Is event marketing important for B2B?

Grant Leboff: One of the options that is open to businesses, when they're looking at their marketing activities, is event marketing. In your opinion, how important is that for a business?

Simon Hall: It depends on the company and depends on their budget and what they can afford, but for those companies that are selling more complex solutions, event marketing is really important. It allows a company in an authentic way to actually be in front of the customer and answer questions. The key thing is, it's more about how you actually then implement the event.

Grant Leboff: So in your opinion, when you look at events, because obviously there are seminars, get togethers and networking, there are obviously exhibitions where you can go to other people's exhibits or whatever else. Do you have any particular sort of forums that you think work very well for businesses?

Simon Hall: I think it depends on the audience. I remember, when I was working for Dell, we had anything up to 70 events per quarter, but there were probably about 20 different flavours of types of events. If I look at smaller companies that I work with today, they've probably got three or four different types across the year. Networking would be great for, sort of, executive level. Some form of networking is also good for more technical product based type of procurement departments. I think, whatever event you're doing, the thing that I would advise companies not to do is to do a sales pitch and forced the sales onto the customer and I say that because they've already done a lot of their homework they are now more interested in engaging. They may be more interested in engaging with other peers at the event or just having the possibility to ask questions that are questions they want to do and it a sort of freehand manner.

Grant Leboff: So if it's not going to be a sales pitch, what for you are the key factors in making an event effective, from the business point of view, not from the attendees point of view, but from the business's point of view that is putting it on?

Simon Hall: Think about topics that are really going to resonate with the customer. Think about offering a possibility to network, whether it's just having a coffee break or a tea break or lunch break. Also offer the possibility for some of your customers to come up and talk at the event and try to take more of a backstage as a company, so you're not looking there as just to doing a sales pitch on the customer.

Grant Leboff: And if it isn't a simple sales pitch, if you are looking to try and give a bit of value in it's a seminar or workshop or whatever it is, how do you then measure that?  Because unless you believe, and maybe in some cases it's true, that people are going to turn up to an event and at the end of the event, they're going to say, right, where do I buy?... how does a company measure whether these events are effective?

Simon Hall: There are a few things you can do. One of the most effective things with events is actually having some form of digital engagement around the event, depending on how big or small it is. So if you have got 30 or 40 people there, one nice thing to do is actually set up some form of Twitter handle, allowing customers to talk to themselves, but also it allows you to actually keep some some form of connection with the group.

The other thing is actually give them the option to actually hear more and understand more beyond the event. So have a beyond the event journey, rather than just they turn up and they go. I think some customers, if they turn up to an event, won't mind being contacted after, if they've got some interest in what are you going to say.

Grant Leboff: So it goes to understanding how that event is into a purchase journey?

Simon Hall: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So I think, I think it turns a measurement is... it may not be an overnight thing after the event, but it may be. It may be that they have heard the thing they wanted to hear at the event and now they're ready, within the next month or two, to make that purchase.