Multi touch point marketing is rapidly picking up momentum in the B2B events industry, and your event sales team need to get on board.  

Your B2B customers have high expectations and want to be engaged via the medium that best suits them, at their own convenience and in a way that is tailored to their every need. Just as importantly, your sponsorship clients are demanding much more for their hard-won buck. As a consequence, your sales team need to add value for sponsors at the same time as offering a more integrated and personalised experience for delegates across multiple touch points.

In a recent blog post we discussed the importance of inbound content for B2B event marketers. Of all the many strands of online content marketers have at their disposal, video is perhaps the most compelling and engaging. It is also a firm favourite amongst B2B audiences.

The conference and events industry are scratching their heads about what they can do to drive delegate attendance, conference ticket sales and in general how they can achieve sexier marketing.

As discussed in the first blog in this series, contemporary customers are looking for more than a purely transactional relationship with your brand – they want to interact with you. It's true. Part of that relies on creating interesting and consistent content for your audience to engage with (blogs, videos, interviews, ebooks, photos) but, as an extension to your inbound marketing for events, it also involves building a community. Establishing a community will help retain customer loyalty amongst the glut of event marketing competitors all clamouring for attention, as well as attract the "right" kind of new customer. A community is a two-way conversation. A living, breathing thing that's interactive and social. Ok so there will always be some bystanders in the crowd that just watch and listen - but many will also participate and share, which is where the community weapon really plays out.   

As event marketers we all know that B2B lead generation is an expensive and time-consuming business. Those ye olde ‘push’ tactics simply don’t yield the volume of quality leads we’re all desperately hunting.

What is currently happening in the conference and events industry? 

Where are we heading?

Well, like any other fast-growing and successful industry, this is always the topic of conversation when we meet with industry folk or overhear the banter at conference industry events. Every director of a conference, event or exhibition company is asking these questions and it's clear that anyone not thinking ahead will surely be left behind. As successful as the events industry is, nobody can afford to be complacent especially in this entrepreneurial, digital era. 

So we have partnered with CatchTalk.TV (formerly known as Xavy) to bring you precisely that. The most talked about predictions for the conferences and events industry in the near future.

All of you know that having a website is essential for all your B2B marketing activities, but sometimes you have to ask yourself, “Is my website working hard enough for me?” And often the answer is no.

In our recently published ebook we analyse data from 4,000 businesses and we find out exactly what businesses need to do to increase B2B lead generation. In this particular post we highlight part of that research that look at two of the most important factors for driving website B2B lead generation.

Chances are, if you built your B2B business website in the last 5-6 years, you will either have a blog or at least have been asked whether you wanted one included in the build, even if you said no. Blogs have become ubiquitous, one of those items that is a “must do” for the modern B2B site.

According to a recent survey of 840 B2B marketers by Holger Schulze, 25% don’t know their lead coversion rates and 41% don’t know the average cost per marketing qualified lead (MQLs). 

There has been a very interesting discussion going on in the "B2B Marketing" LinkedIn group around the topic of how many times to email or call a lead before it's considered dead.

It's hard to believe that another year has gone and we're kicking off 2013. With mince pies and mulled wine season out of the way, there's a real sense of excitement, optimism and change in the crisp winter air.

If you are selling a product or service, you have a huge commitment to your existing and potential customers. You have to deliver.

If you are selling Marketing Automation services, you have a big commitment to your existing and potential customers. You have to lead by example.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been conducting a review of marketing automation software for ourselves and also a couple of our clients.

I’m left especially disappointed with three of those marketing automation providers (which will remain anonymous) and the way in which they have managed my journey through their “lead nurturing programme”.

Need some inspiration and new ideas for your content marketing strategy. This is a great, great resource for all marketers to check out: Content Marketing Institute’s ‘100 Content Marketing Examples‘ – whether you’re at the start of your content journey or trying to find new and exciting ways to engage – here’s a good mix of B2B and B2C examples to mull over and learn from. Some of my favourites:

Inbound marketing seems to be the focus for most marketers that we speak to – with the benefits of lower costs for acquiring leads and higher conversion rates, what’s not to like? If it’s not already part of your winning 2012 marketing strategy, it’s definitely time to pay attention.

I had the pleasure of sitting in Ashley Friedlein’s session on ‘Data-driven decision making – optimising your sales efforts with online data” at FUNNEL on Tuesday.

We attended eConsultancy’s first FUNNEL event yesterday in London. The event brought together marketing strategists and sales professionals all under one roof to better understand how to attract, engage, nurture and convert our leads – and refreshingly for us the audience and content was B2B focused. Finally!

It’s always refreshing to read a specific B2B marketing article and eConsultancy have done well with this one, so worth sharing.