Randi Rosenberg

It was a week ago today that I heard the indescribably sad news that Randi Rosenberg had passed away, entirely too young, after an extended battle with breast cancer. I’ve read the many online tributes people who she touched had posted in her memory, and have come to appreciate what a terrific person she was, and how dearly she will be missed.

I worked professionally with Randi in 2007, when she was recommended as somebody who could provide marketing expertiese on event I was working on. And even in that limited capacity, in that limited time frame, she was certainly – as she has been described – a force of nature. A wonderful personality, strong, supportive and tenacious in her efforts, caring. And this was only in this one project; I cannot begin to imagine the joy she brought to her family and lifelong friends and associates, although I did come to appreciate she was a person who touched everybody she met.

We kept in touch after the project was over, checking in with a “how are things” phone call or email. When I was separated from Gartner last year, she was one of the first people I called, and she was one of the people who, unsurprisingly, was a terrific help in suggestions and promising to keep her eyes open for me. She never mentioned her health challenges, never complained, which I’m sure is just the person she was.

So the news, of course, came as a shock; I had been thinking of her lately as I hadn’t heard from her, but could not (or did not) imagine the circumstances surrounding it.

One of the things I learned about Randi was that she was one of the founders and past presidents of Young Survival Coalition; the coalition is accepting contributions in her memory either online or via check made payable to:

Young Survival Coalition Inc.
61 Broadway
New York, NY 10016-2263

Randi will be missed.

Exhibitor & Sponsor Marketing Engagement: Why not go social?

It (almost) goes without saying that the investment Exhibitors and Sponsors make in an event does not end once ink is dry on the contract. Exhibitors’ marketing budgets – in both pre- and on-site promotions – are substantial. According to a survey published by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, respondents spent, on average, $32,000 - and up to $50,000 - on these activities per event. Add to this costs in human capital and the challenges measuring ROI and it becomes clear why the events budgets are prime for cutbacks when corporate marketing budgets are put under the magnifying glass.

It also begs the question: Why the lack of social networks as an inexpensive, effective marketing channel for attendee promotion?

According to the CEIR survey, Effective Methods for Visitor Promotion Part II: Exhibitors, less than half of the 218 responders reported using personal social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook) for visitor promotion (and this was the highest use of SM tools reported.) If, as I noted last week, the name of the game is engagement, Exhibitor Event Marketing leaders need to grow the use of Social Media tools as effective and cost-effective means to driving booth traffic.

Ironically, a key benefit cited in the survey, access to an attendee list (84% of the respondents said they wanted a list of pre-registered attendees from the event organizer), is one which Event Marketers can develop using these very tools. Social media tools provide the ability to develop these communities and networks as a way to not only drive booth traffic but to engage attendees, potential attendees, and your booth visitors on a year-round basis.

Using social media and networking tools strategically also provides you a voice before the event – and alleviates your not just being another face at a booth an attendee stops by on site. Ask yourself: as an attendee, would you rather visit a booth where you’ve connected with a representative of the company, or visit a booth cold? Getting a handle on and using social media goes a long way in humanizing what can be the large, industrial feel of many a show floor.

This can – and, I suggest – should be handled collaboratively between Exhibitors and Event Organizer marketing teams. First, Exhibitors should ensure that they, as sponsors, have access to and with attendees via a community or network managed by the organizer pre and post-event. [In this engagement, exhibitors of course should be sensitive avoid using such network or community to “push” booth traffic. Instead, use it to engage in conversations, answer questions, and listen.]

Secondly – and to step out of the event arena for a moment – exhibitors need to ensure they are utilizing the social media assets your corporate organization may already have in place. Use this as a way to not only reach out to event attendees, but to raise awareness around the event and your organization’s participation in the event. Your company’s blogs, gated communities, and networks are prime areas to include your presence at events as part of your overall corporate communication and branding initiatives.

Possibly the most telling item on the survey: While one of the lesser tools utilized by exhibitors, Social Networking was cited as the 3rd most effective exhibit promotional tool (behind Hospitality Suites and Guerilla Marketing) … and more effective than traditional avenues such as handouts, email, print, and premiums. Again pointing to social media that, as Event Marketers, we need add to our arsenals.

Good luck!

John

Social Media & Event Marketing in 2010: Engagement!

Social Media continues to grow as a channel in the integrated Event Marketing mix. Any of a myriad of surveys and polls validates this trend, including one conducted by eMarketer, which notes 60% of the respondents planning to increase spend in Social Media in 2010. The confluence of the platforms and technologies available and the recession has, in short, driven Event Marketers to look at Social Media as an avenue to cost-effectively generate interest and demand for event portfolios.

There are a slew of Social Media options available, and new ones appear almost daily. But  Event Marketing strategies, tactics and campaigns don’t have the luxury of waiting for the next big platform: once an event – either live or virtual - is set, marketing commences with the tools in hand. Which begs the question: in which basket should Event Marketing leaders place today's eggs?

The over-arching answer, of course, is to explore and test a variety of social media platforms to determine what works. My take is that social media in the communications space: blogs and micro-blogs (i.e. Twitter), professional and social networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook), and content-sharing platforms (YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, etc.) are the keys for Event Marketing. Between them, an Event Marketing campaign team should develop a strong social media mix to support an event or event portfolio.

HOWEVER, I also think these all are only pieces of the ultimate goal: engagement. Continued, ongoing engagement. Social media has quickly brought many changes to Event Marketing, including the altering traditional communication strategies for both attendees and prospects. Event Marketing communication should no longer be on an “as needed” basis, tactically starting at X weeks out with a Save the Date email and ending with a post-event Thank You email, then re-ramping when the next promotional cycle ensues. Instead, B2B audiences will increasingly come to anticipate and expect social media-driven communities, networks and forums in which interaction – and engagement – is ongoing. Event marketing leaders who invest their increased Social Media spend in this arena will, in short, have the most to gain.

At a minimum, utilizing LinkedIn and Facebook both for their Event listing capability and Group feature (and, with Facebook, for its Fan Page) should be a starting point. Ning is another platform which, while mirroring LinkedIn, is set up for individual networks and communities. (If you are not familiar with Ning, do check out Eventpeeps.com, a site is built in Ning.) And of course, there are software options available as well. Pathable is one example of such software, this one happens to be event-specific and acts as an aggregator of various SM platforms. (I am not affailiated with or endorsing any of the above, but noting them as the types of options available. Please use due diligence if you explore them.)

Planning and executing Event Marketing using Social Media is a topic and discussion for another post: the take-away here is, if you have not already, begin to take a serious look at how you can start building continued, vital communities as a continued engagement strategy surrounding your events.

Good luck!

John

The Waning Marketing Funnel

Event Marketing – and marketing strategy in general – has traditionally started at the top of the marketing funnel. Demand generation starts at evaluating and defining the universe of prospects for a marketing campaign or initiative, and building out marcom strategies from there. With the advent of Social Media there are, of course, new models being built around inverted funnels – a ‘one-to-many’ approach – that may disrupt the method, but currently the funnel – with some revisions – is still in place.

The issue is that the traditional troughs feeding names to the funnel are evaporating. According to statistics published by MediaFinder.com, magazine titles closing outpaced new launches by over 55% in 2009. While this is another obvious testament to the economy and the changing face of communications, it also presents a challenge to the Event Marketing industry – a shrinking of available subscriber names from which to source your target audience.

[I can hear the calls from the Inbound Marketing pulpit that the focus should not be on outbound marketing and list acquisition but instead on inbound channels. The argument here is that the effort should be an integrated campaign – not an either/or proposition. I’ll detail further in a future post.]

In short, the notion of “available audience” has taken a beating over the past 18 months. Specifically, with unemployment numbers rising and, in the interest of budgetary prudence, investment in internal data cleaning being a bare minimum, ask yourself: what % of your database is still current? Add to that the universe of external lists contracting and event marketers seeking new, qualified sources of names are faced with a burden.

“The key is to think outside the box,” says industry veteran Bob Portner, Account Director for Specialists Marketing Services. “You need to look at other avenues … other ways … to target the people you want.”

Portner (in an admitted fit of self-interest) suggests hooking up with a list management and brokerage firm – one, he emphasizes, is “attuned to looking at other ways to target your audience for you.” Some suggestions he has offered his clients include:

• Compiled Lists: while considered less than optimal as opposed to controlled circulation or buyers’ lists, these can be beneficial as they typically have a greater range of demographics to select from, enabling a very targeted audience to be produced.
• Online Lists: with the advent of online registration forms, there are lists available of individuals (with opt-in permission, of course); an added benefit are that these names contain, by nature, individuals who have utilized the Internet to at least register/purchase products or services.
• “Other” sources: Portner cited a list of subscribers for a title which has long since ceased publication. The subscribers are a finite demographic, however, and the publisher “keeps the file current as best they can,” and had gotten continued positive feedback regarding response.

To clarify, this post is not a clarion call to switch to a campaign of external lists sources – instead, it’s recognizing that events marketers have sourced these lists historically, that there are challenges in attaining these lists today, and thoughts on how to address. My overall suggestion has always been to use these names to augment your internal database and your online and demand generation activities.

And, of course, to test and measure results on an ongoing basis. The benefits of internal databases vs. external lists vs. social media, etc. in developing event marketing strategies is an argument for another day; in reality results vary from industry to industry and organization to organization. But supplementing your outreach efforts by strategically adding external names to the mix is certainly a tactic worth considering or revisiting as 2010 unfolds. And thinking through the most effective way to source these names in a declining market is key.

And please do share thoughts, success/horror stories – would be great to hear them!

Good luck!

John

P.S. I'm also pleased to let everybody know I am very excited to be presenting at the VirtualEdge 2010 Summit next month - check out the details here!

“Who is Attending?”: Getting It Right

The Attendee Profile – answering the question “Who is Attending?” has always been an X factor for Event Marketers. It is a key metric exhibitors evaluate pre- post-event, and drives satisfaction with an event and influences re-sign decisions. I’m sure at one point you’ve heard feedback of “Exhibitors are not happy because there were too many vendors attending as delegates.” Or event attendees were “too junior,” “the wrong function,” or lacking in some other demographic.

To a point such feedback can be expected: you can’t please everybody. However, with exhibitors’ budgets coming under increased scrutiny, effective Event Marketing needs to focus on – and react to – not only quantity but quality of registrations in 2010. Gone are the days of getting X number of attendees in a room or a hall, patting ourselves on the back and saying “Well done!” Decision-makers in sponsorship circles are under increased pressure to prove and justify that their investment delivered the interaction, leads and conversions they planned for when signing onto the event. And that pressure, ultimately, falls on the shoulders of Event Marketers in the form of getting the right bodies there.

To help exhibitors justify spend, according to B2B Magazine, The Trade Show Exhibitors Association has formed an advocacy committee to push for the use of audits. [Yes, this is as ominous as it sounds. An audit, briefly, conducted by an outside organization such as BPA Worldwide, independently verifies the attendance figures claimed.] According to the article audits, which have been a mainstay in publishing for many years, are now being requested by a growing number of exhibitors.

Here are four thoughts, strategies and tactics you can – and should – be utilizing to leading up to an event help you ultimately, deliver a positive attendee and exhibitor experience:

• Event Marketers need to be engaged in the earliest phases of the planning cycle. You need to be on board in understanding and contributing to content formulation to ensure it aligns to the target market you are responsible for recruiting. Content is King: if you are seeking to attract VP-level attendees but content and sessions are addressing tactical topics … the VP you are targeting will see this and will send his subordinates. Game over.
• Best practice: Monitor. Make it a point to regularly review reports to ensure registrations are fitting the mold both in volume and demographics. Understand your registration patterns and continually analyze where registrations are coming from. If there is a list, internal segment, social media source or channel that is drawing too many or too few of the right/wrong attendee, be nimble enough to react.
• Work with your sponsors. As I wrote in an earlier post, this takes time and effort, but working with exhibitors – in coordination with your sales team – to engage them in reaching out to their contacts is important. There is certainly pushback and challenges around executing these efforts, including “why would I want my client on the show floor where my competitors are?” The message should be around your seamlessly working to invite their prospects - the message being “Wouldn’t you like that prospect that’s been in your pipeline for six months at the event?”
• Leverage Team Send. Develop an incentive: once you have a “good” contact registered, engage them in inviting others. Pending bandwidth, this is a great opportunity to roll out the “white glove” approach to people who have committed to your event. A phone call or personalized note is both a great CRM effort and works toward building ancillary attendance.

As a side note, nothing regarding event attendance communications should happen in a vacuum. All team members who interface with event participants need to be on the same page regarding what is communicated, whether the interaction is with exhibitors/prospects, press, or even other attendees. This includes working, and communicating, cross-functionally throughout the course of the campaign, discussing variations in demographic trending - what and how to speak to unavoidable changes in this trending. These can be difficult discussions, but ones that ultimately serve the betterment of the event in the end.

Good luck!

John

New Year, Same Old Email ...

With the new year (and, possibly, a new decade – but that’s an argument for another day) upon us, the vestiges of the old are behind us … or are they?

I recently came across an email promotion for the upcoming Event Marketing Summit, and was, honestly, disappointed by the structure and tone of it, especially coming from an organization that provides such useful content as Event Marketer magazine, the Event Marketing Institute and both the Eventpeeps.com online network and LinkedIn group.

In case you missed it, the email reads:

My overall take is that this is just a legacy push email – the type of communication that has given email marketing a bad rep. Given the excitement and opportunities surrounding email today, I’m surprised there wasn’t more forward-thinking communications being utilized to promote an event on Event Marketing.

Looking more closely, there are also some particular facets of the email that bothered me, starting with the Subject Line of "EM Summit ridiculous discount pricing expires in two days; Sign up now to save $400"

• Maybe it’s me, but when I saw “EM Summit,” my first thought was “Email Summit.” It's not clear which event this is for – simply put, Event Marketing should have been spelled out. Although the “From” line does specify Event Marketing Summit, its incorrectly assuming the recipient would make the connection.
• “ridiculous”: A $400 discount is not 'ridiculous.' It’s nice – but we’ve all seen many events with this Early Bird discount. Also – 'ridiculous' can have different connotations – certainly the intent is to be positive in this case, but can also be interpreted as silly, absurd, etc.
• Timing is everything: I get it – savings before the New Year (which, for some reason, is not spelled out in the Subject Line) – but sending an offer with a 2-day actionable turnaround during a holiday when many individuals are not in the office – especially with the deadline-based incentive – is not a recipe for success.

As much as an issue was the body of the email – upon opening it the message is: 

• Headline/opening sentence: A reaffirmation of the ‘ridiculous’ advanced discount.
• Second paragraph: A call to action … and another push of the $400 savings.
• Third paragraph: A third push of that $400 discount. And a reminder that it is only available through December 31.

By the third paragraph, the email is redundant. In other words, there was no message behind the message; it had very little to say. Given the sensitivities around the volume of email in people’s inboxes today, what is again disappointing is that this email was for an event on Event Marketing – with sessions and speakers who will, I would hope, advise attendees not to utilize this types of communication.

Finally, possibly most problematic is that the 'big' (I’ll refrain from calling it ridiculous) discount expires before the event content is available. As noted on the landing page the email drives to, “The program will be announced in January. But by then the lowest rates will be gone!” In short, the push is for registrations before content is detailed.

As much as I am an advocate of good, creative Event Marketing as a key contributor to the success of an event, I know that content is key to driving attendees. Unless targeting an event alumni familiar with the event’s historical quality and content (which this email was not, the recipient was not a prior attendee), going to market with messaging around registering for an event, providing an average discount, and not offering content to justify the registration decision strikes me as … well … ridiculous.

Hoping this email is the symbolic death knell of a challenging year, and let's keep the focus on best practices - and exceptional results - in our 2010 initiatives.

Good luck and Happy New Year!

John