Marketer to marketer, let’s be real…2020 has already been a whirlwind. If you’re anything like me, every single day is full of evaluating what’s working (and what’s not) and planning for worst-case scenarios.
Now, to be clear, this blog post and The Agile Marketer series aren’t about COVID-19 (although the coronavirus is, admittedly, responsible for the idea). My goal here is to demonstrate what the best marketers are doing to keep sales pipelines full of new prospects, move clients through the funnel, and maintain brand awareness and connection with the outside world when we’re not supposed to be in the same room with each other.
According to the event company Bizzabo, a whopping 68% of B2B marketers depend on in-person events for lead generation. Even more jarring? 41% of marketers believe that events are the “single-most effective marketing channel.”
So now that many industry events have been canceled or postponed, what is a marketer to do? Do brands need to get by with less awareness? Should sales teams make do with fewer leads? Do executives get comfortable with slower revenue growth? My answer to all of the above is a resounding NO.
Marketers, we spend weeks/months prepping and planning for these events – don’t let that go to waste. Were you counting on booth demos? Take those materials and use them in online demos instead. How do you get in front of the right people when you can’t stop them with free T-shirts as they roam the expo hall? Find an organization with an audience full of your targets. (I have one in mind.) Were your executives prepared to announce a new product launch around an event? Pivot to a webinar featuring your beta testers or a case study or, even better, BOTH.
This is uncharted territory (hey, this is my first-ever housingwire.com article), but don’t forget, we’re all in this together.
To learn more about how HousingWire can help you navigate housing-focused digital media, get in touch.
Read The Agile Marketer Part 2 here.
