Event Marketing Unlocked:
The ABCs of Event Marketing
Watch, Learn, and Apply - One Letter at a Time.
Welcome to Event Marketing Unlocked, a series from Planner Approved that helps event marketers and planners turn event strategies into measurable business results.
Every other week, a new episode dives into one essential principle from the ABCs of Event Marketing. Watch the latest video below, then download the companion resource to put the concept into action right away.
This is the first letter in an A–Z series designed to help event marketers think and operate like strategic business partners.
"A" is for Alignment
Too many event calendars are built around dates, traditions, and internal requests, not business goals.
In this week's release "A is for Alignment", you’ll learn how to:
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Connect events directly to company priorities
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Translate business goals into clear event objectives
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Evaluate which events deserve investment, and which need to evolve or exit
Watch the episode below, then download this week’s companion resource to put alignment into action immediately.
Why Alignment Matters
When events are aligned to business goals, teams gain credibility, budgets get defended, and event marketing becomes a strategic growth lever, not a support function.
This series is built to help you make that shift.
Video Transcript
What's Up Y'all! I’m Antwone, your event marketing bestie and this is so exciting because what . .. YOU MADE IT!
WELCOME to Event Marketing Unlocked!
This is the first lesson in the ABCs of Event Marketing, a series designed to help event professionals and marketers like you, move from event execution to event strategy and impact ONE LETTER AT A TIME!
Today, we are starting where every strategic event program should start . . . and that’s ALIGNMENT.
What if I told you that the problem with a lot of event calendars isnt that they’re too full . . . but that they’re not strategically aligned
A lot of event teams that I know and have worked with are not short on activities by far, but they’re short on strategy.
Way too many events are planned around things like
1. DATES
2. TRADITIONS
3. INTERNAL REQUESTS
Instead of things that support what the business is trying to achieve.
When this happens, events become just an activity on the calendar instead of an investment in your larger strategy and when you think about it, that is when event teams are positioned as execution support and not strategic partners.
ALIGNMENT is how that changes
Here’s the framework and ruling:
Every event in your portfolio should support one primary business goal
- Not Five
- Not a Little of This and That
- JUST ONE.
In some cases, you can have a secondary when it makes sense.
But that ONE business goal usually falls within one of three major categories. REVENUE, RETENTION, or REPUTATION
When it comes to REVENUE - Events are designed to drive things like pipeline, growth, or sales enablement
For RETENTION - thats when events events are normally focused on Customer Loyalty, Adoption, or my favorite and that’s COMMUNITY
And then there’s REPUTATION and that’s when events are designed to strengthen brand credibility, thought leadership or trust building.
If you can’t CLEARLY tie an event to one of these 3 things, I think it’s definitely worth taking a pause with your stakeholders and asking why it exists at all.
NOW, this is where alignment becomes a leadership move for you.
When you can work with your stakeholders to clearly articulate WHY an event exists and what business outcome it supports, you then can start pulling back on budget defense and start justifying strategic investments
and THAT’S when you and your team can start shifting from an execution house to strategic partners.
SOOOOO to help you apply this immediately, I created the Strategic Event Alignment Template.
This template will help you do 3 things
1. Map events to business goals
2. Score alignment of those events objectively
3. Identify which events need to evolve, be repositioned, or exit the portfolio
None of this theory
It’s a working tool you can use for upcoming event briefings or event calendar reviews.
NOW for the goodies
You can get access to the template by completing the quick form and items will be sent to your email
And if you’re new to Event Marketing Unlocked, that same form will get you the goodies and get you subscribed so you don’t miss upcoming drops.
Before you go, here’s what’s coming next.
In the next letter, we’re tackling something that trips up even the most experienced event teams.
Because once your events are aligned to the business…
the next question leadership asks is:
“So what did this actually do?”
That’s where Letter B comes in.
Enjoy and see you soon!
New Letter Every Other Week
Subscribe Once. Get Every Letter As It Drops.
** Access Notice **
Every other week, a new lesson goes live here, with a short video and a practical template. Watch the lesson on this page, then request the template to put it into action.
This series is built for corporate event marketing teams, so downloads are sent to business emails only.