In 2025, events will be the most effective channel for generating leads, according to 61% of marketers. It is no coincidence, then, that this is the main marketing expense item for 45% of B2B companies. Digital, face-to-face, hybrid… all these events are now part of a company’s B2B event marketing strategy.
However, to get results (yes, the famous leads, then customers, that influence growth), you need to know how to leverage this lever.
That is what this article is all about: we share with you the steps and best practices for developing event marketing that is synonymous with ROI and growth.
B2B event marketing: what is it all about?
Event marketing: definition and objectives
Event marketing covers all the techniques used to create, organize and promote events.
The objectives of these meetings are many and varied:
- Create a bond of trust: before being buyers, B2B professionals are primarily human beings… who need to trust other human beings. Events are moments for sharing, meeting and interacting, putting the emphasis on the relational, before the transactional.
- Improve brand awareness: organizing an event is a lever for visibility and credibility. It enables your company to position itself as an expert in the eyes of participants. Good for your brand image…
- Generate leads: as we have seen, 61% of B2B marketers believe that events are the most effective channel for lead generation. This format is conducive to interaction and relationship building, and speeds up the sales tunnel.
- Convert leads into buyers: while 61% of marketers confirm the effectiveness of events in generating leads, only 35.6% consider them effective in generating MQLs and 42.4% in generating customers. However, this marketing lever remains a conversion tool that values the human element and the relationship, before leading to a transaction.
- Retain committed customers: creating events is also a relevant format for engaging existing customers. An invitation to a conference or a themed breakfast is a small gesture that can make all the difference… And keep the relationship of proximity and trust alive.
While event marketing is an excellent lever for driving the marketing funnel (from brand discovery to customer loyalty), beware! It is no reason to invest your entire marketing budget massively (or even exclusively) in it!
In parallel with your paid media activities (such as event organization), have you thought about stepping up your earned media efforts, such as content marketing, SEO and social media?
All these levers complement each other in attracting and converting business opportunities.
Formats & types of B2B events
When it comes to B2B event marketing, companies have three options. Participate, sponsor or organize an event project.
Organizing or participating in physical events is always a joy. Because a few years ago, remember, we were all momentarily deprived of them.
In 2020, the Covid-19 crisis reshuffled the marketing deck, for all B2B companies. We then witnessed the rise of online events, such as webinars, live events, e-conferences…
Even so, to date, face-to-face trade shows and events have returned with a vengeance. In 2022, less than two years after successive confinements, the podium of B2B events organized according to the Bizzabo study included:
- Trade shows and exhibitions (45%)
- Industry conferences and private events (43%)
- Field marketing events (32%)
And only a distant second are webinars, at 28%! Nevertheless, this type of web format continues to win over B2B customers. Less expensive than a physical event, simpler to organize and offering a wider reach (with no geographical barriers!), the webinar remains a highly advantageous format. What’s more, you can continually generate leads thanks to replays, which you can offer web users to download free of charge…
Finally, in recent years, the trend has been to hybridize events. The principle is simple: bring together the best of both worlds, physical and online. A case in point? A conference organized at a B2B trade show in Paris, which would also be broadcast live on the web, on a webinar platform to amplify the reach of the event.
7 key steps to launch your B2B event marketing strategy
Let us learn how to launch a good event marketing strategy, following the right steps, to get good results.
Define your year-round event marketing plan
A good approach to B2B event marketing involves maximum anticipation. Every year, when defining your marketing plan, ask yourself the following question: what events are we going to organize, sponsor or participate in?
Identify all the trade fairs, conferences and forums you would like to attend (most of them are B2B, so you will need to plan ahead!). Also, list your ideas for events. Our advice? Organize an event every quarter. It could be a big webinar, a workshop with customers, a conference…
All these key moments can even be correlated with your marketing campaigns throughout the year.
You can also recycle all or part of these events into accessible content (blog articles, LinkedIn posts) or premium content (white papers, case studies).
Establish event objectives and budget
Why do you want to organize, participate in or sponsor an event? This is the question you need to ask yourself, right from the start. Having a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound) objective will then enable you to set the budget and format of the event.
Among the most common B2B objectives are:
- Gain exposure and visibility with buyer personas
- Attract new buyers
- Retain and engage existing customers
- Launch a new product or service
- Support sales staff in signing contracts
Each objective should be accompanied by quantitative details: how many participants are you targeting?
How many participants are you aiming for? Based on your expectations, you can then estimate the cost of the event within your marketing budget.
For trade shows, for example, there are multiple costs: stand price, human resources, stand creation, promotion and goodies…
Determine the event format
As we have seen, an event can be physical, online or hybrid. It is up to you to choose the format that meets your objectives and budget.
Here are a few recommendations, depending on the format you choose:
Even if the event is “physical”, think about how you can exploit it in your digital communication.
To keep the moment alive over the long term, remember to take photos on the day, to feed your audience on social networks.
In addition, if you are organizing a conference, workshop or seminar, take advantage of the hybrid format trend. Therefore, that people who cannot attend can follow your presentation remotely.
If you choose the 100% online format, remember to make it interactive and participative. The trend towards “top-down content” is over. Participants want to ask their questions in a chat room, or even take the floor to exchange views with the organizer… In short, to be active, rather than passive. And, that is really a good thing! Your mission, then, is to combine events and conversation.
Prepare the retroplanning
Retroplanning is the program you need to put in place to organize the whole project: it contains a list of all the tasks to be carried out, with key dates, to best prepare the event.
For example, when should you reserve a venue for your physical seminar? When should you launch your communication and promotional campaign? When should service providers be contacted and/or reminded?
Retroplanning is the best way of framing the project and ensuring that preparations are completed on time, as well as specifying all the resources needed to carry out the event.
We recommend that you assign each task to a person responsible for it, and that you have a person responsible for monitoring the overall progress of the tasks.
The marketing team may be involved, but so may other teams: make sure that every stakeholder has access to the schedule.
B2B companies have a choice when it comes to creating their own planning template: tools such as Excel, Monday or Asana can be useful.
Launch communications before the event
This is one of the most important steps in organizing your event: the communication plan!
To get registrations from an optimized landing page, you need to capture the attention of your target audience. To achieve this, you need to promote your event on the most relevant channels, such as:
Posts on social networks (LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, etc.): on LinkedIn, think about publishing on the company page… But also on the employees’ page, to amplify the reach of the announcement to your target audience.
Ads: on Google, but also on professional social networks.
E-mails: what better way to engage leads?
Sales reps: they are in direct contact with leads and buyers, and can relay information effectively.
Influencers: why not team up with an opinion leader in your sector, to attract more of your target audience?
If you are organizing a large-scale B2B event, it is a good idea to start communicating 1 to 2 months in advance. If you are taking part in an event organized by a third party, then the number of places for participants may be limited. We recommend that you start promoting a few weeks beforehand… Always referring to your back planning!
A final tip for your future events: if your main objective is lead generation… Remember to invite your satisfied buyers. They are your best ambassadors for promoting your product or service!
In fact, according to a new study by Forrester (2024) related in Forbes, the most important factor in B2B purchasing decisions is “trust”. This trust is easier to trigger with target customers, thanks to buyers who are already convinced. At the same time, customers who trust you are almost twice as likely to recommend you to their peers (85% vs. 48% if they don’t).
Be ready for the D-Day
It is D-day! To stay punctual, organized and serene, here are a few recommendations to spread around the company:
Keep to the planned timetable: this will minimize the chances of being overwhelmed, and leave you time to manage unforeseen events or spontaneous meetings.
Remind everyone in the team of their responsibilities: for example, if it is a webinar, who is in charge of answering audience questions in the chat room? If it is a trade show, who should be on the stand in the morning, in the afternoon? Do not panic: your team members do not need any training in event management on the day… Just a clear, precise reminder.
Try to create the event “within” the event: to set yourself apart from other brands and attract visitors (especially for a face-to-face trade show), have you thought about offering visitors a glass of champagne, original goodies, or proposing live tests or diagnostics on your stand?
A final best practice is to synchronize your marketing plan with the event, on the big day. Take advantage of the big day to launch a new product or feature, announce a fundraiser or promote your new white paper!
Manage the post-event part
Once the event is over… it is not all over! Here are the various tasks awaiting your company:
- Communicate after the event: share photos on social networks, recycle capsules extracted from a conference or webinar (on your YouTube channel or on LinkedIn), write a summary article on your blog… All these web communication actions allow you to look back on the experience lived by the company, its leads or customers.
- Capitalize on leads generated: in B2B, the sales cycle is long, and only a small proportion of prospects are ready to make a purchase. The majority are still in the discovery or evaluation phase. You need to nurture their thinking and move them through the buying cycle to maturity.
- Optimize lead processing with marketing automation: to continue nurturing your prospects until they reach maturity, then set up lead processing with marketing automation.
Final thoughts
At PIUP, we help B2B companies increase their ROI tenfold, thanks to digital marketing. So, to attract more leads, engage your contacts and send qualified prospects to your sales force thanks to our experts.
Read also : Top 5 innovative strategies for effective event marketing in Dubai, UAE