I tried to post this yesterday, but it was blocked. So I am going to make the headline a bit vague. What marketing initiative has become less effective in the advent of social media? Would you say events because their success are not easy to measure? Are there any studies that point to how event marketing is not as effective as it once was, especially for those event companies who actually hold the events? Do these event companies even make money or if they do, do they have to charge more to exhibitors and sponsors?
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First, not being easy to measure doesn't mean something is not effective.
A big example to me is Word of Mouth, that can be very hard to track and measure, but can be very effective.
On the other hand, issues like last-click attribution and streetlight effect often overestimate the effect of digital marketing.
Then, context matters for all the marketing initiatives to me. About one third or fourth of the world has never used the internet before, for example. So, it's not like things like social media are effective everywhere.
It's important to be careful about the law of the instrument. The tool should be a good match for the situation. That applies to social media, events, and other marketing initiatives.
Although I find billboards usually less effective than before, I certainly found situations when the opposite happened.
When I helped market a new store that was opening up we got some billboards around town and on the highway. The owners thought it wasn’t bringing in traffic so they decided to take them down. Sales dropped for some reason. Then, I finally convinced them to put a couple up again and we started getting more foot traffic again.
I never got them to acknowledge it and they wouldn’t accept anything other than a customer coming in yelling “I’m here because of the billboard”, but I’m convinced it was the billboards.
Here's an example and let me know if I'm too biased that social media can be more effective than events. Example: A $10,000 event sponsorship that reaches 2,000 people costs $5 per attendee. That same budget on Meta/TikTok can potentially reach 100,000+ in the target demographic at $0.10 per impression. The ROI math doesn't seem to favor events.
Sure, depending on the context, social media can be more effective. Depending on the context, events can be more effective. Depending on the context, billboards can be more effective. Depending on the context, personal selling can be more effective. So on and so forth.
Like I said, many people in the world have never accessed the internet before. If that's the target audience, reaching 100.000+ is just an illusion.
Depending on the country, TikTok isn't even available.
For industries where events are important, the repercussions of an event can be much broader than the audience there because of PR.
Also, reach can be just vanity metrics, not leading to more important results like revenue. That's especially true for platforms like TikTok.
Too many companies reach people on TikTok not even knowing if they're the audience. Marketoonist made a joke about a company hiring a 12 year old to reach the audience, but the target should be older.
Again, digital marketers suffer from major issues related to attribution, loving to overestimate their resuls, including ROI. Reach isn't ROI, especially if you disregard conversion.
If you’re talking B2C that could be relevant. For some B2B fields… if you aren’t at the biggest conference of the year, customers will wonder why. It’s also a retention play.
Depends on the stage of the funnel and the business, as well as the audience.
Catching a bunch of my primary audience during a conference talking about problems my service or product solves?
I'd pay $50 each for the good impression and opportunity for 30 seconds of their time over bot-inundated ad spam on social for a hundredth the cost...
...Especially because point of sale transactions don't exist in the industries I supported, and the last audience I did proper campaign work for? They all use ad blockers.
But if I ran, say, an Etsy shop or a Shopify store front?
Yeah, events might be a waste of the same ad spend.
Has everything to do with the audience, the relative lifetime value of the customer, length of your sales cycle, etc.
If all you think is ROAS without considering context and how your measurements might be wrong... Then you've got bigger strategic issues than just channel.
you've asked a bunch of questions I'm struggling to navigate, but your asking 'What marketing initiative has become less effective in the advent of social media' then talking about events. Social media made events much, much, MUCH more valuable. I haven't worked in events for years at this pont, but generating buzz was a huge sell.
Sorry about that. I got blocked by asking about how effective event marketing is -- so I had to make my question less specific. I agree with you that social media can make events more valuable for A COMPANY. But in my post, I was referring to event marketing from the perspective of someone who holds it (not attending as sponsor or exhibitor) -- if they are making money from it still or more companies choose social media as it is cheaper. Sorry again, for not being specific, as I had to make sure my post was not blocked.
Yes, it can be profitable for a company hosting an event. they are not doing it as a vanity project (mostly)
As with any business - companies that run events make money holding the events. Because it doesn't cost that much to put on an event. Sponsors and exhibitors cover the costs. Tickets and upsells to attendees are where your profit is at.
In many industries - trade shows are very effective for sales and lead generation. Especially in B2B. Your prospects want to see stuff. They want to be wined and dined. They look forward to these events to see friends.
While social media marketing is effective - it doesn't mean events are effective as well. Or that they don't work together.
Social media -> drive people to visit your booth at an event. Event furthers relationships. Results in sale.
Or person is at event. Visits your booth while waiting to hear a keynote speech, ends up following you on social. Becomes a customer later.
I worked in higher ed promoting events and am now at an agency that promotes events for clients all the time. I’ve only ever had success in event marketing, specifically retargeting leads on meta. It’s basically the only type of meta ad that actually works. We’ll fill the event sign up and then maybe 20-30% actually show, but the things people purchase (like a degree for example) far outweigh any cheap budget we spent to get them there.
retargeting is pretty much the only thing that consistently hits. Getting folks to actually show up is always the tricky part, but the payoff from the ones who do makes the ad spend worth it.
I work in Enterprise B2B SAAS so my experience could be different than others.
Events are more successful than ever before.
Post-Covid people are more willing to attend. Due to AI nobody reads their emails anymore. SEO is getting shafted by AEO and content quality itself is rapidly deteriorating. Anyone under the age of 60 hates picking up their phone which makes cold calls hard - not to mention that everyone has automated prospecting and list building so everyone you’re contacting has also been hit by 6 other competitors the same day.
Virtually every marketing channel is suffering from the impact of AI except event marketing which is thriving since people want real human connection. It also works across a range of seniority and age - older people love events because they generally like to socialize more and value face-to-face interactions. Younger people like them because it’s usually a chance to wine and dine at expensive restaurants that you’d never be able to afford otherwise.
I work in Rev Ops and have an especially rounded view on this topic due to handling all of our marketing ops and reporting. I can tell you with 100% certainty that event marketing is more alive than ever before.
The only other channel that’s not getting hit is PPC but the effectiveness of PPC is like the modern day equivalent of buying Billboards. You can measure success much easier but ultimately it’s not going to be the thing that really sways people - just the thing that lets them say “Hey I’ve heard of that company before.”
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It depends on your industry, audience, funding, and stage of growth. For some companies, exhibiting at the right trade show can be one of the most impactful marketing efforts to make.
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