If you’re focusing all your client acquisition efforts on marketing without first laying the foundation for your event planning brand, you’re not going to see the best results. In fact, it’s the brand positioning that will ensure your marketing campaigns all reach and resonate with your target audience. So, if you’re not sure your NYC event planning business has a strong brand identity, keep reading. Today, we’ll highlight all the branding basics today’s event planners need to know to be wildly successful.
Your Event Planning Brand Is Essentially an Extension of You
You don’t want to choose a business name, design a logo, and craft a tagline without first identifying your brand identity. That’s a cart-before-the-horse kind of mistake. You should first consider your “why” statement or motivation for getting into this business in the first place. What are you ultimately hoping to accomplish, do differently, or achieve? And while other products and services out there lean into trendy soundbites and guru suggestions about branding, you only need to look inward.
You’re an event planner. You create memorable experiences. You entertain people. Your business is essentially an extension of you and your personality.
- If you’re passionate about the environment, then YOU’RE an Eco-Friendly Event Planner.
- If you’re hungry for new technology and always embracing tech innovations, YOU’RE a Virtual Event Planner.
- If you’re a passionate romantic with an eye for finding love in the details, YOU’RE a Wedding Event Planner.
- If you’re a sentimental soul who values family and tradition, then YOU’RE a Social Event Planner.
- If you’re a business-savvy, profit-generating, and high-energy networking mastermind, then YOU’RE a Corporate Event Planner.
The beauty of branding is that you can be one or all of these professionals. But your style, your voice, and your motivations all dictate what your brand identity should be.
Brand Definitions You Can Live By with Your Work
Identifying your brand identity, and therefore your brand style, brand voice, and brand essence, everything else you do should be easy to facilitate through that branded lens. In other words, every New York event you curate should support your brand because YOUR personality and processes are demonstrative. It’s easier to create marketing campaigns when you identify and resonate with your own brand. And as long as you can live and breathe your brand positioning in your everyday work, you’ll always be consistent with your branding message.
Branding Elements That Should All Support Your Mission and Vision
There’s a difference between your brand mission and your brand vision. Think of the mission statement as the goal you intend to achieve now, every day, and with every event planning client. On the other hand, your vision is more of a futuristic wishful thinking statement. It’s something you CANNOT achieve right now but are hopeful to achieve in the future. Your vision is the carrot you dangle, with the idea being – every single event you plan today brings you just one step closer to achieving your greater vision.
- Mission Example: I will do my best.
- Vision Example: I will become the very best.
With these in mind, along with your predefined brand niche or identity, you can start exploring the various event-planning branding elements that breathe life and humanistic emotions into your brand.
- Choosing a business name that resonates with your brand identity.
- Choosing a logo design that captures your brand personality in an image.
- Choosing a font style, color palate, and tagline that supports your brand definition.
- Choosing brand partners who share the same visions or embrace the same styles and preferences as you do.
Remember, these elements or brand depictions should look and feel like your brand and your event planning style. They should also evoke an emotional response from those who encounter it.
- Cursive, calligraphy-based font depicts classy, upscale, and traditional, whereas blocky, thick fonts depict powerhouse, leader, and dominant sentiments.
- Reds and vibrant colors signify high-energy, seasonal highlights, and intensity, whereas cool blues and greens are more subdued with relaxed sentiments.
Where to Show Off Your Event Planning Brand
Everywhere, and we mean everywhere. Your brand should be present, visible, and infused into every message. Your event planning brand should also resonate within your various New York events. Without tying in your signature colors, styles, and mission, you’re just sharing blanket statements. Include your logo, tagline, or brand essence everywhere, including:
- At your in-person events
- Within your event proposals
- Within your event’s sponsorship requests
- As part of your press releases
- All over your social media profiles
- Within your email campaigns
- Throughout your event-specific apps and landing pages
- On your business cards and printables
- At networking events you attend
How to Infuse Events with Your Brand Signature
Of course, when you’re curating a New York event for your clients, the event itself should be all about them. But you can still get creative about putting your branding stamp throughout so all those attendees, vendors, and sponsors know it’s YOU behind this incredible event. Each event will have its nuances, but here are a few ways today’s event planners are infusing their events with hints of their own brands.
- Signage throughout the venue, upon entry, or on the stage.
- As a sponsor of an event element, like catering or bar service.
- Branding throughout all the digital engagements, from invitations to post-event surveys.
- QR codes and messaging on printed itineraries or event agendas.
Get All the Branding Advice You Need at The Event Planner Expo 2023
If your event planning brand is in need of realignment, or you’re preparing to launch your brand new event planning company, keep these branding 101 insights handy. And you can learn even more about impactful branding and marketing strategies for event planners when you attend the premier industry conference this October – The Event Planner Expo 2023! Thousands of the industry’s biggest names, most expert professionals, and the most popular influencers will be there sharing their knowledge and expertise. It’s the one conference event planners can’t afford to miss! Get tickets and prepare for the one-of-a-kind experience that is The Event Planner Expo!
