At the end of January, MPG hosted a roundtable discussion for event marketing leaders, bringing together senior marketers from B2B event organisers to share insights about what it means to be a data-led event marketing leader, and why this is so important.

Participants were very open in sharing their knowledge,  experience and ideas on how a data-led approach should be adopted by marketing teams to deliver more strategic value to their businesses.

The discussion centred around the following three important questions:

1. What is a ‘data-led event marketing leader’?
   
2. Why is it important to be data-led?
   
3. What are the key challenges and barriers when striving to be more data-led, and how can these be overcome?

5 of the main takeaways from this discussion were:

#1 SYSTEMS CHALLENGES: data needs to be hosted in more than one system, and these systems must be well integrated for data to be a valuable resource.

Many discussion participants highlighted a fundamental problem in their businesses around how data is hosted in various systems and these systems not being integrated. A poorly set up tech stack means the data cannot be used effectively, so loses its value.

There is also great opportunity cost and real cost when marketers have to spend a large portion of their time on manual work to move data around and prepare data for campaigns. This manual work can be replaced by automated workflows if the tech stack is set up correctly, meaning that marketers could then focus on revenue-generating and value-creating activities. 

A further significant issue that arises when systems are not set up properly, is the lack of attribution (see MPG Insights article on attribution modelling – the move to data-driven conversions). When a marketing tech stack is not set up to enable attribution modelling, marketing effectiveness and ROI cannot be measured. If event marketers cannot attribute outcomes and results to specific marketing investments and marketing activities, they cannot deliver marketing performance reports to the business and appear to not be holding themselves accountable for marketing ROI. This then leads to issues around marketing being valued as a growth and revenue driver.

#2 JOINED UP SALES & MARKETING: proper ‘sales and marketing alignment’ is impossible if data, and the systems holding data, are not set up in the right way.

Everyone in the room agreed that salespeople and marketers need equal access to the same data and important insights from that data. From sales data on how a specific opportunity is  being worked to acquire a new customer; to how data on customer engagement is being used by marketing and sales for retention/upsell activities; to understanding how every marketing channel and campaign is performing; to understanding what kind of marketing supports improvements in sales KPIs – there is no doubt at all that well-managed data is essential for marketing and sales alignment. 

To get the data set up in the right way for true and highly effective ‘joined up’ sales and marketing, the right systems and processes need to be put in place. This is essential technology and data infrastructure that – if missing – will definitely hold your business back. 

Many discussion participants expressed frustration about competitors pulling ahead of them because the competitors appear to have better systems and data sets. The event marketing leaders stuck with a substandard tech and data setup are frustrated by ‘their hands being tied’, and a lack of understanding by business leaders of the highly detrimental effect that low or poor investments in tech and data can have on the ability of marketing to perform well. 

Towards the end of the discussion the group explored how marketers could better influence their senior executives to pay more attention to the systems that host essential data.

#3 AI ISN’T A MAGIC BULLET: it will be some time before AI tools replace marketers when it comes to working with specialised data sets and nuanced marketing insights. But machine learning should be used widely for marketing automation.

Most good marketing systems already have marketing automation functionality – but much of this cannot be used as systems are not integrated and data sets are not organised in the right way. Marketing leaders expressed frustration at the fact their businesses had bought tools that could not be used to their best effect. 

When it comes to generative AI, most marketers are using AI tools to be more efficient in some tactical tasks, such as email campaign development. But participants agreed that AI tools are not capable of doing the important work that marketers currently do with data to ensure their campaigns are relevant to the audience groups targeted.

#4 A DATA-LED CULTURE IS ESSENTIAL: marketing leaders are frustrated by a lack of appreciation of and focus on data in their businesses.

Senior executives don’t prioritise data enough in most businesses. Many marketing leaders in the room were considering bringing data experts into their businesses to help develop the right strategies to gain senior executive support and buy-in from a range of key stakeholders across the business. Roundtable participants expressed hope that this would then lead to more focus on getting the right systems in place for effective data management.

There is a real need for marketing leaders to help senior executives and key stakeholders across the business understand and embrace the value of data. Without this education, collaboration and alignment, businesses will struggle to become data-led, and this will have a negative impact on future success and growth potential. 

#5 DATA ON ‘TOUCH POINTS’ IS KEY: marketers need to understand how customers are engaging with a company’s digital channels, sales people and products.

Many marketers don’t have visibility of customer interactions with the business – i.e. the ‘touchpoints’. This means they can’t develop an understanding of what marketing is working, and where marketing time, effort and money is being wasted.

This is demotivating, especially for the best marketers who get very frustrated when they want to focus on outcomes but can’t see what outcomes are being achieved. This relates back to the attribution point mentioned previously.

Marketing leaders who were present at the roundtable mentioned the following systems in terms of where their data is currently held (caveat: not all these systems were ‘recommended’…):

Roundtable participants mentioned the following challenges to being truly data-led:

1. Reporting tools and capabilities vary widely across various systems in use.
2. Many data points to draw from for decision-making – with data insights often difficult to surface and digest.
3. Salespeople are very influential, but are not interested in the ‘big picture’ when it comes to data. Marketers are more strategic around data, but are often not heard…
4. The IT department often selects and implements marketing technology and data systems. But they often do this without the right level of input from marketing. 
5. Data work is generally still very manual, with so much that could be automated with the right systems and processes set up.
6. Businesses have invested in buying and implementing good tools and spend a lot of money on them annually, but are not realising the value due to poor ‘follow through’ in terms of how data is set up in the systems. 
7. AI can supplement important data processes, but marketers still need to do all the thinking and much of the work. 

Conclusion:

Events businesses could achieve more success and growth if they equipped their marketing functions with better data, and systems in which to manage this data. As a general rule, marketing leaders understand what needs to be done to be more data-led, but struggle to get it done due to a lack of understanding and support from senior executives to get the right systems and processes in place. 

The key question is: what more can and should event marketing leaders do to own and drive the agenda on the importance of being a data-led marketing business?

MPG helps event organisers achieve better marketing results.

To find out more how we do this, please get in touch.

What our clients have said about working with Team MPG:

“MPG did a great job assessing our digital marketing and marketing operations requirements – considering our business goals.  They developed a robust strategy, followed by a practical operational roadmap to help us further improve how we use technology to support marketing and sales performance. It has been a pleasure working with the MPG team!”

Jonathan Perry, Global Marketing Director, PEI Group

“MPG developed some valuable analytics dashboards that give us constant visibility of how our website and other marketing channels are performing. This means our senior stakeholders can easily understand how various marketing initiatives are performing, and then make good decisions to get the most out of our marketing investments. We recommend working with MPG’s analytics and marketing experts!”

Jenny Fazakerley, VP Head of FT Board Director Programme UK, The Financial Times

“Working closely with our internal team, MPG developed a strong marketing strategy focused on achieving revenue growth for a key product in our portfolio – including recommendations for a virtual offering. We were impressed by the science and rigour they put into the process. I would recommend MPG as a good strategic marketing partner for a B2B brand.”

Anna Knight, VP Licensing, Informa Markets