For your 2014 budget: Link events spending to Content Marketing
CMOs tell us that they have to fight tooth-and-nail to get the budget they need for key marketing events.
To protect and expand the events budget, marketers need to show management how much money marketing events bring in. That’s the overarching theme of the posts you’ve been reading in the Omnience ROI Blog. Examples:
- Last week Chris Cote quoted a meeting industry expert on the importance of measuring ROI.
- Last month, Casey Cote wrote about management’s need for performance information.
- In June, Casey explained how to defend your spend with event analytics.
In our experience, it takes time to implement an effective, technologically advanced ROI measurement program. So what can you do in the interim to win budget dollars now for marketing events? I’d like to share an idea with you – an idea sparked by a joint survey by Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs.
First, here are two key findings from the survey:
- “More higher-ups are buying into content marketing.” 91% of B2B respondents use content marketing. On average, content marketing accounts for 33% of the marketing budget. That’s up from 26% last year, and more than half of respondents plan to increase spending on content marketing next year.
- Events rank at the top of the list of the most effective content marketing tactics. B2B marketers ranked In-Person Events first and Virtual Events third – ahead of blogs, videos, eNewsletters, research reports, white papers, eBooks, and articles.
Clearly, top executives at B2B companies see the importance of content marketing – and are willing to invest in more and better content.
So start thinking of your marketing events as being the most powerful type of, and channel for, content. A webinar presentation is content. The speakers at a regional sales seminar are delivering content. The panelists at a user group session are delivering content, too. Probably the most valuable content of all: the interactions attendees have with your company’s professionals and their industry colleagues.
Explain to your CEO and CFO that marketing events are the ultimate form of content marketing. Marketing events accelerate the journey of prospects through the sales funnel, and help convert leads into sales.
In next week’s blog, I’ll explore this concept a step further. I’ll discuss the content needed to get the right people to your event, the additional content you can generate coming out of the event, and parlaying new content and event analytics into the best budget justification tool of all: eye-popping ROI.
