The Events Revenue Funnel: 8 Ways to Optimize w/ Splash VP, Marketing and Yext VP, Revenue Marketing

please drop your questions in the chat if they come up. We'll have time at the end to answer them. So we're gonna go through 8 ways to optimize your events and the events revenue funnel. The first one is to know where your event fits in the funnel. Now this may seem simple, but I'm always surprised at how many people don't know the answer to where their event fits in the funnel. And when I'm talking about the funnel, I'm talking about the sales and marketing funnel. So really taking a step back before you start making any decisions about your event and thinking about, you know, is this an awareness event where I want people to know my brand and to know what I'm building? Is it a consideration event where I'm really targeting people who are considering buying perhaps a software or a product like mine? Is it an evaluation event targeted toward people who are really evaluating my product and other products like mine after they've made a decision to buy something? Or is this a customer event where this is really for my existing customers and I'm looking to either grow loyalty or product adoption or expansion? So first and foremost, really understanding where your event fits in that funnel can help you create an event that then moves someone to the next stage the most effectively. And once you've done that, once you understand kind of the broad strokes where this event fits in the funnel, then it's time to get clear on your goals and metrics specifically. So when we're talking about goals for an awareness event, the goals might be something like establishing thought leadership or creating brand awareness. And here are These are just some of the KPIs, the metrics that you might look at for those different types of goals. Lindsay's gonna drop some links in the chat. We only have so much time today, but Splash has a number of pieces of long-form and more detailed content that really walks you through all the different kinds of event goals and corresponding metrics that you can spend some more time with. But once you think through how are you going to measure success, you can think through what is the appropriate content, who is the appropriate audience, what are my calls to action, what is my follow-up plan. And here's just one more kind of set of potential KPIs, right? If you're looking to do demand generation or if you have a customer event with retention and loyalty, you know, you really want to think through how are you going to measure success. And then when you have lots of different events across those goals, you can look at which outperforms the others and start to choose and identify what's working and what's not. And once you have your goals and metrics, you can move on to step 3. I'll turn it over to you, Lindsay.

Thanks, Asha. So step 3, choose your event type wisely. There are a lot of event types that are out there for you to choose, but really you need to focus once you know what your ROI goals are and your audience goals are, it's really important to choose an event that's gonna serve those events those types wisely. So if you want to go to the next slide, Sasha. This is a reference from the Field of Dreams, and it's a famous quote: if you build them, they will come, but only if it's compelling. And I feel the same way about events. There are a lot of events out there, and given the fact that we are on Zoom all the time and have this digital fatigue, you really need to build the type of event that you want to capture the type of people in the room. So as you think about these different types of events— webinars, VIP experiential events like wine tastings, user conferences, roundtables, user groups, product product launches, and sponsorships, think about, match those to the type of goals of what you're trying to drive for your programs and for your revenue funnel. All of these different types of events map to different types of engagements, right? So if you're thinking about brand awareness, product launches are great ways to do that, lead generation, webinars, sponsorships, and the only one here that captures all of them is a user conference. But even within that, the different types of content and activities that you provide are gonna drive to those different types of goals as well. And then the other thing to think about is persona-based. So depending on the type of attendee that you're trying to drive, think about what they're interested in. Everybody has a limited amount of time in this day and age, and so you really want to deliver things that are meaningful to those types of personas. So when you're thinking about the C-suite, it's really about cutting-edge technology, premium experiences that they might not be able to get elsewhere, and peer networking. When you're thinking about your day-to-day contact, it's about job efficiencies, how they can grow their career, and, and really how the product what is going to work for them and their team. And when you're thinking about someone that's a little bit more technical, maybe your developer, it's really about the power of the technology or the program that you're trying to convey, getting into the weeds with that technology, and of course, building community with them as well. And then thinking about all of the new data that you can access. One of the silver linings, I think, that we found in this virtual world is that you're able to take all of the data that we normally would be able to capture with an event, plus all of the type of event data, or data that you would find in demand gen efforts, and other digital efforts, and really evaluate all of these types of things to benchmark against success. So when you're thinking about your event promotion, it's all about email engagement, your paid and social, your sales team enablement, internal enablement, any type of paid tickets and how those are progressing. With your attendee reach, we're now able to monitor a global reach, as well as a vertical reach, and get more attendee demographics than ever before. And then you're just thinking through deep engagement with the average watch time, unique views, your brand, your social amplification, instant calls to action, traffic to your website, net new leads, net new contacts, the revenue that you're influencing, and of course customer retention. A lot of these things we measured before, but now you get them in a real-time effort, and you can take this data and apply it to your programs and continue to test them until you find a program that's successful for you and the different parts of that pipeline that Sasha just mentioned.

And then we really want to encourage you to lean into tech, right? There's so much event tech that already exists probably at your company. People tend to have kind of maybe a limited view of what counts as event tech, but there are so many tools you can use, right? Think about how a tool like Slack or a tool like Teams can, can make your event even better. Think about how you're using Salesforce or whatever your CRM is. To optimize events. You know, think about how your sales team is using outreach to optimize follow-up after the event. Look at your marketing automation tool, whether that's Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot, and look at how you're using that and how you're using the data from that to optimize event outcomes and event goals. I have to put in a plug for Splash. You know, We help you scale your event marketing programs, and we do integrate with a lot of the tools you see here. Tools like Slido, which allow you to have a ton of audience engagement, take questions from the audience. Of course, your internal tools like Zoom or your BlueJeans or what have you. That's event tech. That's, that's a new element in your event tech stack. And then I really encourage people to look at like Tableau or whatever data visualization or BI software they have in the company and really looking to leverage those BI and data science teams as much as possible to help you build the right dashboards and look at data the right way. You know, you're— just because you may not feel super comfortable working with data yourself doesn't mean someone at your company doesn't have that level of comfort and can really be a partner to you. You don't have to go it alone on the data side.

Yeah, and as Sasha mentioned, at Yext, we've used a lot of different technology platforms, especially in the age of COVID and the pandemic, to understand different types of events that we've done. We've done over 60 to 80 events in the digital space since the March timeframe when we pivoted our strategy, and I can't say enough great things about Splash. We've been able to do events at scale, not only across my team in the US from whatever, wherever they are living at the time, but also overseas in EMEA and Japan. and we've been able to also outsource or give Splash licenses to other people in our company, HR, etc., to continue to do recruiting events. It's also really helping us with our data. So being integrated into Salesforce, having that real-time data to understand how people are engaging with events. As we've mentioned, it's different, right, in this digital space, but I think you can see this data in a whole new way and really see how people are engaging with your company and the experiences and the information that you have. And in the world of a very competitive landscape where we are, as we said, digitally fatigued, and there's so many things that are still spinning up and events and opportunities to participate with peers in the screen, it's all about conveying a digital experience that's really premium that I think is going to set you apart to get your attendees in the door and then hopefully increase your ROI and brand awareness at the end of the day. So the 6th tip that we have is to not lose touch with the basics. As Sach goes to the next slide, one of the things that, you know, we've— in the world of events since March, we've had to rethink the way that we do everything, and a lot of the technology that's out there is transforming and changing as well, but it's really important that we don't lose touch with the most important things for your events. So setting your goals ahead of time, and then setting the— not only tying your goals, but tying your metrics into that. So understanding how you are going to evaluating your metrics ahead of your event will really help you set you up for success, be able to prove that in a digital world these events are still working, and also find when the events that you're doing might not be right for your audience, you might want to pivot your strategy. But one of the most important things that I think we can't lose sight of is the experiences. As we— our environment has changed and we've been told that we have to stay home and we have to protect ourselves and our loved ones, our human behaviors haven't. We still want to engage with each other. We still want to be entertained. We still want to be surprised and delighted. And so more than ever, rich experiences that capture our attendees' hearts and minds and really help to convert ROI is important. So make sure that when you're thinking about an experience, whether it's a webinar or a user group or an experiential event, that you're really putting your best foot forward in terms of what the attendees are going to love to see and the best experience they can have from the moment that you invite them to the moment that they exit that, that screen. And it's also really important that you take care of yourself. You know, in the— in this world, we often see that those that are in vents are— this is one of the most stressful jobs that's out there. There's a lot to manage. You know the saying, anything that can go wrong will. And it's really important, as you see some of these articles that Sasha will click through, that you think about the fact that this job was very stressful beforehand. And in the world of everything else that we're dealing with, and then trying to pivot and find new technologies and understand how people want to engage and kind of testing some of these things on the fly, it's really important that you take care of yourself. Self-care means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So whether it's stepping away from the screen and going for a run, just taking a half day to get away from everything and read or drink some tea or do yoga, make sure that you're carving out a little bit of time for yourself because it— like I mentioned, this is a— it's a new world that we're in, but it's really easy to get stuck in it and not be able to take a moment to breathe and, and just realize that we'll get through this together, which leads us to our last tip.

Yes, and we want to remind everyone to be ready because things are going to be better than ever. We will all be together again at events at some point in the future, and you want to be set up well for that success. You want to have thought through you know, what your event strategy is going to look like in a world where, you know, virtual events aren't necessarily going anywhere and they'll be combined with in-person events. We've all had the opportunity to learn so much and to reach such broader audiences through virtual events and think in a different way about our events, and we're only going to be able to apply all that knowledge and all of those learnings to a new world and a better world and a much happier and more connected world that is coming.

Absolutely. I think it, as Sasha said, once we get out and we can be with each other, people are going to be more excited than ever to be in this new world. And we'll be able to take the, all the learnings that we had and the ROI and putting on our demand gen hats to make it a better experience in person and virtual and with a lot more data and ROI behind experience on our, on our shoulders.

So with that, here's a reminder of the 8 ways to optimize your revenue funnel. Before we take questions, I want to really quickly encourage you all to visit us at splashthat.com to learn more about what Splash can offer. We do have a special offer for SaaStr attendees. We're offering $500 off of Splash Basic if you buy it this year. So make sure to mention that. If you get a demo, let them know that you've, that you found us through SaaStr— through the SaaStr conference. And with that, I want to thank you all for coming. And if we have any time, we'll take questions. I think we have a few minutes.

Yeah, definitely. Thank you guys. And I'm glad we left some time for questions here on this end. So one of the things that, that I wanted to chat first before I go into these questions is, you know, what are— how do you see hybrid playing in the future? Now people have gotten used to it. Everyone loves this word pivot. And, you know, we're kind of trying to see what we look like for IRL and virtual, but some people are just never gonna be happy or comfortable going back for quite some time. So how do you see hybrid going with us in the future?

I, I can step in there. I mean, I think, you know, not only are people not going to be necessarily comfortable for a while going to events, they're gonna expect events to come to them in the way that they have in the past year. And I think to some extent you'll see hybrid events where content is streamed to a virtual audience and a live audience. But I also think you'll have a number of events that kind of have parallel tracks, right, where there is an experience offered for the in-person attendee and there is an experience offered for the virtual attendee. And you want— I mean, frankly, you want to make sure you're investing in tools that are going to allow for those experiences to happen both in parallel and in a way that they cross. So, but I don't think it's like, you know, I don't, I don't think it's like gonna be like something kind of mind-blowingly different, right? Either, either the events happen live and they're livecast, or you really think through your strategy, two strategies, one for your in-person attendee and one for your virtual attendee.

Definitely very fair. That's very fair. One of the things for whether it's virtual or in person, how How would you guys recommend— one of the questions we had come in, how would you recommend who to identify as the decision maker when it comes to sponsorships within a company?

Do you mean third-party sponsorships? The decision maker from internally at the company that you're selling into?

Yes. Yes.

So I would look at— I think there's a number of different people, and I think it's continually changing because of the way the nature of business of what we're going through, but I would look at the head of demand gen, the head of revenue marketing, the head of the VP of brand sometimes. Also, gosh, I would take it one level down from the CMO, because I think the way that we're looking at sponsorships right now is very different than in the past. It's not straight lead gen driving tool at this point, it could be a branding tool. So I think looking across the board at your marketing ops person, as I said, your revenue revenue marketing person and head of demand gen and still your head of events are probably the right people to be looking at within each company. It just depends on who you're targeting. Sasha, do you have any other thoughts on that?

No, I think you nailed it. And I agree that it's not necessarily needing to be a CMO decision at this point.

I agree.

And it can be punted up if needed to. One of the questions that we had coming in based on your presentation itself was the events that you're talking to, were you thinking that it's just for branding or are they selling events that you guys— selling events that you're working on too? Like they're, you know, whether it's just an experience or whether it's a selling-specific event.

Definitely. I think, I think you're— it really depends on where your company is coming from, what's more important to you, but the events that we were talking about and the funnel and the different mechanisms of what type of an event you can do to drive ROI, I think they could be applied to all of them. From my perspective, I come from a world of B2B where all of the events we do, it's really thinking through the revenue first and how to drive pipeline. The branding is the cherry on top. And I think one of the things that's really great is now that we're in the virtual world, you can kind of apply both, right? So using a company like Splash, and I— we've been a customer for a long time, I can't plug them enough. It's a really robust platform that allows you to create really, really beautiful branding that I think can amplify your experience. And once you get them in the door, you think through the different types of an event to drive your ROI, and you have them there, you're gonna see that on the backend.

Yeah, and I would just add there, you know, certainly, yes, Lindsay and I are taking a B2B perspective here, but as Lindsay mentioned, experience is inextricable from your events regardless of what type of event it is. If it's a selling event, if it's a quote-unquote brand event, whatever it is, experience is crucial and your brand should come through So even if we're thinking about like a pre-COVID or post-COVID world, you know, if all you're doing, quote unquote, all you're doing is a sales dinner, you should understand as a company, what is your brand at a sales dinner? What sorts of restaurants should they be choosing, right? What should the experience be for a closing dinner, right? That is an extension of your brand and you should have clarity on that and consistency on it.

Awesome.

People keep asking if you guys can go to your previous slide of your 6 recommendations again, if we can have that up while I ask one more question. The other question I have for you guys is, is what, what are examples of virtual events that you've seen work well?

Or do you want me to take that, Sasha? I'll take that first and hand it over to you. So we have tried a a ton of different types of programming. I think the thing that's been by far the most successful for us are the VIP experiential events. So being able to get 15 to 20 decision makers in the room and give them a really robust experience. As Sasha mentioned, it really doesn't matter what, you know, at the end of the day, you want to create this amazing experience that's going to be tied to your brand. So when people think about that experience and how incredible that was, they're going to tie that to whatever your brand is, whatever you're selling, and the people behind the product as well. So our rule of thumb is thinking about things that are really fun, unique, they're not super time-consuming, and making sure that the maximum number of people that you're inviting to an experiential event can fit on one Zoom screen or one BlueJeans screen to make sure that you're really creating that community and that environment within. By far, you know, people can get— we've applied some of the brand experiential feel, look and feel that we've done for these, for these smaller events to webinars and thought leadership events. And those have been really great. But when we're talking, and they've been great for our brand and for customer retention and engagement. But if you're thinking about new sales and driving pipeline through the funnel, without a doubt, these VIP experientials are events are great ways to get a smaller number of people together and still create that environment that you had in person at a sales dinner or at a wine tasting event or something of that nature.

Yeah. And I'll just jump in there to say like some of the things I've heard from our customers they've done. I mean, everyone's had some great luck with wine tasting, but we've heard of people bringing in mind readers, golf coaches, running coaches. I mean, all like, we've just heard so many really interesting creative ideas. Someone did an escape room virtually. Someone brought in a comedian, all sorts of these kind of fun ways to create VIP experiences.

Virtually. Yeah, and the companies are getting really great at offering these too. So whether it's a kit that like a chef, you know, a cooking class ahead of time, there's a lot of restaurants that are actually going towards a box dinner type of a program where you can ahead of time have them ship things out and they're doing it across the country. So the more creative that you can get, the better.

It sounds like people are getting super creative and You know, taking everything that we've done in person and just bringing it to, to your home, which is pretty awesome. And then I'm going to ask one more question before we close out. Just, you know, we, at the beginning we talked about moving to hybrid and how that's probably going to be here for a while. But what are some of the challenges and costs that you see associated with, with this kind of new change in the coming future?

I think, you know, a couple of the things to think about is when you're doing things in person, we're always thinking about the cost per head in terms of in terms of food and beverage and the room space and optimizing for ticket sales and things like that. We're gonna have to think about this social distancing and 6-foot and 12-foot approach. And I think that it's, you know, we're thinking through the health and safety of people being able to wear masks and have sanitizing stations. But I think that's the next level that we're gonna be getting to, which is a new model of ROI for events and thinking through, ways that we're going to have to set that up. I think the technology, you know, we're going to have to look at the new technology, as Sasha mentioned, to do both these virtual sessions and also in-person sessions where we usually would choose one or the other. I think the cost of labor and people, just the teams learning how to use these digital platforms is going to be something that's going to be new. So when we're thinking through all these things, I mean, just from a technology perspective, finding tools that are really scalable, templatized, and repeatable is going to be something that's is gonna be, I think, really top of mind for a lot of event marketers and event leaders.

Yeah, and I'll just add real quick, and thank you for saying that, Lindsey. I mean, that's certainly something what that Splash does is help you do scalable, repeatable events. But I do wanna say, look, I think, yes, there are going to be new costs, and Lindsey listed off a lot of them, but I think in general, events are going to have a much higher ROI moving forward. I think, I think this kind of new normal that we're, we're always going to be living in to some extent, because things have just changed permanently in many ways, you know, as we learn and as we grow and as we get better at using virtual tools and reaching remote audiences, it's just a really cool opportunity for event marketers to have much more profitable and impactful events that drive the business.

Longer lasting too, probably, if it's virtual and hybrid. Well, awesome, guys. This has been fantastic. We appreciate having both Splash and Yext here, and we hope to see you guys again. Thank you for being a part of SaaStr Scale.

Yes, thank you for having us, and thank you everyone for joining.

Have a good one, guys. See you soon. Thanks.

Bye.