Why Strategic Event Planning Involves Holding More Events Not Less

Companies that organize events do so because they’ve discovered that face-to-face events enable a subset of opportunities better than any other marketing or sales channels. When those opportunities are valued by the organization, it makes sense strategically to organize as many events as possible. Understanding those specific opportunities helps event marketers devise a strategy to manage more events better.  

We know from research and personal experience that meeting people in person is more impactful, memorable, and motivational than reading their books or tweets or email. It’s even more powerful than speaking with them on the telephone. So, when companies value making an impact or gaining the mindshare of customers, it makes sense to engage them in person (and for economic reasons) at an event.   

Events that cater to the very specific needs and desires of a group of customers and prospects, i.e. persona-driven events, provide event marketers with the rare ability to gather information and contextualize behaviors in a way that is not possible using other methods. Event marketers wanting to derive an even deeper understanding of an audience can accomplish that goal with a niche live event.

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By design, corporate events deliver captive audiences of pre-qualified individuals. In other words, no business-to-business event ever threw open its doors; provided education, food and beverages; and offered access to other like-minded peers for just anyone that happened to be free those days. Because of this pre-qualification, sales teams armed with effective lead capture tools can accelerate the sales cycle with events.   

Lead generation from events is the Holy Grail for marketers. Attendees behave—attend presentations, network with peers, participate in activities—as a reflection of their interests. When these behaviors are captured and analyzed (scored) methodically, they can be used to qualify buyers, develop more targeted marketing campaigns, and close sales. More events broaden the data pool from which these insights can be derived.

Corporate events are important channels for delivering information to prospects and customers without overloading them or having to compete with other companies. Events become even more valuable when messaging is designed to reach specific buyer types at strategic stages of the buying cycle.  More events help event marketers reach a broader swath of customers with carefully crafted content.

It’s generally understood that, provided the company and products are of high quality, more leads deliver more sales. A lesser-known fact is that more events can deliver more leads. To truly take advantage of the more events = more leads sales formula, event marketers have to employ strategies—from lead generation to data collection to content design—that address the unique benefits of face-to-face events.  

Contact us to see how we can help you change the way you create and manage your events.