Now that we know what event marketing can do, let’s see how you can use it.

Hosting events are great opportunities to connect with your customers and engage them into your brand. These events can connect owners, pets and employees. This trust allows the customer to feel more comfortable asking for advice and buying recommended items. This relationship is also essential to increase customer loyalty and positive word of mouth. Events can also be used to connect other businesses and support nonprofit commitments. A key thing to know for creating a successful event is that it is essential to create an experience even virtually. This allows your customers to interact with your products but also have fun. This fun feeling will transfer over to your brand and ensure customers feel positively and confident about you. By fully understanding your customers you can plan and execute any events you would like.

As a pet store you have a ton of advantages to use for creating events online or in store. Two of the events PSB has helped to facilitate in the last year can be seen below:

1. PSB hosted an in-person dog carnival with activities and booths. These booths included pet food tasting and toy testing where each brand had their own booth. Then customers can bring their pets to taste test which foods they like the best and find their favourite toy. This event was designed to trial new product brands and test which stock was favourable. The carnival also had booths from local businesses with pet related products. This created a community and network of businesses while testing products.   
                    
2. PSB hosted an online event through their partnership with Hopin. It was a panel event with experts in pet care and pet training who answered questions and spoke about their experiences. Guests could attend and watch the panel on the virtual mainstage. Or they could attend the extra sessions where virtual groups were held and ran by community experts. There was a cats group, small dogs, big dogs, puppies, elderly animals, small pets, exotic pets, aquatic pets, reptiles, and more. Guests could pop into any session and chat with others and get connected. They could also attend the marketplace section which had virtual booths guests could visit to learn about leading brands and shop online. This event created a massive community online and engaged not only businesses but all pet parents.

These events were facilitated and designed for each companies’ goals. Company 1 wanted to improve their product sales and increase brand trials for new products. Company 2 wanted to engage their customers again during the pandemic. Each aspect, step, and design of these events was created between PSB and the company as a dual partnership. PSB facilitates events that support company goals and better customer connections. As well these events can offer many benefits for your company like brand trial, networking and community outreach. These connections are essential in marketing nowadays especially in the pet industry where community and trust is everything.