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Report: What Channels Matter Most for Event Marketing?

A new report on B2B event marketing finds that email is the biggest pre-event driver of interest, but while it’s still heavily used during and after an event, other options may be more effective.

Before, during, or after, there’s one marketing channel that’s a real champ for event organizers, doing the heavy lifting across the board.

That channel? Email, of course. But while email is great, it may not always be the best tool for the job.

According to The 2018 State of B2B Event Marketing [registration], a report from the event-automation firm Certain and Heinz Marketing, more than 90 percent of event planners surveyed used email marketing to drive their pre-event work, while nearly half used personalized emails during the event, and more than 80 percent used email marketing post-event. Email was the most-used channel for pre-event marketing by a wide margin, more than 40 percentage points above any other category.

Still, email is far from the only tool for event marketing, and it may not be the right choice in some cases. That is particularly true during the event, when hashtags become marketers’ favorite tactic and other options, such as printed agendas and other content, are frequently used.

Notably, among several marketing tactics listed, daily digest emails were the least commonly used during the event, employed by just 10 percent of respondents.

Respondents were lukewarm on the effectiveness of email marketing after an event. The report notes that half of all B2B professionals that use webinars or partner marketing to drive results after the event find those channels effective, compared with around 30 percent of those who use email marketing. (However, respondents say email is, by a wide margin, the most effective pre-conference medium.)

“For marketing, quality over quantity matters,” the report states. “Though there are dozens of pre-, during, and post-event tactics one can employ to impact event success, just because one can doesn’t mean one should, especially when those activities take up resources and budget you don’t have to spare.”

(marchmeena29/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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