The core of our business is digital (clue is in the name), so why are we here talking about face to face events?
The truth is that if you’re really serious about driving pipeline and acquiring new customers, diversifying your b2b marketing efforts pays dividends. It’s about getting the perfect marketing mix to attract your audience, engage potential customers, but also (and really importantly) be a plan that you can maintain and keep going.
Here at Overdrive, we’ve been running Breakfast events of various sizes all year. In that time, we’ve generated hundreds of new contacts, made some great new friends, generated new business opportunities and donated thousands to charity. What’s not to like!
Looking back on that, I wanted to share some findings from our first hand experience of running a series of events, and how valuable we have seen it be as an additional element to our online efforts.
Want some support with your events?
Side note, if you’re interested in running breakfast events or roundtables for your business, we can help – from promotion to full coordination, sourcing venues, booking speakers and everything you need. Get in touch here for a chat.
It sounds a bit odd, but if you want to take your online marketing efforts to another level, considering a mix of both online and offline content is very much worthwhile.
Here are some of the benefits that we’ve seen running events, and the sentiment is very much shared by our clients that run their own event programs.
Benefits:
Add true value – a great event is one that is run from a place of genuinely wanting to add value. Of course the end goal is to create opportunities (everyone knows this), but you have to really want to create a great experience. Get this right and you’ll add way more meaningful value than you could ever do through a LinkedIn post.
Own the event – unlike sponsoring another event or paying to join another organisation’s event, if you host the event, you own it. That means you own all the data, all the content, and all the follow up. Gold dust!
Cost effectiveness – compared to many other marketing activity, it’s extremely good value. You can obviously go big on spend, but you can also keep costs to a sensible level whilst still putting on a great event. If you look at events on a cost per acquisition basis, they often perform very well.
Meet prospects face to face – one of the traps that us digital marketers can often fall into is seeing our audiences as lists of email addresses, job titles and various other targeting criteria. Nothing will ever beat getting out and meeting people face to face.
Expand your network – the word ‘networking’ is a horrible one. I prefer to see it as making new friends and getting to know a new group of people. But the sentiment is the same whatever label you wish to place on it. The more people you connect with, generally the more opportunities arise.
Build community – this sounds like another buzz word, but it’s true. If you’re consistently giving people value and putting on a great experience, you’ll naturally build a community of likeminded people. At our events, we’ve seen new people connect, share knowledge, get new job opportunities and make new friends.
Get direct market feedback – getting involved in conversations and observing topics of discussion will give you a barometer on the market more than anything else otherwise could. And the best thing? It’s instant feedback.
Drive engagement – possibly another point that initially sounds conflicting, but some of the best engagement and growth we’ve seen on social has been as a result of offline in person events. If you can get people talking about your events, the PR value for your business is immense.
Want to explore events for your business or talk through some of our learnings? Get in touch here and we would love to have a chat.
Happy marketing!
