The Definitive Guide to Lead Generation

ASK THE EXPERTS:
Q&A WITH PATRICK CAVA, SR. MANAGER OF PRODUCT
AND PARTNER MARKETING, CERTAIN
MKTO: What kinds of events are
most effective for lead generation?
PC: This will differ for every company,
depending on your target audience
and their stage in the buying cycle.
Roadshows and industry tradeshows
are great at providing the initial touch
for early stage buyers, especially for
companies that want to build brand
awareness. For larger organizations
with a broad user base and diverse
product line, user conferences can be
great for developing leads at every
stage of the buying process.
MKTO: How will event marketers
generate leads in 2014? What
about in 2024?
PC: In 2014, we’ll see an increasingly
personalized attendee experience at
events, in which the content is curated
to the needs of each participant and
the engagements are targeted to
achieve their specific goals.
Additionally, event marketers will
leverage technologies that can more
easily connect the right people, start to
measure the qualitative value of those
engagements, and tie those back to
tangible revenue.
Given the pace of technology
innovation, lead generation at events
20 years from now will be a much more
seamless experience. Just as Marketo
is able to easily aggregate all the
“interesting moments” of a customer’s
interactions over various digital
marketing channels, you’ll see an
increase in the ability to passively gain
insight into the behavior and interests
of attendees at in-person events,
enabling organizers to focus less on
simply gathering leads and more on
deepening those connections through
the quality of content and connections
they’re providing.
MKTO: What do you say to people
who doubt that event marketing is
effective for lead generation?
PC: In Content Marketing Institute’s
2013 study, in-person events were
rated more effective than any other
content marketing tactic, and
according to a 2013 CMO council
report, 31% of respondents consider
events essential to doing business.
But in that same CMO report, only
34% of those respondents actually
applied those metrics to assess ROI.
Fortunately, event marketers no longer
need to rely on anecdotal evidence or
less meaningful statistics such as
number of attendees to measure
event success.
By integrating event management
software with marketing automation
and CRM, you can assess real event
return compared to other digital
marketing programs, and assess
indirect lead generation benefits, such
as an increase in brand awareness or
social sentiment.
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