Earlier this summer I wrote about general lead ROI (Diminishing Lead ROI). I want to thank everyone for his or her kind feedback and overall support. Out of that conversation, came more specific questions about event ROI.

Marketing survey after survey identify events as a key source of sales leads, and any B2B marketing manager worth their salt knows that wrapping their annual efforts around a few key event anchor-points provides strong context for all their other activities. So I’ll attempt to unwrap and share what I’ve learned about event marketing ROI over the course of the past two decades – and as an event producer with over 650 individual events under my belt.

First, lets start with the basics. What do events do for B2B marketers? Events offer three key features in varying degrees, and generally with one dominant focus:

1. They Educate
2. They Market
3. They Sell

Education

Events are a wonderful way for communities of professionals to come together and discover new innovations, ideas and upwellings of knowledge. It’s important to note that the education is often a multi-directional street. I’m often amused when asking exhibitors about their experience at a particular event, that rather than talking about attendance numbers or a particular prospect opportunity – they list the competitive information they gleaned, or the partnership opportunity they were made aware of, or the connected technology that will help them penetrate their market even further. “Knowledge is power.” Events provide one of the most cost-effective means of expanding industry knowledge.

• If you aren’t submitting papers for the event conference, you’re missing an opportunity.
• If you aren’t spending time out of the booth meeting with partners, discovering competitive organizations or looking for ways to exploit your product offering better, you’re missing an opportunity
• If you aren’t providing means for the audience to learn from your organization’s experience, you’re missing an opportunity.

Education is a powerful tool.

Marketing

Events provide fundamentally fertile ground for all sorts of marketing activities. Large (inter)national tradeshows provide a platform for companies to present their brands in highly controlled and impactful ways. Reach and frequency require event-marketing strategies to diversify to be most effective, but when optimized the right calendar-of-events can bring a mix of marketing support unique and highly effective.

Events are also inevitably a focal point for industry press and media. When done properly, a seasoned PR manager can influence a year’s worth of editorial coverage in just few days of meetings.

Finally, events provide a focused audience, that I find is rarely exploited to its fullest by marketing managers. Whitepapers, product announcements, directories, social media engagement, direct marketing all converge to expand a company’s reach within an already qualified audience. Pure magic.

Sales

As I keep mentioning, the end goal of all these activities is to create commerce. Without sales every organization – no matter how great the idea or execution – dies. Many smaller regional events provide specific and highly intimate interactions with key components of your organization – be it verticals, channel configuration or funding mechanisms. All geared toward moving sales forward. Event programming is designed to provide a neutral ground for ALL phases of the sales cycle to be realized. It’s one of the few marketing activities that can boast this feature.

• Prospecting – “Crewing the booth” is a right of passage for most novice outside sales associates. It’s where initial contact is often made. The most basic marketing metrics judge participation by the quantity of business cards or badge scans collected. It’s quantitative and it’s important to fueling sales into the future. An attendee’s mere presence provides a focus that’s invaluable.
• Qualification – Booth duty provides opportunity to get to know your customers, understand their needs, and qualify their desires and ability to buy. This is where having a seasoned sales veteran makes all the difference. Rarely do sales professionals get the opportunity to qualify a prospect in such an engaging environment.
• Value Sharing – As important as getting to know your prospects, is your prospect getting to know you. The ability to demonstrate your products, work through case studies, exemplify the company values and culture, and provide information required for moving down the funnel can all be provided during event hours. Being prepared to share values in tactile and visceral ways can often mean the difference between winning and loosing business.
• Closing – Rarely does closing happen on the event floor. That being said, the energy that brings so many people together is often the energy that brings decision-makers to the table. I can recite anecdotes galore, in which an impromptu meeting in a hotel conference room with the right mix of people was made possible by the resources set aside to participate in an event. Closing happens face-to-face – little has changed in this regard. Having a built-in excuse to meet your clients, prospects and partners gives your sales organization an exponentially greater chance of closing business.

Evaluating Event Performance

Hopefully, you didn’t get to this point without figuring out that knowing what any particular event is designed to accomplish is the MOST IMPORTANT valuation you can make about your organization’s participation.

Every event – whether large or small, focused or broad, regional or international, highly attended or highly intimate is designed to accommodate some mixture of these three qualities.

Now, few events are going to specifically spell out which features they are focusing on – but there are telltale guideposts to help you navigate these murky waters. The good news is once you’ve identified a particular event’s DNA you can compare it to your own priorities to create strong opportunities.

So what are you looking for?

Education dominant events are all about the program. Look for events with highly focused and deeply engaging content. You’ll often think “training” when participating in Educational events. Generally, there is a focus on a highly specialized audience, depth of content, and a very specific progression for most attendees. Because of its ability to draw attendees, Education is often a secondary goal of many events.

Pros

• Attendees and host sponsors get to share longer and more intimate interactions
• Host sponsors are provided measurable and controlled interaction with attendees
• Costs are generally low as educational events focus on the program rather than surrounding activities. They may also cost share by asking attendees to pay for participation
• Audience is highly focused and highly qualified from the outset based on the editorial focus of the education being provided.
• Highly scalable and repeatable

Cons

• Program requirements limit additional activities
• Staff and speakers generally provide limited knowledge pool to discuss peripheral concepts
• Program specificity creates “exclusion” effect and narrows attendee profile
• Audience expectation of “objective” content may override ability to present other products or services

Marketing dominant events are all about the energy. Look for events with a diverse program, multitudes of avenues for both sponsor and attendee to participate. You’ll often look at large national events when looking for a marketing dominant event. These events are typically larger in scale and format. Sponsors are qualified by the footprint of their brand and their ability to create the broadest impact possible.

Pros

• Sponsors are provided a myriad of channels to participate
• Ability to craft brand messaging in highly creative and controlled
• Broad audience focus creates large prospecting possibilities for booth staff
• Larger footprint brings in diverse experience levels and entire teams

Cons

• Expensive and resource-intensive to orchestrate
• With a broad audience most attendees may not be interested in your company
• The diversity of program often means the impact of your individual messaging will be diluted by others competing for the spotlight
• Intimacy of prospect consultations is limited to brief engagements

Sales dominant events are all about the relationships. Look for events where contact information is widely shared and interaction is maximized. You’ll often find these events to be regional in nature, allowing diverse sales channels the ability to reach local markets. Generally, sales events rely on cooperative marketing models and highlight a program as defined by host sponsors rather than predefined to maximize event energy.

Pros

• Exhibitor and sponsor interaction with clients are of primary importance
• Resources are optimized for moving clients along the sales funnel
• Lead costs are low
• Highly scalable, repeatable and mobile
• Less resource intensive than other event formulas

Cons

• Creating a sales friendly environment that is not intimidating for attendees can be challenging
• The diversity of information requires sophistication from sponsor staff
• Sales staff are often anxious about exposing clients and prospects to competitive interests

I would guess, that you’re probably thinking about that must-attend event in your space and trying to measure your perception of their formula against your own organization’s goals. Although every event has a dominant arm, rarely do they focus on only one or even two of these inclinations. As you plan your participation – take advantage of the benefits that each facet provides. But as always, the best strategy is to optimize the mixture.

1. Create awareness around your organization, its products and services
2. Look for activities that give you effective ROI and a broad reach
3. Create opportunities for prospect relationships to deepen as they move closer to becoming clients

I hope this will help give you a blueprint for evaluating which events are right for you, or even how to create your own unique DNA for successful internally developed events. Whatever your priorities, event marketing is still one of the best tools B2B marketers can use to develop, engage and retain clients.

Make it great.