There’s so much that goes into planning and executing a great event, but if you do it right – it’s all worth it. Nobody knows this more than one of the smartest event marketers we know, Amy Barone, Sr. Director of Marketing Events & Engagement Programs at Tableau and the ultimate Event Optimizer (according to Harvard Business Review).
We chatted with Amy about her entire event strategy and how it contributed to Tableau’s growth from a 2-million to billion-dollar company. Now, she’s here to answer all your burning questions about those nitty gritty event details that you may have always been wondering about.
Want to see Amy’s full interview? Watch our latest webinar on-demand here.
1. What tactics did you employ to get people to your Tableau Conference in the beginning (when it was 187 attendees), compared to now (20,000 attendees)?
Amy: Our strategy for our Tableau Conference —our largest annual gathering of customers — has shifted and adjusted over the years, but the main tactics have always been email marketing and direct outreach from the sales team over the phone.
Over time, this has developed into a more sophisticated and integrated marketing effort, leveraging a number of different channels, but we still find that the bulk of our tickets are tied to our sales team’s efforts.
Amy: It varies based on the type of industry or whether your company is B2B or B2C.
For us (B2B), if we are trying to leverage events as a prospecting effort, we may take a couple approaches to drive registration from beyond our database. That could be leveraging digital advertising channels such as LinkedIn, creating feeder campaigns via webinars, or other efforts that can help generate a lead list for us to promote the event to.
3. For companies that can measure event ROI, is there any data or insight into how they are attracting the right audiences?
Amy: Sometimes this all comes down to testing.
As the Senior Director of Marketing Events & Engagement Programs at Tableau, my best approach has always been to set a target audience based on our goals, track and measure event performance, try new ideas, and then see what worked and what didn’t. This way, we can continually make improvements to how we approach different audiences for our different types of events.
4. Fair to say that those who’ve drunk the Tableau Kool Aid are more likely to attend events and get more out of it. Do you find that commitment happens before, or as a consequence of your event?
Amy: This is one of those chicken or the egg questions and I’m sure I can find stories that support either theory. What I do know is that Tableau has positively, and in some cases dramatically, impacted many of our customers lives. In a lot of cases, it has gotten personal for them.
Our Tableau Conference provides an environment for our customers to express their inner data geek, giving attendees the chance to connect with others who are impacting their organizations, and to inspire them to do more and change the world with data. As we’ve cultivated our brand, we’ve been able to tap into the emotional brand connection that our customers have with our product, which is then amplified at our events.
Amy: It really comes down to what the objective of the event is. If you are trying to nurture or build community within your customer base, a hosted event may give you much more flexibility for designing appropriate content, coordinating networking activities, and allowing you to own the message of the event.
If you are trying to create brand awareness and generate leads for a developing audience segment, sponsoring an industry event where you can have a booth presence and speaking opportunity will likely allow you to accomplish those goals more successfully.
Your decision could also be driven by the resources you have to put behind the program, since hosted events often require more budget and resources than sponsoring an outside event.
6. How can event organizers be sure that revenue impact is a result of an event, and not other relationship-building opportunities?
Amy: There are two different ways to measure impact: direct impact and influence impact. The most common way to track direct, or the source of the impact is by capturing the lead source of the opportunity, which you can do easily in sales and marketing automation tools like Salesforce and Marketo.
That being said, most sales require multiple touches between the lead source and the won opportunity, so many organizations have adopted a multi-touch attribution model to assess the types of activities (or the combination of activities) that convert a lead to a customer.
For many of our programs at Tableau, we set a combination of net-new and total lead goals, plus opportunity-won and influenced opportunity-won targets. We also partner with sales to set targets together, leveraging both our automation tools and anecdotal sales data to tell the most complete impact story.
7. Compliance and regulatory factors mean that some industries (such as healthcare) have to avoid hosted events. Can you share any insights into how these companies are approaching ROI measurement?
Amy: Every type of company—regardless of regulatory factors—should be able to find ways to measure ROI, whether they’re able to host events, or have to rely on sponsoring industry or association events such as HiMSS.
Typically when sponsoring events, your goals center around either lead generation, brand awareness, or thought leadership (especially if the opportunity can be coupled with a speaking engagement). Sometimes it is about determining what you can do, and creating a plan that leverages events as another tool in your toolkit to achieve your goals. You should approach ROI in the same way that you would for any other campaign, and do your best to measure consistently in order to understand how events impact your results.
Amy: There are many ways to measure the success of a partnership, but from a high level you should ask yourself: did this vendor deliver on the project or scope of work (SOW) that was expected?
For starters, a strong contract or master service agreement (MSA) is helpful for longer-term partnerships. We’ve also added SLA (service level agreement) language to most of our contracts so that we are clear with our vendors on expectations and what success in our partnership looks like. Also, a really clear SOW and change management process can help ensure everyone is on the same page.
Amy: When working with an outside event production company, there are a number of table stakes to consider. They should have a proven track record producing similar types of events, be able to deliver successfully within budget, and achieve your vision.
But I typically look for more than that. I look for a company that understands my vision and can amplify it, as well as a team who easily fits right in with ours and can help create a final product that is better than we imagined.
Amy: After trying a number of different tactics, we’ve found that creating engaging booths that help tell our product story have really been the most successful approach, especially at large trade shows.
It helps us prioritize time in the booth with attendees who are actually interested in learning more about our product versus feeling like they need to put in some face time just to get some swag. This also ensures that the leads we’re passing back to our sales team are people who are truly interested in our product.
When I do decide to invest in promotional items, I try not to purchase obvious throwaway items or things that are never going to make it in the suitcase back home (promotional items can be very costly). It all comes down to evaluating your goals and whether or not there is sufficient return potential on the item investment.
Want to get Amy’s full interview? Watch our latest webinar on-demand, which also includes an in-depth look at the state of event marketing from Harvard Business Review.
Want to be an Event Optimizer like Amy? Check out the 6 attributes of elite event marketers.
