B2B event marketing is constantly changing, and keeping up to date is more important than ever. So, what are the latest trends?
We teamed up with B2B Marketing and surveyed over 100 industry marketers to uncover key insights, trends, and strategies shaping the future of B2B events. From the rise of hybrid events to data-driven decision making, their collective experiences paint a vivid picture of what lies ahead.
These findings reveal actionable strategies to help you elevate your game, drive stronger results, and adapt. Let’s dive into the key takeaways that will transform how you approach event marketing.
1. Events are a valuable marketing channel
41% of respondents consider events “very valuable,” with a further 33% rating them as “extremely valuable,” indicating a strong consensus on their importance.
It’s easy to see why, as events help you:
- Build relationships with your audience: Events allow face-to-face interactions with key decision-makers, building trust and enabling key conversations.
- Generate leads for sales: B2B events attract highly targeted prospects, leading to better-quality leads and higher conversion rates, which can speed up the sales cycle.
- Position your brand as a thought leader: Speaking or hosting events can showcase expertise, positioning your organisation as an industry leader – which in turn boosts credibility and strengthens brand loyalty.
2. Successful organisations have a clear alignment between event strategy and marketing strategy
James Houselander, Director of EMEA Marketing at HPE Aruba Networking, emphasises the importance of aligning event and marketing strategies: “We align our events strategy to our account-based programmes. Industry trade shows aim for broad audiences and new contacts. This is followed by a one-to-few approach, targeting existing and potential accounts.”
- Consistent messaging: Aligning your event and marketing programmes ensures you’re your event supports your organisation’s wider brand narrative. This helps you maintain a unified voice across all your channels and touchpoints.
- Maximising ROI: When event strategy aligns with overall marketing goals, resources are better allocated, driving more targeted outcomes and ensuring events contribute to measurable business objectives.
- Stronger brand impact: A clear alignment helps events reinforce marketing campaigns, amplify brand visibility, and enable deeper engagement with your target audience across multiple platforms.
3. A significant proportion of marketing budgets are allocated to events
The good news is that a significant portion of marketing budgets are allocated to events.
According to the survey, 24% of organisations spend at least 26% of their marketing budget on events, while 17% allocate more than 50%. Additionally, 19% allocate between 11% and 25% of their budget to events.
It’s clear that many organisations agree that spending on events is money well spent. Some benefits include:
- Real-time feedback and market insights: Events allow businesses to gather immediate feedback from prospects and clients, providing valuable insights into market needs and trends that can help refine future marketing strategies.
- Networking and partnership opportunities: You can use events to facilitate networking with customers, potential partners, and collaborators, helping expand business opportunities and industry influence.
- Multi-channel content creation: Events generate valuable content, such as keynote talks, workshops, and customer testimonials, that can be repurposed across digital channels. This extends the event's impact and increases ROI over a longer time.
4. Events help create community
B2B event marketing and community building will continue to play a vital role in developing brands. Marketing leaders understand that events are no longer seen as one-off occurrences but integral components of a larger, ongoing conversation.
Bruna Pascucci, Senior Marketing Manager - Events Financial Times, emphasises the importance of creating a community around events: “Building a community goes beyond merely achieving repeat attendance. Enhancing the attendee experience before, during, and after your event is crucial to developing a deep and meaningful community.”
Community building can lead to increased loyalty, higher engagement rates, and more successful events, ultimately driving long-term business success.
Key ways that events are effective for creating community:
- Facilitating direct connections: Events bring like-minded individuals together, facilitating a sense of belonging and shared purpose through face-to-face interactions and networking opportunities.
- Encouraging peer learning: Providing platforms for knowledge-sharing, where attendees exchange ideas, insights, and best practices, strengthening the bonds within the community.
- Ongoing engagement: Spark ongoing online and offline relationships, create a lasting network of professionals who engage beyond the event, and reinforce community ties.
5. Events are useful for customer retention
Events cultivate loyalty and strengthen customer relationships by providing opportunities for meaningful interactions and networking. Carla Barker, Northern Cluster Marketing Manager at Kodak Alaris, says: “We always look to engage with our target audience, leads, and stakeholders ahead of the event and utilise existing relationships and account-based marketing to invite these people to events we are attending.”
- Deepening customer relationships: Events offer personalised interactions and exclusive experiences, helping businesses strengthen emotional connections and trust with existing customers, which boosts loyalty.
- Showcasing value and innovation: Another value of holding an event is allowing companies to showcase product updates, innovations, and future plans, reassuring customers of ongoing value and demonstrating commitment to their success.
- Gathering feedback and addressing issues: Events provide opportunities to gather direct customer feedback, address concerns, and demonstrate that their input matters, which enhances satisfaction and retention.
6. In-person events are generally preferred
The increased choice of event formats, between in-person, hybrid, and virtual, is good for attendees as it allows them to choose which works best for them. However, providing these choices inevitably adds more complexity to the work that event marketers have to get done.
Unsurprisingly, in-person events are generally perceived as more effective as an event format. 36% of respondents think in-person events are much more effective, while 32% find them more effective.
Digging into the data on hybrid and virtual events reveals that 37% of respondents regularly host virtual events, 23% only do so occasionally, and 14% have a hybrid approach. Those who host virtual events prefer organising webinars (65%), training sessions (31%), and online conferences (24%).
A key part of getting hybrid and virtual events right is ensuring that the content is engaging, and the attendees have a clear takeaway—either learning something new, finding new ways to make revenue, or introducing a new product or feature.
Key challenges for event marketers with a portfolio of event formats:
- Resource allocation: Balancing budgets, time, and teams across different event formats can be difficult. Each requires different resources and expertise.
- Audience engagement: Engaging audiences differ across formats; virtual events face screen fatigue, while in-person events need more logistical coordination to keep attendees engaged.
- Consistent branding and messaging: It can be challenging to ensure a unified brand experience across in-person, virtual, and hybrid events while adapting content to each format’s strengths.
- Technology integration: Managing different platforms and tools for virtual and hybrid events while ensuring a seamless experience for remote and in-person audiences requires careful planning.
Key opportunities for event marketers with a portfolio of event formats:
- Broader audience reach: Virtual and hybrid events allow marketers to expand beyond geographical limits, attracting global audiences and increasing brand exposure.
- Flexible content delivery: A portfolio of event types offers the flexibility to deliver content in multiple ways, catering to diverse audience preferences and learning styles.
- Year-round engagement: A varied event portfolio enables continuous engagement with audiences through multiple touchpoints, maintaining brand presence throughout the year.
- Improved personalisation: Combining insights from in-person and virtual events helps tailor future experiences, creating more personalised marketing strategies.
So, what does the research show for the future balance between in-person and digital B2B events? It highlights an increasing focus on in-person events (46%), a balanced approach (20%), and an increasing emphasis on virtual events (11%).
7. Measuring the impact of events remains a challenge
Measuring the impact of events remains a challenge for marketing teams. Respondents identified that the metrics they most commonly track are registration rates, attendee retention, session engagement, social media engagement, event app downloads, and post-event survey feedback.
However, success in achieving marketing objectives is primarily measured by the number of leads generated (65%), the number of attendees (63%), and revenue generated (40%).
The event ROI challenges that event marketers face
- Measuring ROI across event formats: Tracking and comparing the effectiveness of different event types, particularly hybrid, is complex due to varied attendee experiences and interaction methods.
- Attribution complexity: Linking event participation directly to sales or ROI can be hard due to the longer sales cycle in B2B and multiple touchpoints in the buyer journey.
- Intangible benefits: Metrics like brand awareness, relationship-building, and thought leadership are harder to quantify compared to direct sales or lead generation.
💡 Dive deeper into ROI with our post - The Ultimate Guide to Measuring Event ROI Effectively
Methods to address the challenges
- Set clear objectives and KPIs: To track the success of your event marketing more accurately, define specific, measurable goals for each event type (e.g., leads generated, engagement levels, brand sentiment).
- Use event tech and analytics: Use event management platforms and tools that track attendee behaviour, engagement, and post-event interactions for both virtual and in-person events.
- Implement surveys and feedback channels: Collect qualitative data through post-event surveys, customer feedback, and social media monitoring to assess intangible outcomes like satisfaction and brand impact.
- Attribute leads and revenue to events: Make use of CRM systems to track leads and sales that originated from events. This will help measure their long-term impact on the sales pipeline.
The survey revealed that organisations take a varied approach to integrating leads generated at in-person events into CRM systems. Only 31% of respondents use automated systems to transfer event-generated leads into their CRM. This would enhance efficiency, reduce the likelihood of errors, and ensure that data is quickly and consistently updated.
8. AI is a key trend for event marketing strategies
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a game-changer in event marketing. It can streamline a wide range of processes, from chatbots that provide instant assistance to predictive analytics that forecast attendee behaviour.
For event marketers, AI allows you to prioritise the most promising leads based on their interactions during the event. This ensures that sales teams can focus their efforts where they’re most likely to succeed.
Pascucci anticipates the increased use of technology and AI in event marketing. She stresses the need to balance technological tools with human creativity and personal connections.
“I think having more technology tools helps not only with creativity but also with data. We no longer waste time doing tasks that used to take hours, as technology now allows us to accomplish them in much less time. Technology is a great aid, but we shouldn’t become dependent on it.”
As AI technologies evolve, their integration into B2B events will become more seamless and widespread.
Marketing leaders who champion AI and other tech innovations will position their companies to offer more engaging and innovative experiences that set them apart from their competitors.
💡 For more ideas on how to use AI, take a look at our eBook, Mastering AI in Events.
B2B event marketing is more important than ever
B2B event marketing remains essential for driving engagement, leads, and brand authority. As organisations invest heavily in events, aligning them with marketing strategies is crucial for maximising ROI.
The future of B2B event marketing lies in balancing in-person, virtual, and hybrid event formats while leveraging AI and technology to enhance the overall impact of your work.
For more insights on how to use events to drive marketing goals, download the report.
