With the saturation of digital channels and the lack of marketing diversity, it's becoming clearer that going "only digital" doesn't work. Not only are in-person events growing in importance – but they're becoming necessary for your entire marketing strategy. Necessary for lead generation, growth, customer engagement, and above all, generating real ROI for your business.
Don't believe us? Here are 90 stats to prove it.
Bonus: want to know how you compare to other event marketers in the industry? We've also included the latest trends in all areas of event marketing.
1. The Value of In-Person Events
2. Customer Engagement and Experience
3. Event Marketing Budgets
4. Lead Generation/Growth
5. ROI/Closing Deals
6. Event Technology
7. Event Technology Trends
8. Event ROI Trends
9. Event Promotion/Planning Trends
10. Event Sponsorship Trends
• 69% of B2B marketers consider in-person events effective. (Source: Sensible Marketing)
• 83% of B2B marketers are heavily invested in events. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 73% of B2B marketers say events are better than other tactics for customer engagement. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 31% of event marketers believe that trade shows, conferences, conventions, and channel events are essential to doing business in their target customer markets. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 77% of marketers use experiential marketing as a vital part of a brand’s advertising strategies. (Source: Event Marketer)
• 60% of marketers are satisfied or very satisfied with their event strategies and results. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated conventions and events are expected to expand by 44% from 2010 to 2020. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• On average, the size of companies' event teams ranges from 20%-25% of their total marketing team size. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 51% of brands surveyed employ between one and ten full time event planning and management employees. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 52% of business leaders say event marketing drives more ROI than any other marketing channel. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 93% of marketers say their organizations place a priority on hosting events, including 57% who give it a high priority. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 40% of marketers say they’ll increase spending on hosted events in the year ahead. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• On average, organizations host 73 events and sponsor 62 events annually. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• The most popular types of hosted events are one-day conference or seminars, product trainings, business or channel partner events, thought-leadership workshops, and VIP meals. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• The most popular types of events that B2B companies host are: multiple-day conferences, industry trade shows/conventions, one-day conferences/seminars, business or channel partner events, and thought-leadership workshops. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• The most popular types of events that B2C companies host are: one-day conferences/seminars, product launches, in-store events, entertainment events, and business or channel partner events. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 51% of marketers surveyed believe that events strengthen existing customer relationships. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 60% of marketers use tradeshows and events for face-to face customer meetings. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 48% of event attendees say face-to-face interactions are more valuable today than two years ago. (Source: Live Marketing)
• 58% of marketers believe that events and conferences are important ways to improve customer experiences of their services or products. (Source: E-Strategy Trends)
• 73% of B2B marketers say events are better than other tactics for customer engagement. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 85% of B2B marketers believe engagement at events is an important way to accelerate the buying journey. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 91% of event professionals stated that increasing engagement at their events was an important priority for their organization. (Source: Engaging Events)
• 48% of event attendees find in-person interactions with brands more valuable than 2 years ago. (Source: Live Marketing)
• Events (hosting, attending, exhibiting) command 21% of corporate marketing budgets. (Source: AdAge)
• Events occupy 14% of budgets, which is the largest share of B2B marketers’ budgets. (Source: Forrester Research)
• 14% of B2B marketers’ budgets were allocated for in-person trade shows in 2015. (Source: Statista)
• One third of marketers spend more than 20% of their marketing budget on events. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 10% of marketers spend more than half of their marketing budget on events. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• Companies are spending on event marketing at a growing rate, with 54% boosting their event activity over the past three years, and only 17% cutting back. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• B2B companies spend 29% of their marketing budgets on events, on average, versus 19% for B2C companies. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 46% of event managers view lead generation as a top reason to attend events. (Source: Exhibitor ROI at Tradeshows)
• 64% of marketers use tradeshows and events to source new prospects and business opportunities. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 63% of marketers use tradeshows as a form of lead generation. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• Leads generated and pipeline opportunities are the most commonly used event success metrics. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 44% of marketers experience a 3:1 ROI from event marketing. (Source: Statista)
• 91% of event planners have seen a positive return on investment from event apps. (Source: State of Mobile Event Technology Report)
• 83% of brands say that their #1 reason for event participation is increasing sales. (Source: Live Marketing)
• 87% of consumers said they purchased the brand's product or service after an event at a later date. (Source: EventMarketer)
• 84% of consumers re-purchase the product promoted at the event, after their first purchase. (Source: EventTrack Study)
• 65% of brands say that their event and experiential programs are directly related to sales. (Source: EMI & Mosaic)
• 79% of US marketers generate sales using event marketing. (Source: Statista)
• Event technology can help increase event attendance by 20%, increase productivity by 27%, and decrease costs by 20-30%. (Source: Enterprise Event Marketing)
• The most used technologies by event planners are photobooths (45%), event apps (44%) and livestreaming tools (44%). (Source: Engaging Events)
• 60% of event planners say that event apps increase attendee engagement. (Source: State of Mobile Event Technology Report)
• 88% of event attendees said that access to meeting or event schedules in an event app is extremely important. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 13% of B2B marketers use event marketing software. (Source: Capterra)
• Events that use event apps generate 42% more social media impressions. (Source: Global Experience Specialists)
• The top benefits for event technology adopters are: improved ability to track and measure their events (40%), increased process productivity (31%), and a better attendee experience (30%). (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 90% of event technology adopters consider themselves well positioned for future success, versus 65% of non-adopters. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 64% of event planners find it difficult to secure budget for event technology tools. (Source: State of Mobile Event Technology Report)
• 63% of event professionals are not using event apps. (Source: The Event App Bible Version 2)
• 22% of marketing departments at B2C companies use event marketing software. (Source: Capterra)
• The cost of an event app is 1.2% of the budget for each attendee. (Source: Global Experience Specialists)
• 46% of event professionals plan more than 10 events a year. (Source: The Event App Bible Version 2)
• The top 3 special features that event planners look for in an event app are: onsite registration 19%, registration within app 16%, and content capture 15%. (Source: Event App Bible Version 2)
• 14% of marketers plan to integrate marketing automation with their events and only 7% currently do. (Source: Capterra).
• One third of organizations have adopted event marketing technology, and another one fifth are planning to adopt event marketing technology in the next 12 to 18 months. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 51% of early adopters report they are getting good results from their event technology investments. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 75% of leads are never followed-up with after an exhibition. (Source: The Marketing Donut)
• 80% of trade show exhibitors don’t follow up with their show leads. (Source: Salesforce)
• Most companies plan and execute events without specific business objectives. (Source: SiriusDeciscion)
• 3 out of 5 marketers don't use tools to measure event ROI. (Source: Hubspot)
• 1/3rd cite ROI as an event success metric. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• Only 34% of marketers use new referrals, quality of leads, deal closure, value of sales, and cross-sell/upsell opportunities to measure event ROI. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• 32% of marketers report being dissatisfied with how they can measure Return on Objectives (ROO). (Source: Marketing Profs)
• 70% of marketers say that the most common metric to judge event ROI is amount of media exposure generated. (Source: Marketing Profs)
• 22% of brands do not have a way of measuring their events. (Source: EventTrack Study)
• 82% of marketers cannot quantify the data received from attendee interactions at their corporate events. (Source: Kissmetrics)
• 23% of marketers can track the ROI of their events. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 55% of marketers are not able to track event ROI. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 37% of event technology adopters are able to track the ROI for their events. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 74% of marketers say that email is their most commonly used tool for event promotion. (Source: Marketing Charts)
• More than 75% of B2C companies use email marketing to promote their events. (Source: Hubspot)
• 50% of event marketers say that getting attendees to respond to their event invites is their largest challenge. (Source: Hubspot)
• The average B2B company spends 5-8 weeks planning an event. (Source: Hubspot)
• 87% of B2Bs use social media to promote events (the third most popular channel), and it ranks as the second most effective channel for event promotion, tying with websites at 68% of respondents. (Source: eMarketer)
• 70% of marketers say that the need to validate results from event sponsorship has increased over past 2 years. (Source: Marketing Profs)
• 75% of event sponsors are constantly looking for new partnerships. (Source: Sponsez)
• Total global sponsorship spending increased 4.1% in 2015. (Source: Sponsorship Spending Report)
• Less than 50% of marketers have a standardized process to measure event sponsorship. (Source: Marketing Profs)
• 25% of marketers do not analyze and use data from sponsorship to determine future event spend decisions. (Source: Marketing Profs)
• 85% of marketers say their organizations prioritize sponsoring events. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• 30% of marketers say they’ll increase spending on sponsored events in the year ahead. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• The most popular types of sponsored events are industry trade shows/conventions, one-day conference or seminars, business or channel partner events, and multiple-day conferences. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• The most popular types of events that B2B companies sponsor are industry trade shows/conventions, multiple-day conferences or seminars, one-day conferences or seminars, business or channel partner events, and thought-leadership workshops. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
• The most popular types of events that B2C companies sponsor are entertainment events, one-day conferences or seminars, industry trade shows/conventions, multiple-day conferences, and business or channel partner events. (Source: Harvard Business Review Analytic Services)
Feel like a believer? Get started on learning all there is to know about event marketing in our video series, Run of Show.
