The key to overcoming the limitations of event marketing is to build brand connections before, during and after the event by engaging attendees (and even those who don't attend) in your communications so that the brand becomes more human through real human-to-brand connections. This is achieved through planned story-building as well as story-telling activities.

Let's break this down into pre-, during-, and post-event promotions, and incorporate this into a discussion of reach, scope, and duration of your marketing efforts. Remember, "reach" refers to how many people are exposed to your content; "scope," in this case, is the type of content you have—whether it's focused exclusively on your event or whether it extends beyond the event; and duration is how long your various campaigns last.

Before the event
Pre-event advertising should be structured to not only promote the event but also build the brand. Hundreds or thousands of people will see your advertising but won't be able to attend for whatever reason. Why waste those precious moments of exposure making them feel guilty about not being able to attend? Instead, discuss the human aspects of the brand and how events like these serve to bring people together as a community and help them grow, achieve, and celebrate. That way, all of the people who ultimately don't attend will still have an extremely positive opinion of your brand, regardless of their opinion of your event.

During the event
In addition to providing a great experience for your attendees, focus your marketing efforts on creating storytelling opportunities during the event and gathering the necessary content (mainly audiovisual, supported by still images) to tell those stories not only during the event, but also in the weeks or even months to come. Don't go overboard with including video content that serves a purpose and fits into your planning for your post-event campaigns. (And don't forget to make sure that event attendance is contingent on a full video/image/audio release for all attendees.)

After the event
Once you've assembled a massive collection of stills and audio-visual material during the event that focuses on the stories of the human-brand connection you want to tell over the next few months, now the real work begins. Focus on stories that bring people together, that explain how they've come to know, appreciate and desire your brand, that show the diversity of people and mindsets and the "why" behind each brand ambassador you engage. Start publishing these stories as soon as possible, plan to spotlight attendees (and even some non-attendees), and find ways to humanize your brand through the event experience attended by people who can contribute to your brand community.

By following these steps, your event will become a human and brand experience for everyone in your target audience, not just the attendees. You'll reach more people. You'll expand the reach of your message far beyond the event itself. And you'll extend the duration of your post-event campaigns from days or weeks to months or even a full year, until the next big event.

Through planned story-building and storytelling activities, marketers can expand the reach, scope and duration of their events, which can significantly increase the impact of the events and make them more cost-effective.

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