[This first in a series of articles on the art of event marketing is a guide that focuses on all the proactive pre-event work that must occur — from conference swag to printed assets and placement logistics. Leverage this resource to help you streamline your efforts, cross your t’s, and pray to the event marketing spirits when managing all that goes into managing an event.]

Get Ahead to Always Be the Problem Solver, Never the Problem

Have you ever found yourself in an Uber late at night heading across town (in a city you don’t know) to a Home Depot in desperate search for an apparently rare bolt needed to support your booth’s monitor display stand?

Maybe you’ve found yourself wandering a cavernous convention hall looking for anybody (anybody!) who might have gaffer’s tape and zip ties to secure the nest of cords spilling from your booth.

Like any seasoned conference pro knows, the key to success is to always be prepared.

As the Swiss Army knife of your marketing team, preparation is a perpetual undertaking. The number of hardware (both tech and IRL), software, nutritional, biological, geographical, transportation, and oh yeah, marketing logistics goes on and on. Too much for any booth boss to shoulder.

It’s a tough job. And you signed up to do it because you are awesome, driven, adventurous, and maybe a little crazy, but here we are.

Conference Swag and Events are Back!

According to the Events Industry Council, the global business events industry generates around $1.6 trillion in revenue, a clear signal that brands are convinced that in a post-pandemic world, events still matter – a lot.

Companies say that attending conferences is well worth it, with many reporting a substantial return on investment (ROI), often exceeding 300-500% in terms of brand awareness, lead generation, and sales conversions. Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at.

In a recent article, Adapting to Change and Driving Revenue Through Field Marketing, cybersecurity marketing whiz Rebekah McAdams shares:

“Field marketers are strategic business partners to sales; they’re goal-oriented revenue marketers, and also targeted and customer-centric minded.” – Rebekah McAdams, VP, Global Field & Channel Marketing, Varonis

The bottom line is that events drive revenue, making your job all the more important.

1. Define Objectives and KPIs

• Clarify Goals: Does February in Fort Lauderdale sound enticing? Or do you actually have marketing objectives? Brand awareness, lead generation, networking, product promotion, or something else? A good rule of thumb is to define your goals before you book your travel.
• Set KPIs: Establish measurable outcomes that line up with your goals, such as the number of leads captured, meetings scheduled. Be sure these align with your partners; CMO, CRO, head of sales, etc.

2. Research the Event, (Duh, right? But you’d be surprised.)

• Know Your Audience: Understand who will be attending the conference and make sure you understand enough about them to tailor messaging that resonates.
• Know Your Competition: Identify competitors who will be at the event and make sure your messaging differentiates itself.
• Know the Layout: Familiarize yourself with the venue layout. Sign up for the booth placement that will get the most foot traffic. This might cost more, so consider your budget and the potential ROI.
• Know the Schedule: When is the keynote? When will you need to staff up? When will conference-goers be lurching zombie-like booth to booth looking for free stuff? Uh … or educating themselves about new products and services? Be prepared to connect with the right prospect at the right time.

3. Craft a Strong Message

• Create a Clear Value Proposition: Your brand and creative partners would have done this ages ago. But give them a nudge to ensure your message is concise and aligned with your brand’s objectives and the objectives of the conference.
• Develop Talking Points: Equip your team with consistent, impactful messaging – that does not make them sound like a robot – tailored to motivate your target audience to engage with your brand.

4. Empower Your Team (Again, no robots.)

• Key Messaging: Ensure all team members are aligned with the goals, messaging, and logistics.
• Role Assignments: Define roles and schedules for booth management, networking, and follow-ups.
• Engagement Tips: Provide training on effective communication, pitch delivery, and handling FAQs.

5. Develop and Design Collateral

• Content Anyone? Bring cool stuff printed on paper to give away that is snappy, informative, and empowers the zombies … I mean eventgoers! … to return to their debrief meetings ready to impress the bosses and sell them on why buying your product is a no-brainer.
• Giveaways: Don’t add to the landfill where conference swag goes to die. Instead, choose memorable, useful goodies that people actually want and will use (particularly at the conference, which will show off how clever your brand is.)
• Digital Content: Create videos, presentations, or demos for on-site or pre-event sharing.However, temper going all-in on digital to make sure to focus on face-to-face interactions. In fact, nearly 48% of surveyed marketers allocate 21% of their marketing budget to in-person events. That’s no small amount of change in a coveted marketing budget.

6. Leverage Digital and One-to-One Marketing

One-to-one marketing or personalized marketing is a strategy that delivers highly tailored experiences to individual customers or prospects based on their individual preferences. PropTexx Co-founder Josh Lamerton reports significant lead conversion rate increases with one-to-one marketing events.

“By offering personalized experiences and immediate visual feedback, we’ve observed a 35% increase in lead conversion rates across client websites” – Josh Lamerton, Co-founder, PropTexx

• Event Page: Optimize a landing page to promote your participation, schedule meetings with tools like Calendly, and capture leads pre-event.
• Social Media: Promote your attendance on platforms like LinkedIn or wherever your audience gathers around the virtual water cooler. Use event hashtags. Create polls. Show the world that you’ll have the sickest booth on the floor. You might even plan a beer pong tournament. If conference policy allows, of course.
• Email and Outreach: Are there ABM pros out there? A show of hands. Send targeted emails to invite key prospects, customers, and partners. And if you know a whale or a T-Rex (or whatever we’re calling them now) will be in attendance, have a plan. Reel them in.
• VIPs: Invite conference speakers and other influencers to your booth via social or email. Build thoughtful VIP conference gift bags send them to their hotel rooms. That is, if they provide you with that information. Don’t be a stalker.

9. Develop a Lead Capture Plan

• Tools: Choose CRM-integrated tools for collecting attendee information efficiently. There are so many lead retrieval apps, QR code readers, and even contactless solutions! What will they think of next?
• Process: Your sales comrades want leads. But they only want good leads. They want leads that have already basically signed on the dotted line. Regardless, outline how leads will be collected (see above), qualified, and who, how, and when follow up will happen. Then tell the SDRs and reps to stop hassling you and to do their jobs.

10. Monitor and Measure Performance

• Track Metrics: This is where the rubber meets the road. Set up tools to measure social media engagement, booth visits, and lead interactions.
• Benchmarking: Compare past event data – industry or in-house – to set realistic performance benchmarks.
• Tell Everyone How You Did: Crazy, right? You not only have to collect metrics and crunch some numbers to see how you fared against last year’s performance, but you also have to say out loud whether or not attendance at this conference was worth the time and labor spent. But this is my job, you say. If we weren’t successful, that means I wasn’t successful, you say. Well … suck it up. That’s what this survival guide is for!

12. Logistics, Logistics, Logistics

• Booth Setup: Know your booth’s design, all the equipment you’ll need, and know where your branding materials will be displayed and how best to distribute them.
• Test All the Things: Especially, but not only, technology. Test devices, software, wi-fi, slide decks, monitors, QR code scanner. And please do a dry run of your booth setup. Building those backdrops is not intuitive at all.  And not to be a downer, but everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Just sayin’.
• Travel and Accommodation: Tag you’re it. Don’t forget to organize transportation, book the rooms, and distribute the schedules for your clueless team members. Coordinate flight times. Share Lyfts. Hey, see if booking an Airbnb makes sense. It may be easier on your budget. You’ll need to make sure your crew is comfortable with it obviously, but the ability to pre-game in style before meet-and-greet dinners is priceless.
• Pre-ordering all conference swag, branding, graphics, printed materials (ideally tracking them all with custom tech if they have a partner who can help them do that).

12. Pack the Essentials … and More

• Shipping: Know the shipping requirements inside and out. When, where, how. Don’t show up at the loading dock when your booth materials are being staged directly on the exhibit hall floor. Know where to get the return labels to have the exorbitantly large amount of boxes shipped back to the office? (Yes, you will be unpacking those … again.)
• Backup Supplies: Bring extra chargers, extension cords, gaffer’s tape, staplers, paper clips, Advil, first-aid kit (kidding, sort of), every kind of cord adapter you can think of, pens, notebooks. Just indiscriminately grab stuff on your way out of the office. Family photos, plants, bobbleheads, fidget spinners, employee of the month awards. And duct tape. Always duct tape.

Add it to the List

Are you ready now? Eh, if you’re lucky. Every conference you quarterback will reveal new and exciting ways you’ve failed at your job. Kidding, not kidding. As they say, failure is just another opportunity to learn. But in all seriousness, it’s OK. Event wrangling isn’t an exact science. Even for Swiss Army Knives like you. Always better, never perfect, right?

Last Pro Tip

On the flight back home before settling into the latest rom-com and letting the tears flow, jot down things you would have done differently.

And what worked particularly well. What did you forget, what did you lose,
what was your favorite quote from someone who stopped by your booth, your favorite part of the venue,
and the favorite meal you ate?

Save your list to a dedicated folder to reference and build on before and after each event.
You’ll have your own survival guide that will only get better with age …
unlike the doughnut you left in the miscellaneous supply box.

Now buckle up!

Your next event is only three months away.

Need an extra resource? While nothing beats being prepared, here’s our Event Marketer’s Tradeshow Cheat Sheet. Think of it as your personal booth boss assistant.

Event Marketer’s Tradeshow Cheat Sheet

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are KPIs? 

KPIs, or key performance indicators, are quantifiable critical business objectives. They serve as metrics that provide insights into the performance and progress of an activity, initiative, or the wider organization toward its goals. Your Chief Marketing Officer loves them. So do Chief Revenue Officers and CEOs, so you should, too.

What is branded conference swag?

Branded conference swag refers to promotional items or giveaways that are customized with a company’s logo, name, or other branding elements and distributed to attendees at events or conferences. They are designed to enhance brand visibility, build goodwill, and create a memorable connection between the brand and the recipient.

What is CRM?

CRM, or customer relationship management, is a technology platform used by companies to manage interactions with customers and prospects. It’s designed to improve customer retention, drive sales, and streamline communication by centralizing customer information and automating processes. It’s important to keep these up to date at events or to partner with a company that can help you track items and interactions.

What is a value proposition?

Commonly referred to as a value prop, a value proposition ​​is a clear, concise statement that explains why a customer should choose a company’s product or service over its competitors. It communicates the unique benefits and value a company offers, addressing the customer’s specific needs or problems.

What is one-to-one marketing?

One-to-one marketing, also known as personalized marketing, is a strategy that focuses on delivering highly tailored messages, offers, or experiences to individual customers based on their preferences, behaviors, and needs. It emphasizes building strong, individualized relationships with customers to increase loyalty, satisfaction, and sales.

What is ABM?

Similar to one-to-one marketing, both approaches involve personalized and targeted strategies, but their focus, scale, and application differ significantly. The ABM approach targets entire accounts (companies) instead of individuals. As such the outreach will typically target multiple decision-makers. Often the approach is to expand business within an established account.