Competition for buyers’ attention has never been so fierce. To drive revenue and expansion in a persistent economic downturn and ever-changing buying landscape, event marketers are facing increased pressure to capture engagement.
Enter: event-led growth (ELG).
event-led-growth
ELG defined: Event-led growth is a go-to-market approach that leverages events as the primary channel for customer acquisition and retention. By creating data-driven programs that integrate marketing efforts across channels like social media and content marketing, ELG helps organizations drive meaningful value and engagement at scale.
To better grow their programs and improve the efficacy and revenue impact of their events, marketers across the globe are incorporating ELG strategies. And it’s helping them drive impactful event ROI.
To understand the state of events in 2024, Splash surveyed marketers in the United States and United Kingdom who are involved in their company’s global events programs. We found that across both regions, a single event marketer planned an average of 14 events in 2023 — that’s about one event every four weeks! Note: When properly enabled, we’ve seen single companies run 800+ events per month.
And those incorporating ELG are seeing outstanding results:
Respondents in the US and UK are similarly eager to grow and scale their event programs, but their reasoning behind doing so varies. Although both consider generating net-new revenue a key outcome for events, US-based event marketers are also highly focused on customer expansion, while their UK counterparts are more concerned with brand awareness and reach.
But event marketing does not come without its fair share of difficulties. Respondents listed the following as their top three challenges:
As organizations look to scale their programming, they need updated strategies and tools to get the most out of their events. Let’s explore the state of events and event marketing in both regions as revealed by our 2024 Outlook on Events report.
When it comes to event location, there’s no place like home. The vast majority of respondents (96% of US event marketers and 93% of UK event marketers) hosted in-person or hybrid events on their home turf in 2023.
But the event marketing mix introduced by the pandemic is here to stay. While in-person events may have dominated programming before 2020, virtual and hybrid options aren’t going anywhere. In 2023:
That said, the power of in-person events simply can’t be ignored. In an AI-obsessed and Zoom-fatigued world, audiences have a clear appetite for unique and intimate in-person gatherings. And marketers need to provide authentic experiences to engage with prospects and stakeholders; make their brand stand out; and capture first-party data in a world of hard-to-track buyers who are increasingly concerned with privacy.
That’s why traditional in-person events remain the industry’s bread and butter, with 73% of companies holding in-person events in 2023. More than half (60%) of those who hosted a blend of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events noted in-person get-togethers have been the most effective for generating revenue.
Audiences crave different types of experiences at different points in their buyer journey. The events that matter most to prospects who haven’t yet made a decision may not be as meaningful to customers you’ve already secured and are trying to retain. As such, organizations host a wide variety of events that serve different purposes.
Here’s how those variances shake out in the US:
In the US, community and networking events emerged as the highest revenue generators for prospects and customers alike. This highlights why it’s so critical to give people the opportunity to connect with their peers and like-minded individuals — events are an extremely powerful channel for companies to bring people together.
Meanwhile, while community and networking events were similarly effective for turning prospect interest into revenue in the UK, marketers listed brand pop-up events for customers as the highest revenue generators.
When it comes to variances by prospect- and customer-focused events, organizations in the UK are hosting the following:
Our research revealed that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to planning and hosting events. Programming that resonates with US consumers may be completely irrelevant for those in the UK and vice versa.
For instance, UK-based marketers were 69% more likely than their US counterparts to hold webinars for customers and 60% more likely to say conferences or trade shows for customers generate the most revenue.
In both the United States and United Kingdom, businesses are falling short when it comes to event metrics. US-based marketers are notably neglecting to track event registrations (54%), opportunities created (53%), and attendance rates (40%) to measure event effectiveness.
Without these vital stats, they’re struggling to understand the impact of their events programs:
UK-based marketers are facing similar challenges, but they value different metrics when it comes to meeting their event KPIs. These marketers were 26% more likely than their US counterparts to track ROI and 22% more likely to track closed-won business to measure event effectiveness.
Events are a surefire way to introduce people to what your company does and what your values are. They provide a personalized experience that digital marketing campaigns simply can’t measure up to. Today’s buyers crave personalization, and what better way to provide that than by spending quality time with a brand?
Event-led growth (ELG) is a key strategy for organizations looking to improve the efficacy of their events as a marketing channel. And the data doesn’t lie: US-based teams that adopted ELG were 75% more likely than those who didn’t to see a growth rate of over 50% in 2023.
This is lighting a fire under organizations that haven’t implemented ELG yet: 44% of all respondents said they have plans to incorporate ELG strategies in 2024. Note: Companies with 201+ employees were 27% more likely than companies with 200 or fewer employees to adopt an event-led growth approach.
Businesses using ELG are noticing benefits like better brand visibility (63%), stronger customer relationships (63%), and stronger or new partnerships (52%). And they’re leaving stragglers in the dust:
Companies that don’t incorporate ELG are feeling the pain: 53% said their company’s events are underperforming because they lack an event-led growth strategy.
While nearly three-quarters of UK-based companies implemented an event-led growth approach, the holdouts are turning to more traditional channels. These respondents were 62% more likely than US-based marketers to say they use organic social media as their primary marketing channel for customer acquisition and retention.
It seems like a strategic shift is needed for more UK marketers to use ELG. Of those who don’t have any plans to adopt this approach, UK event marketers were 63% more likely than US-based folks to say it’s because events are too expensive.
Companies are going all-in on events in 2024. More than two-thirds (69%) of event marketers expect to plan more events this year, and those who use ELG were 43% more likely to say this than those who do not.
ELG is becoming more appealing by the day, with 80% agreeing their company would benefit from an event-led growth approach. With the majority of companies (70%) planning to increase their total marketing budgets in 2024, business leaders need to set their event marketers up for success by investing in tools that drive scalable ELG strategies.
Learn more about how event technology can help you market, measure, and scale your in-person, hybrid, and virtual events.
Splash, a global event technology company, empowers everyone within an organization to host on-brand, measurable, repeatable, and compliant event programs and digital experiences at scale. Splash helps companies execute more impactful events through brand-compliant templates, real-time integrations, and deep insights into attendee engagement and event ROI. Using Splash, event professionals and teams can simplify their processes, amplify their brand, measure their results more effectively, and grow their event programs through a single, powerful platform. See why Fortune 500 companies choose Splash to power their events at www.splashthat.com.
The 2024 Outlook on Events survey was conducted between December 13 and December 31, 2023. Splash surveyed a total of 1,255 respondents in the United States and United Kingdom who work in marketing full-time and have a hand in their company’s events program. The study was conducted at 95% confidence with a +/- 4% margin of error.
