How to Leverage Events to Drive B2B Marketing Success

In today’s extremely competitive B2B landscape, in-person events are a powerful way to accelerate deal cycles, build trust, and drive high-quality leads. Events are also an effective opportunity for companies to connect with industry partners and prospects, where they can share insights, discuss industry trends, and create meaningful relationships. How can marketing teams play a pivotal role in maximizing the ROI of these events?

That’s why we’re talking to B2B marketing expert Brynna DeSantiago (Head of Marketing, Encapture), who shared some actionable strategies on how to leverage events to drive B2B marketing success. During our conversation, Brynna discussed the importance of personalized outreach, common event marketing mistakes to avoid, and how smaller, more targeted events can deliver greater impact. She also highlighted the critical role of sales and marketing alignment and to conduct effective post-event follow-ups. Brynna also elaborated on key trends shaping the future of in-person events and what marketers should do now to stay ahead.

https://youtu.be/IkNFNb-sCdc

Topics discussed in episode:

[1:40] The importance of in-person events in B2B marketing

[5:21] The challenges and cost considerations for effective event planning

[7:13] Key pitfalls that B2B marketers should avoid

Overspending on a single event
Underutilizing small budgets
Not being strategic with the spend
Not leaning into what’s effective for your business

[10:15] Post-event follow-up and personalization strategies for B2B marketers

[20:57] How to foster collaboration between marketing and sales teams during events

[23:29] Actionable tips for improving B2B in-person event performance

Be creative in event planning
Don’t over-professionalize events – show some personalities
Focus on authenticity and human connection

[28:00] The trends shaping the future of in-person events

AI’s impact on marketing and sales tactics
Combining digital and in-person events
Making in-person events valuable to justify the time and effort invested

[32:45] Key metrics to measure event success

ROI (Lead generated vs. spending)
Percentage of attendees that are your ICPs
Good conversations

Companies and links mentioned:

Transcript

Christian Klepp 00:01

Welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers on a Mission podcast, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp. Today I’ll be talking to Brynna DeSantiago. She is a B2B SaaS marketing executive and the head of marketing at Encapture, where she leads the team on strategic marketing campaigns, digital advertising and marketing events. She also works closely with the Encapture revenue team to close pipeline through Account Based Marketing initiatives. Tune in to find out more about what this B2B marketers mission is.

Christian Klepp 00:31

Okay, I’m gonna say. Brynna DeSantiago, welcome to the show.

Brynna DeSantiago 00:35

Thank you. Thanks for having me, Christian.

Christian Klepp 00:37

Great to have you on the show. Brynna, and I’m really looking forward to this conversation. I think it’s something that comes up a lot in the world of B2B marketing, there are a few that have actually mastered the art of implementing this effectively and generating the right results. So I’m looking forward to see where this little chat of ours takes us.

Brynna DeSantiago 00:57

Agree. Thank you.

Christian Klepp 00:59

All right, fantastic. So let’s dive right in. So Brynna, you’re on a mission to partner with business leaders to beat revenue goals, I’m going to say, through hyper targeted in person events and at scale demand gen and go to market efforts. So for this conversation, why don’t we zero in on the following topic, which is how to leverage in person events as part of your B2B marketing strategy. So let’s kick off the conversation with two questions, and I’m happy to repeat them all. Right. So question number one is, why do you think that in person, events can be an accelerator for deals? And number two, as it pertains to events, where do you see many marketing teams fall flat?

Brynna DeSantiago 01:40

Great questions to address the first one there, why are in person events so important and effective right now? I think with COVID and the era of zoom, we definitely over index to virtual meetings, virtual events, which is great. They work for a lot of things. They worked for us during that time period, and they do work moving forward, but there’s been this feeling and this need to, you know, for people to get back out there. And once you get in person with somebody, you know, nothing moves the needle more than a 30 minute conversation, sometimes when you’ve been trying to track somebody down for months and months. So I think this, we’re in this era of after over indexing to virtual events for years and years, everybody is ready to get back in person. And nothing really is more effective than having that in person, face to face conversation to follow up there, where I think, in general, a lot of marketing teams fall short for events, is we, I think a lot of marketing teams tend to do two thirds or three quarters of the way they’re planning events, whether that’s, you know, you plan the event, you get the trade show, you invite the people, but we just missed that last little quarter piece, which is what really gets people to the event, like whatever that hook is, or whatever that outreach is, and sometimes the marketing teams tend to fall sort where we check our boxes, we’ve made the landing page, we’ve had the registration page, we’ve sent the emails, etc. But there’s nothing juicy in there that makes something want to so it makes it a prospect or a customer, actually want to attend this event. So I think that’s where, typically we see people falling short.

Christian Klepp 03:18

It’s kind of like the cookie cutter approach, right? So like, you know, we’ve sent out, we’ve done the email blast check, we’re directing everybody to this landing page for them to register check. And to your point, there’s nothing really that they come up with that jumps out, right? And I think, correct me, if I’m wrong, in the world of B2B, people tend to be really guilty of just trying not to do anything that’s too crazy. 100%

Brynna DeSantiago 03:43

100%. It’s, you know, this is the way we’ve done it. So let’s, let’s continue to go, you know, go to events or build event roadmap the same way we have in our template. And, you know, let’s follow the marketing roadmap, of like you said, setting up the registration page, sending out emails, directing them there. And, you know, once they hit that, well, we’ll send them a post event email. And, you know, following that, everybody knows that cadence, that event Bible, but it’s, you know, the extra, the extra little bit is, you know, partnering with sales, getting that juicy information that people actually want to come to the that event for making sure that outreach is affected, making sure it’s on the right channels, etc.

Christian Klepp 04:27

Absolutely, absolutely. And we’re going to unpack that bit later on in the conversation. But I did have one follow up question for you, Brynna, just based on what you’ve been saying in the past couple of minutes. And it might be difficult to like quantify this, but maybe part of the reason why a lot of people have defaulted to the virtual events and zoom is partly also because of the cost factor. So how do you I guess, from your experience, you know that clearly plays a role in terms of, like, companies making decisions about whether to do in person or virtual events. How can marketers overcome that barrier? Because that is a big one, right? I mean, if you, if you’re talking about, like, attending a trade show, for example, right? Those aren’t understatement of the year. Those aren’t cheap.

Brynna DeSantiago 05:21

Correct. I would say we there’s this idea that all events are expensive, and you’re right. You know, signing up for a trade show is never cheap. You pay for the boot...

Ep. 179: How to Leverage Events to Drive B2B Marketing Success