stickers or even have it advertised across the event as a sponsor.

Multiple touch points make it easy to manage the flow of customers at the booth while providing a personalized moment — no matter how crowded the floor gets.

3. Build contextual, relevant Digiphy pages

No event your business attends is the same; the same goes for its attendees. That means you'll need to tailor your content to reach your customers better. The information you'll share needs to be contextual and related to the event and moment. Unlike your typical website that acts as a catchall for your brand, Storylines created with Digiphy are easy to build and customize. Unique Storylines provide your customers with the relevant information they want and need.

4. Incentivize shoppers with promotions

The most crucial piece of event activation is getting visitors to your booth to scan the QR code. Sales and promotions are great ways to encourage users to engage with your content and offer them something in return.

5. Collect key customer information

QR codes capture the time, and date attendees scanned and landed on your website. With Digiphy, our built-in analytics can connect to your favorite applications like Google Analytics to gather full lifecycle tracking and demographic reporting to visualize the entire customer journey, even after a sale or interaction.

6. Make contact intuitive and easy

Be accessible to visitors. Digiphy makes it easy to pre-populate your business's contact information across storylines and pages so consumers can get in touch. It's even possible to share social media accounts and link to your broader website.

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See it in action: Musee Bath case study

Musee Bath is a woman-owned business of handcrafted luxury bath goods that combines compassion and quality. The brand has grown exponentially in recent years, earning high-profile celebrity endorsements on Oprah's Favorite Things for 2021 and 2022.

This growth meant Musee Bath needed an engaging way to connect with customers at in-person events and stay connected after it ended.

Enter Digiphy. Musee Bath piloted a Digiphy Storyline and event activation strategy to use at fairs and maker markets. Specifically, Musee created a unique QR code, displayed it across their booth, and built custom pages highlighting their promotions and products.

In her own words, Leisha Pickering, CEO and founder of Musee Bath, says,

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“Digiphy allowed us to capture hundreds of emails and other key insights to help drive customer retention and future sales. We're in the process of rolling out Digiphy across all our products and marketing materials."