We've been keeping our ears close to the ground and over recent months we've come across these six companies that have really embraced change and made a positive shift in the way they run their virtual events. Companies that have pulled out all the stops to ensure their digital events are way above the standard.

In our opinion they've put a stake in the ground to secure a market segment they felt very confident was theirs with physical events and recognised that if they wanted to claim the same spot with their digital events, they needed to raise the bar and deliver a digital experience beyond their audience and partner's expectations. 

What's the answer to a digital event experience beyond expectations? Yep B2B digital broadcasting! Seen by many as the future of virtual / hybrid events, here are the six companies that have taken the steps forward in this direction.

We'll be showcasing what sets these companies and their leaders apart and their approach. If you want to delve deeper we're actually talking to one of them live this week, and if this is something you've been thinking about, then you should save yourself a spot.

• What are the key traits of the leaders that have done it?
• Who are the companies that have done it
• Key learnings from the pros

A savvy event and media business professional would have gone through a process of some kind of re-invention over the past months. New product development scrums, value proposition get togethers, tech stack investments and dare I say it "virtual event pivot".

The few that may still be on the fence, I suggest ask themselves a question:

“What do you have in place to protect yourself / board / investor from a future pandemic or material disruption to the live events model?”

If you don’t have an answer to that question, your business at serious risk. Times are very tough, and very likely you have been doing everything you can, I respect that.

With this post I want to help frame the thinking and share the key pillars that have to be considered when you undergo this process.

This is no longer about digital marketing or marketing automation. It's about the digital transformation of marketing, sales and operations. It doesn't matter where you started your journey, organisations need to view this as a holistic process that comprises of 5 key stages. Miss one of them and you simply won't have a robust go-to market strategy, whatever your new re-invented business looks like.

It's incredible how much change and intensity can happen in a matter of days.  Many of us were doing something completely different a few weeks back to what we are probably doing right now, at work, at home etc.

So first of all, if you're reading this then you're likely to be in quite a fortunate position compared to many - so we must be grateful for what we have. Of course times are tough and are only going to get tougher along with the huge amounts of uncertainty. All over the world we're waking up to a new reality. But don't let fear define you, your mindset and your state of being. 

Of course the question many are asking themselves and about their business is:

Are we going to be okay?

There is nothing fancy about event sales automation to be honest - it's all about having some common sense first and using technology as an enabler, second.

True that technology makes your life easier, but you can achieve similar results without it.

With this blog I want to stimulate your creative cells and give you specific tips and templates to think about how you the marketer OR the sales exec will find efficiencies in your day to day job.

What is event sales automation?

See this as a copy-and-paste exercise on steroids. ;-)

Building an online community with the help of your content is a great strategy and it’s one that absolutely works! But there are various things to consider in making the most of your content - at the most basic level you need to PLAN and know what to do with it. Sounds simple right, but often content can become your master without you even realising it has taken control!

This blog will help you take back and keep control with one of the best ways to succeed - by developing your own content marketing framework and exploring the skills needed by your team.

B2B event marketing is a vast topic, spanning from how to get people to attend events, how to get them to buy from your B2B brand when you sponsor or organise an event and how to secure sponsorship for your own B2B event. It's a topic that interests event organisers, event marketers and B2B brand marketers in equal measure.

This post was updated on Sept 2020.

Recruiting is a time consuming and painful process. Recruiting outstanding event marketers and event sales professionals is even harder. Why? Because some event leaders are simply using the wrong approach!

If you’re someone responsible for marketing recruitment, it will come as no surprise to hear that things are pretty tough out there. We don’t think it’s too far fetched to say it’s a bit of a nightmare.

72.8% of employers are struggling to find relevant candidates. Fewer and fewer quality candidates in the active job market, those that are asking crazy salaries and being courted by lots of different firms.

Stuck in a rut with email.. of course you are. Most B2B companies are still lagging behind with one of the most powerful and impactful mediums around. Video.

It doesn't need to be time consuming or expensive. 

Everyone in the B2B organisation should be able to embrace it and I am suggesting you give it a go.

These 5 functions will dramatically see change through video:

No matter how good a B2B marketer you are, events are a whole different ball game and the playing field is littered with potential pitfalls that can see even the most seasoned marketing professional burying their head in their hands. Luckily for you, we're sharing the 7 most common rookie event planning mistakes, along with our great free e-book that'll give you even more insight into things you should avoid.

One of the biggest risks when running an event as part of your marketing mix is that you over mail your database and annoy the very people you're hoping will ultimately buy your products or services.

Here are our quick tips on how to run a successful B2B event without cannibalising your database...

If there is one single organisation which can be considered the events industry authority on events big and small with meaningful data, it is EventBrite. They recently released their Pulse report which delves into the must-know trends and crucial benchmarks for the UK events industry.

From my point of view, the Pulse report is a key piece of research to have at your fingertips. Every event leader asks me the kind of questions that this particular report answers. So get your hands on it today.

I have gone through the process of reading the whole 44 page report and have summarised the main key figures for you here. I do strongly recommend you download it and check it out as it is definitely worth a read.

First let’s talk about the money…

So you’ve got a webinar coming up and as yet, no attendees. How do you get your registration numbers to skyrocket?

A webinar is a fantastic (and inexpensive) way of showing off your event hosting skills, and your credibility within the industry of your topic. What most event marketers do to get the increase registrations is blast non-targeted, non-personalised emails to the entirety of their database, which is of course ineffective.

So here are our top proven techniques to maximise your audience.

Event marketers like to think they’re pretty savvy when it comes to all things email-related. However, from my experience, most of them seem to forget to leverage one fundamental (and free) marketing channel that could be put to use in growing awareness of their brand, their blog and ultimately their own profile. What is it, you ask? The personal auto signatures, of course!

Twitter can be a hugely useful tool in the run up to your B2B event. You can use it to shout about any ‘VIP’ speakers, get your delegates involved before the day, and generally create a real buzz around your conference. For old school event marketers, the way twitter, and other social media outlets have revolutionised the events sphere, and B2B marketing generally, is a daunting prospect. But if you want to keep up with the ever quickening pace of the event industry, you need to get on board.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen quite a few examples of event companies jumping on the social bandwagon, just to have a presence. They’re not using it to add value, engage with their audience or even post interesting things about their events – they just populate it with links to their registration pages, standard event information which could be easily sourced online, and repeat tweets of their updates. How likely do you think it is you’ll be trending with this approach? Here are our absolute worst practices for event marketing on twitter – avoid at all costs!

Content marketing is often viewed as a passing fad by B2B event marketers - or ignored completely - but unlike some marketing trends this one is set to stick around. As an experienced marketer, chances are you’re familiar with the fundamentals – but how can you translate the returns of this approach to your event marketing? 

It's all about changing your mindset, and applying the key elements of the content philosophy to your outlook. Ultimately, treating your event as a content offer, rather than a standalone occurrence, will help you to adapt your strategy, generate relevant leads, and increase registrations. 

So we’ve talked about what not to do in email marketing – now let’s address the positives. There are plenty of quick and easy techniques you can employ to ensure the content you so lovingly crafted actually connects with the prospects you intended it for! 

Most of your B2B prospects will receive countless messages about products and services, new content, conferences, discounts, offers, webinars etc. on a daily or possibly hourly basis (depending on how freely they share their email address). As a result, the key to increasing and sustaining your open rate is to stand out by being relevant, interesting and showing a genuine desire to help. Here are our best B2B email marketing tips to improve your metrics and ultimately win more quality leads:

As a busy director, you probably don't have time to get bogged down in the detail of marketing reports. But since your  company is likely to be heavily reliant on the emails you send to your database, not knowing exactly what the  metrics show (or which ones really matter) can lead to lengthy yawnworthy meetings and little clarity on how your team, marketing and tactics are truly performing.