Showcasing your brand, products, services, and thought leadership may require you to attend industry trade shows or organize events. When budgeting for travel, plan for typical expenses such as transportation, food, and lodging, plus the cost of attendance for the event itself. You may also send an extra person from the marketing department to help capture content for future use.
Generating Buzz at Events
Chances are you’re familiar with your industry’s biggest events. Attending relevant trade shows to network or learn new information is great, but taking advantage of potential PR opportunities makes them worthwhile. What can you leverage to your advantage? Experiential activities, influencers, and trends are all great options.
During the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), we helped our client, New Cosmos USA, launch their groundbreaking new product: DeNova Detect. The odds were stacked against us. Our client was battling a politically charged atmosphere surrounding natural gas appliances, and statistics at the time cited natural gas explosions as the cause behind 4,200 home fires annually. Even so, New Cosmos wanted consumers to know safety was at the forefront of their minds while simultaneously championing the merits of natural gas. New Cosmos wanted to stand out as the “voice of reason” across every channel.
The Zen Media PR team got to work executing
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a dynamic two-fold approach to craft and share the brand’s message. We distributed a press release to national outfits and targeted trade outlets. We also took on newsjacking and thought leadership opportunities to increase the visibility and credibility of the New Cosmos business leadership team, emphasizing clear and consistent messaging.
As our efforts secured coverage across print, digital, podcast, and television channels, our team also amplified each press hit across social media. This push resulted in an impressive 689% surge in New Cosmos’s share of voice and helped them secure deals with multiple major big-box retailers. The Las Vegas City Mayor’s Office even declared January 6 as the official Natural Gas Safety Awareness Day.
As a result, New Cosmos didn’t just launch a new product at a trade show—they engaged the right audiences and pulled off a strategic, robust PR campaign that extended the value of their event attendance. The next time you or your brand attend an event, research invited media and influencers so you can prepare a PR strategy that not only shares your message but boosts its reach.
Event Planning 101
If you decide to host an event, be prepared to pull out all the stops. Major changes across the event landscape mean attendees increasingly seek interactive, engaging, and incredible experiences. Bringing in exciting speakers, influencers, or brand partners will also help to draw more interest. And while these investments will account for a large part of your budget, additional resources and adequate technology should also be factored into the costs of your overall budget to ensure smooth sailing for everyone.
Whatever the size of your event, consider whether or not it makes sense to host it virtually or in person. Virtual events are a great investment because they can extend the lifespan of your in-person events, opening them up to new audiences and boosting ROI weeks or months after an event.
Costs for any event will vary
and virtual events require B2Bs to implement the best technology to maintain connection and provide a good experience. Still, enhancing the digital attendee experience is important, and investing in virtual events or adding virtual options increases accessibility and reach.
Optimize online marketing tactics before, during, and after the event to extend your ROI. By repurposing good content across different platforms, you create shareable content for speakers and attendees while also drawing more interest to your brand and future events.
Related read: Best Practices for Hosting a Virtual Event
Measuring and Adjusting Your Marketing Budget
Understanding key performance indicators (KPIs) is necessary to maximize your B2B marketing ROI, but know where to focus your attention. Brand reach, engagement, and share of voice matter more than click-through rates (CTR) or the number of followers you have on social media.
Don’t overlook the power of calculating customer lifetime value (CLV) in projecting profitability. This ensures you’re not spending more on marketing than you’re earning from customers over the course of your business relationship. Monitor conversion rates to know what content is resonating with your audience, and prioritize that high-performing content over the rest. Also, measure website engagement and check your keyword rankings to ensure you’re constantly ahead of your competitors.
Regularly measure and analyze KPIs to
make informed decisions about where to allocate resources for optimal results and identify areas for improvement to make data-driven decisions about your budget. Figure out where to spend more and where to spend less based on your performance and market changes or trends that may shape the future of your marketing efforts.
Will you face new competitors? Is it worth creating content for an emerging platform? Is SEO highlighting a particular keyword that you can lean into? Be flexible. Anticipate changes and adjust your marketing budget based on performance to maximize your ROI and drive better results.
Legal and Administrative Considerations in Budget Planning
Marketing isn’t just boosting digital ads and covering event costs. You should also account for legal fees, licenses, and other administrative expenses. These costs may arise if you’re hosting an event and need to obtain a permit beforehand or if you want to implement a new digital tool to reduce admin work.
Be sure to factor in costs associated with compliance and ethical marketing practices as well. Regulations like GDPR and the CCPA mean that organizations must put extra effort into ensuring the privacy and protection of consumer data. These efforts can increase your budgetary costs around data security efforts and legal work. Ethical marketing practices can include paying more for recycled or eco-friendly materials, looking into new technologies to reduce waste, or employing local artisans to work in smaller batches rather than investing in mass production.
Future Trends in B2B Marketing and Budgeting
As you can tell from this guide, digital and social media marketing will take up the bulk of your marketing budget because they are the main drivers of marketing success. AI has played a major role in shaping the industry, so look for ways to incorporate AI into your marketing strategy and brand offerings.
Gartner predicts generative AI will significantly shape the way we create and consume digital content and interact with each other. Learn how to Email Digital Library supplement your work with ChatGPT and other emerging generative AI tools. You can leverage this emerging technology to create blog outlines, first drafts for your video content, and plan out email newsletter templates.
Related read: The Ultimate List of ChatGPT Marketing Prompts
Algorithms are also rapidly evolving, forcing marketers to adjust their marketing tactics to remain relevant and show up in front of the right audiences—but this doesn’t mean you should film funny dances or use a bunch of hashtags that have nothing to do with your brand. Instead, create content that represents your brand. Once you’re sure that you’re aligned with your target audience, you can add some fun and engaging content that extends your reach.
Augmented reality and interactive experiences
are essential to shaping the digital customer experience as well. Research how brands in your space have embraced this technology and see how you can apply it to your marketing strategy. This might involve creating a digital community, a virtual storefront, or engaging with customer support in an augmented space.
Marketing moves quickly. Prepare dy leads for future shifts in B2B marketing strategies by remaining flexible and embracing changes early on. Be sure you always maintain your brand voice, messaging, and mission to be consistent in the face of so many changes.
