Insights

We’re the Problem with Event Marketing

By Shauna Peters, senior vice president, operations and strategy

Freeman’s new pre-event trends report reveals an uncomfortable truth for event marketers: Attendees have been telling us what they need all along. We just haven’t set ourselves up to hear it, because our campaigns run on our schedule, not theirs. The good news is that the fix isn’t hard. It’s mostly a matter of changing when, where and what we communicate.

First, the honest part. Too often, internal timelines dictate when information goes out. We announce the program once it’s complete. We put information on the website where it makes sense to us or based on which internal team is responsible for it. We open registration and set the early-bird deadline around our budget cycle. The problem? Each of these choices starts with our calendar, our approvals and our org chart.

Let’s Flip the Script

Here’s what that approach looks like from the attendee’s perspective: Picture a manager at a mid-size company having coffee with a colleague. The colleague mentions an industry event and says, “You should come this year.” The manager is interested. In her head, she’s already going. But she can’t just click and register. First, she needs to convince her director the trip is worth it and get approval to attend.

The manager visits the event website. The dates are there, but the program details are listed as “coming soon.” She checks again the next week and sees the same message. She looks for something she can forward to her boss. There’s a rate sheet and a deadline, but nothing that answers the question of why the company should send her.

Meanwhile, back at the event organizer’s office, the marketing team is waiting on the committee to finalize the program. The early-bird email goes out according to the schedule established months ago. It lands in the manager’s inbox with a discount and a deadline. She already wants to go, but the email doesn’t give her what she needs: a reason for her director to say yes.

Much closer to the event date, details become available and the manager gets the approval to register. The organizer calls it a late registration problem, but the manager wasn’t undecided. She was under-informed.

The Disconnect Between Interest and Action

Freeman’s research found that 84% of attendees decide to attend at least a month before they register. The decision is made, but registration is waiting on something else, like budget, approval and proof the trip will be worth it.

When they go looking for that proof, they aren’t starting at the event website (only 29% name it as a top source for finding events). Instead, they’re hearing about events from colleagues, vendors and trade organizations. A peer saying “you should be there” carries more weight than any marketing message.

And that’s the real takeaway: We don’t have a demand problem. We have an alignment problem. The interest is already there — our marketing just isn’t showing up in the places, at the times and with the answers people need to act on it.

A Better Approach (Without a Bigger Budget)

Getting your marketing in sync with attendees’ needs doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch. Here are five simple shifts you can make — without adding to your budget or tech stack.

  1. Share details as they come in. Don’t wait until everything’s in place. Even a partial program gives attendees more to work with than a “coming soon” message. Post speakers, session topics and exhibitors as they are confirmed. If the manager in our example had found something useful on the website in week one, she could have made her case to her director (and possibly registered) earlier.
  2. Market on their timeline, not yours. Think about when people are building budgets and asking for approval. That’s the time to share information that helps them prove the value of attending — not when the committee is ready.
  3. Reach them through people they trust. Your audience already listens to peers, exhibitors and partners. Give these trusted voices something simple to share so they can help spread the word. Think back to our manager’s story: One personal recommendation over coffee got her interested in an event before the marketing campaign ever reached her.
  4. Give them something to hand their boss. A short letter that makes the case for the trip does a lot of heavy lifting. But it only works if event details are available, so make sure shift No. 1 is in place first.
  5. Talk about what they take home. The best event marketing barely feels like marketing. It feels like a recommendation from a colleague, giving attendees a clear picture of what they’ll get out of the experience, including who they’ll meet, what they’ll discover on the exhibit floor and how it will make their jobs easier.

A Little Alignment Goes a Long Way

Now let’s run the manager’s story again. Her colleague says, “You should come.” The manager searches social and finds speakers talking about the sessions they are planning to present, or content creators sharing “throw backs” to the takeaways they brought home last year. She visits the event website and finds a handful of confirmed sessions, along with a note that more are on the way. She gets an email with a letter she can forward to her director with details about who else will be there and what she’ll bring back to the team. Her director says yes and the manager registers that week.

Nothing about the budget, the platforms used for the campaign or even the committee structure changed. The marketing calendar just shifted to align with hers.

Yes, internal timelines still matter. But attendees aren’t buying on our schedules or aligning their decision-making with our approval processes. They’re registering when they have confidence that the investment will pay off.

The more our marketing reflects their timing and priorities, the easier it becomes for them to say “yes.”