Industry Events

Recent research indicates that many marketers consider events to be of significant importance to their businesses, and that small businesses share that belief. According to a new study [download page] from the Virtual Edge Institute, attendance at physical and online events is on the rise, though that appears to be the case more for online events. Roughly two-thirds of online event products report that event attendance is trending up, with another 18% saying attendance is flat. For physical events, 42% say attendance is trending up, slightly more than the 39% who say it is flat. Read more »

The CMO Council and Exhibit & Event Marketers Association (E2MA) have released a new report [download page] examining events and trade shows and their contributions to customer engagement. Among the key findings, 31% of respondents believe that trade shows, conferences, conventions, and channel events are essential to doing business in their target customer markets, while another 42% believe them to still be very valuable. Read more »

B2B exhibitors and attendees alike have seen growing value from a variety of face-to-face activities - such as exhibitions and conventions - in the past 2 years, according to an August 2012 study from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). 37% of exhibitors say that they have seen more value from their exhibits in the past 2 years, compared to 16% who have seen less value from them. Attendees are even more favorable: 48% have seen increasing value, compared to just 6% who have seen less. Read more »

Small businesses are far more likely to single out in-person interactions as their most effective marketing activity than any other tool available to them, according to [pdf] an August 2012 report by Constant Contact. Of the items they find effective, 46% of small businesses ranked in-person interactions as their most effective marketing activity, with B2B companies more likely than B2C companies to have this attitude (59% vs. 40%). Read more »

Marketers may be shifting their advertising budgets to digital media, but 3 in 4 aren't using exclusively digital agencies for their social or digital needs, and the majority of those don't foresee using them in the near future, according to June 2012 survey results from RSW/US. Read more »

B2B publishers, particularly smaller publishers with less than $5M in annual revenues, are having trouble diversifying their revenue sources away from print advertising, finds FOLIO: magazine [pdf] in its annual B2B CEO survey released in May 2012. Print advertising was the dominant source of revenue for the smaller publishers, at 59% share, with only e-media (13%) also accounting for a double-digit share of revenues. Among larger publishers (more than $5M in revenues), print advertising accounted for a comparatively smaller share, yet remained dominant at 47% of revenues, ahead of e-media (17%) and events (14%). Read more »

Marketers are twice as likely to say their advertising budgets will decrease in the next 6 months than increase (34% vs. 17%), finds the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in a survey of client-side marketers, the full results of which were publicly released in April 2012. The proportion expecting budgets to decrease is 17.2% higher than 2011 (29%), and is the highest level since the mid-2009 survey. Similarly, the proportion predicting a budget increase fell 22.8% from a high of 22% in January 2011. Overall, 84% of respondents said they were currently challenged with identifying cost savings or reductions in their marketing and advertising efforts, up from 77% last year. Read more »

The exhibition industry posted a strong rebound in 2011, finishing 15% higher than forecast to expand 2.7% year-over-year, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) Index released in March 2012. The positive growth brought to an end 3 consecutive years of decline, and reflects growth in all 4 metrics of measurement (real revenues, net square feet, attendees, and exhibitors). Additionally, the Index is projected to sustain its rise, forecast to climb 2.9% in 2012, 3.2% in 2013, and 3.4% in 2014. Read more »

Increased frequency of blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition, according to [pdf] an e-book released in February 2012 by HubSpot. 92% of of blog users who posted multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog, a figure that decreased to 66% for those who blogged monthly and 43% for those who posted less than monthly. Overall, 60% of the survey respondents indicated that they blog weekly, while 10% post daily and 30% either monthly or less. Read more »

Inbound marketing-dominated organizations enjoy a dramatically lower cost per lead than their outbound marketing-dominated counterparts, according to [pdf] a February 2012 e-book from HubSpot. The average cost per lead for an inbound marketing-dominated organization this year is $135, 61% lower than the $346 average for outbound marketing-dominated organizations. Read more »