Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing in Event Management

The long-standing disconnect between sales and marketing has been a challenge for organizations across industries. However, as more companies recognize the importance of effectively promoting their events, marketing has become a driving force behind successful exhibitions, conferences, and trade shows. Joe Tyler, Chief Marketing Officer at Raccoon Events, emphasizes the importance of placing marketing at the center of event strategy from the very beginning. According to Tyler, marketing should not be viewed as a supporting function but rather as an integral component of the event planning process.

Joe Tyler, Chief Marketing Officer at Raccoon Events, believes that many event professionals still underestimate the role of marketing. “Most people who organize events don’t truly understand modern marketing. Even when they do, their perception is often outdated because the discipline has changed dramatically over the years.”

Tyler is determined to grow his team by hiring bright graduates and training them in the skills they need. However, he points to experienced marketers who are attached to sales teams as one of the roots of the divide.

“We recently hired someone with an event marketing background. She’s brilliant, but she was almost the only person in the marketing department. I’ve seen it many times, where marketing is viewed as a kind of sales support role.”

“Sales is praised and rewarded, financially incentivized to focus on making sales, which is absolutely right. But sometimes what happens after the sale is almost forgotten. Operations and marketing are left to deliver on all the promises. So you can see why this kind of hierarchy sometimes exists in organizations, especially if the person leading the organization comes from a commercial background.”

Tyler says this issue is often amplified in smaller companies, but notes that they are fortunate that Mike Seaman, founder of Raccoon Events, values both skill sets equally.

“We’re lucky here. We have a marketing team, we have a sales team. There are nine people in the marketing team, so it’s almost equal. Because the marketing team reports to me and not to the event director, there is a really good balance and we work very well as a team. But unfortunately that’s often not the case. If you don’t have someone supporting marketing efforts and strategy in the budget, it can often be overlooked.”

“You might have a marketer for each specific show or product or whatever else. You need an overall view rather than having marketers sitting in silos.”

“Marketing teams often report to event managers—and that person is usually more concerned with promotion and doesn’t necessarily see the value. I’ve seen many times that because the sales team hasn’t met its target, the marketing budget gets cut.”

Tyler is incredulous at what he considers flawed logic: “Do you want fewer visitors because you haven’t sold enough stands? You’re still telling your exhibitors that you’ll achieve the 20,000 visitors you’ve promised them.”

Planning an Event

Tyler explains the process behind marketing Raccoon’s events: “Mike [Seaman, CEO and founder of Raccoon], me, the event director, and Matt Lambert, our operations director, sit down together and, once we’ve agreed that the proposed event is viable, we map out the budget. So at that stage the marketing budget is set and cannot be changed. I can ask for more money, obviously we’ll save money where we can. But from that point, we all get the team working to create the brand, the website, all those elements. Marketing and sales work together to gather assets for sales opportunities, the marketing team gets started and builds the website and the materials we need for social media. That way, you avoid this type of hierarchy.”

“Each department knows what it’s doing. I think that’s really important. First of all, get the budget right.”

“For us, with consumer-focused events, it’s not rocket science. It’s all about visitor volume. You want the right people in the room and you want to build a community. You can’t come back and say, ‘We didn’t have many visitors, but the quality was excellent.’”

Growing a Community

“As a marketing team, we talk a lot with exhibitors. We partner with associations, charities, publications, and others. We look for ambassadors and make sure those ambassadors reflect the inspirational figures we want within the community we’re trying to build. We ensure diversity at every level—from ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientation to disabilities. It’s not about how many social media followers we have; it’s more about someone coming to our website and seeing someone they can relate to.”

Tyler adds that speaker features and content at their shows must be relevant to all visitors—from elite athletes to first-time couch-to-5K participants.

“We spend a lot of time putting ourselves in our audience’s shoes. If you’re not a runner, you hate running, you’re overweight, and you’re trying to go from the couch to a 5K, who would you want to hear from? Who is out there that would inspire you? What articles or social posts would you connect with?”

Tyler says their ambassador program is designed to make people feel special.

“We give them free tickets for themselves, their friends, their communities, and their clubs. We give them merchandise to wear and encourage them to post. When they come to the show, we cut a ribbon at the front and invite all the ambassadors to take part. They then help with some of the great activities at the event. Sometimes they assist speakers or meet-and-greet sessions, which means they might spend an hour with Mo Farah.”

“The show is supposed to be fun for consumers, isn’t it? So all the things that make it a more enjoyable experience help.”

Social Media

When it comes to social media, Tyler believes it’s important to do things properly and see a return on investment rather than jumping in immediately.

“We have a rule here that we don’t want to get involved in something unless we can do it properly and see a return on investment.”

“We’ve been looking at TikTok for a while and we’ve started using it at one of our events as a trial. But I’m very nervous about investing heavily in it. I think it’s a challenge because people don’t always understand it, especially if you’re not part of the marketing team, and they just say, ‘Oh, I think we should have a TikTok account for this activity.’”

“The amount of effort that goes into social media now—we have 21 different accounts—it’s a full-time job. Not just full-time, it’s 24 hours a day. Because our audience doesn’t care if they have a question on Christmas Day.”

“I think one of the challenges is that marketing teams are expected to be editors, publishers, and everything else. Yet a YouTube channel or a podcast series is very different from posting on social media.”

Author: Emily Wallin

Source: Exhibition News