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Economic headwinds, changing B2B buying behaviors, and fewer resources are some of the critical challenges facing event practitioners in 2023, according to the 3rd annual Events Outlook Report from Splash, an event marketing technology company that serves enterprise companies and their event, marketing and sales teams worldwide.
The survey of 670 event marketers and professionals in North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom, conducted in late 2022, discovered that, despite 85% of event marketers reporting an increase in their budgets for 2023, they remain stymied by a lack of resources – both human and financial – and a need for technology that better supports their roles and helps them improve efficiencies.
These limits, along with an increasingly digitized and sophisticated customer experience and the requirement to demonstrate the value of events on the bottom line, encourage more event marketers to experiment with alternative event forms. At least one-third of marketers are centering their strategy on more regular, scalable events such as conferences and tradeshows.
Event marketers are embracing the daily event model to break through the noise of congested and anonymous events and engage their customers more regularly, with the goal of optimizing costs and accomplishing more with less.
The recent data shows that event marketers are once again altering their strategy to establish additional connection points with guests while favorably increasing ROI. Now we’re seeing more evidence that ordinary activities, when done at scale, may have a major financial impact on a company’s sales funnel all year.”
Events and experiential programmes are important parts of a company’s marketing strategy. Yet, due to limited resources, manual procedures, and complex technological solutions, successful event execution, particularly at scale, can be challenging. Marketers want technology that makes it simpler for them to plan, organize, measure, and duplicate events while also ensuring that they remain on-brand and engage their target consumers.
According to the 2023 Events Forecast Study, 81% of event professionals would host more events provided they had the necessary tools. allied an an an an an an an an a
Daily occurrences demonstrate their worth: About one-third (27%) of event marketers want to hold 11-20 of these sorts of events.
Revenue potential that has yet to be realized: With the bulk of events (84%) aimed at existing consumers, there is a big opportunity to extend event programming in order to attract new purchasers. Much fewer than half (41%) of events are aimed towards prospective buyers, indicating an amazing potential for development!
Virtual events continue to be a conundrum: while just 6% of event marketers conduct solely virtual events presently, 38% believe they are cost-effective. Investment in event tech remained relatively stable from 2021, with half (53%) of event marketers reporting their tech spending kept the same.
Large “flagship” events aren’t going away, but just 13% of marketers think they’ll be focused on them in 2023. Instead, many marketers are turning to commonplace events to engage their target population at various touch points throughout the year.
Metrics are crucial, but so is proper attendance; 32% of marketers think this is their most critical statistic for measuring performance in 2023, up 6% from 2022.
Event technology remains a critical component of marketing strategy in 2023, with 81% of event marketers seeking for tools to assist them maximize the potential of their events and increase revenue. Event professionals nowadays are in an ideal position to experiment and learn with the availability of flexible technologies that enable them to scale up or down according to ever-changing corporate goals. Trying out multiple event formats will help you figure out what works best for your audience, enhancing their relationship while also providing new growth prospects.