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.

For the better part of two decades I’ve been in the lead development, cultivation and delivery business. As the marketing guy behind one of the longest running and most successful lead development activities in the embedded computing space, I’ve seen first hand the power of providing quality leads to organizations across diverse verticals and technology functions. I was preaching cheap lead generation, before it was cool — so for me to come out against lead generation is a change in orthodoxy that would turn heads among my colleagues.

What’s wrong with lead generation today? Two things.

First, valuation of leads changes greatly as you move through time and penetrate your total available market (TAM). More accurately put, the more leads you generate — one of two things becomes true:

A.) New leads are generally less valuable because they require more cultivation to close.

B.) New leads are generally more expensive to acquire because they are more difficult to find.

The dawn of the information age means there are a myriad of tools at a savvy marketing or sales manager’s fingertips to cultivate new leads. Whether reaching out on LinkedIn or posting new whitepapers to one’s website and collecting contact information — leads will vary greatly in their value, timeliness and cost to close.

Second, no two leads are created equal. I manage a team of excellent sales professionals. One of the interesting phenomenon that I often see with them is that they will go after the big deal with lower close potential rather than service multiple smaller, more certain sales prospects. Those familiar with the sales funnel instinctively know that the closer the contact is to buying — the better the lead.

Marketing managers must always keep their lead generation goals in the context of proximity to close. Of course, more leads sounds better. But where does a marketing manager with limited resources draw the line in terms of chasing their TAM?

This graph is a visual representation of a general principle. The closer to your TAM, the more it costs to develop and cultivate new leads. Its almost always true that within any given campaign, it takes more resources, frequency and exposure to generate the next lead. When clients come to us asking about lead generation campaigns, inevitably the first question is “How much is your Cost Per Lead?” And of course the answer, “It depends,” rarely hits home with clients.

Part of what confuses marketers is — what constitutes a lead? Here are mistakes marketers make when making lead-gen decisions:

Mistake 1 – Impressions aren’t valuable. There is a trend in B2B markets that impressions don’t count. Impressions with focus and frequency make a huge difference in cultivating new leads. Branding is a catalyst for enhancing lead generation efforts. Marketers that aren’t hitting at least 10% of their TAM every month with impactful messaging are putting their brand, product and company at risk. Lay the foundation before you build. Don’t expect leads without company and product recognition.

Mistake 2 – Leads should cost a fixed amount. Marketers are notorious for our numbers. We like to count and measure everything. “Our average lead costs $50.” The reality is that lead costs should be calculated in relation to the size and proximity to conversion. Generally, the smaller your TAM – the more you will pay per lead. Each additional lead will cost more than the next. Averages provide a nice benchmark, but they don’t give you a real sense of a leads value to your organization in the short, mid or long term.

Mistake 3 – Leads should be sale ready. As a marketing service professional I always profess to my clients that you don’t want me to get you too close to the sale. If I could guarantee that X% of my leads would bring your organization $X,XXX,XXX – trust me, I’d charge you for it. Sometimes the best lead values are those more easily attained, and only partially qualified. I find the best balance for marketers is to create a pool of potential that can be refreshed and refined over and over again. Think of your lead pool as a swimming pool. Leads are evaporating at a regular rate. Job changes, and industry shifts ensure that leads evolve dynamically. Good marketing knows that refreshing the pool with clean (qualified) leads provides a fertile environment for sales to do its job. Sometimes the best leads are already in your pool, and just need to be refreshed properly.

Mistake 4 – The best leads are ready to buy. If you have a lead that is ready to buy without much effort, chances are good that you’re leaving money and margin on the table. The best deals always require some friction. Its what separates a good salesperson from a great salesperson. Its what separates good marketing from great marketing. Creating additional value for the prospect has to be a core feature of lead generation and qualification. I always warn marketers, that our job is to break down enough barriers that a client is comfortable talking to us, but not so much that the salesperson doesn’t have room to create additional value for the client and our company.

Mistake 5 – Lead conversion can be tracked and measured. I’m going to create a lot of enemies in the marketing and sales SaaS industry, but its time to put this myth to bed. Automated metrics provide a lot of data, but they cannot anticipate the buying behavior of your clients. If I (or anyone) could orchestrate a sale, I’d be the richest person on the planet. Qualified lead sources provide the necessary fuel for good sales engines to stay running. The reality is that most companies know they need X,XXX number of leads per month to keep the sales channel full. But as the old adage goes, I know my marketing works — I just don’t which part. If you’re spending more than 0.25% of your revenue measuring marketing and sales leads – you’re spending too much.

As a marketing service provider I always tell my clients…

I can provide you an industry specific impression for $0.14. I can provide you an industry specific buying-behavior lead somewhere between $100 and $300. And I can provide you a sale ready lead for 10% of revenue. Where would you like to buy in?

As a marketer you should always be considering what features are most important to your sales goals?

1. Am I giving up margin to have lead sources do the work for me?
2. Is cultivating leads for the future a part of my overall marketing strategy?
3. How much effort have I put into laying the foundation for strong lead generation activities with impression and awareness oriented marketing?
4. Can a higher cost per lead streamline my sales process or limit it?
5. How much of my TAM is currently in my prospect database? Would efforts be better served on competitive and awareness oriented marketing?

Lead Generation is an incredible tool, that when used in context and with clarity of purpose can supercharge an organization sales channel. It can also constipate and confuse everyone looking to do business with your company and your sales pipeline.

Every company needs a lead generation strategy.

Make sure your strategy makes sense…

And good luck.

We’ve been doing a lot of soul searching over the past few months about where we are going as a company and as an industry. Its no surprise to anyone that the pervasiveness of technology has taken root within our organization and the organizations of our clients with such an aggressive nature that I hardly recognize the way things are done.

I was reflecting on my History of Marketing classes in college. The revolutionary thought that investing in mass client persuasion yields multiple time results within the sales channel continues to be an exciting concept. And savvy marketers are always looking for new ways to influence the market. The web, email marketing, social media, app development, big data analytic all bring hot new topics to the table for marketers hoping to gain just a sliver of advantage over the competition.

Yet, what I’ve seen from even the most experience marketing professionals over the past 24 months is alarming. There seems to be an almost complete disconnect between time-tested marketing principles and the “new reality” that our new technology heralds.

In a recent client meeting I asked a new marketing manager to define their TAM. Not only did they not know what THEIR TAM was, but they didn’t know what TAM meant and why it was important for their marketing strategy.

In our design department we constantly remind our clients and ourselves with the old mantra — If everything is bold, NOTHING IS. The challenge comes in the noise modern marketing methods are creating. So lets go back to basics with some ground rules requiring considerable discipline, but that offer real direction as you make important strategic and tactical decisions.

1. Leads (contacts) are cheap in the information age — relationships are not
2. Know your TAM and the next horizon you are going to target
3. Data only tells you where you’ve been – not where you’re going.
4. Sales is always the goal – web traffic, impressions, clicks, bounces aren’t real until there is money attached.
5. You can’t orchestrate a purchase decision — only influence it

Sounds pretty common sense? It should.