Why Face-to-Face Events Should Matter to B2B Marketers

Chris Brogan contributed todays post. He's a renowned business advisor, New York Times Bestselling author, and keynote speaker. Visit his website to learn more.

If you’ve been to one trade show, you’ve seen them all, in a way. There are the exhibitor booths, the plush carpet, the signage, the fishbowl full of business cards in exchange for a free gadget giveaway, squeezy balls, little dishes of candy. Occasionally, there’s a “fun game” thrown in there, some “pretty girls” (sometimes called Booth Babes), and oh right, whatever products or services the industry’s events call for, as well.

Depending on the industry, there will be seminars, maybe a keynote speaker who has very little to do with the actual industry, an awards show (those are popular), and maybe a few box lunches and a forgettable chicken dinner thrown in as well. True?

These Events Hold Lots of Secrets and Opportunities

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about trade shows and B2B events from both sides of the experience. I’ve worked with the people who used to put on Comdex, one of the biggest trade shows in the world, and I’ve been involved in dozens of events covering multiple industries. I know why the carpet is thicker in the exhibit areas (it slows you down, which of course makes you look around a bit), the real purpose of squeezy balls, giveaways, and Booth Babes (they separate the REAL buyers from the tire kickers and pamphlet collectors), and how to keep down costs (put out 6 oz. coffee cups instead of 10, cut the danish into quarters, etc).

But you should know that trade shows are filled with actual purpose and value, however, and it’s important to attend and participate. Deals get done at shows. First meetings turn into negotiations and partnerships. And the Internet era doesn’t replace all that can happen at a face to face event.

The Power of Live Events for B2B Marketing and Sales

If you want to amp up your opportunities at trade events, there are a few ways to amp up your results.

Do Your Homework. Use sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to determine who will be at the event. See if you can find out more about the people who will attend, including any likes or hobbies outside of business. Imagine being able to walk into a booth knowing that the head of Business Development, Tonya, likes hockey so you bring her a customized jersey as a gift. Either side of the equation, exhibitor or buyer, can benefit from doing some homework.

Build a Gameplan. When quizzed, most people exhibiting at events answer the question “What’s your gameplan?” with “get leads.” Sure, that makes perfect sense, but if that’s the entire plan, you’re wasting the opportunity. How will you qualify a lead on site? What kinds of questions should all exhibitors be ready to answer? What first-step-into-the-funnel can you earn? Are there better follow-ups than just bland phone calls? What could you do to REALLY earn a next call?

Connect, Connect, Connect. I’m an introvert. I’m a bit shy. It’s not my favorite thing to meet strangers and poke around. But we all have to “play the part” of people hoping to connect and make business happen. I’ve seen shy buyers and I’ve seen shy exhibitors. If people have their faces glued to their phones and tablets, no business is getting done. Push yourself. Remember that you’re playing a role for the event. And if someone on your team is REALLY shy, make sure he or she isn’t the front line in the equation.

What the Internet Doesn’t Do For You

It’s hard to build rapport online. There are a lot of great reasons for the Internet. It’s “always open.” There are lots of ways to share great information like videos and downloadable white papers, and all that stuff.

But at the end of it all, we buy from people, and there are many (many!) studies that all came to the same two conclusions:

1.) We buy from people we like.

2.) We prefer to justify more than qualify.

That first one makes sense, especially when you extend it to mean that we buy from people we feel are somehow like us. That’s why doing your homework and building rapport and connecting are always going to trump a slick website and a cool demo video. We want the human connection.

On the second point, the idea of “justify” versus “qualify” is that no matter how important the purchase, we tend to buy based on emotion more than any other factor. You can disagree. You can tell me how thorough you are. There’s just too much information out there saying it’s otherwise.

That’s why we have to be there at these events. That’s why, with all the fancy phones and tablets and cloud computing and YouTube, we still need to be there to “press the flesh,” make eye contact, and get to know the person behind the email address.

Events are what we make of them, and I like it when we make our companies happier. There’s a lot of value still to be had. Go and grab it!

B2B Events are Wending toward Wow

Once upon a time, a hotel ballroom sufficed to fill the conference producer's need for a space suited to parking 300 butts, and maybe 30 booths, for a day or two.

But Millennial attendees have crabbed so much, for so long, about B2B events' blandness producers are rethinking venue, hoping to provoke a wee more wow.

According to Skift, B2B events are now being situated in many privately owned "alternative venues," including factories, warehouses, mansions, museums, boats, restaurants, cocktail lounges, wineries, art studios, work spaces and incubators. (Aside: With my partner producers, I just chose the latter type of venue for a new conference myself).

But blocking the way to wow is convention. For decades, producers have worked cozily with hotels.

"They’ve always met in the same hotel meeting rooms with the same carpet and the same white walls,” says Jan Hoffmann-Keining, CMO of an online matching service named Spacebase.

Producers' cherished comfort comes at a cost—to corporate innovation and creativity.

"People are realizing that if you keep meeting in the same rooms and thinking the same thoughts, then it’s going to be hard to find that innovation and creativity,” Hoffmann-Keening says.

Patric Weiler, Head of Strategy for American Express Meetings & Events, thinks more producers will gradually buck tradition.

“The meetings industry is changing, and the classic silos are breaking up about how to plan a meeting,” he says.

Hey, Content Marketer: Soles Worn Out?

Companies don't run to ex-journalists for content because they write fine sentences.

They run to them because journalists live and breath stories.

I pity content marketers who lack skills in "shoe–leather reporting." They're at a continuous loss for brand stories to tell.

I pity their customers even more. They're subjected to the crap those marketers publish.

Shoe-leather reporting is the journalist's age-old means of unearthing good stories. It requires:

• Leaving the desk to mingle with the hoi polo;

• Burning time dogging leads (many of whom will prove useless); and 

• Embracing a bottomless form of inquisitiveness—the reason it's said, "Journalism is a vocation, not a job."

For content marketers without those skills, content marketing's just a job.

In ASJA Word, freelance writer Johanna Knapschaefer depicts her way of plying shoe-leather skills. Knapschaefer likes to:

• Befriend fellow business travelers, pick their brains, and follow up afterwards

• Get into the field to meet practitioners and follow the leads they provide

• Read and clip religiously from sources both inside and outside her specialty; and

• Reformulate story ideas and pitch them, again and again, with new story angles

How about you? 

Planted at your desk and in conference rooms all day? 

Or are your soles worn out?

FOOTNOTE: In case you missed it, by all means read David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Try walking to a local independent bookseller to get your copy.

Mischmasch

Mischmasch is the German word for "hodgepodge" (an apt description of today's post).

Germans love long compound words, known as Mammutwörter ("mammoth words").

The German word for "laws governing the labeling of pork," for example, is Schweinefleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.

Among the best Mammutwörter are:

Ohrwurm ("ear worm"); the condition of having a song (such as Wayne Newton's big hit, Danke Schön) stuck in your head.

Sitzfleisch ("Sitting meat"); the ability to sit through a long, boring event (or through Danke Schön).

Weltschmerz ("world pain"); the pain you feel over the world's imperfection (commonly experienced by most Americans during election season).

Backpfeifengesicht ("Slap face"); a person who deserves a slap in the face (like some Presidential candidates).

Kummerspeck ("grief bacon"); the weight gained after a romantic breakup.

Innerer Schweinehund ("inner pig dog"); the voice in your head telling you to slack off.

Treppenwitz ("staircase joke"); the snappy comeback that occurs to you only after the conversation.

Erklärungsnot ("explanation poverty"); the inability to explain why you did something, or failed to do it.

Schattenparker ("shadow parker"); a wimp who parks his car in the shade, so the interior doesn't get hot; similar compounds include Warmduscher (a wimp who showers in warm water) and Sitzpinkler (a wimp who sits to urinate).

Lebensmüde ("life tired" ); when you're so weary of life you perform a stupid act (like the one below).

Where's the Thought in Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is to leadership as fast food is to food.

While the stuff served daily through most B2B marketers' Tweets, videos, blog posts and e-books looks tasty and can be consumed quickly, it isn't particularly satisfying. Or good for you.

Although there are thousands of exceptions, most B2B marketers rush out junk, contributing to the deafening "content shock" Mark Schaefer describes.

Plainly, simply, thought leadership shouldn't be advertising. It's supposed to be content that's authentic and that articulates leading-edge thinking, not your marketing department's  social media strategy.

And thought leadership shouldn't be about media. It's supposed to focus on thought, not LinkedIn or Meerkat or Snapchat.

B2B marketers are hacking the system when they publish non-nutritional content, however carefully it's dressed to resemble food for thought.

Ironically, every B2B marketer could contribute thought leadership, if only she trusted the few thoughtful individuals inside her organization—and they trusted themselves. Sadly, neither do.

"Thought leaders focus on crafting ideas, not audience reaction and reach," says digital marketer Walter Adamson in Firebrand. 

He's 100% right. Thought leaders don't lean on vapid videos and tricked up infographics to entreat customers. They rely instead, TEDishly, on "ideas worth sharing."

"Being a thought leader means putting your own personal thoughts out there in whatever form appeals to you," Adamson says. "It’s not about the medium. It’s about the message and it’s about filling in the white spaces which teams of content producers don’t even know exist."