41% of Marketers Now Believe Events are the Most Critical Marketing Channel

As marketers look for new ways to connect with customers and prospects, events appear to be growing in prominence, according to new research.

Bizzabo recently published the “Bizzabo Event Marketing 2019: Benchmarks and Trends Report,” and statistics showed that the majority of marketers (41 percent) believe live events are the most critical marketing channel in achieving business outcomes.

That being said, the data also indicated that companies are doubling down on live events. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of companies organizing 20 or more events per year increased by 17 percent. Ninety-five percent of respondents believe in-person events provide attendees with a valuable opportunity to form connections in “an increasingly digital world.”

This year, 50 percent of companies are allocating more than 21 percent of their marketing budgets toward events.

B2B Marketing and Reaping the Benefits of Events

Marketers continue to invest in events to resonate with their target audiences, but previous research suggests that it has been difficult, particularly for B2B marketers.

Certain and Heinz Marketing conducted the “2018 State of B2B Event Marketing” report and discovered that about three-fourths of marketers agree that hosting events is becoming more important to company success. However, 70 percent also said that tying event spend to generating pipeline remains an elusive task.

Out of the 25 percent of companies that spend between 20 and 50 percent of their marketing budgets on events, less than 20 percent can tie their efforts back to revenue generation.