B2B EVENT Marketing
IME Visprom Case StudyIME West
Sara Mineo Digital Marketing Manager, Informa Markets Engineering
“It has been refreshing to work with an organisation that not only understands – but truly cares about – our business needs and event goals.”
Intro
How we achieved 69% conversion rate from Pre Registration.
Informa Markets’ Engineering portfolio is the leading B2B event producer, publisher and digital media business for the world’s $3-trillion advanced, technology-based manufacturing industry.
We had the privilege of working alongside Sara – the rare breed of skilled digital marketing professional – who is highly efficient, meticulous in everything she does and driven to grow events by executing on-time and on-budget deliverables with a creative flair.
CHALLENGE
It’s 2022 and events are back. But it’s the people who have changed.
The world’s shift to living and working virtually has fundamentally transformed how we value our time. What’s the point of sacrificing our energy, hours and money on a 3-day event if it can be done online?
And so our willingness to take time out, even for a day, is far less than it was. Which begs the question: how, in a time when attendees are slow to return to events, did IME West 2022 achieve a 63% spike in attendance from the previous year?
SOLUTION
An adaptable, anti-Generic digital marketing strategy
“I have worked with many agencies in the past and where We Market Events truly shines is in their ability to examine the user journey and adapt their strategies accordingly,” Sara elaborates.
Go Broad But Go Narrow
An omnichannel strategy is the only way to keep your event brand top of mind for every prospect while they go about their digital day. This requires an approach that speaks to nuanced personas while still keeping your targeting broad enough that it doesn’t alienate important prospects from your sales funnel.
That’s why the heart of our strategy was a dual approach of pinpoint persona targeting paired with broader industry targeting. This includes targeting on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google – both paid and organic. For example – just within LinkedIn – we had single image ads running alongside persona-based messaging ads, complemented by organic social updates.
The result is a seamless attendee journey where ads get more and more personalised as a prospect moves through the funnel. At the same time, each channel is tested against each other to isolate and optimise the best ROI on ad spend i.e. more bang for your B2B buck.
Experience Over Everything
With the knowledge that post-COVID humans are a lot stingier with how they spend their time, our messaging and creatives had to show prospects what they’ll get without a WiFi connection.
We went beyond the classic “bigger-is-better” value proposition to describe the quality of the experience. IME West is a rare opportunity to short-cut the sales process with the best in the advanced manufacturing industry. But it’s also an opportunity to escape your 9-5 for 3 days, nurture essential relationships and just have fun.
It’s this kind of powerful, emotive messaging that motivates prospects to secure their ticket and ultimately, show up.
RESULTS
- 69% Conversion Rate from Pre registrations to actual attendees
- More than 2X the registration goal
- Highly qualified audience with 50% of registrants holding C-suite or executive-level positions
We were initially conservative in our goals knowing that the pandemic wasn’t over and our audience remained cautious about heading to mega events. However, our results kept growing every day. Our pre-event registrations were two times higher than our initial goal.
Overall, IME West was a roaring success with nearly 11,500 attendees and 1,400+ exhibitors. More importantly, the audience was highly qualified with 50% of registrants holding C-suite or executive-level positions.
Your Agile B2B Marketing Team
From community managers to paid media experts, data geeks to creatives and everything in between, our team of digital marketing professionals is eagerly awaiting their next B2B marketing challenge. Do you have one for us?