4 Ways to Generate New Leads from Your Events
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Written by Ben Hindman

@bennydotevents
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4 Ways to Generate New Leads from Your Events

October 18, 2017

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4 Ways to Generate New Leads from Your Events
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Written by Ben Hindman

@bennydotevents

[VIDEO] How to Drive Net-New Leads From Your Events

October 18, 2017

The world we live in is becoming increasingly visual. We need something that's engaging and will connect with us on an emotional level.

Events are not created equal and there's a specific purpose to each one: some nurture and accelerate leads, while others create and fuel. However, the majority of events are best at moving prospects and existing customers through the marketing funnel and straight to close or renewal.

 

But what about driving net new leads? How do you use events to do that?

 

In the newest Run of Show Weekly video, Splash's CEO Ben Hindman shares his event strategy on driving the net-new leads, partnerships and sponsorships, and how to amplify it all with demand generation.


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Love the animation in this video? Check out Ink Factory. 

Want to see more Run of Show Weekly videos? See our archives page here. 

Video Transcript:

News flash. Events don't drive net new leads. Well, some do. Let's talk about it on today's Run of Show.


One of the most important things that an event marketer can do is to manage expectations.

Driving Leads

 

Recently, I went out to coffee with somebody who had been let go from her job. She was a very talented event marketer, but she didn't manage expectations well. She was brought into her company to drive demand generation, what's called net-new leads, leads that weren't in the database before. Her skillset and her expertise was in events. The types of events that she was particularly good at were events that were great at converting people inside of the funnel.


These were prospects that they wanted to turn into clients. Or she was trying to take clients and turn them into bigger clients, and that's what events are great at, converting people who are already in your funnel.


Now, this resonates with many of you at home. Your boss wants you to drive new leads, and they want you to use events to do so. Today we're gonna talk through the types of events and tactics that actually do drive net new leads, and the types that don't.

Make Your Event Flow

1. Choose Your Event Type Wisely

First things first, all events are not created equally. A happy hour is not gonna have the same effects as a VIP dinner.


A VIP dinner will have a different clientele and a different impact than a road show. You want to plan and measure these events differently. Think about it, you wouldn't use a measuring cup to measure your four-minute mile.


Each event is distinct and different, and you wanna treat them as such. As you plan out your year, it's important to think about every event type, from your happy hours, to user conferences, to your VIP dinners, and to try to map that to a primary part of the funnel.

2. Combine areas of expertise

We’re also guilty of planning events around our own ideas and wants as event marketers.


But keep in mind that while we’re the experts with events, we’re not experts with how to close deals -- that’s where the sales team comes in.


Sitting with sales and understanding how they’ve effectively used events to help expedite and close deals is important info you need to shape the overall event experience. For events that will truly help close deals, combine your team’s knowledge of event execution  with the sales team’s expertise of closing opportunities.


Even if you’re looking for a snapshot of an adorable dog, you definitely won’t be disappointed.


Categorize and Tag By Event Types

What is it going to impact? What kind of guest list is gonna be in the room at that event type?


A really important thing to do in the beginning of your year is to tag up your events by type. Every event should have a type, a bucket, a category, that you use over and over again to measure it against other events of that same type. This allows you to measure apples to apples, and really keep the numbers consistent and track those KPIs across equal types of events.

3-Step Reciprocity

I've developed a three-step process to use reciprocity to drive the RSVP to attendance ratio. The three steps are: (1) get that attendee to invest, (2) confirm that they've made a good decision, and (3) lock it in.

What event types drive the most net-new leads?

So we've established that events do a great job of driving funnel, but not the best job of driving net-new. What events drive net-new, and how do you make the most of that?

 

Well, let's talk through that. Again, net-new means that it's the first time the lead is on your database. You've never seen these people before, they come from the anonymous world, and all of a sudden they're a prospect and they're in your CRM. The best way to find net-new leads through events is to choose your event types wisely. We've identified four different event types that actually drive net new leads.

1. Big conferences. 

 

We typically find that a big conference has the ability to drive about 10% of the attendance as net-new. The reason is, it's a big enough conference, it made a big enough splash that you were able to find new people, and new people were able to find you and actually attend your event.


2. Satellite Happy Hours.

 

This is building off of other big events. If you're able to find a trade show or a large conference like Dreamforce and have a satellite happy hour or dinner around that event, that's another way to actually drive net new leads. There are also people who are just at that trade show and show up to your happy hour.

 

3. Partner dinners.

 

One of my favorite ways to drive net new leads is to partner up. Pick a company or a media publication that has a similar audience to yours and host an event together. What we often find is about half the guest list is yours, half the guest list is theirs, and their guest list often includes a lot of net-new leads.
 

4. Sponsorships.

 

The most effective way to drive net-new is with sponsorships, and this includes trade shows, field marketing activities, curating events, cross promoting an event or simply sponsoring an event and putting your logo on it. Because sponsorships are such an effective way to drive net-new leads, there are three tactics that I found effective to make sure you're capturing as many leads as possible.


Let's dig into it a little more.

Sponsorship Tactics to Drive Net-New Leads

The most effective way to drive net-new is with sponsorship, and this includes trade shows, field marketing activities, curating events, cross-promoting an event or simply sponsoring an event and putting your logo on it. Because sponsorships are such an effective way to drive net new leads, there are three tactics that I found effective to make sure you're capturing as many leads as possible:

1. Have them share the attendee list with you. Try to make this a non-negotiable with the event organizer. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes they'll say no, but it's at least worth asking and I try to do it every single time I spend money to sponsor an event.

 

2. Capture engagement information when you're capturing leads. If you're business card scanning, capturing leads in the field, or trading business cards, try to make sure that people are writing down how they engage with those net-new leads. This will help your sales team prioritize who to follow-up with first and how to follow-up with them.


3. Try to get ahead of the game. Get your BDR or sales team to start calling and emailing people before the event actually happens. Try to also set up meetings. Now, these aren't exactly net-new, but if you're doing a sponsorship game, you'll find that you'll see a lot more impact if you're actually getting ahead of the game like a month in advance.

2. Track Your Plus-Ones

An easy straightforward step to take at events is to keep track of the plus-ones. We typically find that an event has about 50% of the attendees that are gonna bring plus ones. That means that you can actually see about 50% more attendees or more net-new in your database. This is especially if it's a B2B event, the plus-ones might be really important. It might be their boss, it might be a co-worker, or somebody really important to the sales process.

3. Partner Up, Create Incentives

Think about partnering up in any way you can. Sure, you can partner with another company or another team, another organization, but maybe you partner with your speakers or maybe you partner with the influencers who are attending the event. You may even partner with the DJ, to get the word out and spread the news about your event and try to get some new net new leads.

4. Team Up With Your Demand Gen Team 

Last but not least, we're seeing event marketers level up their digital sophistication. They're teaming up with their demand generation team and their digital marketing team to drive net new leads.


 

The way they do it is pretty simple. They send information about their attendees to their demand generation team. Their demand generation team is using that information to create Facebook lookalike audiences -- people who look like those attendees. They're actually taking out retargeting ads and paid social and advertisement across the web, and they're re-targeting those attendees specifically to make sure that they actually attend their event. Teaming up with your digital demand generation team is really effective.

Last but not least, we're seeing event marketers level up their digital sophistication. They're teaming up with their demand generation team and their digital marketing team to drive net new leads.

 

The way they do it is pretty simple. They send information about their attendees to their demand generation team. Their demand generation team is using that information to create Facebook lookalike audiences -- people who look like those attendees. They're actually taking out retargeting ads and paid social and advertisement across the web, and they're re-targeting those attendees specifically to make sure that they actually attend their event. Teaming up with your digital demand generation team is really effective.

Recap: 4 Steps to Driving Net-New Leads

To recap, the best way to drive net new with events is to:


1. Choose your event types wisely.

2. Track those plus ones.

3. Partner with everyone you can and create incentives to do so.

4. Amplify with your demand generation team.


Before I let you go, please, if you remember one thing, remember this: tag your events by types. It's gonna save you a world of pain at the end of the year when you need to compare everything.

3. Show that people are attending your events.

Last but not least, people get people. If you can show that people are attending your event, and they're telling other people, you can display that. That's the type of stuff that actually drives attendance.


So, you're gonna want to show and get RSVPs early and often as you can. Then get those people to commit and tell their friends about it. We found that that is the number one way to drive RSVPs.

Invest, Confirm, Lock it In

You want to use reciprocity to drive attendance, and a way to do so is to get the attendee to invest. You wanna confirm that they made a good decision with that three-step process, and, last but not least, you want to lock it in with a specific, personal confirmation that they are gonna meet someone on site.


Best of luck with your events.

You want to use reciprocity to drive attendance, and a way to do so is to get the attendee to invest. You wanna confirm that they made a good decision with that three-step process, and, last but not least, you want to lock it in with a specific, personal confirmation that they are gonna meet someone on site.


Best of luck with your events.

Bring Out the Urgency

Urgency is one of the most powerful techniques that I've seen in terms of driving ticket sales. You can use urgency in things like "Early bird sales end soon," or you can say something like, "We're almost full," or "This is going to be a really important event for you to attend." Drive that point home with frequency and urgency, and make sure, in all your communications, to go through that checklist, G-I-V-E.

After you've outlined every single step in the process, your next step is to figure out who the major players are. This might be someone who's actually at your organization, or an agency, or even a freelancer. You're trying to figure out who's involved. I find that a really great framework for figuring this out and defining it in a very visible and transparent way is something called the RACI model. It's a great model that I see some of the top event planners that we work with use.

How RACI Works:

RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed.

(1) Responsible is the person who ensures that the work gets done.
(2) Accountable is the person that actually executes the work. Who presses "play," clicks "go," presses "send."
(3) Consulted is the person who gives approval that this work has been completed.
(4) Informed is the person who's an FYI for that stage.

A quick example: during the promotional stage, the person who is responsible might be your demand gen person. This is somebody who has to make sure that the right people are invited and we get the right RSVPs. The person accountable is the person who actually presses "send." That might be your marketing ops person or a promoter that's involved in the event. Consulted, is a leader in the promotional stage or VP marketing or VP sales. This is somebody who needs to make sure the right guest list is being promoted.


Probably informed for the promotional stage is your CEO or a salesperson who just needs to know that we're sending out invitations, or your client's RSVP. That's how you RACI. And your job is to RACI each of these different segments. This process is something that we call roleing [SP] up, R-O-L-E, roleing up. I found that identifying who is involved and what they need to do at early, early stages in the process, is paramount to having a great event. You really want to understand the players and what they're supposed to do, and to communicate that early and often.

Rolling Out: Timelines and Deadlines

The next step in this process is called rolling out -- that's identifying when. We know who and we know what they need to do, but when do they need to do it?


As you can see, this rolling out process looks a lot like a Gantt chart. We've layered on top of themselves all of these different stages. You want the promotional phase and the creative phase to overlap because we're going to learn a lot in the very early stages of our promotions. We're going to know how we might need to tweak things, and you need that creative team involved in the process. You do want to create deadlines. Make sure that everything has a clear beginning and a clear end, otherwise, I found things just don't get done.

The Final Step: Pulling It All Together

1. Get everyone involved early

I can't tell you how often I see people overlook getting the entire team, or at least as many people who fall under the responsible category as possible involved in the process early and often. If you can, get everyone in the room during the ideation stage. If not the ideation stage, make sure they're in the creative stage. I love the old adage, "If they plan the fight, they won't fight the plan." So you wanna get them involved.


2. Use data

Use data. I like to use data at different stages of the process. You can use data and measurement as an energizing tool, as your energizing bunny. The best way to feed this bunny is with carrots. But, you might also use the stick. What I meant to say is you can use a dashboard to show people how many RSVPs somebody is driving and get them really excited, or you can show them where you're not hitting, what's not working for you as a way to get people onboard and focused on their goal. I do find that using data at every single stage helps you sprint this marathon that is an event.


3. Communicate a lot

Last but not least, you want to communicate. Communicate a lot. I always would say to my event planning team, "Our entire job, not just part of our job, our entire job is communication, both with our attendees externally and with our team internally." Setting up a communication cadence early in the process, makes this whole machine work.

That's our role up and roll out process that we've found work great for us. Have any extra tips we missed? Let us know how you run your events in the comments!

Here’s an example of how to build a pass-along story from events that I hosted a couple of months ago for some of our top clients. Our clients are some of the top event marketers in the world and we brought them all together in a cool venue here in New York.

 

I went with my team in advance to think about what emotion we wanted them to feel. The emotion that we came to after a lot of debate was them to feel love, and appreciation for their job and for themselves and for the craft that they do.

 

That's where we started, but how do we get them to feel love? We threw out a lot of ideas for storylines that they would take away. One of the most important things that we could focus on was the format of the event and how their experience would play out throughout the day.

 

Fast forward 'till after the event. I wanted to test this pass-along story and see how effective we were. I called up a lot of the different attendees and asked them, what was the story that you told when you got home? More than that, who did you tell it to? Retell me that story.

 

The stories, more often than not, weren't really about the content that they learned or a certain data point that they heard. Instead they started talking about what had happened. They spoke about somebody that they met at a cocktail hour or a piece of swag that they're really excited about. Or even a musical interlude that had happened right before a speaker such as the violinist and how amazing she was. That's what they focused on.

 

What was even better was that interwoven into each of those stories was the emotion, and they were using interesting adjectives. Over and over again, we started to hear words like excitement and appreciation and inclusion. It was those adjectives that we wrote down because that was our goal, and our focus.

 

Remember, it's not about how you communicate your content and what you say. Instead, it's really about what people are really going to remember inside of these stories and how they feel.

On top of getting help from the sales team in areas they know best in, you also want to be careful in how your offer up your own expertise to them. Don’t try to push decisions in any certain direction or take complete control of the event’s reins.


Instead, present to sales the options and ideas that you’ve seen work well. Sit down with them and provide guidance on the experience you think you should create based on the targets you want to show up.


As marketers today, one of our core responsibilities is to support our sales counterparts in their quest in drive revenue. When planning your next event, remember Craig’s rule: change your sales collaboration approach from “here’s a marketing event, I need your help with it,” to “marketing is going to help you throw a sales event.”


❤️  Special thanks to our Tech lead, Guillermo de la Puente, for his hard work on this project.

What is the secret to a seamless event? Team alignment. Ben outlines the event planning stages and tactics for ensuring team alignment for every event you throw.


author

Ben Hindman

Ben Hindman is co-founder and CEO of Splash, the country's fastest-growing event marketing platform that helps businesses and brands more effectively market through their events. An event planner turned tech entrepreneur, events are in Ben’s DNA. Prior to starting Splash, Ben was the Director of Events at Thrillist, where he produced large-scale events from concerts to mystery fly-aways.

About the Author

Ben Hindman is co-founder and CEO of Splash, the country's fastest-growing event marketing platform that helps businesses and brands more effectively market through their events. An event planner turned tech entrepreneur, events are in Ben’s DNA. Prior to starting Splash, Ben was the Director of Events at Thrillist, where he produced large-scale events from concerts to mystery fly-aways.

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