MPG Newsletter | Summer 2024

by Anna Stone, on 15/08/2024

With the end of the summer fast approaching, this is the perfect time to join MPG for a refresh and reset “retreat”, so you can recharge for the second half of the year. While we can’t promise warm sandy beaches and sunrise yoga, we can promise to reground you in the foundations of marketing excellence.

Here’s your H2 check-in to see where you might need to give yourselves some extra TLC:

  • Do you have a GA4 property lurking in your account which hasn’t been set up?
  • Are you reluctant to deep-dive into the analytics because you feel less confident with the new interface?
  • Are your PPC campaigns spending money like a leaky bucket and you’re not sure where it’s going and how to stop it?
  • Do you have an all-inclusive approach to your email marketing because you’re lacking the database quality and processes for better targeting?
  • Are you asking your marketers to be all things to all parts of the business – build a brand, drive leads, grow the audience, bring in sponsors and support sales?
  • Are you commanding your spot in the market, and holding your competitors out?

In this newsletter, we will help you to determine if your digital advertising, web analytics (including GA4), and database are 5-star. By ensuring you are excelling in these key marketing areas, you can deliver first class performance across commercial partnership and audience acquisition. We’ve got cheat sheets for you to help with that too – keep reading.

On the MPG retreat, we encourage you to post your #bestmoments. If you find the below articles valuable, share them with your colleagues and networks, then sign up to receive upcoming insights straight to your inbox.

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#1 GA4 for B2B media & events businesses: your 7-step guide to success

While Google extended the deadline to switch over to GA4, MPG have seen recent examples of companies who haven’t yet committed to the switch over. Over the last few months Google has created a GA4 property for all of those that hadn’t done so actively. This is your sign to take the leap into the deep blue waters of GA4.

But there’s no need to fear drowning with MPG’s 7-step guide to success.

While the terminology is different, and the interface may look unfamiliar initially, start with the same first principles i.e. define tracking objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) to align with your business goals. With a clear focus on what you need, you can configure the measurement features across your website and registration platform. Setting up the right reporting means your team can continually monitor user journeys (and abandonments) and optimise performance of your digital properties.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

#2 What every event marketer should know about PPC/Paid Media

Digital advertising is the proverbial pool lilo. It looks great once you’re floating along peacefully, cocktail in hand, knowing the return is rolling in, but blowing the thing up in the first place, let alone getting onboard, is enough to cause a splash.

Managing PPC or Paid Media campaigns requires a unique set of skills and expertise – which is why having a dedicated agency partner or specialist digital marketing team for your event campaigns is essential. More than that, handing this critical channel over to a non-event specialist is like having a puncture in that lilo – watch your PPC campaigns sink, along with your budget.

With an event offering that’s changing all the time – as speakers get added, sessions get confirmed and sponsors come onboard – you need a nimble ads approach. With MPG’s understanding of event intricacies and the unique campaign momentum changes, we’ve captured the key questions you need to be asking to drive ROI and five PPC metrics every event marketer should be paying attention to on a weekly basis.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Also of interest: Senior event leaders talked about all things PPC and Paid Media in a roundtable event earlier this year. Read their top 5 takeaways

#3 Is your database scuppering your event marketing campaign?

There’s nothing worse than not doing your research and turning up at a resort which simply ‘isn’t your crowd’. People are part of the experience. That’s why your event’s database isn’t just a list of contacts; it’s the beating heart of your event marketing strategy.

As campaigns ramp up, and the email frenzy takes hold, it never feels like you have a chance to get on top of your database. With MPG’s all-inclusive “review and recommendation” package, you can evaluate your data throughout the whole lifecycle, including data collection, storage, maintenance, governance and usage. Use our top recommendations to drive commercial performance, and follow a roadmap for implementing. Even if your mobile data fails you, you’ll no longer be lost with MPG’s guide to event database management.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

#4 Marketing to grow sponsorship revenue: why it’s important and how to get it right

This post was sponsored by … #ad. You may not be a social media influencer, but senior event executives know how important sponsors are to a successful event. For many conferences it makes up the majority of the revenue target; it de-risks the event with earlier committed revenue and adds credibility, which will attract attendees.

For something so important to the commercial security of your business, there’s a strong argument for dedicating specialist resources to sponsorship marketing. Most event companies do this within their sales function, with separate sponsorship and delegate sales teams, yet they don’t replicate the same in their marketing. There’s a recognition that it’s a “different type of sale” so it follows that it’s a different type of marketing too.

Need more to convince company stakeholders? Read this blog for examples of what is important in sponsorship marketing that’s not relevant to delegate acquisition.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Also of interest: Make your case with this tried and tested methodology to achieve strong YOY revenue growth. When you see more MQLs and higher conversion rates, your argument will soon make itself. Click here.

#5 Reserve your spot [around the pool]

Just as competition is rife around the pool for the sunbeds, so too is the competition to get people to attend your event. You can’t switch off your delegate marketing. You need a 365 approach to engaging your audience.

While there might be some down-time between events, this is the time to press the reset button and tackle everything above, your GA4/analytics, your digital advertising and database hygiene because it’s back to business-as-usual before you’ve had a chance to say ‘pina colada’.

Thankfully, MPG is the malibu to your pineapple juice. With over 10 years of experience, we bring the perfect mix of marketing excellence in delegate marketing. With cross-channel experts and hundreds of integrated marketing campaigns delivered, you can sit back and relax knowing your events are in good hands.

DISCOVER MPG’s CONFERENCE MARKETING SERVICES

We hope that the insights we’ve shared in this newsletter will help you take a moment to breathe and smell the sea, before making waves in your event marketing with MPG.

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Mastering PPC for events: marketing leader roundtable discussion – 5 key takeaways

by Sue Stevens, on 27/06/2024

MPG’s recent roundtable discussion brought together senior event marketers to talk about PPC (pay-per-click) and paid media strategies.

Here are 5 important things we all took away from this session…

#1 Lead time, planning, preparation & an evolving approach are all essential ingredients for a strong ROI

A good lead time, strong planning and thorough preparation is essential for successful digital advertising. Starting around 25 weeks before the event is ideal, although beginning earlier can also lend advantages. The right lead time depends on the size and nature of your event, budget available and your objectives. Your ad approach should evolve as the event does, providing richer information as the product develops. Starting early and using the best available content and messaging is always important.

Talk to Team MPG about how we approach planning for the PPC/Paid Media campaigns we manage for organisers of conferences and exhibitions. Get in touch >>

#2 Retargeting and geofencing are smart ways to hit the right people at the right time

Bringing back web visitors who have previously engaged with your event marketing and website is a smart way to nurture your funnel. And focusing your campaigns and spend on specific geographic areas when you know your ideal customers will be there (e.g. when a competitor event is running) is also an intelligent way to hit ‘the right people at the right time’.

What to know more about geofencing and results achieved by MPG using this method? We’d love to chat. Contact us today >>

#3 Measuring and benchmarking conversions: don’t invest in PPC or paid social without this in place!

It is tragically common to see event organisers pouring money into digital advertising without any idea of the true ROI. Why is this disastrous? 2 reasons…

  1. PPC and paid social are the most measurable marketing activities you can invest in. Metrics you focus on will depend on campaign objectives, should be benchmarked on a regular basis (ideally weekly), and should appear in regular reports. The most important metric, when tying performance directly to revenue, is your average cost for generating leads and registrants i.e. CPA (cost per acquisition).
  2. Digital agencies have managed to persuade the events industry to spend millions on campaigns and then report ‘performance’ using the largely meaningless metrics of CPC (cost per click) and volume of traffic to the website. 

Money wasted on PPC/Paid Media because agencies or internal specialists are not being held accountable with proper performance reporting needs to stop. At a time when marketing budgets are already squeezed and marketing ROI is more important than ever, wasting money on poorly measured and therefore poorly optimised campaigns is tragic.

MPG’s unique suite of marketing measurement dashboards include one specifically focused on PPC/Paid Media. Ask for a demo >>

#4 Ongoing knowledge sharing and collaboration is needed to make platforms work for events businesses

Committed digital advertising specialists, including those in Team MPG, will work hard every day to make sure they understand how ad platforms algorithms are working and changing over time. Bringing experts together as we did at our recent roundtable is an example of the kind of knowledge sharing and collaboration that is needed to get ahead. These kinds of meetings and discussions should be happening frequently within businesses and between event organisers and their PPC agencies.

Do you want to be invited to a future marketing knowledge sharing and collaboration roundtable? We do these in-person and online – covering a variety of topics focused on achieving strong, visible performance from your event marketing efforts. Contact us to request invitations to future MPG roundtables >>

#5 Educating stakeholders about PPC is essential

This empowers them to understand the value it brings and how to best leverage it for optimal results. PPC is very powerful and effective when it is well done. But it is not a ‘quick fix’. Gaining the advantage with well-managed PPC requires a strategic mindset, good organisation, forward planning and consistent effort.

Event marketers need to ensure easy-to-understand performance dashboards are in place and visible to all stakeholders. Results need to be communicated well, consistently and meaningfully. If senior stakeholders and budget owners can see how PPC is performing and be confident in its power to drive growth and create value – they’ll want to invest.

If you want a complimentary 1 hour consultation from Team MPG on how to ensure your marketing efforts and results are well communicated to your senior stakeholders, let us know. Or maybe you’re a senior stakeholder or budget owner who wants better visibility of your marketing ROI? Get in touch and we’ll schedule a call with you >>

Overall, the roundtable discussion reinforced the inherent complexity of managing PPC and paid social, and how easy it is to waste a lot of money on this channel if the experts being trusted are not doing what they need to do.

At the same time, there is a growing and burning need for this channel to work well for event organisers, especially when email deliverability has become much more problematic in recent months.

We all have to get on this digital marketing train, whether we like it or not. And we need to make sure those we’ve entrusted with the controls really know what they’re doing!

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What every event marketer should know about PPC/Paid Media

by Sue Stevens, on 13/05/2024

Let’s talk about PPC (including Paid Media) and why it’s a game-changer for your event strategy. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a powerful tool for event marketers, which requires specialised expertise to execute effectively.

Outsourcing your PPC campaigns to a dedicated team or agency partner is crucial for maximising your event marketing success. Here’s why: 

Managing PPC campaigns requires a unique set of skills and expertise – which is why having a dedicated PPC team or agency partner for your event campaigns is essential. While it may seem tempting to handle PPC yourself or have your general marketing staff take it on, this critical channel requires specialised expertise that most marketers simply don’t have and can’t realistically be expected to learn and stay on top of.

It’s not just about crafting catchy copy and setting up campaigns; it’s about understanding the intricacies of bidding strategies, keyword optimisation and ad placements. Plus, staying on top of the ever-evolving PPC landscape is a full-time job in itself.

Your PPC specialists also need to understand events well and work in the right way to support best-practice event marketing.

At MPG, our PPC team lives and breathes paid media. With years of experience under their belts, they understand the dynamic nature of events and tailor campaigns accordingly, from early bird promotions to tradeshow feature announcements and conference speaker reveals – they understand how PPC strategies should evolve as your event offering changes day by day. 

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How MPG’s PPC specialists work

  • Step-by-step operations: the process starts with an in-depth briefing to understand the target customers’ goals and motivations in their roles and around the event. Before setting up any campaigns, our PPC team develops customised strategies across a range of channels, including Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook/Instagram and LinkedIn.
  • Campaign management: the PPC gurus constantly monitor and optimise campaigns, making real-time tweaks to capitalise on what’s working and quickly cut what’s not. Advanced tactics are used, such as audience layering, dayparting, geo-targeting, automated bidding, and constant creative testing to drive results. This also teaches the AI that is now built into all platforms to target ads better, which creates exponentially better results as time goes by.
  • Reporting quality: MPG’s real-time, detailed marketing ROI measurement reports provide visibility for our generalist marketers on how campaigns are performing and what our PPC campaign managers suggest for further improvements and updates as we move through the event marketing cycle, making it easy to understand where budget is best spent and how results are being improved over time.

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Questions every event marketer should be asking to ensure PPC campaigns deliver a good ROI

Creating effective PPC campaigns requires not only the initial creative and setup, but also consistent monitoring and adjustment to generate good quality leads and immediate registrations. As an event marketer, these are the questions you should be asking your PPC/paid media specialist:

  1. “Are my ads driving the desired actions, whether it’s form submissions or event registrations? Are conversions being tracked so I can see these results?”
    Tracking conversions is key to measuring campaign effectiveness. Understanding what’s driving conversions and ensuring the budget reflects this is key to driving results. When properly set up, tracking also teaches the PPC/paid media tools what is working, so the platforms themselves will adjust automatically to perform better for you.
    (If you’re unsure how to get this tracking right, contact us via our website and we’d be happy to talk you through how we do it for our clients.)
  2. “Which ad creatives and copy resonate with my audience and make them convert?”
    Analysing ad performance helps refine your messaging and alter your creative for better results and should be done throughout your campaign.
  3. Am I getting the most bang for my buck from how my budget is being allocated across channels, campaigns and the event marketing timeline?”
    Keeping a close eye on budget allocation across different campaigns and channels to optimise ROI is an essential part of a PPC/paid media campaign manager’s job.
  4. “How are my ads performing against the competition? Am I gaining – or losing – the competitive advantage in how my ads are being managed?”
    This is particularly relevant for Google Search campaigns to ensure your bids outperform the competition.

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Five PPC/Paid Media reporting metrics every event marketer should be paying attention to on a weekly basis

To gauge the success of your campaigns, keep monitoring these key metrics:

  1. Cost per acquisition (CPA): measures the cost incurred to acquire a new attendee or lead. Monitoring CPA helps in assessing the efficiency and profitability of campaigns.
  2. Revenue: tracking revenue generated from campaigns provides direct insight into its impact on your bottom line. Analysing revenue data empowers you to make informed decisions about budget allocation, campaign optimisation and overall strategy. Revenue doesn’t only apply if you’re selling delegate tickets. Revenue can be attributed based on how event attendees are enabling sponsorship and exhibition revenue. Attribution analysis is important here too (see the MPG Insights blog on Attribution Modelling).
  3. Website traffic: website traffic reflects the effectiveness of campaigns in driving visitors to your desired landing pages. Monitoring traffic helps evaluate campaign reach, audience engagement and overall brand visibility.
    (Interestingly, this is often the only metric agencies provide when asked to account for campaign effectiveness. But this is only one of the metrics that matters and should never be looked at in isolation.)
  4. Average costs: understanding average costs empowers you to evaluate which channels, campaigns, keywords and ad creatives deliver the best value for money.
  5. Competitive metrics: competitive metrics, such as auction Insights, provide valuable insights into the relevance and performance of ads compared to your competitors.
  6. Click-through rate: monitoring CTR helps to optimise ad copy, identify underperforming ads and maximise the effectiveness of your campaigns in driving user engagement and conversions.

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Having PPC/Paid Media specialists who understand events is essential for driving awareness, leads, and registrations. With the right strategy and execution, you can fill venues and maximise your ROI.

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Get Team MPG on board to help you achieve a stronger ROI from your event marketing PPC/Paid Media. We have a dedicated team of specialists who understand conference and exhibition marketing inside out. They understand how dynamic events are and how much attention campaigns need to achieve the results you’re looking for.

Contact us today for a quote. You won’t pay more than your current agency, but we are quite certain you’ll get better results working with Team MPG!

MPG’s analytics experts are fully trained and experienced in all aspects of GA4. We have helped many organisations understand their current setup and how it needs to be improved, and then we’ve helped them implement the necessary changes.

Get in touch to learn how we can help you get your GA4 set up right.

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MPG have taken our PPC to another level with their strategic approach and excellent customer service. PPC is an important area of investment for us as we expand our global reach and launch new products. We’re very pleased to have Team MPG on board and recommend them highly as a safe pair of hands.

Roy Maybury, Associate Marketing Director, Global Events & Networks, PEI GROUP

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GA4 for B2B media & events businesses: your 7-step guide to success

by Sue Stevens, on 29/04/2024

So, you’ve decided to level up your analytics game with Google Analytics 4 (GA4). 

Here is a step-by-step guide created by Team MPG’s GA4 experts to ensure you know where to start and how to achieve a good end result.

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STEP 1: plan and prepare

  • Define your tracking objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) to align with your business goals.
  • Identify the events, conversions and user interactions you want to track within your digital properties (e.g. website, app).
  • Consider your data governance policies and compliance requirements, ensuring that your GA4 implementation adheres to privacy regulations and best practices.
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STEP 2: set up your GA4 account and property

  • Create a new GA4 property within your Google Analytics account for each digital property you want to track (e.g. website, app).
  • Configure data streams for each platform (e.g. website tracking code, app SDK integration) to start collecting data.
  • Set up data controls, including data deletion settings and consent mode, to comply with privacy regulations and user preferences.
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STEP 3: configure event tracking

  • Identify the events that are critical to tracking user interactions and conversions on your digital properties.
  • Use the GA4 event builder or tag manager to set up event tracking for key actions such as page views, clicks, form submissions, purchases and video views.
  • Implement custom event parameters to capture additional details about user interactions (e.g. product IDs, transaction amounts, video durations).
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STEP 4: enhance your measurement configuration

  • Explore GA4’s enhanced measurement features, such as scroll tracking, site search tracking, outbound link tracking and file download tracking.
  • Enable enhanced measurement settings for relevant events and interactions to capture additional data points automatically.
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STEP 5:  configure and segment your audience

  • Define audience segments based on user behaviour, demographics and engagement metrics to personalise marketing campaigns and content.
  • Utilise built-in audience definitions or create custom audiences using event-based criteria and user properties.
  • Consider integrating GA4 with Google Ads and other advertising platforms to leverage audience insights for targeted advertising.
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STEP 6: set up analysis and reporting

  • Customise your GA4 reporting views and dashboards to focus on the metrics and dimensions most relevant to your business objectives.
  • Set up automated reports and alerts to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and receive notifications for significant changes or anomalies.
  • Explore GA4’s analysis tools, including Exploration, Funnel Analysis and Path Analysis, to uncover insights and optimise user journeys.
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STEP 7: ongoing monitoring and optimisation

  • Regularly review your GA4 data for accuracy, completeness and relevance, making necessary adjustments to improve tracking and reporting.
  • Stay informed about GA4 updates, new features and best practices through official documentation, blogs, forums and training resources.
  • Continuously test and iterate on your GA4 setup to optimise performance, identify opportunities for improvement and drive better business outcomes.

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Implementing GA4 correctly is essential for every media and events business. Be deliberate, systematic and thorough about how you deploy GA4 to make sure you’re not leaving money on the table!

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MPG’s analytics experts are fully trained and experienced in all aspects of GA4. We have helped many organisations understand their current setup and how it needs to be improved, and then we’ve helped them implement the necessary changes.

Get in touch to learn how we can help you get your GA4 set up right.

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MPG developed valuable analytics dashboards for us that means we have constant visibility of how our website and other marketing channels are performing. This means our senior stakeholders can make good, data-led decisions about marketing investments.  We recommend working with MPG’s analytics and marketing experts!

Jenny Fazakerley, Head of FT Board Director Programme, FINANCIAL TIMES

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GA4: common pitfalls and big opportunities

by Helen Coetzee, on 23/04/2024

GA4, the latest iteration of Google Analytics, has become ubiquitous, whether through deliberate adoption or automatic migration by Google. How are companies faring with this transition? It’s a mixed bag, but our overall sense is that most organisations have a way to go before GA4 is doing the job it is meant to do.

Most companies have not set GA4 up in the optimal way. This means marketing cannot be measured, and company revenues and valuations are suffering. 

Some organisations were early adopters, especially those deeply entrenched in digital marketing and analytics.

But many organisations took a more passive or cautious stance, and some were simply unaware of what was needed. Businesses that are not data-centric didn’t pay much attention. Some that did were not sure about how to approach the full transition to GA4. Many analysts who were put in charge of the move to GA4 simply tried to replicate UA to GA4 and didn’t consider how tracking and reporting needed to be completely overhauled for GA4. 

From MPG’s perch, we are discovering most organisations do not have GA4 set up correctly – even when senior leaders think they do. This has significant implications for how marketing ROI can be measured, and also how audience behaviour is understood. At best this means marketers are flying blind, at worst opportunity costs in lost revenue and lower enterprise value are mounting up.

6 common GA4 pitfalls to avoid

  1. Treating GA4 like Universal Analytics: many made the error of applying the same strategies used for UA to GA4, failing to adapt to its unique data model and features.
  2. Misinterpreting event tracking: unlike UA GA4 prioritises event-based tracking over traditional pageviews, requiring a paradigm shift in tracking strategies. Misunderstanding event tracking undermines data capture accuracy and compromises user interaction analysis.
  3. Incomplete setup: rushing through GA4 setup or overlooking crucial tracking parameters have resulted in incomplete data collection, compromising decision-making processes.
  4. Cross-platform neglect: GA4’s enhanced cross-platform tracking capabilities provide holistic user journey insights across devices. Neglecting this aspect results in fragmented data, obscuring the understanding of user behaviour and interactions.
  5. Data privacy compliance oversight: with evolving privacy regulations like GDPR, ensuring GA4 compliance is paramount. Underestimating data privacy compliance risks legal liabilities and tarnishing your brand reputation.
  6. Procrastination paralysis: concerns about data migration or platform complexity have led some to procrastinate, hindering access to GA4’s advanced capabilities.

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7 GA4 opportunities you can’t ignore

  1. E-commerce tracking: GA4’s e-commerce tracking features provide valuable insights into sales performance and transaction metrics, empowering businesses to optimise pricing strategies and drive revenue growth.
  2. Enhanced cross-platform tracking: in today’s multi-device landscape, GA4’s cross-platform tracking capabilities offer a holistic view of audience engagement, essential for effective targeting and personalisation.
  3. Event tracking and measurement: accurate event tracking in GA4 is crucial for measuring event success and ROI, providing detailed insights into attendee behaviour and conversion metrics.
  4. Audience insights and segmentation: GA4’s audience segmentation features allow businesses to create custom segments based on various attributes, enabling personalised content and marketing messages. These audience insights enable businesses to tailor content, marketing messages, and event experiences to specific audience segments.
  5. Comprehensive data collection: GA4 provides advanced tracking capabilities across various digital channels, enabling businesses to gain insights into audience behaviour and preferences for optimised strategies.
  6. Real-time reporting and analysis: with GA4’s real-time reporting capabilities, businesses can monitor performance, track campaign effectiveness, and make data-driven decisions utilising real-time data.
  7. Data privacy and compliance: GA4 ensures compliance with data protection laws like GDPR, safeguarding user data and maintaining trust with the audience. By implementing GA4 using best practices and compliance requirements, media and events businesses can safeguard user data and maintain trust with their audience.

Implementing GA4 correctly is essential for every media and events business. The pitfalls could leave you seriously out of pocket, and the opportunities are too great to ignore. 

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MPG’s analytics experts are fully trained and experienced in all aspects of GA4. We have helped many organisations understand their current setup and how it needs to be improved, and then we’ve helped them implement the necessary changes.

Get in touch to learn how we can help you get your GA4 set up right.

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MPG developed valuable analytics dashboards for us that means we have constant visibility of how our website and other marketing channels are performing. This means our senior stakeholders can make good, data-led decisions about marketing investments.  We recommend working with MPG’s analytics and marketing experts!

Jenny Fazakerley, Head of FT Board Director Programme, FINANCIAL TIMES

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The big opportunity for B2B media and events: data and tech

by Helen Coetzee, on 19/04/2024

In March, Mx3 hosted an excellent 2-day event in Barcelona focused on innovation in media. At the end of day 2, I shared my key takeaways in this LinkedIn post, with #1 being: “How does an event business future-proof itself? By being data-centric.”

In Barcelona, I was privileged to be interviewed by the excellent journalist Adri Kotze, who quickly zoned in on the big data opportunity for B2B media and events businesses. 
Read the interview summary and watch the video here: Why it’s great to be in B2B media right now

Mature, strategic events businesses are data-centric.

This was a recurring theme at Mx3 Barcelona, with Questex CEO Paul Miller making it quite clear that this innovative and much-respected event organiser is putting data first. Informa’s CEO Stephen Carter has been saying for years that event businesses are data businesses, hence Informa’s huge investment in a centralised data management platform to power growth, profitability and value creation.

Truly data-centric organisations have embraced and embedded the concept and practice of placing data as a core, fixed asset that does not change regardless of the technology tools in place to store and deploy it. 

Sensible businesses know that technology is a means to an end. Data is the dog, and tech is the tail. 

Technology – whether purpose-built or platform-based – is a means to an end. The role of technology is to manage data, host it, move it and serve it up as needed – to deliver value for customers or to manage internal operations. 

AI is nothing more than a new form of technology that is focused on extracting even more value from data. And this data needs to be in good shape for AI to do its work. 

It is very important for marketers and decision-makers investing in marketing technology (including AI) to be mindful that the tools we invest in are all about data. The tools we choose and how we deploy should be focused on making data valuable and ensuring an organisation can be efficient, effective and scalable based on how data is managed.

Far too often, the tail wags the dog. The data is expected to fit the tech, not the other way around. This is where so many companies go wrong. You need a solid data strategy before you make any decisions about technology. Technology is the means, not the end. 

Team MPG can help you develop a data strategy and make good decisions about martech. Get in touch to find out more.

Working closely with MPG’s martech experts, we optimised our CRM and marketing automation setup so that we can now do smarter segmentation and more targeted, personalised marketing. Working with MPG is always a pleasure!

Robert Stead, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Sense Media Group

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Consent mode: what it is, and why event organisers can’t ignore it

by Sharise Wilkinson, on 14/03/2024

As data privacy regulations become increasingly stringent, the role of consent in marketing cannot be overstated.

For event businesses, understanding and implementing Google’s consent mode is not just a matter of compliance – it is essential for building trust with customers and delivering successful marketing strategies.

In this article, we will:

  • Explain consent mode in simple terms
  • Explore why it is important for event organisers to pay attention to consent mode
  • Take a look at the upcoming v2 of consent mode
  • Highlight a related development: Chrome’s phaseout of 3rd party cookies

What is consent mode?

According to Google’s help centre:

“Consent mode lets you communicate your users’ cookie or app identifier consent status to Google. Tags adjust their behaviour and respect users’ choices”

“Consent mode receives your users’ consent choices from your cookie banner or widget and dynamically adapts the behaviour of Analytics, Ads and third-party tags that create or read cookies.”

So, consent mode is a feature introduced by Google that allows businesses to adjust how their Google tags behave so that users’ choices (consent statuses) are respected. It enables websites to dynamically adapt to varying consent levels, ensuring compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Why should you be paying attention to consent mode?

Events businesses need to use digital marketing to attract attendees. Consent mode is therefore highly relevant for the following reasons: 

  1. Marketing performance: by respecting user preferences regarding data collection and targeting, businesses can deliver more relevant and personalised marketing campaigns, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates – and therefore more revenue.
  2. Customer trust: adhering to data privacy regulations is not just a legal requirement. Most importantly, respecting your customer’s data and preferences builds and maintains their trust in you.
  3. Compliance risk mitigation: non-compliance with data privacy regulations can result in hefty fines and damage to reputation, both of which can have significant repercussions for your business. 

Consent mode v2: what’s coming and why it matters

Google is continually refining its tools to better serve businesses navigating the complexities of data privacy. Consent mode v2 is expected to provide even more flexibility and control over how user consent is managed within digital marketing strategies.

Understanding v2 will enable you to deliver effective marketing while maintaining user trust and good compliance. V2’s enhanced features include improved consent measurement and reporting capabilities, both of which will feed valuable intelligence into your marketing analysis.

Preparing for consent mode v2

Here are the three things you need to do to be prepared for v2:

  1. Stay informed: look out for announcements from Google regarding consent mode v2 to understand its implications fully.
    A good way to do this is to subscribe to MPG Insights as we will be publishing relevant updates here as they are announced.
  2. Review current practices: evaluate your existing consent management processes and tools to identify areas for improvement and ensure alignment with upcoming changes.
    If you’re not sure how to do this, drop us a note in this form and we will let you know how we can help you.
  3. Set up a cross-functional collaboration: ensure your heads of marketing, legal, and IT work together to create and execute a robust strategy for implementing consent mode v2 effectively.

Look out for Chrome’s phasing out of 3rd party cookies

In addition to consent mode updates, you should also be aware of the impending phaseout of 3rd party cookies in Google Chrome. This change will have significant implications for your digital advertising and tracking practices, necessitating a shift towards alternative strategies such as 1st party data collection and contextual targeting.

The phaseout of 3rd party cookies underscores the importance of building direct relationships with customers and leveraging 1st party data to deliver personalised marketing experiences. Events businesses that proactively adapt to this shift will be better positioned to navigate the evolving digital landscape – enabling them to survive and thrive.

Understanding consent mode, v2 and embracing 1st party data will ensure you and your business are ‘future-proofed’!

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Attribution modeling – the move to data-driven conversions

by Deena Hefford, on 21/06/2023

With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming a prominent part of digital marketing, the realm of attribution modeling has been revolutionised with advanced algorithms and predictive models that can significantly enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of attribution strategies. In this blog, we’ll explore how AI-driven attribution can help unlock new insights for businesses to optimise their marketing efforts and drive meaningful results.

What is attribution modeling?

Attribution modeling is a set of rules that determines how credit is given to marketing channels, providing deeper insights into how impactful each touchpoint on the customer’s journey is in driving conversions.

This enables marketers to take a holistic view of their marketing efforts, understand how customers move through the conversion path, identify the influence of each channel to maximise ROI, and optimise strategy to deliver tailored campaigns and content specific to each persona.

Attribution modeling types

Over time, multiple attribution models have been developed to address the complex nature of the sophisticated customer journeys audiences take nowadays. There is no one-size-fits-all model and what you choose to use depends on the product, length of the sales cycle, and what decisions businesses need to make. Different reporting tools may also use different methodologies for attribution (e.g. Pardot’s default is First click whilst Facebook Ads’ default is Last click).

This month, Google will be phasing out First click, Linear, Time decay, and Position-based attributions for Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads, leaving marketers with two attribution model options: Last touch (Last click) and Google’s recommended model – Data-driven. But what do these mean?

#1 Last Touch / Last Click Attribution

This once-popular method assigns 100% credit to the final touchpoint that the customer interacted with before converting, providing insights on the marketing channel that directly generates a conversion. For example, if a new customer clicks on a PPC ad, then later visits the website through a social post, then receives a marketing email and registers for your event from the email, 100% of the credit is assigned to email, even though PPC and social media was an important step in their customer journey.

Although this method is straightforward to implement and is recommended for shorter sales cycles, it holds some limitations of being a single-touch approach, meaning credit is not given to any other channel – no matter how impactful they might have been to the conversion. This fragments the customer journey and ignores the importance of the initial awareness and consideration stages of a conversion path.

As marketers aim to gather more data throughout the conversion funnel to inform marketing decisions, last touch will likely be replaced by more advanced models that utilise AI and machine learning to analyse and predict user behaviour, including data-driven attribution.

#2 Data-driven Attribution

Data-driven attribution, Google Analytics 4’s default attribution model, is a new, dynamic approach that uses algorithms to distribute credit for conversions based on each channel’s click interaction, taking into account all touchpoints throughout the customer journey. It considers multiple data points, from time between interactions, to ad format and more, whilst removing our own personal biases to calculate and calibrate the incremental value of each marketing channel. In our example (where a new customer clicks on a PPC ad, then later visits the website through a social post, then receives a marketing email and registers for your event from the email), data-driven attribution means a specific proportion of the credit is assigned to each marketing channel dependent on the influence that it likely had in the resulting conversion – so it could be that some of the conversion is attributed to email, some to social and some to PPC.

This method provides a holistic view of the whole marketing campaign, going beyond one single interaction and surfacing insights on the impacts of marketing channels on earlier stages of the conversion funnel. By evaluating both the converting and non-converting paths (comparing what happened and what could have happened), data-driven attribution enables insights into how much each marketing channel contributes to generating a conversion. As a result, marketers are also enabled to allocate marketing budgets and make data-driven decisions more effectively with a deeper understanding of customer behaviour.

Difference in results between Last click vs. Data-driven attribution on GA4 Conversion report

However, like any other attribution model, data-driven also has certain considerations that marketers need to be aware of. Since data-driven attribution fully relies on the algorithms for credit assignment, it is susceptible to:

#1 – Learning period and data requirements:

Data-driven attribution requires a sufficient amount of conversion data to accurately assign credit, as it needs to learn from multiple different scenarios and combinations of touchpoints to calibrate its values. With Universal Analytics sunsetting deadline coming, businesses who use Google Analytics for reporting need to make the switch quickly to gather enough data to feed into the algorithms, enabling them to provide accurate results early on (Google recommends at least 28 days of historical data for best results). Whilst the threshold is still unclear, GA4 may default the results in its reports back to last touch/click if there is not enough data.

#2 – Algorithmic biases:

Like any data-driven approach, the data-driven attribution model may have algorithmic biases from biased training data or limitations in the underlying algorithms. It is essential for businesses to set up GA4 accurately from the start to ensure traffic tracked is accurate and reflective of the true paths customers take towards a conversion, minimising any potential biases that may affect the accuracy or fairness of the attribution results.

If you don’t already have GA4 implemented, or GA4 has been put in place without consideration of your business goals and marketing objectives, you need to take action now. Our web analytics experts are here to make sure you don’t put a foot wrong in your GA4 journey! Get in touch today.

#3 – Lack of visibility:

As data-driven attribution is fully reliant on Google’s infrastructure and algorithms working in the background, there is no visibility of how exactly credits are being assigned.

Implications for businesses

As the customer journey becomes more complex and analytics continues to be developed, data-driven attribution and its algorithms will also be improved upon. Regular monitoring and evaluation of the attribution model’s outputs are necessary to identify and address any algorithmic biases or limitations. Businesses should also ensure they have access to comprehensive and reliable data that covers all touchpoints and channels in the customer journey to facilitate accurate algorithm learning.

The implementation of data-driven attribution will also result in more complex reporting, with Google introducing additional metrics to enable deeper analysis. Marketers need to stay on top of these data points, as well as cross-reference them with additional metrics across other tools and platforms to uncover valuable insights on high-performing marketing channels to inform overall marketing strategy.

Embracing data-driven attribution and leveraging AI technologies enables businesses to gain a competitive edge in the evolving digital landscape. With data-driven conversions, businesses can extract actionable insights from vast amounts of traffic data, optimise marketing strategies, and make data-driven decisions. This empowers businesses to stay agile, capitalise on market opportunities, and deliver targeted and personalised experiences to their audience, ultimately driving growth and success.

Do you need help putting GA4 in place or optimising it to capture the data you need to run your business well?

MPG’s web analytics experts are trained and experienced in GA4 set up and optimisation, so we’re a safe pair of hands to help you make this critical transition well.

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Jenny Fazakerley, Head of FT Board Director Programme UK, Financial Time

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AI-Powered Event Marketing: The Opportunities and Challenges

by Lucy Peppercorn, on 08/06/2023

In our last blog post we looked at how AI could be making in-person B2B events more important than ever, and how a strong go-to-market strategy and marcomms plan is absolutely essential every year for a market-leading event.

Critical to success is analysing your target market well and defining your value proposition clearly with strong, relevant messaging.

Then your martech, website, data and analytics need to be well set up – especially if you want to use basic AI tools such as chatbots, programmatic advertising / automated ad bidding or optimised send features within your email marketing automation – and possibly more advanced, newer AI tools for even more effective, personalised and timely marketing.

And once all of this is done, you need to put in place a better event marcomms plan than your competitors.

Here are three areas you need to pay attention to, and a breakdown of how 4 key event marketing channels should be deployed as AI becomes more mainstream:

#1 Start marketing your event early! And by early we mean start promoting next year’s event at this year’s event, so you have the benefit of a full 12-month cycle. If you’re already on the back foot, a 6-month lead time from ‘soft launch’ is the minimum you should aim for. Don’t wait for a fuller programme or your pricing to be confirmed.

The sooner you can start building awareness about your event and positioning it as a better event than your competitors, the better! Start capturing data ASAP on those interested in attending, exhibiting or sponsoring – this is your gold dust!

Get in touch to find out how Team MPG build multi-channel event marketing timelines that drive strong YOY growth for flagship events.

#2 Optimise your event website ASAP & keep it optimised. Your website is your most important marketing channel. All your other channels drive people to your website, so if your event website is not optimised, the marketing across all your channels won’t work as well as it should.

Get GA4 set up well and ensure every page on your website has the best possible messaging and content (words, pictures, videos etc), all laid out in the optimal way to convert visitors to leads or customers with CTAs or forms – to attract visitors/delegates and exhibitors/sponsors.

For your event website, conversion rate optimisation is going to be much more important than SEO. Generative AI may wreak havoc on search engines within the coming 12 months as search results are replaced by answers created by tools like ChatGPT. This will have a significant impact on business models that rely on search engines to monetise their content.

You will probably get less organic traffic to your website, so you need to work harder at converting those who do land on your web pages into leads or customers. When you know who they are you can reach out to them more proactively via other channels.

Get in touch to find out how Team MPG can help you optimise your event website for conversions and that you are correctly tracking these conversions (including checking that your GA4 is set up correctly).

#3 Use inbound and outbound channels in an integrated way (don’t rely too much on any one channel), and set up automated comms where it makes sense to do so.

What will AI mean for various marketing channels?

  • Email marketing will be more important than ever. Many of the most accessible and already mainstream AI tools are those that help marketers create more engaging emails – with optimised subject lines, send times etc. Search engines won’t be sending as much traffic to your website, so your email marketing needs to fill most of the gap left. Make sure you have a large enough, high quality, relevant and well organised emailable database to make email work for you. This is where you could easily lose out to competitors if they do this bit better than you do. Get in touch to find out how Team MPG can help you get the most out of your email marketing.
  • Paid media (PPC) will continue to work well all the way down the funnel, but only if you:
    • Use a range of channels and campaigns, including social platforms and search engines, and ensure you continually use a ‘test and learn’ approach. It looks like generative AI may quickly disrupt search engines, so tread carefully with Google and Microsoft Ads (note that AI tools available in these platforms and a lack of competitive activity here may still deliver good returns – certainly in the short term).
    • Measure your paid media ROI continuously and carefully – at every stage of the customer journey. Don’t dismiss influenced conversions – they indicate an effective funnel overall.
    • Have a strong analysis and reporting methodology in place for your paid media – working in real time (a report you only get after a campaign has run is almost useless!). Make sure your paid media agency or inhouse paid media team delivers, at a minimum, a monthly report showing paid media ROI and trends across different channels and campaign types. AI could quickly disrupt some of the paid media channels you currently rely on, meaning you could lose money fast on media spend if you don’t have strong visibility of key data points to make good decisions about where to spend more and where to spend less.

    Get in touch to find out how Team MPG can help you create and execute winning paid media campaigns, ensuring you have constant visibility of results with our unique ROI reporting approach.

  • Advocacy via your customers and your employees will become more important than ever in the age of AI. The same goes for media and association partnerships. People will base more of their buying decisions on recommendations from those they recognise and trust. Gaining and leveraging advocacy successfully has always been a superpower of the most successful world-leading events and now, with the prevalence of tech that has entered the market, it’s even easier for marketers to harness this power. Marketers can automate and optimise this engagement with advocates for greater reach and better results. Get in touch with MPG for our latest research and findings on the best advocacy tools to use in your event marketing.
  • Social media success in event marketing will rely more than ever on advocacy by real, recognised and trusted people (see point above), and also brand trust – which is likely to come from trust in the people who represent and advocate for a brand. Assuming your advocacy efforts will generate engagement with social posts from real people about your event, it will also be important to keep posting regularly on the social media platforms where your target audience hangs out with a mix of content-led, product-led and offer-led posts. As search engines may be sending less traffic to your website soon, pushing people to your website via social channels will become more important.
  • The multi-faceted and rapid AI evolution will dominate our conversations for a long time. Live events enable these conversations within our communities. The way these events are marketed will make all the difference to how commercially successful community-led businesses will be in 2024.

    Team MPG can help you develop a high-growth event marketing strategy and plan that aligns with your business growth targets.

    Get in touch today to learn more about how we can help you take your event marketing to the next level.

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    Anna Knight, VP Licensing, Informa Markets

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Paid media: how to attract more sponsors to your conferences

by Lucy Peppercorn, on 30/03/2023

If you want to attract more sponsors for your conferences, paid media (PPC) should be in your marketing mix.

Sometimes referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) or digital advertising, paid media is a conference marketing tool that has seen increasing interest and investment.

Its popularity stems from its ability to cost-effectively drive more awareness, leads and revenue for B2B conferences. As a form of online advertising, it also affords marketers a high degree of control and visibility over performance, making it a safe investment when marketing ROI is under scrutiny.

How does paid media work?

The most popular paid media platforms for B2B events are  Google Ads, LinkedIn Advertising and Facebook Ads. In essence, paid media covers any online ad where advertisers pay for every click.

Marketers need to define how ads are targeted, using criteria such as job titles, industries, interests, behaviour (e.g. people who have visited your website before), and intent. The latter is how the popular Google Ads Paid Search functions – targeting users based on the relevant queries they are searching in Google, allowing them to be targeted at the time when they are researching solutions that conference sponsorship can provide.

Why should you use paid media (with other channels) to acquire new sponsors?

  • Reaches beyond your existing database to new, relevant leads; expanding your dataset and pushing more, brand new sponsor opportunities into your sales pipeline.
  • Supports other marketing efforts such as email and social media, pushing your conference to ‘top of mind’ and making it more likely sponsorship leads will be driven towards you.
  • Via automation, reach, nurture and convert more relevant contacts faster to become qualified sponsorship leads. Paid media allows you to quickly increase the volume of relevant contacts you can engage with to convert to warm leads – without needing to add much more in terms of a marketers’ time (you just need to put more money in your campaigns once you’ve got them well-targeted).

3 things you must get right when using paid media to generate new sponsor leads

  1. Create a solid plan before spending a penny
    1. Be clear on what you’re trying to achieve – define goals and success in specific terms
    2. Create objectives for each channel and each type of campaign/ad based on the stage in the funnel you’re aiming to influence
    3. Decide on a budget, and how that budget should be split across paid media channels and campaign types
    4. Ensure messaging in paid media ads is consistent with other channels and ties well into the full customer journey
  2. Get visibility of paid media performance and results
    1. Set up conversion tracking properly, using tracked links
    2. Focus on the metrics that matter – based on your objectives
    3. Use a data visualisation tool like Looker Studio (by Google) to pull together performance data and present it clearly and simply so it is easy to understand and act on
  3. Use specific and refined targeting
    1. Assuming you’re trying to reach a specific kind of person in a specific kind of company – most likely to be a lead for sponsorship – make sure your targeting is as narrow as possible. Then keep monitoring performance metrics and leads coming through so you know this targeting is hitting the right people. To stay on target, use the options given in paid media platforms like exact match keywords, uploaded data lists, job title and industry

3 things to avoid – or you will be wasting your money and not getting the leads you need!

  1. Don’t start investing – until you’ve worked out your ‘funnel’
    1. Paid media will drive traffic to your website, nurture existing contacts and generate more leads i.e. all the way down the funnel. Make sure you know how you are influencing each stage of the funnel
    2. Make sure your marketing and sales is fully integrated, or you won’t get good results! See MPG’s resource on how to integrate your marketing and sales well, and the relevant KPIs around this
  2. Don’t leave your paid media campaigns unattended
    1. Have a disciplined and robust process in place to regularly review campaign performance (minimum weekly)
    2. Keep optimising your paid media campaigns by adjusting your approach based on the performance data you see coming through in the reports you’ve set up. Keep tweaking your targeting options based on what is working best
  3. Don’t neglect your website
    1. ‘Cold’ leads coming from paid media will have low awareness and understanding of your event, so make sure the web pages you drive them to from your paid media (i.e. your landing pages) are well set up to explain what the event is all about and the benefits of becoming a sponsor. Also make sure this landing page has some clear calls-to-action (CTAs) so that your website visitor fills in a form to become a lead for your sponsorship sales funnel
    2. Paid media is a great way to grow your database, so use lead forms to identify leads and capture all their data

Using paid media well can make all the difference to how many good quality and well-qualified leads you can drive into your sponsorship sales funnel. When your strategy and execution here are solid, you have a great chance of attracting lots of great new sponsors to your event and growing your sponsorship revenue faster!

Want to find out more about how Team MPG can help you attract more sponsors to your event with best-in-class lead-gen marketing?

Get in touch today to have a chat about how we can help you grow your sponsorship revenue faster.

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1st party data has been hot in 2022 for B2B media & events. In 2023 it will be even hotter…

by Team MPG, on 01/12/2022

1st party data has been one of the hottest topics of 2022 – coming up in almost every conversation we’ve had with an MPG client, prospect, or partner. In 2023, this seam of precious stuff that runs through every B2B media and events business is going to be even more important.

Why? Because the captive audiences and communities of B2B information and networking-based brands produce 1st party data that will be more valuable than ever, as:

  • A high degree of relevance within a good customer journey becomes essential to engage and monetise customers, and
  • Google Chrome is phasing out 3rd party cookies. With 65% of the world using Chrome as their main browser, and considering Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox have already phased out 3rd party cookies, this will have a big impact.

Arguably the most valuable asset a B2B media or events brand could own is a targeted and growing customer data set that is compliant, well structured and well maintained, while being enriched by every engagement with an audience member and fed into well-designed intelligence reports.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s make sure we’ve got the basics covered…

What is 1st, 2nd and 3rd party data?

  • 1st party data = any customer data you collect directly and store in your own database. It can be collected from websites, apps, social media, surveys, and more. You can track this data in analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, and you should ideally store it all in one place – i.e. a CRM system such as Hubspot, Salesforce, etc.
  • 2nd party data = 1st party data from a known and trusted source (e.g. names, company names and job titles collected from social media profiles or surveys).
  • 3rd party data = collected, stored, and deployed to ‘resell’ someone else’s audience to multiple sellers of products and services e.g. Google in-market audiences.

Why is it important for you to collect 1st party data, and manage it well?

Despite the fact that having more data can bring more opportunities, there are certain risks in gaining and using data from 2nd or 3rd parties, because collection methods and compliance can be unknown. Additionally, advertising providers relying on 3rd party cookies to collect their data are finding it harder to accurately target the right people.

1st party data, when well-managed, can be very accurately profiled and targeted. This will enable you to promote the right product, to the right person, with the right message, for strong engagement and ROI. Tracking user interest and interactions of your own audience gives you a goldmine of opportunity around monetising your audience.

How is cookie data collection relevant?

A cookie is a file from a website that is stored within a browser, which the same website, or any other website, can retrieve at a later point. Cookies hold the information so servers know which users have visited which websites or specific web pages.

When you drop a cookie on your own website and can see a user completing a certain set of actions across multiple visits to your website, this is classed as 1st party data. Service providers (e.g. Hubspot) can also drop cookies on your behalf, and these are classed as 1st party cookies because they are used to collect information on your behalf to store in your own database.

Larger digital companies that sell advertising based on data, e.g. Google and Facebook, currently also drop cookies on other people’s websites that allow them to track users across a variety of websites. These are called 3rd party cookies.

Where are the emerging opportunities?

Most businesses will have built up a database of 1st party data of their past and present customers. Going forward, there should be a growing demand for access to a targeted audience, enabled by 1st party data.

B2B information businesses that track what their audience members are engaging with on their websites and at their events will be able to put targeted, relevant messages in front of their audience to better monetise their content, community interactions, and audience members – directly (e.g. by selling delegate places) and indirectly (e.g. by selling advertising).

Advertising sold by companies like Google and Facebook that rely on 3rd party content and cookies are likely to become less targeted and less effective. We predict that more advertisers will be willing to pay a higher sum to B2B media and events businesses to more directly and accurately reach relevant target customers more effectively and efficiently.

This is a great opportunity for businesses in the media/events industry to grow their revenues from advertising, sponsorship, and exhibitions – especially if their products are highly relevant and valuable for quite a niche audience.

What should you do about all of this?

The top priorities for any B2B media or events business (or any business for that matter!) should be to:

  1. Ensure your content is unique, valuable, and engaging – so that you can continually attract relevant visitors to your website and events.
  2. Ensure your combined digital, martech, salestech, and data ‘infrastructure’ i.e. integrated systems and processes are well set up to collect, structure, store, maintain, and manage 1st party data.
  3. Ensure you have Google Analytics 4 – or another ‘future-proof’ analytics tool – well set up on your website in a way that allows you to track user behaviours.
  4. Ensure you have dashboards or reports set up that give you strong and real-time visibility of your audience(s) and how they’re engaging with your products and content.

Even if 3rd party cookies weren’t being phased out, 1st party data can be a huge asset to your business – if you make the investment needed to manage and monetise it well.

Do you need help with your 1st party data?

Find out more about MPG’s 1st party data services on this webpage, and please get in touch today if you’d like to have a chat with one of our friendly team members about how to get your 1st party data in good order.

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Promoting your conference: the importance of integrated outbound marketing

by Team MPG, on 23/11/2022

Outbound marketing is a key area for an event marketing strategy – driving key messages directly to potential delegates to get important, time sensitive messages in front of the right people at the right time.

The most important direct marketing channel for promoting events is still email marketing, as this channel needs to be used all the way down the marketing funnel. Another important direct marketing channel is delegate sales, which needs to be fully synced with email campaigns.

Here is a ‘how-to guide’ to get the best results:

#1 Create an email plan, and sync telesales with this plan

It is essential to have a clear plan around outcomes you are looking for, and what is needed to achieve these outcomes.

Email is an essential channel for creating event awareness and driving event registrations, so an important first step when promoting any event is to map out well-timed email activity in the weeks leading up to an event, considering event programme development milestones (e.g. speaker announcements and agenda releases) and other significant dates (e.g. public holidays etc).

All stakeholders in your events team should have full visibility of this schedule of planned emails and the key messaging planned for each email, as this schedule should set the pace for programme development and all integrated marketing activity.

It is particularly important to sync your delegate sales with your email campaign schedule, as sales people should be reinforcing the most current marketing messages going out via email.

For best results, it is important to concentrate on delegate sales efforts, to ramp up just after an email has gone out, and in the week or two leading up to an ‘earlybird’.

#2 Driving online registrations, generating and converting leads

Email marketing should both directly drive online registrations and generate leads that can then be converted to registrations via further lead nurturing emails, and also by delegate sales.

Your delegate team should only be contacting past delegates, as well as the people who have become qualified leads via marketing, e.g. have downloaded an event brochure or registered their interest in attending an event. Calling ‘cold’ people who have shown no interest or have only clicked on one email won’t get a very strong ROI on delegate sales (an expensive channel!).

#3 Use delegate sales in the right way for the best ROI

Here are some tips on how get best results from delegate sales:

  • Timing and approach: align delegate sales efforts with important milestones (programme announcement, pricing deadlines, 3 weeks before the event starts) within the marketing channel plan to achieve the best engagement and messaging in calls.
  • Create clear telesales briefs: this document should include key event information from event dates, venue, prominent speakers, audience profile, sales targets, how a sale is attributed, and reporting processes.
  • Sales collateral:
  • Scripts: provide short scripts for delegate sales to reference when talking to a prospect. This script should be updated as messaging develops and changes throughout the campaign, and should also be based on the profile of the prospect they’re speaking to. Additional consideration should be given to their level of engagement and stage in the buying process.
  • Email templates: marketers should provide salespeople with email templates containing the most relevant messages. This will ensure messaging consistency and enable salespeople to be more efficient.
  • Feedback: it is very important for delegate sales to give marketers and other event team members, particularly conference producers, regular feedback on what they’re hearing directly from customers about what they find valuable (and not valuable) about the event, how it is relevant (and not relevant) to them, and what will make them book – or why they don’t want to register or buy a ticket. This important customer insight should be fed into the product development process so that the producer can continue developing the programme to be as valuable as possible, and so that marketers can ensure the messaging they’re using in all channels is relevant and resonates well.
  • KPIs: as delegate sales is the most expensive marketing (highest cost per person contacted), and because it can be an incredibly effective driver of delegate revenue and growth, it is very important for the salespeople to have clear KPIs to work towards and be measured on. KPI reporting to evaluate delegate sales productivity and ROI should focus on two areas:
  1. Outcomes – including number of sales made, conversion rate, and average order value.
  2. Activity – including number of effective calls per day, and average call length.

Within the next few weeks we will be sharing more guidance on how to use email marketing in the best way as a marketing channel for conferences, and also the role that advocacy is now playing as a highly efficient channel – especially when using automation tools.

So please subscribe to MPG Insights if you have not done so already. Subscribers are notified as soon as a new article or resource is published.

Do you need help developing a conference marketing strategy to grow your flagship event?

Team MPG has a wealth of experience in developing marketing strategies for B2B conferences. Our deep analysis and rigorous approach gives business leaders peace of mind when making strategic investments in their marketing.

Please get in touch with Team MPG to see how we could help you.

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