Precision Events
Contents 3 Introduction 5 Welcome to the Buyer-Driven World 11 How to Take a Precision Demand Marketing Approach 20 The Keys to Success
Introduction The lockdowns and safety protocols of 2020 accelerated a shift for marketers that was already underway. Over the course of the pandemic, the way buyers work, consume content, engage with vendors, and research, evaluate, and make purchase decisions fundamentally changed. Digital-first became the new norm. The buyer’s journey became increasingly complex. And an ever- growing number of decision makers became involved at all different stages of the purchase process. Marketers around the world scrambled to step up their digital games with more webinars and virtual events, all designed to fill the physical event void. And if that wasn’t enough, buyers quickly came to expect a different type of engagement than marketers had seen before. Today, those buyers are setting a course on the path to purchase via any channel that suits them.
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY The average business buyer is well over halfway through their purchase decision before engaging a sales rep. — SiriusDecisions/Forrester
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Welcome to the buyer-driven world
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Now, as in-person events return, it’s critical that you, as a marketer, learn to better navigate the new, buyer-driven world. This is no time to retreat to silos and time-worn approaches. It’s time for collaboration. By working with your demand gen, MOPs, and sales counterparts, you can create holistic, multi-channel strategies that deliver the connected, personalized experience buyers are seeking. You can enable your events team to target the right buyers with the right messages at the right time. All by focusing on Precision Demand Marketing as we reimagine what event experiences can become. The New B2B Event Landscape Now, as the world opens again and we re-evaluate our in-person events strategies, we must navigate this buyer-driven, digital shift. Further, we will need to recognize that there will be varying levels of readiness for face-to-face interactions. And as a result, the range of event formats and options available to marketers has opened significantly, from short, on-demand webinar content and small, regional gatherings, to multi-day hybrid experiences and the return of major trade shows. Marketers will need to be ready for this new event landscape and to meet their target accounts and buyers in the ways they choose. Marketers need to be ready to meet buyers on their terms with a holistic event strategy that connects the in-person and digital channels, and overlays with their entire demand strategy. Events must be planned and executed as one touchpoint of many on our buyer’s journey to purchase. Now is the time to focus on Precision Demand Marketing and reimagine B2B events.
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY As in-person events start to return and buyers start to adjust to that, the event strategies marketers used previously will no longer work. B2B buyers are behaving differently today and not all are ready to return to events at the same pace or even in the same way, so marketers also need to think differently and adjust their strategies. — Chris Wickson VP & GM, EMEA and Event Lead Management at Integrate
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY How Events Will Look in a Buyer Driven World Confidence is slowly but surely returning to in-person events. According to Freeman Future So, be careful. Don’t fall into the old way of working in which event teams used their o wn Forecast, 78% of event attendees expect to attend in-person events in the fall of 2021 and 94% tools and tech, gathered their own data, and then churned out generic follow-ups before by the winter of 2021. At the same time, three out of four attendees expect digital to play a moving on to the next event. Instead, think about events as a critical touchpoint on a bigger role in events post-pandemic. Event strategies will combine physical and digital channels. multi-channel buyer’s journey—a touchpoint that event, digital, and demand mark eting teams must work on together. Of course, buyers won’t act the same way at virtual events and webinars as they do at in- Reinvent the way your field and event marketers work. Put digital first, stay tuned-in to the person ones. Virtual attendees are less engaged. They’re passive and often are relying on this omnichannel buyer journey, the role of other teams and channels and the importance of a channel as part of their research, data gathering, or discovery. Many times, they’re early in the buying process and are using the event to perform research and hear from a keynote speaker connected, consistent experience for buyers. Your new approach will not only be eff ective, or learn your story. it will also enable you to further defend your event spend to your organization. Even as in-person events return, expect buyers to be digital-first. It’s critical to connect the in-person and digital channels to accommodate this shift. As a marketer in this evolving world, you’ll also need to accommodate buyers who simply aren’t ready to attend full-scale conferences again. Some won’t be comfortable with the idea at all. Others may prefer smaller, local gatherings. Be ready to meet them on their terms. 78% 94% Reimagining the Event Marketer Role Event marketers must not only adjust to balancing an event mix that includes in-person, of event attendees of event attendees hybrid and virtual events and webinars, they must also change the way they work within their expect to attend expect to attend own marketing teams. in-person events in in-person events in Event marketers can no longer be lone wolves. Webinars and other digital programs are the fall of 2021 the winter of 2021 no longer owned exclusively by demand gen and marketing ops. Today, everyone must be invested. Together. Collaboration is to the key to a better event experience, stronger pipeline, and better qualified leads.
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY A Better Approach to Planning This is the ideal time to create a connected, buyer-driven strategy across in-person, hybrid, virtual events, and webinars. So, before in-person events return and you’re in full execution mode again, do some planning. Discuss how you intend to manage data from all types of events and how you’ll connect to the rest of your demand engine. As part of your planning, take a long look at how you’re deploying your budget. Prior to the pandemic, a large percentage of your budget might have been allotted to sponsoring and exhibiting at third party trade shows and conferences. Today, those numbers are in flux. With much of the spend for them moved into other channels, large in-person events budgets may be harder to justify. Execs may not be as willing to devote large chunks of the budget to events, if they remain siloed. You can create a better business case when you show a holistic events strategy. Events are essential to your overall marketing strategy, but they need to show ROI. Implementing a Precision Events strategy helps you meet that need even as it ensures the entire marketing and sales team gets the most from its events investment. The wise approach is to plan for a balanced mix of in-person and virtual events and to then connect them to other digital touchpoints as steps in each buyer’s personalized journey. Just keep in mind that this all can be Industry specific: more traditional sectors, for example, may return to in-person faster than B2B tech, which may stick with a digital or hybrid approach longer. Time will tell. P — 9
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY How to Take a Precision Demand Marketing Approach
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Step One: Target the Right Buyers or Accounts with Personalized Experiences As in-person events return, they need to be planned and executed as one touchpoint Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team in a connected experience. Think of them as a single element in a continuous, interactive conversation with buyers. How are you connecting your in-person events, Prior to any event, work with your sales team to develop a game plan. Identify and target hybrid events, virtual events, and webinars to the your key buyers and accounts across channels. Use that plan to drive attendance to your rest of your omnichannel digital strategy in order to first-party events and engagement at third-party events and to follow up with relevant digital experiences, post event. deliver a consistent, connected experience pre- or post-event? Remember. It’s no longer enough to upload a list of leads to Marketo and call it a day. You need to meet buyers where they are, with multi-channel campaigns. Use digital advertising (banner ads, social ads, and paid search) and content syndication before and after every event to What are you doing to deliver more personalized connect with today’s digitally smart buyers. experiences to target accounts and buyers? How are you using digital channels to get greater Infographic Social Webinar Syndicated Whitepaper Product Ad Resource Video Tour longevity out of your virtual event content? Are you leveraging digital channels to their full potential to increase attendance and engagement at your first-party events? Webinar Whitepaper 3rd Party Webinar Targeted Website Ad
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Marketers today are bringing events into the fold with their other channels for the truly omnichannel, buyer-driven and connected strategy that today’s evolved buyers’ process commands. Success isn’t collecting as many leads as possible. The key is combining the power of in-person events and the reach and breadth of digital into a dynamic, omnichannel, integrated experience. — Stephanie Swinyer Sr. Director, Revenue Marketing at Integrate
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Step Two: Activate Leads to Create Omnichannel Digital Experiences Buyers will return to events in their own way, depending on their preferences and comfort levels. Every buyer’s journey is different, and events are just one point in that journey. But here are Regardless of where each buyer stands, you must be ready to engage with them. And you must some typical scenarios you can transform into omnichannel experiences: treat all event engagements as touchpoints on the path to purchase. Events are incredibly powerful, since they create opportunities to meet buyers at all stages An event attendee randomly stops by your booth for a quick chat and some in their journeys. Buyers who attend virtual events and webinars, or those you meet on the free swag. You capture the attendee’s information and find that he or she is trade show floor, may just be conducting research. On the other hand, buyers who attend in a junior role, from a non-ICP account, and just doing research. You could add this influencer into an automated nurture track. your in-person, first-party events or arrive at the trade show booth for a pre-booked meeting may be further along in their decision-making processes and more willing to speak to sales. So, be flexible. An unknown buyer at a tier two account registers and attends a webinar, Make sure your follow-up meets buyers wherever they are in the process. Be careful to consider while another unknown buyer at the same account downloads some their readiness to buy. Once you understand the context of the interaction, you can easily content. You target them with display ads relevant to the content they determine the next steps. For example, you may want to enroll some attendees in awareness and are interested in. This drives attendance at a local field event. Through consideration level digital ad and email nurtures. On the other hand, you might follow up with in- conversations at that event, an SQL and opportunity are created. person attendees by connecting them with your sales reps. A known buyer in an early-stage opportunity at a tier-one target account visits your booth for a pre-scheduled demo, and spends 30 minutes in discovery and discussion with your rep. You capture the information and conversation and agree to a follow-up plan, on the spot. The buyer is fast-tracked to the relevant salesperson for post-event follow up and invited to a VIP dinner taking place the next day. Meanwhile, you target other members of the buying committee with display advertising, to start surrounding the account. The opportunity moves to proposal, then closed- won stage, delivering true event ROI.
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team How are you creating digital touchpoints before and after events that are based on buyers’ levels of readiness? How are you ensuring you are capturing the context of any event interaction to determine buyer readiness? How can you leverage existing content and digital channels to create follow-up experiences in more channels than email? How are your prioritizing active in-market accounts and providing high-touch, near-real- time experiences?
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Step Three: Connect Your Teams and Data to Orchestrate the Buyer Experience Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team To take a precision demand approach to events, your marketing team must work closely with How well are your event, demand, and MOPs demand and marketing ops to develop a cohesive strategy that incorporates all channels and martech. Bring these teams together by getting them focused on the one journey that matters, teams working together? the buyer’s journey. Plot each event you’re doing as a stage in that journey. For first-party events, take control of the entire attendee management flow: pre-event Are you taking a cross functional approach to registration, on-site check-in, and post-event experience. reach the right buyers, wherever they are? For third-party events, use a universal event lead management solution such as Integrate. Avoid the challenges that hinder your ability to operate efficiently and quickly, including What more can you do to make your marketing inconsistent, antiquated and disconnected lead connection tools, reliance on the organizer for organization buyer-centric? lead data after the event, and manual scrubbing and lifting of spreadsheets post-event. Connected data is essential to bringing teams together around a single real time-view of the buyer. If digital and demand teams are missing data about a buyer, they don’t have a full picture of that buyer’s journey. To meet buyers where they are, with experiences and messaging that correspond to their level of readiness, your teams need a clear view of all accounts and prospects.
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Step Four: Govern Your Data to Ensure It’s Marketable and Compliant At any event, be ready to engage, capture, qualify, and connect interactions with buyers, so those buyers can then be activated across all channels. This enables you and your team to deliver the relevant personalized experiences that are at the heart of a Precision Demand strategy. In turn, that leads to the insights and reporting that demonstrate impact and event ROI. The quality of your data determines whether or not you can deliver that connected, personalized digital experience. Up to 40 percent of B2B prospect data records contain inaccurate information that makes the data unmarketable. That’s why it’s critical that all data from your virtual, hybrid, and in-person or first- and third-party events is governed to ensure standardization, validation, and compliance. Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team How are you capturing information at your in-person events, virtual events, hybrid events, and webinars? How are you solving for speed to lead? How are you ensuring data quality and compliance before entry into your CRM?
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Getting your data right is essential. First and foremost, if we do not address lead data accuracy and completeness upfront, we cannot deliver the personalized follow up and experience our prospects and customers expect. Secondly, it is critical to build and keep trust with our sales partners. — Luis Marini Senior Manager, Marketing Automation at Commvault
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY Step Five: Measure Event Performance and Optimize Future Strategy and Spend Since B2B buyers’ journeys can take months before turning into opportunities or revenue, consider measuring the early signals of event success. Before the event, look at registration Events are arguably the most difficult channel to track and prove what works and what doesn’t. numbers and on-site meetings booked. During the event, measure walk in-numbers and the number of prospect and customer meetings. After the event, look at leads-to-ICP ratio and In a 2019 survey by EventManagerBlog, just 18 percent of event professionals felt they track your leads by lifecycle stage. measured their event success accurately. Despite often being the top line item in the marketing budget, disconnected teams, tools and data have for many years made it difficult for marketers to accurately measure the impact of their event programs. To complicate matters, the evolving marketplace means event budgets are now undergoing Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team greater scrutiny than even before the pandemic. Sixty-five percent of event marketers anticipate budget cuts for their virtual, in person, and hybrid events in 2021, according to an Evolution of Events Report. Are you measuring the impact events have on new You need to adapt your event measurement process to fit today’s realities. And that means opportunities, renewal, and expansion revenue? changing the way your teams and strategies work. That means developing connected systems that are capable of tracking interactions across Are you aligning event metrics to event type and channels, before, during, and after events, as in the case of buyers you meet at a tradeshow, measuring what matters? who then attend a webinar, who then download content, and who then complete a demo request form on your website. Have you connected your lead capture, CRM, and marketing automation systems to streamline event measurement and reporting?
PRECISION DEMAND MARKETING STRATEGY The Keys to Success With buyers spending 83 percent to 95 percent of their Watch “Integrate Live for Precision Events.” journeys conducting self-service digital research, the burden for creating and delivering the meaningful experiences that buyers want has shifted from sales to your marketing team. In the new-buyer driven landscape, events across all formats will continue to play a crucial role in in your success. But remember, each event is only one of dozens of touchpoints that you and your team must deliver to buyers. Pre- and post-event emails are no longer enough. The way B2B buyers purchase has changed forever. To meet buyers’ expectations and capture their attention before your competitors do, it’s WATCH NOW vital that you provide a journey that is personalized, unique, and engaging. Learn more about how you can create this kind of event journey.
WORK WITH INTEGRATE Integrate centralizes your data, Integrate is a marketing software provider that works with high-growth and enterprise organizations like channels and tech into one Salesforce, Microsoft, Akamai, and Pluralsight to power powerful platform. their demand investments. We connect everything – your data, your channels, your tech, and your processes – in order to guide intelligent buyer and account journeys and deliver scalable demand generation. Our core offering, the Integrate Demand Acceleration Platform, allows B2B marketing and revenue teams to create omnichannel journeys and make more informed decisions about where to spend marketing dollars in order to drive pipeline and revenue. [email protected] 866.478.0326 Integrate.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of Integrate, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. © 2021 Integrate, Inc. All rights reserved.
