B2B Marketers Value Events Yet Struggle with Measuring ROI

B2B marketers continue to invest in event marketing, but new research suggests that it is still difficult for them to determine the ROI of these initiatives.

Certain and Heinz Marketing recently conducted the “2018 State of B2B Event Marketing” report to determine how marketers are integrating events into their overall strategies. About three-out-of-four B2B marketers agreed that hosting events is becoming increasingly important to their company’s success. However, about 70 percent of those claimed that tying event spend to generating pipeline remains an elusive task.

Out of the one-fourth 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.

“In order to make the handoff from marketing to sales more successful, it’s critical for marketers to understand how their event strategies are working, where they can create opportunities for stronger engagement, and how they can tie that engagement to measurable business results,” said Peter Micciche, CEO of Certain.

B2B Marketers Struggle to Reap the Benefits of Event Marketing

Previous research suggests that B2B marketers, in particular, have struggled with reaping the full benefits of event marketing.

Certain asked 150 B2B marketing decision makers how they handle post-event nurturing. About 73 percent claimed that they still rely on manual data capture for events. About 81 percent still seek further information on leads after tradeshows conclude.

“It’s clear from our recent survey that marketers want to follow up more quickly, but are unable to do so with current tools and technology,” said Micciche. “With the help of event automation, marketers can take full advantage of the relationships fostered during events – collecting crucial data that enables real-time marketing – creating better engagement including post-event nurturing, to drive stronger business results.”