Food shows are still about selling, but the sales cycle has shifted, with operators increasingly focused on education, new ideas, and new products. Over the last three years, among the shows that we help manage, there is an average of 15% to 25% in new business sales, but often times a significant number of new case sales happen after the show. These additional new case sales originate at events, but as leads rather than bookings. This is a key difference.
You’ve experienced it before: You start staging an event on-site and discover that the venue or network provider intends to charge you for something you assumed was free or in your contract. Sometimes they even want to bill you extra not to deliver certain services. (It can make you wonder if we’re all in the wrong business.)
The concept that has been on marketers’ lips more than any other this year is content marketing. And for good reason. There are countless examples of companies using content marketing to earn more new business, more repeat business, and a better rank in the search engines. It also has great potential for events, which is why we’re writing about it today.
In this post we will explain exactly how to determine your event's marketing ROI. ROI is often judged by a vague set of factors that aren't precise or even relevant to an event's bottom line. By the time you finish reading today, you'll have the information (and a few magical equations) you need to accurately determine your event's success.
Let's do this thing.
B2B events produce more data than many event planners know what to do with. We recommend using the following steps to make your data actionable and to keep the conversation going after your customers have all gone home. They'll help turn your event into the proverbial gift that keeps on giving.
We all know that planning an event can test a person’s sanity; a marketing timeline will ensure that important tasks and benchmarks are carried out without stressing you out.
So far in our event marketing series, we've discussed defining an objective for your event, the importance of an event website and email to engage attendees, and how to leverage social media. In this post we'll discuss the role of your company website or blog, printed materials, and Google search.
Using social media to market your event means creating a more conversational, interactional dynamic with your audience. You might be participating in not only two-way exchanges, but also three and four-way discussions as part of a string of questions or remarks. Just be approachable, friendly, and helpful; this simple, human approach to “word-of-mouse” marketing has proven incredibly effective even for some of the biggest businesses on social media.
