By Mary Tucker, CEIR Sr. Communications & Content Manager
Originally published on CEIR.org
CEIR has released the final report in its Attendee Acquisition Trends Driving Growth series, Report Three: Areas of Focus for Improvement for Future Attendee Acquisition Efforts. This final chapter closes the story on strategies that business-to-business (B2B) event marketers plan to hone to gain attendees at upcoming events, based on its latest feedback from industry professionals.
“The majority of B2B events are still in recovery, so event marketers are focused on rebuilding their attendee base and may feel overwhelmed with so many to do’s looking forward,” says CEIR Vice President of Research Nancy Drapeau, IPC. “This report helps prioritize which efforts to consider taking on to grow attendance moving forward.”
The overarching theme seems simple enough: collect and organize data that effectively supports a solid omnichannel marketing strategy. But as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.
“Digital transformation is a slow process,” notes Drapeau. “Yet it’s a smart investment because organizing this data helps drive better understanding and decision-making where audience potential is greatest, pinpointing what to expand and what to stop based on actual results.”
This thought process leads the charge in areas where event marketers see room for improvement in the near future. Respondents indicated that top priorities include sharpening their digital marketing approach and adjusting their content to meet attendee needs. These aspects are especially significant in today’s highly digital, highly competitive marketing atmosphere. How does one better understand attendee digital behavior? How can media campaigns best maximize on these behaviors?
Report Three examines differences among demographics and industry sectors to reveal which tactics resonate strongest with each. As a result, new activities are emerging as rising stars in near-future marketing approaches. Among them are ways to sharpen data analytics.
“Marketers operate continuous quality improvement processes, this is nothing new,” Drapeau emphasizes. “They are always looking at what they did and trying to figure out how to improve on it – this is all part of the learning process. That leads to creating new tactics that make it better, therein lies the challenge and opportunity!”
According to these findings, event marketers are reaching reliable and usable understandings about the latest requirements directly related to their success such as the value of personalizing content; properly timing campaign components; the depth with which they develop attendee personas and map buyer journeys; and efficiently applying digital tools available to maximize their efforts in an already fast-paced tech climate.
Report Three: Areas of Focus for Improvement for Future Attendee Acquisition Efforts offers critical insights and solutions for today’s B2B event marketer. It is available at no charge to CEIR subscribers and IAEE members, and costs $29 to non-members.