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How To Actually Get Leads at B2B Events: B2B Marketing Live · The Crowded Market

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a question.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Every B2B team argues about at least once a year.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Are events actually worth the budget?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say for exhibitors then?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: What would their ideal kind of plan look like?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: You need to have a plan before you go there, when you get there, after you've been there.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_04: But first of all, they need to give themselves enough time to plan out how it's going to be, whether that's your stand design, how many staff you're bringing.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Eve and Frankie work at the sharp end of B2B events.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they've got a hot tape that's going to change the entire way that you think about marketing and events.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time, like I said, we explicitly were like there, like we have to get deals and meetings.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that is what we've got to be there for.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I learnt quickly that that wasn't the case, especially in B2B where the sales cycle is so long.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not there.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to get a signature on the line at the event.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not how it's going to work.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I need to just talk to this human.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch this episode on YouTube and listen on all major podcast platforms.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the show.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, even Frankie, how are you?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_04: We're good, thank you.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for coming all the way down to Bristol.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: You've both come from fairly afar.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um obviously, you guys work for an events company, you run B2B events throughout the country, right?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm an advocate of in-person things.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I run an in-person podcast.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've started doing in-person meetings more again as well, like going to London, you know.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and events are obviously a hugely in-person thing.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh do you guys see events?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: As two people who work in them every day, how do you see them?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: How is the value there?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: I would say the value is still very much there.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_04: I think for myself, like I've worked in B2B events since 2021, and that was post-COVID, and obviously now we're very much out of post-COVID times, thankfully.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, people are definitely flocking back to them and are loving the being able to meet people in person as well.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that they're so invaluable for business and networking.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: But you need to be a lot more strategic.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think you need to have a plan of when before you go there, when you get there, after you've been there, but there's still so much value in meeting people face to face.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I learned that the hard way, I think.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was actually maybe the first B2B marketing live one I did was we got there.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Me, it was just me and Rob, right?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: We were a smaller business back then.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, how am I getting people's details?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is the product?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: What is the you know?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then I came out of that with just like lessons forever.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think now we we do it a lot better, we're ahead of the game, we understand what we're doing, we have products that we can offer and prices that we can always share, and then there's a bit more of a flow afterwards so that when the event's over, it happens.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, there's a there's a few different ways of doing an event, isn't there?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can you can exhibit, you can talk.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you like the way this podcast looks, then we can do this for you.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: LRB are a B2B podcast production agency that drive leads and sales for your business using the podcasting strategy.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Link in the description.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can go as a visitor or a pundit or however you want to call it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think let's dissect into those.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like let's talk about each of those, right?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can if I'm visiting an event, right?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: A B2B event, and I'm maybe a marketer, let's say, what what would you say is somebody's best kind of code of practice?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: What should they do?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: Plan.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Set out a plan because there's so much going on.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want to get overwhelmed because some people turn up on the day.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: There's so many people around, there's so many exhibitors, so many sessions that they want to see, and they haven't planned beforehand what they want to see and what's actually relevant to them.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so make sure you make a plan, but also leave time for like networking and put yourself out there.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: Don't be afraid to sit next to someone and just go and speak to them because that's the whole reason you're there, and that's the reason that your company wants you there.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: They want you to get value and they want to see that sending you to this event is good for them.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_04: And also, as well, you're in a room full of people that want to meet you and want to meet other people, whether they're an exhibitor or a visitor.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone goes for different reasons.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_04: So I think some visitors will come and you know, yes, they're representing their company, but you never know who you're gonna meet, or you never know, like that person further down the line might be really useful as a contact, or that demo that you saw, or that's taught that you listen to comes back later on when you're like, Oh, actually, that person was really good, and then that's when your like LinkedIn detective skills come in sometimes as well.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: So there's there's often an app.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: Most place most events have an app, and you can have networking, you can book meetings with exhibitors, so you can have a much more structured visit, yeah, rather than just turning up on that day and being like, What am I doing here?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's almost like creating a shopping list, yeah, isn't it?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Before you get and not going with an agenda, yeah.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, I think we spoke about this on a call, but there's some exhibitors that I'll just avoid because I can see their lingering sales eye like tracking me as I walk past, and I'm sweating and I'm like, Don't look at me, don't talk to it, trying to lure me in with like Harry Bow or a gay or a donut.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I do I respect those things.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I like that there's a place for those, and like making um exhibits fun is really, really cool.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: But um I think that there's a it's very clear to me as to who's kind of there for an agenda.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think I remember the first time, like I said, we explicitly were like there, like we have to get deals and meetings, and that is that is what we've got to be there for.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I I learned quickly that that wasn't the case, especially in B2B where the sales cycle is so long, yeah, isn't it?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'm not there, I'm not gonna get a signature on the line at the event.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's not how it's gonna work.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I need to just talk to this human and see if it's worth it, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's something you have to take into account when you're looking at ROI as well, because you might not see the value straight away, but you've got that relationship that you made like seven months ago at the event, yeah, and now you've finally got the deal, but that's because it's B2B, you have to wait for budgets, you have to wait for sign-offs, and a lot of the time the deal is a lot larger than B2C, yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: So it takes a lot longer.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the thing.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_04: I think you never know when that like where that little five-minute conversation is gonna go.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I think if you kind of come with the idea in mind that, you know, I need to get a hundred leads or however many.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_04: You can tell I'm not a salesperson, I don't know if a hundred is a lot in a day, but like that kind of thinking, I think sometimes isn't quite right anymore because people are looking much more for the relationship, budgets are tighter, so there's a lot more thinking through, taking on whether it's new technology or you know, different different ways of doing things.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_04: So I think you kind of have to give potential customers that time as well to think it over.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think um, like I said, I I was going in sell, sell, sell.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think the last one I was just said to the team, I wasn't there annoyingly, I was in uh I was away on holiday, but I uh I said just like see if people want to make one in terms of like for themselves.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't not not necessarily that we can be the supplier to do that, like, oh cool, you've started about styling a pod or creating this piece of content, like what's your idea?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think you're gonna do it?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then we've suggested ideas for them, and we've not even said mentioned our service like once really.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um but they've come they've you know they've come back and they've spoken to us.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, like like you said, with going in with a plan, and it bleeds into being an exhibitor, of course, as well.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, visitors, you need to have a plan and understand why you're going and what the point is.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and everyone's there for the same thing, aren't you?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if it's an event about marketing.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're all in that sphere.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of like there's a lot to learn, a lot of people to talk to.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and as an exhibitor, you can um also have that that kind of that plan.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, us having a product like that sounds really basic, but we're a service-based business, right?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: We do a lot of different kinds of things.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Most of our products are bespoke.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then as soon as we made that product, people came over to us because they were like, ah, we've been looking for that thing.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have because everyone's like looking for video.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: They don't really, everybody knows they want it, they don't know what they want to make.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you kind of have to tell people.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, what about what what would you say for exhibitors then?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: If they're what what would their ideal kind of plan look like?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say would be a good way for them to start or do one?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_04: I think their plan would be first of all, they need to give themselves enough time to plan out how it's gonna be and whether that's your stand design, the quality of the design on the stand as well, I think is really important.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, how many staff you're bringing, who you're gonna bring, making sure that they know your product and are familiar with your customers and your clients, but also then making sure you invite your clients, letting them know that you're gonna be there.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_04: That's a whole kind of task in itself.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, doing like pre-event promotion, and then, like Eve said, having that like post-event plan of like following up with people, making sure it's not just too generic of just sending out like a mass email that night, make it a bit more of a process behind it with the sales team.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, I think a lot of planning, give yourself enough time and really think through what you want to achieve, and I think it can be really effective.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you want clear goals for exhibiting and what looks like a good event for you, and you want to make sure that everyone on the stand understands what those goals are.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, pre-event, you want to be engaging with the event organizers because I find the people that are commenting on the event organizers are the people that are going to be there.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: So if you respond to those people, you're in the front of their mind.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: So they know that when they get there, they want to go and see LRB because they spoke to Luke at LRB.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you want to take advantage of that because it's free.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: And speak to the event organizers, see if there's anything they they can do.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: So they could do email, they can do social, and make sure that you're listed properly on the website.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: So you're not just there with just a logo and no description or no information on how to find out more about you.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and when you're there, the people that you want on your stand need to be approachable, they need to understand the product inside and out.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: And otherwise, if if you turn up to a stand and they don't even know, they can't even demo it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: But the wrong people on the standard.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: I've visited a lot of events that aren't ours, and I've walked around and there's been people sat on their phone.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are you just walking around like judging when you do that?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you're gonna find it, but I guess it's a good place to get ideas to exactly it's good for ideas, but yeah, like you can see people just sat on their phone or on their laptop trying to catch up and work, and that's where you need to have enough people on the stand so that people can go and have a break because it's a long day.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: It is, you don't want someone there from nine till five, not having a break, not being able to have a look around, not even being able to have like a sandwich.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then by the end of the day, obviously they're gonna be flagging.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: You need to have enough people to alternate between them.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think generating a relationship with these events has been like one of the most valuable things, and I can't recommend it for any business to do it enough because you just you're part of that ecosystem.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: You uh people get to know you as a business and a unit, right?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, because you know, you you get a lot of repeat offenders coming to these events, of course.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like people come back, they want to see new suppliers, they want to see new talks.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the kind of percentages of people who are returning for you guys is, but I can imagine it's fairly good.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um, if you keep showing up and you're like you're listed all the time and you've got a relationship with the event organizers, they're gonna just keep seeing you, and you're part of that industry then.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're we're not technically although we are marketers as a business LRB, you know, making the content for marketers technically, we're in that world.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's who we talk to, that's who we deal with every day.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: All we do is talk to marketers all the time, and um yeah, the relationship is is critical to that because it means that we're we feel like a viable cog and people eventually see the logo.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I think as well, the getting in front of the visitors with the content, getting involved in the speaker agenda is also really valuable because you are literally in a room full of potential customers, so you know, get yourself front and center.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I think that that's your way of kind of establishing your company and not necessarily getting up there and doing a sales pitch because that is the last thing visitors want to hear.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_04: But if you are really kind of positioning yourself well within the speaker agenda, whether that be on a panel or during a solo session, it can be so invaluable of really showing that you're a part of the industry and really getting yourself or your founder out there, depending on how you do it.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_04: So I think that that's really good for an exhibitor, just get as involved as you can.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, it builds trust as well, and then people learn something from you, and you just make sure you know you send them back to this day where they know where they learnt it from.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: So they know that you know what you're talking about.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, which is always good.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Speakers, you get a lot of speakers at your eye.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: You've got l you've got probably the most speakers that I've ever seen at any event, actually.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like just just all just going, going, going, going, loads on the clock.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing that speakers are also getting a lot of value from these?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: In what regard?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_04: So, in terms of data capture, it's really, really high for speakers because depending on the setup and most events, you will get the data of whoever has attended your session.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_04: So that's always a real positive.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: You've got those people that were there in the room listening to you, so you can again have that follow-up plan with them.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and also as well for speakers, it's a really good chance to get to know the marketing community for our show.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's a really good way to meet people.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: I know a lot of visitors who will go back to speakers after and ask for tips or you know, a bit of an expansion on a point that they made that then applies to their business or to their work that they're doing.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_04: And also, as well, you know, they are people who are experts and leaders in this field.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_04: So for them, they want to be sharing that knowledge with.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_04: So, for example, with um B2B Marketing Live, you know, our expert attracts marketers from across, right from marketing assistant all the way up.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: So you've got some people in that room that are just starting out, so you can literally give them really invaluable advice to carry them through.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: They also the speakers have such a big community, it's a good way, it's a good opportunity.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of the time, their community is all online.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, true.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a good opportunity for them to do like an in real life IRL meeting.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um we had, I think it was last year, we had a couple of speakers.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: They invited some of their community to come, and that's a really valuable thing for them because they it's a paid, if it's a paid-for event, then you're giving them a free ticket.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: They're coming to this show that's very relevant to them, and they get to meet up with the community that they've been speaking to for the last however many years.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's really invaluable for speakers because they get to meet their community in person.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's thought leadership, but like with for lack of a better phrase, I always say this, um, but there isn't a better phrase in real life.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, all these people are kind of hounding it on LinkedIn and everyone's being spoken to about how they need to be more, you know, thought-driven on on LinkedIn and post more and talk to your people more about why you're an expert in this field.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that is it in real life, right?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's giving that talk, you're doing that thing.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember when I did the I did a talk for you that first year, and it uh I recorded it, and like, you know, ever it was just dissected into content for weeks afterwards, right?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just like little 30-second nuggets of wisdom, hmm.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Nuggets.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I, you know, I use that to the high heavens, right?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and that, and that in real life, and then we kind of got people coming up to me after, like you said, and it was just felt um and then you kind of come also as a speaker, you kind of come off that and you go, Oh, do I actually know I do know I'm on about?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit of a kind of a It's a confidence booster.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a confidence booster and it just affirms that you're actually, yeah.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we all get the the classic kind of a bit of imposter, and you you're you're worried a little bit about whether you know, oh no, is this all just gonna fail one day?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you kind of sometimes you need to be reminded that you you are you you're dedicating your life to something which is either your service or your skill set or your product, and to then speak that out to all of that those people who are then sat there listening to you taking notes, you're it's a bit of a kind of like, oh great, and then the amount of people that find you afterwards and connect with you, right?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like LinkedIn, how much has that you know that's changed the game for marketing full start?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's obviously changed it for events, hasn't it?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: In what way would you say that it has for you?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I think LinkedIn in itself has just like absolutely transformed.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_04: I remember um many years ago when I was leaving university, and like we got told about LinkedIn in like my last week before graduation, that was 2014, and it just wasn't at all what it is now.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_04: Now it's like you have to be on it, you have to be putting out content, and it's you know, it is really useful.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I know people that have built businesses off the back of you know their personal brand on there, purely on LinkedIn, so it's invaluable, but it's definitely I think it's helped events because obviously the promotion, but also like Eve said, our speakers have really big communities on there, so that really helps draw them in, um, and that's the perfect platform to kind of target them.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_04: And also when I'm looking for speakers, it's one of the first places I'll go to kind of see what the conversation in the industry is and to kind of build out the agenda from there.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that once people are on site at the event, they are talking about it all over LinkedIn.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_04: So I think yeah, it's just it's so important to be on there and active and posting.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: And it's I think for our events it definitely plays a big part.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_04: Because obviously, we're a marketing event, so we're gonna use it.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's where that's basically where your community is, LinkedIn.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, most B2B events, their community is on LinkedIn, so you need to be hot on LinkedIn.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's changed, it's changed everything for everyone, and um uh it's uh it's a str it's also a strange place, isn't it?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of strange people on there, and there's I think for for me as well, like from a personal effect for LinkedIn, like events and like LinkedIn likes to see people winning, and when people are at events and things like that, and seeing teams, being happy, it's very American.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Go, you know, you go you, you're you're great.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it I love it for that in a way, because although you know our transatlantic cousins um are different, that I do they're they're at positivity and spark, and it bleeds into LinkedIn a lot, and it's very much a winning platform, and it loves to see people love to see others do well, um, but they also like vulnerabilities, but then there's also that you know, Facebook LinkedIn is turning to something a little bit where it's not as well sometimes, and people are thinking it's a little bit looking like Facebook all of a sudden, and people are sharing personal things on there, and I think um events are a very good content source in order to ground that and like make sure that we're not deviating away from what the purpose of this is, and that is business, community, and people and careers and and things like that, and it's not going away too much from what it originally was.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: Strange platform, it is, it's evolved so much though.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like when it first started, like you said, it was just it was purely business, like this is what I'm doing, this is my job.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas now it's so fluid, there's so many different things that stay in the lines, yeah, videos, yeah.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: People think you didn't really used to post on it that much.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: No, it was like somebody changed their job.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: It was just like your online CV, whereas now it's like a whole content hub, which is great, but it's a combination of Facebook, TikTok, Instagram.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, literally, uh I mean, I owe my career and and the business to LinkedIn's existence, uh, you know, there was a period where there was a sweet spot where it was kind of um it eradicated the little black book theory where people had a little book of contacts and like only they had access to their email.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, right?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of their way into businesses sometimes.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was like, oh, you can just search for a business and find out who works there in seconds.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a period where it was like I could find business really quickly, I could message marketing manners and be like managers and be like, hey, we'd love to make you some some content, and they would and they'd reply to me.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, Oh my god.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now everybody's smothered with sales, yeah, right?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone's absolutely smothered with it, and a lot of it is not coming from a human.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's AR thing, it's like uh half, you know, 50% of the posts aren't even written by the people who do them, and yeah, it's changing and also the in the in mails you get.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'm not sure how much that some of the ones I get, I'm like, I'm not quite sure I'm the right audience for it.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't know how I don't know if people are paying for that.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, I don't think you've got to be really strategic with it, I think.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I there's nothing I love more that when an event happens or a two-day expo, or something like this, and then you just see your feet erupt with that expo, and it's just like wow, and everyone's exchanging, and you can see the fire that's being lit within those 48 hours of that event existing, and it's powerful.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_04: You get FOMO.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: You do, you do, right?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: You're like, why wasn't I there?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's good at building that.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like um, so right, okay, if I'm a speaker, how how am I gonna?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a 20-minute segment.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: What what would you what's your advice?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a service.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: How am I going to structure this?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: What should I do?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: What's the do's and don'ts for a speaker in an event?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're a speaker that is also an exhibitor, I would say don't make it a sales pitch, but you want to use a lot of real case examples of how maybe your clients have used your product.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: However, don't just make it a this is how great our product is, this is why you should have it, kind of example.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_04: You want to kind of link it to maybe a current challenge that people are having within the within the industry.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I think make it more relevant.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_04: And when I say generic, I mean generic in that it doesn't totally just relate to your company, your product.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: Make it more sort of universal because you never know who might be sitting in the room.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_04: Because with conferences and expos, you're always going to have such a mix of visitors in terms of you've got marketers who might be the only marketer in the whole company who's doing absolutely everything with a teeny tiny budget, or you might have a marketer from a team of seven people who's got you know loads of budget to play with.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: So you've got to make it tangible for all of those, which can be difficult, but I think if you kind of package it all correctly, it can be really useful.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, I would say make sure it's just not too sales pitchy, make it relevant, and also make sure the person who is speaking from the company is really engaging.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: Having the founder is great because they might be the one who's the most passionate, but it depends how that transforms onto a stage.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can't have them blarry going up there just to you know, it's just not gonna work.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's gotta be like someone who's engaging, someone who keeps people's attention, like with any talk.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, we've all been to events where there's just someone that just kind of puts you to sleep.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_04: And even though what they're talking about might be really valuable, sometimes it's a little bit tiresome.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, I would say make sure you've got a good person up there representing you, and that doesn't necessarily always have to be the founder.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: And pre-event, make sure you let people know that you're gonna be speaking.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, you can do like I really like webinars as like a a teaser for what you can expect on the day.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like we did a webinar, it's a really great way of engaging people and speaking to people, but you can't you can't gauge their reactions to what you're saying, you can't tell how what you're saying is coming across.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: So doing like a short webinar beforehand, just teasing what you're gonna be talking about and making sure people go to get the real value, something like that is always really good.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: That webinar was fruitful as it was it was like the amount of like emails that I got after all connection requests from just like you know, a couple like a couple of hundred people just turning up and just like listening, maybe even in the background, it just like plants the seed.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you like you said, it does dangle the carrot a little bit, doesn't it?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um and you want to keep in the forefront of people's minds so they'll see a webinar and then they'll go and see you in a session.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_03: They'll be like, Oh yeah, I remember I saw a webinar with this person, and I really wanted to speak to them.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's just reminded me that they actually know what they're talking about.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: And they do this thing, yeah.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it very much like pods.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like we obviously we create podcasts, we run over 20 series, and every single one of them that comes to us and goes, Right, we need it to sell our business.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: I go, Oh no, no, please don't do that because that's nobody wants you can't get people to listen to a five-second advert, let alone an hour conversation about there's a fly trying to attack me, about uh uh uh about why they should use me as a business, right?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's about making sure that it is not agenda-led and that you are providing value.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, always always value, yeah.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: With that little bit of like, oh, and by the way, we do it.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just to let you know, we do that too.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to have a chat about how you can make one, you can talk to us.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's all it has to be.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the main thing is like is giving a little bit of the recipe, not the entire ingredients list, but like a little bit of the recipe and showing them that what they can do and what is possible, and alluding to the idea that it's something that's possible for them, and they could even go away afterwards and and try and you know make a crack of it on their own, whatever that is.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so every pod that starts with us, like every speaker, should probably it is briefed by you guys, I imagine it's like just give back to the audience.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the people that you need to be helping.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be seen as you need to be associated with the service, you not need to you don't need to be seen as be selling the service.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, isn't it?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly, definitely.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, regarding webinars, you run them, so you're not against them, you're not against the digital digitalization of events and things like that.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to admit that there must be a difference between the face-to-face and digital world, right?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of what people get back from it.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: So when I started in events, it was just after COVID.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: And my first when I first started at Raw, my job was marketing in the digital team.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: So we did all of the digital events, and there were loads.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but now that in real life is come back, it's it's here to stay.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank God.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um until the next.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: Hopefully, there won't be a next.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Touchwood.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um but in terms of sales, in real life and digital, you need to be good at both.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: To be a good salesperson, you need to be able to sell in person and online.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but there's something a lot more valuable about in person because online you've got it's it's a structured Zoom call that can sometimes be a bit awkward, you've got connection issues, demoing it isn't as easy because you're just sharing your screen.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas if you're there in person, you can find out what their budget is, what their sign-off process is, how long that generally takes.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: You can eliminate like 10 emails worth of work in a 10-minute conversation.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_04: Can see if it's actually a viable lead rather than just sending endless emails back and forth or like a sales proposal for them to just be like, oh no, this is totally out of our debt.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's um with with the with the whole Zoom thing, it's just so I can't like I said, I can't explain it, but I've always related Zoom calls to printers and or like they've never quite managed to get it to work.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: And like you said, there's always something that there's always a barrier there, isn't there?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like with printers, sometimes they just never work and you just can't figure out why, right?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the same as Zoom call, like there's always a connection problem.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Something's like there, oh I can't get onto Google Meets.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: We use Teams and oh we use this and that.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: The barrier is just crazy.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And like I always have pre-prod chats with people, right?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, before we film these.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And even then it's like, it's better, of course, than just doing it over email, but it's still not the same.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like than this.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is real.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can feed like there's something about an energy and uh where you can just feed off each other, and that that's the human way to do it.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say that, like, would you say that after because of a digital world now, would you say people's in-person skills have degraded in any way?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, I mean I don't mind it.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_04: I think yeah, we all got used to being at home during COVID and you know, adjusting back to real life.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_04: But I think that it's a learning curve and people entering the workforce now who maybe during COVID were the most affected, so the kind of young youngsters coming in.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_04: Whereas I I remember when I came into the industry and I was in my main.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_04: Youngsters coming in.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: How old are we all?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I like to say early 30s.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um but you kind of it's different, like you know, I was in five days a week in the office, you're there, you're amongst all the phone calls, you're soaking it all in.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: Whereas I think now, if you go into a job and you're only in the office two or three days a week, it's harder to learn those skills.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I think sometimes it does it's a it's just like a new learning curve.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: I think we're also used to doing stuff online and digitally, and emails make your life easier, don't get me wrong, but it's you it's just missing that human touch, I think, which in-person events has.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_04: But at the same time, like I think webinars have their place, it depends what you're trying to get out of it and also what your content is that you're sharing on there.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because a lot of them are run during lunch breaks, which are really good, um, especially if you're working from home that day.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_04: It's a lot easier just to sit down and watch it while you're having your lunch.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_04: So I do think it can be really useful.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: And it does, like you said, plant that seed in people's mind that you're you and your brand are there.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_04: You might not need them right now, but you know, it's you know that they're touch points experience, yeah.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's like anything, it's touch points just being everywhere all the time.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, which is why it's crazy that some companies have one marketer to do that for their business, right?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: They've got like the one person a lot of companies put us everywhere, all the time, everywhere, all at once, and you're kind of like, and I would I was that person, right?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: My my career, like when I was in my early 20s, that's how I started was a digital marketing apprentice, and you put in a business as an apprentice, and they're like, You're the first marketing person we've got.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Oh, great, my loaning off then, right?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, and um, it's just it's an obscene expectation.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that it's talked about a lot on LinkedIn about how many hats marketers have to wear.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: It's quite common in marketing that an apprentice is actually the marketing manager, the graphic designer, the videographer, the social media manager, they're everything in their own apprentice, and that's that's really common.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's crazy, it's just crazy.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, marketing's men are creating your business.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: How much do they put into their sales team, right?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: I and also the other thing is that we had um Ivana on um from Tita Paso, who's an agency, and she said something incredible.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, There's not one other um profession where everyone's got an opinion on, everyone's got an opinion about marketing, the sales department, everyone's oh no, you should do this thing.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Have you thought, oh, that's good, maybe change that.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't go to the finance department and do that, or I don't go to the HR and do that, right?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: But can you imagine if you did?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, sorry.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like because because because you're the you're the the role in the business that has the connection to the outside world, and everyone's got an opinion on the outside world and everyone's got their own experience of it.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's the thing.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, your work is always shown.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_04: Whereas if you're a salesperson or finance, it's kind of it's not shown in the same way at all.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_04: It's direct, and you know, you'll always get sent stuff that someone's seen on social media or LinkedIn and be like, oh, we should do this, and you'll be like, Yeah, but that's they've obviously got like a massive budget to be able to do that, or that would not at all work because it's like a B2C ad, which is really like really cute, but it wouldn't necessarily work in our setting, or you know, yeah, like everyone's always got an opinion, but that's I think where like marketing teams have to be really clever and also just maybe a little bit stubborn and be like, this is why we're doing this.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the amount of businesses that I were in where we were called the colouring in department.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, okay.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um listen, we could talk about this all day.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, specifically, I'd love to talk like there's a crying for an episode two as well, in terms of let's um talk about I want to talk about social strategy and how other people can go through that, of course.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe leaning in on that then.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: What's kind of one thing that businesses who are exist doing maybe expos already that they can they could they should start doing now?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: One change that they should make now.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tough one.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_04: That is a tough one.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: A big one, something that could change the game, whether they're an exhibitor or a visitor or anything really.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_04: I think maybe having slightly coming off what Eve said, being more strategic about what you're putting out.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_04: So if you are deciding to do an event, what is the real reason behind doing that event?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, being out there and being seen is always good, but you know, you want to make sure you're doing it right and you don't want to half-arse it, you want to make sure you've got everything in place that makes it successful.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I think also that applies to like social strategy, whether that's as a visitor, you know, what you're putting on your personal LinkedIn to again, what's the reason for you putting that out there?
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: Is that because you want to establish yourself as a thought leader, you want to progress in your career, you want to attract maybe a new employer, like what is it you're trying to achieve with the content you're putting out?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_04: So I think a plan would be like my main one.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a big one.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: I would say um don't just rely on the most obvious performance metrics.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_03: So if your if the people on your stand know that they need to hit a hundred leads a day, then they're just gonna scan as many people as possible.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_03: They're not gonna have the right conversations.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas if you tell them you flip it and you say, I want you to get 10 really, really meaningful, really hot leads that you know that they would work for us and that we can work with them.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you've asked the right questions, you found out all the information you need, that's more valuable than just a hundred people that you've just scanned their leads, but you've not actually told them anything about the uh the company, anything about you, you've not found out anything about them, and following up properly.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_03: So most places have an app where you fill out information on the people that you've spoken to and you can personalize it for each one.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: Make sure when you follow up, you kind of you mention what you've spoken about so they know that you've listened and they feel seen.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you don't not just sent a mass email out to everyone that you scanned and said, Great to see you, and not said something like, Hope your journey back to York was good.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like, because it know it means that they know that you listened.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_04: Or you could even pick up the phone.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_04: Crazy thing.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_04: Oh I mean, depending on how many leads you've got, obviously, if it's like hundreds, then it's gonna take you some time.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, there is always that.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_04: You can try and give people a ring.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great to see.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's not that it's not that offensive when it's somebody that they've oh, I've spoken to you.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, cool.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're not just you know some random coal cooler.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, filtration system, that's a good one, really, isn't it?
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: The filter you filter highly.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: What are your filtering questions?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's you you'll never be able to do it as quick as you can in person.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Can you right?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's the thing.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: And make sure everyone's asking the same question first.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: To understand so you know that they're the right people.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right, talk to me about B2B Marketing Live.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: What what events are we going on this year?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where are people going?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where are they where are they directing?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Get them.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: We need to get tickets.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Go.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone go now.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, uh B2B Marketing Live, our main event is in November on the 18th and 19th at XL in London.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, thank you so much for coming on today.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: I can chew the fat about events all day.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love them, I'm an advocate of them.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's our main I would argue and say it as our main sales pipeline is working with you guys every year.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh, I would never have it any other way.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's just too powerful.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much for coming.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us.