In-Person Events Ranked #1 Among B2B Demand Generation Tactics

February 15, 2019

Events are proving to be effective in both the early and late stages of B2B demand generation. In fact, according to a Demand Gen Report study, in-person events lead the pack among demand gen tactics for B2B marketers.

More than three-quarters (76%) of survey participants named in-person events as their most successful top of the funnel engagement tactic. Marketers are seeing the value in events and are investing in technology to aid in this tactic; previous research has shown that 57% of event marketers believe technology was contributing to increased leads at events.

Other successful tactics for top of the funnel demand generation include lead nurturing campaigns (58%), webinars (58%), case studies (40%), videos (38%) and content syndication (30%).

It’s not just top of the funnel where live events are so highly rated. Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents consider events to be successful in helping to convert leads at the middle to late stages of the funnel, making events the tactic with the broadest consensus of success among the tactics identified. Events were followed closely by case studies (62%) and lead nurturing campaigns (58%). Rounding out the top five were webinars (48%) and white papers (40%).

While events rank highest among tactics, they sit slightly behind email and company websites in B2B demand gen marketers’ opinion when it comes to engagement channels.

Effective Early Stage Engagement Channels

Email was also considered the most effective in early stage engagement by 54% of demand generation marketers. Email is not without its challenges, most notably competition within inboxes and poor quality email addresses.

Again, events make a good showing with 46% of respondents recognizing that live events and tradeshows were effective in the early stages of engagement. Websites and search tie for the third most effective (42%) among those identified in the report.

Social media is also considered an effective early stage channel by more than one-third of respondents. A study of B2B and B2C marketers revealed that 87% said social generated increased exposure to their business and 78% found it increased traffic. More than half (57%) of B2B marketers surveyed used social media to grow partnerships.

Read more about the findings here.

About the Data: Demand Gen Report’s 2019 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey used responses from more than 150 B2B marketing practitioners from the software/technology industry, business service or consulting, financial services, retail, manufacturing, telecom and healthcare. The majority of respondents were from the US. About half are from companies with at least $50 million in revenues.

Chart-Library-Ad-1

Explore More Articles.

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

Marketing Charts Logo

Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

Sign up for our free newsletter.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This