The results are in and in-person events are the best way to achieve your marketing goals.
This is not a new concept. According to Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 B2B Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, marketers rank in-person events as the most effective tactic used in their marketing strategy for the sixth consecutive year. That means B2B marketers find events to be the most effective tactic for achieving their most important marketing goals: brand awareness, sales, lead generation, lead nurturing, and engagement.
Increase in Event Effectiveness
In addition to marketers crediting in-person events as their most effective marketing tactic for the 6th year in a row, CMI’s 2016 B2B Trends also reports an increase in effectiveness for 2016. The effectiveness rating for in-person events jumped from 69% to 75%. This increase shows that even more marketers are starting to realize the critical importance of events in the marketing mix.
This is great news for marketing events, but let’s take a step back. Why are events ranked as the most effective tactic in a content marketing study? Isn’t content marketing about things like writing blog posts and publishing eBooks?
The CMI study lists the most important metrics B2B for content marketers as sales lead quality, sales, and higher conversion rates. Events help with all three of those metrics just like great content does. But why are events more effective?
The Power of In-Person Interactions
Unlike downloading an ebook, when a buyer connects with your brand face-to-face is a very personal experience. It takes more effort for people to attend an event and choose to interact with your brand in person than with your content online. In an increasingly technological world, consumers are inundated with online marketing materials, and have access to millions of brands and products with a click or a tap. Because of this “content overload,” face-to-face communication between brands and consumers creates a much greater impact.
Face-to-face conversations allow marketers to build more meaningful relationships with prospects, potential partners, and existing customers. By representing your brand in person, you can go beyond the bullet points of what your company does, and have a more meaningful dialogue with your audience. Showing the personality of your company distinguishes you from the online noise, it puts a name to a face, and it builds a level of trust in your brand that cannot be built through a computer screen.
Conversations Are Your Best Content
Perhaps the most valuable part of events are the conversations you have with attendees. These conversations can tell you what is important to your target market, who they are, what challenges they face, and how you can help them. This “content” from your event conversations can serve two purposes. First, conversation notes dictate your personalized follow-up after the event. Second, your in-person conversations can help you create more targeted, relevant online content to engage your target audience online.
To make use of this conversation content, your on-site team needs to have an easy way to record conversation notes that will automatically get them back into your CRM. Once you come up with a an effective process for recording your team’s event notes, you’ll be able to fully take advantage of the most effective B2B marketing tactic.
It’s great to see that marketers recognize that the events are most effective tactic for achieving their goals. To learn more about how to use events to achieve your marketing goals, download Attend’s free Event In A Box collection.
