Event-led field marketing best practices: CMOs share what's working now

Events are back! Big conferences in many industries are back to pre-pandemic attendance levels, but they have still competition from smaller, more targeted and more accessible events (in-person and virtual).

Last Friday's CMO Coffee Talk focused on event-centric field marketing best practices. We covered everything from the big industry shows to in-market road shows, user conferences, virtual experiences and much more.

If you are in the CMO Coffee Talk community, don't miss some event marketing best practices shared in the #swipefile in Slack.

If you are a B2B CMO or head of marketing and want to join a community of 2500+ of your peers, let me know or click here to learn more and sign up .

Below are chat highlights from both Friday sessions.

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“Life’s a pipeline.” Facts!

Given budget cuts I want to lean more into smaller sales prospecting field events that we produce ourselves to help get more enterprise pipe but we are finding it so hard to get prospects to the events. Sales aren’t getting the people in. I’m looking forward to sharing learnings, ideas, tips, tricks

Think about how you want to make people feel and remember from your events.?6sense does this amazingly well.?And they so are consistent in the aesthetic that you know you are about to have an amazing experience.?And, build in time for networking - lifelong friendships have been formed from those events.?Thank you.

So that's a good core question- are these sort of field events more effective for advancing the 'stuck' mid-funnel opportunities as Matt suggested? Or to fill top of funnel with brand new leads? I would think the former.

We are doing an experiential mystery dinner theater event series right now, launching next week in Boston. We have a full experience with improv actors, etc. Audience is CISOs so they love their puzzles, etc. The invite starts with a cipher that needs to be cracked to even get to RSVP.

depends on the event.?For those bespoke exclusive experiences, I think they work really well further down the funnel.

Virtual top of funnel events work great with a different format - less tasting, deep thought leadership (slide free ideally)

If you’re looking for an agency to run or even brainstorm an experiential event reach out to Tamara at https://www.thexpagency.com/

Gamification of a dinner

It sounds lame, but the right swag matters. I used to host wine/beer/whisk(e)y events in NYC. If there’s the promo and if you promise a good bottle, sign-ups and attendance are better. But…you have to filter people who just want the bottle. Human nature always prevails.

I did high end events for a former job, and we usually had about 10% that opted out over the gift issue.?Bigger issue for government employees.?Depends on the audience.

One of my favorite pieces of swag: a light bulb from the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. the LV visitor bureau collects them and boxes them for display

Years ago I held a “poker lesson” for C-suite folks ahead of a trade show happening in Vegas. The lesson was taught by the author of Poker for Dummies book and we sent the book with the invite as part of the draw. It was one of the most successful field events I’ve hosted in terms of level & number of attendees.

You can give people a share in a Cask of bourbon — so it is a way to keep people engaged for longer period of time.

People love to learn

And then they can teach others tricks later!

Something I have had to fight in the past is the event "we have always done" that gets to be automatic but is the same people with very little ROI and being able to dislodge that spend for something different.?Those also seem to be the most expensive events, as they creep

I was so hopeful on the death of tradeshows!

Large scale events are over-performing for us.

People love to meet other interesting people and get new ideas.

I still hate Gartner but they're still must-do

In life sciences. - trade shows are very much alive and thriving

Mediocrity is dead!

We're seeing niche events not well attended, but the big industry events are doing well.

Tradeshows absolutely - with a long enterprise sales cycle that we have, they have been excellent for moving deals . People want to see each other. Content has rather very meh.

Do you find the value from your booth/sessions OR is your ancillary experience around the event??

The problem with the shows is getting folks on the floor after their sessions…That’s been tough to crack.

Agreed - any event you do big or small, you need a strategy for the team going - can’t just sit in your booth and hope people stop by.

This requires tight partnership with the CROs.?We had huge luck with Identiverse because we partnered to require each AE attending to drive a certain number of meetings.

Booth traffic is not great at all, but a must for visibility - we’ve stopped doing too much at booths and instead invested in events, entertainment.

Too many trade shows have attendees fact-finding/info gathering on behalf of those higher up. So great conversations on site but then Sales has big challenges getting to the decision makers above them.

I’ve been very annoyed by some of these trade shows that no longer serve food w/in the exhibit hall (lunch served outside the session rooms, argh!

Please are attending now but only to have 1:1 meetings, not to walk the floor.

Are we guilty of keeping people off the show floor? Staff the booth with your rock stars NOT your new, green reps.

Some trade shows = content syndication lol

I loved Matt’s recent post about offering an introvert room at these events!

I feel like some of these shows are re-learning how to do shows.?I wonder if there has been some talent drain from these - show folks realizing their jobs suck and doing something else, like restaurant staff.

We don’t exhibit unless we’re also speaking

Experiences and draw 'beyond the booth' are now table stakes for all event marketing strategies.

But Gartner showed their true colors during the pandemic when they demanded I pay for shows that had gone virtual.?Exact quote was, "I'd rather you have to lay off your people than I have to lay off mine."

When the event is run by event vendors looking to profit, they split food/floor and do not drive that collective engagement. When it’s an org/leader sponsoring event that wants to build community, the show floor blends with food and social

Anyone using virtuals before/after trade shows? (Meet/greet, recap etc)

Marketers should unilaterally boycott Gartner.

I like the speed dating events, at least I know we will meet some decent people.

How can we up the digitally-driven engagement to drive the floor traffic and engagement?

We put a ton of effort into setting meetings ahead of time with our SDRs, using incentives to help make sure they show up, etc.

we do a TechTalk after RSA and Blackhat that is virtual roundtable our team at the event talks about what happened, what learned, gets average to below attendance vs. other tech talk topic

We sponsored one life sciences event this spring where they tried to scold us for scanning badges of people coming into the session we were leading... and also the only food was a single spot offering middle school-style pizza squares and salads and other wise told people "there's a Jimmy John's down the street..."

+1 Meeting quota for sales to get to go

We tie all meeting back to opportunities

We did a CAB meeting before RSA and it worked really well

YES - we send product and our content strategist with sales to enhance the booth chat

Pre-booking meeting in advance of the event has worked really well, along with a specific plan for each sale rep attending to canvas the show floor/networking events.

Gartner's CSO/Sales Leaders event was very good for us

Booth staff actually has Ask Me button on their badge added that has topic of the week

We decided that every show had 1-2 BDRs at the show.?It's a huge incentive for them and they're very, very good at starting the conversations.

Our Blackhat booth literally has a genius bar

We like to think of it as a recipe - you need all the ingredients at the booth. So a little mix of people but they are ALL prepped/enabled with talk tracks and good key nuggets

Everyone loves a picture of themselves

Love sharing pics post event, such a better touchpoint!

We do that virtually with group toast photos also - and FOMO if you didn’t attend!

YES. People like pictures much as they like $80 bottle of bourbon. Not kidding. ??

Best "swag" ever:??in booth digital caricatures.?I have done these a ton and people freak out.?Also, they clip them to their badges and wear them around.?Free sponsorship.

Photos are also great ways for attendees to post on LinkedIn.....with your brand's watermark!

We've also provided some recaps in the past. Assuming in the next team meeting people ask about the event, we made a bundle to share with coworkers in case they missed it- some session materials, ebooks, etc. of the leading trends from the conference

Yeah, my guy just retired, but there are others that do it.?They set up with a big screen and do the drawings on a tablet so people can watch them come to life.?Then they print them and give the person a clip to put it on their lanyard and a link to download the file.?Its not that expensive, and always a hit.?Years ago I did a court reporter show and had people waiting in our booth for up to an hour to get one, and talking to our reps the whole time.

I like the questions on the badges b/c its a convo starter

What KPIs does everyone use to measure event success - we use

engagement=swipes; # meetings; #leads ; focus on net new + already in pipeline + existing clients - calling in from car so on mute - THX!

Lots of clients doing that with virtual - excluding sales in favor of featuring SMEs and c-suite. More focus on thought leadership vs pitching.

Golf is great…but then sales reps just take their favorite people out to play but don’t actually invite quality prospects

I’m organizing a dinner next week as part of MAICON and I won’t be there and I’m in an anxiety bubble that’s about to pop

I’m finding local and events and roadshows harder post-COVID. Maybe it’s “I don’t want to take off my slippers and leave my house” rationale.

Blckhat drinks with a view for cyber marketing leaders: https://info.nowsecure.com/blackhat-23-welcome-party-with-mindgrub.html

We did a t-shirt press at RSA that was a big hit. We have a few designs for adults and then also kid size t-shirts with prints like “future data protector”

Retention is the new acquisition ?? many of our clients who used to do virtuals exclusively for prospects are now focused on customer appreciation. Sweet spot is mix of both in many cases.

I often did the cost analysis between event vs. We could buy a car for that price. It worth asking the question when it comes to budget and returns.

Design events (alternative to tastings): Sneakers (Nike / Converse) or Levi’s jackets

I've also seen focus on wellness: bath bomb design, scent stations to make a personalized perfume

We are re-engaging in FIELD Marketing w/ sales people knocking on doors, shaking hands and kissing babies.

We use intent data to pick our logical locations

Where the physical intent research is happening across target accounts

I flinch just hearing the word “booth”

I wish they had gone away. LOL

We see events picking up like crazy (Fintech)

People thrive on connections/experiences - start there the rest will come!

the booth isn’t dead

It’s almost a back to old school tactics, aka the fundamentals. Events, email, etc

Cyber events are back - strong

People are already there and looking for ways to connect more than just attending sessions

No one wants to do a booth (my company and our clients - who all do events) are looking for the 1:1 meetings during the day and the wraparound events at night

The booth was a necessary evil to get a speaking slot and create a VIP event

In the beverage alcohol supply chain, it’s?still all about the booth and events.

People want human connection, thats’ for sure but you have to convince them to put on their ‘hard pants’ and make the experience worth it

the booth is just a ticket to entry.?The real conversations have always happened outside the booth space

We have to show up. We’re in ed tech and the education market expects you to be there.

We tried to do a Genius Bar at a show and ran into so many tech issues we gave up.

Fintech/crypto I have killed all booths the next 2 years

My team will deliver close to 40 trade shows this year in the Western Hemisphere for specialty chemical end markets, the booth isn't dead, but we are doing my digital with the booth.

Events are going strongest for us in China - folks there are even more interested in f2f

Love the Genius Bar idea, and you could turn each question into short form social video - probably great SEO format too

Replacing booths with the intimate in-person events, dinner, HH

Focus on the 4 passions - sports, food, music, & cause

federal IT events are coming back steadily, state and local IT is still more virtual except for a few really strong ones that were strong pre-covid.

Smaller events are killing it. 12-person dinner with other colleagues and no sales pitch have been money for us

Digital Hunger Paradox - the more we engage in digital experiences, the stronger our desire for authentic human connections. Humans are meant to connect.

We’ve tabled booths, too. Our private dinners at conferences had far more ROI than the booths themselves.?AND that approach gets sales way more involved in the invite list.

Meetings are pipeline GOLD

Same - we don't do booths! Small lunches and dinners for the win

Field marketing tends to touch customers (current, new and impending) in person or in their local market.

We couldn’t afford / justify the cost of exhibiting and the hotel suites are so far away in Vegas so we rented a pool cabana and set up for two days there along with a happy hour.

I was really surprised at the number of booths and level of booth traffic at the CCW (customer experience/contact center conference) event in Las Vegas last month.

I do small booths, and setup an event within the event (dinner, breakfast) now.

We haven’t been pulling out of conferences but we’ve been downgrading all our booths to the smallest possible size

Great ‘pufferfish marketing’, Andy! Seeming bigger than you are is an art.

We rented a bus and took people to other parties. Had a captive audience for a fraction of the cost

Happy hour after sessions, before the big evening events is a great sweet spot to get engagement and keep budget down at trade shows as they are going somewhere else for dinner.

bringing back the concept of Nearbound -- having a joint partner suite and a session with great content drives a lot of value and real opportunities.

What if the event organizers encouraged smaller networking opportunities and there was a list of opportunities/experiences that brands are hosting (can be sponsors or attendees) and people can sign up to see a list of what’s happening (around the event) from day before, during and after…Just an idea. Does anyone do this?

Can I also just say that a marketing leader using the phrase "I sell into..." needs to be normalized.?#WeOwnRevenue

We assigned field marketing budget to each sales leader, had an approval process and reporting process. We did roi analysis for each event and used that for yes/no for the next year. Giving them some ownership over their Field Marketing budget was a game changer in what they 'asked marketing for'. This also covered direct mail and drops.

Outside of events, are there any type of campaigns field marketing is responsible for? Should central marketing let field marketing to reach out directly to local prospects?

we built a field marketing "in a box" program for SAP Concur a few years ago that increased field event volume, consistency and ROI.

We gave mardi gras beads (With our logo sticker on it) if they came to the bar with it they got a free drink. Covered the time between he show ends the dinners. Was huge success with very small investment

there are some easy ways to do it virtually - engage open opps + bring on customer champions to share their experience with your product/company

I always forget to make sure the booth team is trained on not just the pitch but HOW TO DRAW PEOPLE INTO THE BOOTH

*I also think we should deprecate the idea of “Field Marketing” as it’s regional/revenue/demand-gen marketing

I think Field Marketing is super strategic done right. They have the local market insights to should help inform strategy and influence product development. Unsung heroes of the field!

What are your thoughts around swag handouts at the booth??Are they “real” leads or a waste of time if the swag is the reason they scanned their badge?

?host a CAB in parallel to the event

Can we talk swag? Is that a way to draw people in? I have had success with creating “success kits” that include a small bottle of booze but would love other ideas

We’ve just started using these guys and LOVE them: https://www.clementinepromos.com

I think as a group we should start a movement to end wasteful swag — so much ends in the landfill. Focus on useful swag or swag you can consume/use immediately.

I really don't like like getting more plastic to the global junk and trying to keep it to something that is either sustainable or perishable

Hah, yes no eating or drinking (unless water), and no gum chewing in booth!

Couldn’t agree more + PR + Swag for new brand, new market

Love the swag discussion for virtual events too if you’re sending a tasting gift - make the unboxing impressive and different! It’s all part of the Experience?

So true! Or looking at their phone.. I had no phone rule on the booth rule but communicated ahead as part of best practices vs getting annoyed on the day

In the past, my team has forgone swag and instead held drawings for high-value things like an all expense paid vacation or free offering of our product/service to collect leads/bcards.

There is nothing wrong with doing swag with logos, we do a blend. Of with and without. Opens up to different options, shorter lead times and a larger variety. But will our main staples we will make sure a 6 is used

Has anyone tried Mobile billboards outside a large show like Black Hat?

One giveaway was a pencil that you could plant after it was used to grow a basil plant.

Wondering if anyone seeing any value in events geofencing?

https://sproutworld.com/the-original-plantable-pencil/

I got some coasters that were embedded with seeds so you could plant them once back at home

We did the pencils that grew basil (and a few other things) at Bizible. We also had trees at the booth. They were super popular

For gov shows (esp military ones), we donate $ to a military org for folks who stop by. We also give them a Starbucks gift card.

https://sproutworld.com/our-seeds/

I've always been pro-event (and able to generate significant pipeline from them to justify it) but recently even more pro-event in order to help members of the community build relationships with the team and each other. Those relationships are key and lasting. So now I approach event strategy thinking about all the possible ways to build connection. One way is to do a fun event the evening when people are arriving and before the event officially kicks off. Especially with customers. Then people build friendships that they can continue to engage with throughout the event rather than hoping to meet people and feeling alone in a sea of people.

Has anyone done the virtual swag rooms, where people choose what they want? Such as via Reachdesk?

We white-labled our own beer brand and bring a mini fridge give them away at conference happy hours - has been very effective

https://brandelity.com/product/branded-company-sprout-pencils/

For our customer conference this year we're offering an option for attendees to opt out of swag and do a non-profit donation instead.?~25% of registrants are opting out.

Love this "ownership in the decision making *and* the results"

I have used a “Sniff test” What is the ROI goal? What are the top 10 accounts you are driving? Etc...

Gotta have alignment!

The other behavior that the field co-owned budgets stopped was reps putting swag and other things on their corp cards.

Pufferfish Marketing & Basil Pencils.?Best CMO Coffee Talk ever.

And, if they wanted to go to a first time event they could only go as an attendee or to walk the floor before we would commit to sending a booth.

There are a lot of cool things to do in Vegas that aren’t casinos, too

I’d love to see an industry event at a cool brewery

We have a comedian or improv musician to kick off our Magic Spark networking dinners - we use Laugh.Events for sourcing. Super fun

Vegas has a Meow Wolf and a container park with a giant praying mantis that spits fire. And the museum of Nuclear Testing (to coincide with Oppenheimer). So much more interesting than a boring casino!

Neon museum in Vegas is very fun I've always wanted to do an event there in the evening when it's the right fit as it's off strip, but didn't have the opportunity yet.

So are we now calling event marketers field marketers

+1We have a separate team but our field marketing understands EVERYTHING about their geos

Yes mini-CMO for the region or an industry that crosses regions- also prefer to call them regional demand or regional marketing.

to me field marketer is a lot more than event marketer

Another constant challenge is how I balance mini territory (ie. Subregion) Field marketers, Regional Marketers (continent), versus industry Field Marketing, Persona (exec, users, etc) Field Marketing —> and scale the team organization?

Hip hop dinner: https://www.instagram.com/fatcapchicago/?hl=en

Count the M&Ms/gumballs in the box to win something really big, you would be amazed how much time people spend in the booth calculating making the booth always full

yeah qualification and conversion is key and has to be part of the program.?Not enough to just get 'em in the net.

Great session today!

This is my new favorite meeting.