Event marketing can be a valuable strategy for B2B marketing. It provides opportunities for networking, relationship-building, and showcasing products or services in a targeted environment. Businesses often come up with B2B event marketing ideas to initiate face-to-face interactions and gain credibility/trust from clients.
Many companies worldwide became famous thanks to their event marketing and organization skills. For example, Salesforce is a prominent figure thanks to its “Dreamforce” conference, a large-scale B2B event that brings together professionals to discuss innovations and networks. However, a great event marketing campaign comes with experience and practice as it requires aligning events with your B2B audience and objectives.
The article below covers B2B event marketing ideas along with tips and best practices on how to create event marketing strategies.
How do B2B Businesses Benefit from Event Marketing?
B2B businesses benefit from event marketing by providing them with a direct platform to engage and network with potential clients and partners. Events allow businesses to showcase their products tangibly and foster in-person communication.
Additionally, participation in industry events significantly improves brand visibility and credibility. B2B businesses often choose event marketing as part of their growth strategies to achieve goals such as:
- Lead Generation: events provide opportunities to connect with potential customers, generate leads, and gather their contact information
- Brand Awareness: presenting products and services at events creates a positive brand image
- Networking: face-to-face interactions at events facilitate relationship-building with clients, partners, and industry professionals ultimately building a network with strong industry contacts
- Knowledge sharing: hosting presentations or workshops allows businesses to share and receive knowledge and insights relevant to their niche
Most Efficient B2B Event Marketing Ideas
Generally, event marketing campaigns require a deep understanding of audience needs, industry trends, and technological opportunities. Event marketing strategy for B2B depends on business goals, type of event, budget, audience, and competition. One of the most significant factors in deciding the marketing techniques used for the strategy execution is the type of B2B event.
5 Types of B2B Events
The event types serve different purposes within the B2B context and align with different business goals, audiences, and engagement levels. The choice of the event type depends on your specific business objectives. Here are 5 types of B2B events along with their use cases:
- Industry conferences – ideal for bringing together professionals within a specific industry to share insights, discuss trends, and foster networking opportunities
- Trade shows and expositions – effective for product presentations, generating leads, and connecting with potential clients, partners, and suppliers
- Webinars – perfect for hosting virtual educational sessions, product demonstrations, and thought leadership discussions to a wide and diverse audience
- Workshops – suitable for hands-on training, skill development, and in-depth learning experiences
- Networking events– great for improving relationships, connecting industry experts, and creating opportunities for collaboration
B2B Event Marketing Ideas and Tips
There are hundreds of B2B event marketing ideas out there, however, they need various tools and methodologies to succeed. To effectively use targeted marketing channels for reaching your B2B audience for an event, consider the following strategies:
- Identify your audience:
You need to clearly define your target audience based on industry, needs, job roles, and interests. This will become your guide to choosing marketing channels. Create user personas to understand how to engage these individuals and which acquisition marketing strategies to use.
- Email marketing:
Create personalized and attractive email campaigns that promote your event. Make sure that you segment your email list to send targeted invitations and regular updates. You can set up an automated email marketing strategy to automate behavioral triggers and achieve effective email communication.
- Social media marketing:
Use platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and industry-specific forums to share event details and engage with your audience. You can create Facebook or LinkedIn events to ensure discoverability across the platforms. Many marketers use buzz marketing strategies to increase the chances of an event becoming viral on social media. Use relevant hashtags and compelling visuals for improved engagement.
- Content marketing:
Create valuable content related to your event theme and share it through blog posts, articles, or whitepapers. You can use content to establish thought leadership and attract your target audience. Additionally, write a press release for an event to gain media attention. Another idea for content marketers is to target the Google News section for better visibility.
- Paid advertising:
Invest in targeted online advertising, focusing on platforms like LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, or industry-specific publications. Tailor your ads to resonate with your B2B audience. A lot of B2B inbound marketing strategies optimize ads on various social media platforms to increase the brand reach.
- Partner collaborations:
Collaborate with industry influencers, partnerships, or sponsors to use their networks and reach a broader audience. Cross-promote the event through these partnerships. If you do not have partnerships, there are a lot of influencer collaboration ideas that you can use to quickly form them.
- Event listing platforms:
Utilize online event listing platforms to increase the visibility of your event within the relevant communities. If it is an educational event make sure you find the relevant websites that list similar events.
- Personalized landing pages: create landing pages for your B2B audience with a focus on the unique value proposition of your event. Choose from various types of landing pages with the layout and style that best aligns with your goals.
How to Organize and Promote B2B Events
Organizing a conference and its event marketing for B2B can be challenging due to the need for precise planning, coordination, and targeting of a specific professional audience. Challenges may include finding high-profile speakers, coordinating logistics, and effectively promoting the event to attract the right participants.
However, with a well-thought-out strategy and attention to detail, these challenges can be overcome. Below we cover the sample B2B event marketing ideas, their execution plans, marketing techniques, and costs associated with the conference event planning, marketing, and hosting.
Organizing and Event Marketing for B2B Conference
Conference organizing and marketing require a lot of resources including time, finances, and personnel. It also requires careful planning and effective outreach strategies. Here is a step-by-step guide along with promotional tools and marketing activities for B2B conference event marketing and hosting:
- Define your conference
- Outline the theme, objectives, and key topics
- Set specific goals for attendance and participant engagement
- Research the sponsorship opportunities
- Develop a budget
- Outline a comprehensive budget covering venue costs, speakers, marketing and logistics
- Identify possible revenue streams such as ticket sales and sponsorships
- Create a budget plan and think about where you can cut costs
- Choose a venue
- Select a venue that accommodates your expected number of attendees
- Make sure your venue provides the necessary facilities for presentations and networking
- Check whether the venue provides F&B services (catering, personnel, cleaning staff)
- Speakers and panelists
- Reach out to industry experts, leaders, and professionals as potential speakers
- Create an agenda to suit the various interests within your target audience
- Create a professional website
- Develop a simple, user-friendly conference website (could be a one-pager)
- Include conference details such as agenda, speakers, venue, and sponsorship opportunities on the website
- Create a form where visitors can easily register for an event
- Referral & promotional programs
- Establish a referral program to encourage registered attendees to invite others
- Provide incentives for referrals, such as discounted tickets or exclusive access
- Offer early-bird promotions to create a sense of urgency
Conference Costs and Expenses
The costs associated with organizing a B2B conference can vary based on factors such as the scale of the event, venue choice, and the level of promotional activities. Here is the breakdown of potential costs:
Venue Rental
Venue rentals will depend on location, size of the facility, and amenities. It must include rental fees for meeting rooms, conference halls, audio and visual equipment, Wi-Fi access, and any required equipment.
Price range: $200 – $10,000
Speaker Fees
The cost varies based on the caliber and number of speakers. It could include fees for keynote speakers, honorariums, travel expenses (flights, accommodation, transportation, and meals if located in another region), and speaker gifts.
Price range: $1,500 – $25,000 per speaker
Event Marketing
Event marketing activities vary depending on the scope and scale of the B2B event marketing ideas and efforts. Usually, the marketing expenses go to creating promotional materials (including printed media), email marketing campaigns and software, social media advertising and PPC, and content creation, along with PR activities if involved.
Price range: $5,000 – $15,000
Event Website / Registration Platforms
The costs depend on the promotion and registration platform choice. Building your website (one-pager) for your event could be costlier than acquiring a registration platform such as Eventbrite. These costs usually include design, hosting, web development, and content management fees.
Price range: $100 – $1000
Catering and F&B
Catering costs are sometimes included in the venue rental price. For example, hotels will often offer coffee breaks and launch breaks for conferences. On the other hand, separate catering costs vary based on the number of attendees and menu choices. It usually includes prices for lunch, snacks, coffee breaks, beverages, and staff.
Price range: $60 – $200 per person