The Employment Picture for Direct & Event Marketers

Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC released results of a job search survey they conducted last week, focused on the direct marketing industry, with results which were very telling. I found the results insightful first of all because, of course, the Events Marketing community is a subset of this group. And secondly, because … well … participants in the survey were, like me, people in the Events Marketing industry looking for employment in a very challenging industry and economy. (I’m one of the 9.7% of the workforce in seeking employment.)


You can read the details of the survey results here – detailing length of time direct marketers are out of work, as well as details parsed by salary. Two points jump out at me:

• Survey results showed direct markers duration of unemployment as longer – almost double – the national median as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is not an apples-to-apples comparison (survey responses to federal statistics), but certainly shows the tenure of unemployment for event marketing professionals is longer than the national average. And the national average is, of course, too long as a whole.
• 50% of the responders have been looking for work for seven months are longer. This, obviously, is an alarmingly large percentage (the survey did not include national averages as a benchmark.) The only silver lining is that “only” 20% of the respondents had been looking for work between 1-3 months – which, to take a leap of faith, could imply a lower # of layoffs over the past three month period. (The report also notes that unemployment may be “bottoming out.”)

In short, the employment picture for direct marketing professionals is more challenged than in other professions. And, of course, it’s challenged all over. Which begs the question “what’s an Event Marketing professional to do?” Trust me, unemployment is no fun, and I also have empathy for people fortunate enough to be employed, as I’ve certainly heard stories of individuals doing multiple jobs to compensate for lack of staffing.

While I wish I had a magic wand (I would have selfishly pointed it to myself if I did!), lacking that, a few thoughts and suggestions to Event Marketers on both side of the employment fence – ones that have kept me sane at times throughout this process:

• Positive attitude: I am a firm believer in the importance of this. Karma carries, both internally and externally. Go to a job interview resentful that you’ve been out of work for seven months, and it will show. Let the situation eat at you and it will negatively impact the effectiveness of your search. The same obviously goes for attitude at work. When you feel negative clouds building, take a break – go for a walk, a cup of coffee, clear your head and get back to being positive.
• Keep yourself relevant: The landscape for event marketing is changing – if you’re unemployed, take the time to learn about new initiatives in Social Media and think about how you’d implement that into a multichannel strategy. If you’re employed, make the time to do the same. Learning something new is a “feel good” activity, and it adds value to you as a commodity. Hubspot, by way of example, offers Inbound Marketing University certification (which I completed in August), with a new round of testing taking place the end of October, and would suggest exploring.
• Networking: I’ve found my last two jobs through networking, and suspect, the end of the day, I’ll land somewhere this time because of it as well. And – as I keep learning – keeping your network fresh while you’re employed is important. You don’t want to spend time dusting off old names if you ever need them in a hurry!

With regards to networking, I’ve had discussions questioning the value of this in these tough economic times. And if you’re employed, I’m guessing you’ve fielded a number of calls. But I’d heard (and unfortunately don’t have a source) that, on average, a large job board posting receives 800 applications. So quick math: even if the job is perfect for you, it’s probably perfect for 10% of the others. Putting you up against 80 people who are (hate to say it) on par with you, from which the employer will choose maybe 10 candidates to have an initial round of interviews with. If these assumptions seem reasonable, that leaves you a 1.25% chance of getting called in for a job board interview for a job you’re perfectly qualified for. Given those numbers, I again suggest the networking route.

I again do wish I had the magic wand to wave – but lacking that do hope the above provides some thoughts and encouragement. The landscape is not one we created … but need to be diligent in improving our situations.

Good luck!

John

DM Should Not = Desperation Marketing

I am floored. Flabbergasted. And, honestly, a bit saddened: saddened to see that, even today, some events organizations' direct marketing efforts are not only not getting it right, but are getting it very wrong.

The background: I recently registered on a (reputable) portal which, along with producing blogs, newsletters, etc., supports an online community, which struck me as a smart Social Media-based initiative. The company also organizes well-known industry events, including a fairly sizable event in a couple of weeks.

As part of their event marketing strategy – which may work perfectly well for this organization – the Early Bird deadline was set for two weeks prior to the event [this strikes me as a late Early Bird – more on that later]. Unfortunately, the deadline fell on September 4 – which, in the U.S., was the beginning of the Labor Day holiday.

Given that, I received an email on August 31st (last Monday) letting me know the Early Bird deadline was expiring on Friday. A perfectly reasonable communication to push the deadline and associated savings.

Then I also received another reminder on Tuesday.

And Thursday. And Friday. All with fairly similar messaging around the Early Bird Deadline discount which I Could Not Miss.

Of course, I missed it. So, on Monday (on Labor Day itself), I received an email that the deadline had been extended until Tuesday. And two emails on Tuesday letting me know The Deadline Was Near!

In short, in the course if six business days, I, Joe Prospect, received seven emails with fairly identical messaging that the Early Bird savings to this event was ending soon. Interspersed with a pair of emails (one last Wednesday – the one day I didn’t get an Early Bird email – and one today) letting me know I could get a free Exhibit Hall pass.

I forwarded one of these emails to a colleague, Roger Jarman, who very succinctly replied “They think that DM is short for Desperation Marketing.” I initially laughed … but then it bothered me. It’s these strategies and tactics which continue to present the Event Marketing in a negative light – historically, as perpetrators of “spray and pray” direct mail, and more recently as spammers. And of course, it does smack of desperation.

As Event Marketers, we need to move beyond such tactics. In this case, with proper planning, an alternate Early Bird deadline should have been utilized. (Also – see this previous posting regarding Early Bird strategies.) A longer lead time (more than two weeks) would have also allowed contingencies to be implemented if attendee numbers were below internal targets.

I certainly know and empathize that the industry continues to struggle both in generating attendees and sponsor revenue in our down economy. But in short, in the face of these challenges, resorting to a series of fairly identical daily emails is not the answer. Far from it, I would be surprised if this campaign doesn’t drive up opt-out rates and drive down open rates.

We, as Event Marketers, need to ensure our efforts and campaigns are using industry Best Practices, that we continue to go to market strategically and innovatively, and that we really need to think before we hit the “transmit” button.

Good luck!

John

Live Events: "I'm Not Dead!"

Forbes Insights just published an Executive Report, “Business Meetings: The Case for Face to Face.” While the report, for the most part, is positive news for live events and events marketing professionals, there are also results which provide some food for thought.

The good news for live events is – to quote the peasant in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “I’m not dead.” That was proven very true in the survey – of the 750 business executives surveyed, 84% responded that they preferred “in person, face-to-face meetings” to “technology-driven meetings” and 87% said face-to-face meetings had "tangible benefits" over technology-driven meetings. So despite speculation and discourse around technology squeezing the live event business out of existence, there is a strong recognized, identifiable value to convening. In this light, the struggles the industry has recently seen can certainly be attributed more to the economic environment than technology replicating or replacing the value of the face-to-face.


There are valuable points for Event Marketing professionals to consider regarding the identified benefits of face-to-face events. In a nutshell (and to not reiterate what’s in the report), there is a strongly embedded value in networking, meeting people, reading people, and being able to take deeper, more strategic onsite dives into issues and challenges attendees face. To that end, a couple of questions/observations:

• Is your marketing message leveraging networking/face-to-face interaction as a USP? While content delivered at an event is critical (if the event is not presenting anything germane, don’t expect huge turnout), in this day and age this information, overall, is not truely unique. The unique value is the interaction – and marketing messaging needs to drive that home throughout the course of the campaign.
• Structurally, is the event geared towards leveraging on-site interaction? I’ve contributed to and seen some very innovative initiatives around small discussion roundtables, attendee networking badges/pins which indicated attendee verticals or expertise (to facilitate discussion) as well as traditional show floor interaction, sponsor receptions, etc. These all improve the on-sight experience - and score well on attendee satisfaction surveys - and provide a facet of the event to manage your marketing message around, as well.
• To bring the social media aspect to the live event – do you have, or are you planning on building communities around attendees? Outside of traditional “Alumni discounts,” the SM technology available should be utilized to continue the interaction initiated onsite to build greater lifetime value for the attendee.

The lesson overall is to survive the storm – business executives still value the live event for a set of identifiable, unique reasons. However, event marketers do need to be diligent in communicating this value, and working to ensure the advantages inherent in the live setting are leveraged and delivered.


Good luck!


John

P.S. Remember - please do feel free to re-Tweet this with the icon on the lower left.

It’s Not (Only) What You Say, It’s How You Say It

I recently read an interesting post by Marc Munier of Pure360 on Econsultancy detailing social media tactics and incorporating them into marketing channels – mainly email (Pure360, FYI, is an email marketing service). A couple of specific nuggets he suggested:

• Encourage response: Part of the allure of Blogging is its interactivity – the potential to engage, post comments and participate in discussions. Munier suggests including this invitation to respond in email communications –and not to expect flood of response, but because including this feature of two-way communication increases the value to the reader.
• Unsubscribe comments positioning: Moving the unsubscribe to the top of the email, while this it would make some marketers nervous, would show you are a “legitimate Marketer, and that you don’t want to email people who don’t want to receive your emails,” Munier notes.

While I won’t reiterate the entire blog here, the post raises a good point: social media, aside from being a different platform/channel (which underlies part of the “buzz”), uses a different communication/tone (which is the unspoken part of said buzz). And it is time to take a look at the voice used in traditional channels.

For example, printed collateral (a.k.a. those direct mail pieces that are just not delivering ROI) has not changed its core components in ages: intro letter, session descriptions, sponsors, registration/hotel info. All of which speak to the recipient, not with the recipient. The same scenario frequently exists with Event-specific emails; although there have been advances in weaving more content into promotional marketing e-mail communications, the overall message remains ‘register for my Event!’

In the face of challenged clicks, opens, and ROI on traditional channels in an integrated Event Marketing campaign, we are not (yet) at the point of cutting these channels from a campaign. Event Marketing leaders are, however, certainly at the point of needing to think through (and test) incorporating key elements driving Social Media, specifically:

• Making it a conversation: Include informational elements to brochures – for example, I’ve done brochure with one page (in a 12-page brochure) dedicated to results and discussion around a pre-event survey on topics, issues and solutions. This could be done in conjunction with a drive-to-Web link to a discussion board or further information on the site.
• Pull, don’t push: intersperse content, insight from White papers, statistics, etc., from the organization that the prospect would find helpful.
• Allow prospects to interact with the event: include speaker Twitter IDs and LinkedIn URLs (easier done in email unless customized); also, share your event Twitter ID, Facebook fan page, and/or LinkedIn Event page at every available opportunity. (Make it easy to communicate and be transparent in how they can find you!)
• Share the organization’s expertise: if you have a free e-newsletter, whitepaper, podcasts, Webinars, etc. let it be known – make mention of it and provide links in your print and email.
• Truncate it!: As Munier suggests, part of the success of Twitter is its brevity. The same can be applied to emails and print: put the 75-100 word session descriptions on the Web. Aside from being green, this will produce a more visually palatable piece.

In regards to print, incorporating the above will and should go hand-in-hand with thinking about covers – moving away from traditional Event/Location/Key Reason to Attend messaging to content points – drawing people to specific pages in the brochure.

And again, these are suggestions and elements to test – I welcome comments from anybody with examples and results of any initiatives taken along these lines to date.

Good luck!

John

Where's the Spend? Social Media Budgets for Event Marketing

As we melt through the dog days of August, Event Marketing eyeballs are beginning to focus on (if they have not already started) planning for 2010, and specifically budgeting. This is going to be a big challenge for a number of (in some cases obvious) reasons. Forecasting the economic environment as a baseline to develop budget revenues and attendee volumes will be challenging … and then there is the expense budgeting exercise.

With the advances we’ve seen in social media as a channel over the past year (even in the face of - or maybe because of - the economy) the question that needs to be answered is “What do we spend on this 'stuff' in 2010?” My concrete, set-in-stone answer is: it depends. Taking a look at a chart from a MarketingProfs/Forrester Research report, “B2B Marketing in 2009: Trends in Strategies and Spending,” certainly shows that across the board, drive-to-web marketing spend was up in 2009, traditional/branding channels were down. Do note: this chart isn't a guide: how “up” or “down” really varies and is a question to be answered strategically by each marketing group. In the realm of social media spend and the % of marketing budget to allocate, however, I’d suggest centering the answers around a few interrelated questions/points:

1. What are you looking to achieve? Are you looking to use social media as a way build year-round community around an event? Drive-to-web? Lead gen mechanism? “Revenue” is end game; and there are a slew of SM options available (and combinations thereof). But in short, do make sure you have a strategy in place first before starting to think through and detail social media tactics around this. The thought and discussions put into this will pay off in the long run.

2. What sort of infrastructure do you have in place? Social media is inexpensive in the context of marketing channels available – setting up a Facebook page, for example, is free (!) But I think, in the next 18 months, event marketers will be asked to produce more report on the ROI of social media initiatives. Not clicks, not hits, not bounce statistics – lead acquisition and conversion. And to do that you need to make sure your back-end infrastructure is defined and in place. And this may take additional investment – so make sure this maps to item #1.

3. Do you have people in place? Again, social media tactics are comparatively inexpensive. A hidden (or overlooked) expense is, as I’ve noted before, bandwidth. Are there people in place who will take ownership of producing content? Doing content right takes manhours – with today’s lean workforce you need to make sure this is taken into consideration – and ensure this area is properly staffed.

In the context of setting your marketing budget for 2010, this is the time to follow the trend of re-allocating marketing spend from direct mail (being more targeted and, of course, integrating into these other channels) into online marketing. One additional thought, pending your budget process: do establish this spend as an established budget line – avoid entering it in a soft, “testing” category. If the industry is soft and expenses need to be cut, this could be the first money to go – not a desirable result.

Good luck!

John

In Case You Missed It....

While The Event Marketing Insider has been posting for six months now, within the course of recent weeks, I’ve been practicing what I preach and doing more outreach via Social Media channels. As a result, there has been a larger volume of readers and followers with each post (and thanks to all!!!!).

To that end, I’d like to share the earlier posts, when three followers (myself included) was a good thing. While these columns are all in the archives, I do realize and appreciate (if I am a case study) there is not a ton of time and incentive to dig through these unless looking for a specific article. Here, then, are a list of old posts and brief descriptions for easy access.

• One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure: A short post on pending state-by-state Do Not Mail legislation – including a link to the DMA Web page providing additional details.


• Corporate Culture: What’s in the Petri Dish?: The culture of an Events Marketing unit in the context of a Events organization.


• More on Culture - Controlling your Reality: A continuation of the culture discussion, this more from a mid-manager’s perspective.


• Don’t Neglect Your (Media) Partner: Why and how to tap into this underutilized channel of outreach in event marketing campaigns.


• Does the Early Bird Get the Worm?: Tackling the question of why Early Bird discounts may not be the powerful incentive they once were – and some alternatives worth considering.


• Developing Win-Win Partnerships with Exhibitors: In a similar vein to enriching Media Partnerships, another low-cost channel a successful Event marketer should fully explore and leverage is partnering with event exhibitors/sponsors.


• This is Not a Test!: It’s a post about testing, specifically email testing. Differences between A/B and multivariate tests and what to best use when in a marketing campaign.


• Susan Boyle and the On-Site Experience: I got caught up in the hype, this is a post on how the success surrounding Boyle was that she exceeded expectations – and ways to do this on-site at an event.


• To Key or Not to Key: Exploring the value of Keynote speakers at an event – what is it and how do you measure?


• For All the Peeps: I stumbled upon Eventpeeps.com, a new, ning.com based event-specific community portal, details are in this post.


• Summer’s Here (Now what?...): Addressing and debating the long-held belief that events should NOT be held over the summer months. Not an argument that it should … just suggesting why it should be explored.


• Is Testing Part of Your Email Campaigns? Survey Says “No”: Recent Forrester research noted a small number of organizations were testing email on an ad-hoc basis. A quick scolding and look at testing options available.


• Readers Comment on “Summer’s Here!”: Some feedback from the earlier blog.


• Social Media & Event Marketing Part I: LinkedIn: Utilizing LinkedIn in an Event Marketing campaign – how to’s and tips. http://tr.im/pDTG


• Metrics, Metrics, Everywhere (Which one(s) do you use): There are a number of articles and questions on Event Marketing metrics. A look at what we should consider in making decisions.


• Social Media & Event Marketing Part II: Facebook: Utilizing Facebook in an Event Marketing campaign – how to’s and tips.


• Social Media & Event Marketing Part III: Twitter: Utilizing Twitter in an Event Marketing campaign – how to’s and tips.


• Social Media & Event Marketing Part IV: Video, Pictures, Presentations: Utilizing other medium in an Event Marketing campaign – how to’s and tips.

And ... this brings us up-to-date! Please do continue read, tweet, and comment on these articles – any insight and feedback is great and appreciated! (P.S. A quick note/reminder: please re-tweet any post from the button in the lower left)

Good luck!

John

Social Media & Event Marketing Part IV: Video, Pictures, Presentations

There are a myriad of other Social Media platforms that can be used in the course of Event Marketing; previous posts on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter were a look at the larger Social Media sites driven by community. There are also portals which provide plenty of opportunity to make your Event Marketing initiatives to viral – and which should be used to work hand-in-hand with the above sites – to build a well-rounded environment to attract and convert prospect and retain and engage attendees, enhancing your overall Event Marketing initiatives:

Blogging: There are a variety of options in this area, including WordPress and Blogger. There are enough articles debating the merit of using each one, but from what I have read & understand, WordPress is suggested for corporate blogs. (I originally signed onto the Blogger and have not had issue to switch.) There is, of course, also the option of a proprietary blog, pending your internal resources.

Presentation sharing: the SlideShare portal affords the opportunity to upload and share a variety of documents – PowerPoint, OpenOffice and Apple Keynote presentations, Microsoft Office Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, iWork pages and PDFs. While you of course do not want to give away an entire presentation's worth of content prior to an event, much like a pre-event Webinar (see below) this is an avenue by which to show off the great content you are providing attendees through summarized presentations. You can also set up SlideShare to share documents with a proprietary set of individuals, for example to be used for onsite or post-event sharing. This is also a great opportunity to share presentations for sponsorship marketing initiatives.

Photo and Videos: Flickr and YouTube have exploded in popularity for photo and video sharing (Flickr handles both). Onsite pictures and videos of networking, keynotes/presentations, etc. certainly fall into the “a picture is worth a thousand words” category in communicating the feel and value of an event. As video is dynamic, it can (and has) been used in a couple of ways – both as a produced video creating buzz about an event, as seen for in TED event clip, and providing content, as the Gartner video demonstrates. In either scenario, brevity is important, keeping the viewer engaged and showing the depth and breadth of the event with either tactic is the goal. And of course ... do wind up with a call to action!

The real key to success to all of this is planning and execution: integrating the above, plus the previously discussed channels, into an overall Event Marketing communications strategy and stream. Specifically, you need to ensure there are plans and people in place to link and integrate video, blogs and pictures from your event Facebook and LinkedIn pages, that team members are tweeting about these, and that these links are prominent on the Event Web site. As well, links and call-outs should be included in your traditional direct marketing channels when utilized (email and direct mail), encouraging prospects to engage and follow wherever possible. This also provides the benefit of these communications shifting form a straight push for event attendance to promoting the Social Media option as this becomes part of the marketing mix.

And as previously discussed, a secondary element will be leveraging the communities built post-event – scheduling and executing regular discussions, blogs, notes, etc. – to ensure the attendee (and prospects) are, in fact, part of an ongoing and thriving network, not individuals on a promotional cycle spoken to in the context of a campaign. In short, work to utilize Social Media as the unique tool set leverage your Event Marketing prowess.

Good luck!

John