Navigating the Evolving Event Landscape
In the ever-evolving world of corporate event planning, staying ahead of the curve is essential. Three key trends continue to prove to be significant challenges: breaking through the noise at trade shows and conferences, attracting the right audience to your events, and measuring ROI without an expensive multi-touch attribution model.
Let's delve into these areas, backed by industry insights, and explore actionable strategies to tackle these common challenges.
Challenge #1: Breaking Through the Noise
Corporate event planners are finding it increasingly difficult to stand out at crowded trade shows and conferences. According to a study released in early 2024, event marketers in the United States planned to exhibit at an average of 42 in-person regional trade shows throughout that year, down from 46 a year earlier. The sheer volume of events means your brand can easily get lost in the sea of booths and promotional emails going to prospects from every other company sponsoring and attending these events.
Strategy: Create Smaller, More Personalized Activations
Focus on creating smaller, more personalized activations at key events that leave a lasting impression. Unique, memorable experiences can help your brand stand out and foster deeper connections with attendees. While there are many marketing benefits associated with paying the high sponsorship costs for a booth and premier brand exposure, most of the time those brands are forgotten once the person gets home. Where I’ve seen clients benefit the most is from smaller, intimate events where individuals can have a meal or join an out of the ordinary experience with their peers to develop meaningful and memorable connections.
For example, Nespresso developed an interesting activation where they transformed an elevator at New York’s One World Trade Center into the stylish, two-person Pop Café. While they may be taking their “There’s Always Room for Great Coffee” campaign messaging seriously, they also realized there’s always room to create and elevate the time you have with people.
Challenge #2: Attracting the ‘Right’ Audience
According to a study by Bizzabo, 80% of organizers identify in-person events as their organization’s most impactful marketing channel. Getting the ‘right’ people to attend your event is crucial for success. Gone are the days of touting simply how many registrants you have. It's not just about quantity, but quality. So once you’ve identified who you want to attend your event, think through how you can capture their interest in an authentic and meaningful way.
Strategy: Engage & Add Value Ahead of the Event
Connect with your target audience in the forums and channels they frequent before the event. Provide them with value ahead of the sales pitch and before requesting they travel and put in some serious time to see you. Building relationships and creating buzz in advance ensures you attract the right attendees who are genuinely interested in what you offer. Try reaching out in various LinkedIn groups, look at the content they’re posting to determine what they’re interested in or where they are spending their time (what events are they going to or speaking at?). While it may seem like it requires some light internet stalking, how they engage freely and openly in these digital channels may just be the “in” you need in grabbing their attention and crafting a unique and relevant experience for them. Using a tool to set up alerts on news relating to specific companies or individuals is a great way to uncover conversation starters without the heavy lifting.
Challenge #3: Measuring Event ROI
Measuring the ROI of events is a persistent challenge, especially without a sophisticated attribution model. A full 55% of enterprise marketers admit they don't know how to calculate the ROI of an event, according to a study by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. Events are a crucial component of any marketing and demand gen program, but how can you continue to invest in something you’re not statistically sure is working? Digital events make it much easier to measure some of the key attendance metrics and enable teams to follow up. If we take the same principles of virtual events and apply them to live, in-person events, but strip away the vanity metrics (registration count, landing page views, etc.), we can start to understand how impactful these programs are and what it means for the business’ bottom line.
Strategy: Sales and Ops Team Collaboration
Partner closely with your sales and operations teams to develop a straightforward, yet effective campaign tracking model and dashboard in Salesforce (or any other CRM tool your team is using). Incorporate event signals and scoring to help your sales team identify where their prospects are engaging, how many of those leads turn into opportunities per each event, the opportunity value, the time from the first touch to opportunity creation, and how many leads are still in an non-opportunity status to influence and encourage continued sales outreach. Be sure to add in qualitative measurements and notes at the contact or lead level (including the details of their engagement, questions they asked, purchasing insights, timeline, etc.), which will ensure better alignment and successful outcomes.
The revival of in-person events reflects the interest in building genuine connections and the unique energy that live events provide. In fact, 65% of consumers say they better understand a product or service when they experience it through live events, so remember to make each event you attend count.
Conclusion
In this dynamic industry, staying proactive and keeping an adaptable event strategy is key. By focusing on personalized activations, engaging your audience early, and implementing reliable tracking methods and processes, you can overcome these challenges and take your corporate events to new heights.
If you're looking to develop a robust event program that drives meaningful engagement and ROI, let's partner together. Contact Andmara Events today!