COVID-19 Impact: B2B Events COVID-19’s Impact on B2B Events and How Marketers Can Still Engage With Their Registered Audiences Starting in February with the cancelled Mobile World Congress, numerous business-to-business (B2B) events have either been cancelled or postponed due to coronavirus (COVID-19). Impacted events range from major tech conferences hosted by Facebook, Google and Adobe to important industry events, such as SXSW and E3, to mid-sized B2B outings to encourage employee training. Recode recently reported that the direct economic loss from these canceled events will surpass $500 million. The cancellation of the E3 conference alone has cost the video game industry its biggest week of the year. New games and consoles are often unveiled at the event, which usually hosts over 65,000 guests. As another example, SXSW's full-time and seasonal workers had an economic impact of over $150 million on the Austin economy in 2019, according to consulting firm Greyhill Advisors and SXSW. These cancellations present a real challenge for B2B companies that rely on in-person events as the foundation of their marketing or revenue strategy.
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Where to Focus Today for the Greatest Impact Later For events scheduled in the near future, marketers may need to shift to an alternative content delivery method, such as a webinar. Demand Gen Report recently found that more than one-third of marketers found webinars to be one of their most valuable content formats, and nearly two-thirds of consumers are willing to spend 20-60 minutes watching a webinar. For events later in the year, too many unknowns exist to definitely cancel in-person attendance or not. But for marketers planning events in the near future, here are ways you can still get in front of your registered audience: •
Consider Digital and Offline Alternatives: Take this opportunity to pivot and monetize a digital version of your pre-scheduled event. Remember, due to the influx of live and pre-recorded webinars right now, participants are starting to get webinar fatigue, so find ways to stand out from the crowd. Rethink your content delivery beyond the basic webinar format. For example, create backgrounds for your participants to utilize while on a Zoom call, conduct an interactive demonstration of your product, or do a live stream event so that the presentation is more personal. Additionally, direct mail could be an interesting angle to provide a more personal touch to delivering your content to your intended audience. Utilize unique, visually appealing formats to grab your audience’s attention.
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Leverage Multi-Purpose Content: Make sure your webinars are recorded so that you can use the content to promote future events. Also, host the recording on your site to drive traffic and capture new prospects. Registrants will appreciate the convenience of on-demand content, whether it is attending the webinar, viewing the recording at their convenience, or getting snackable takeaways delivered via email or social media.
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Focus on Quality Data Collection: Take this time to focus on both your data collection and your longterm strategy on putting it to use. Virtual events allow multiple touchpoints with current registered customers, so use this channel to keep registrants up to date with the latest information on your event plans. Also, thoughtful data collection provides marketers with a solid list of possible registrants for the first in-person event after COVID-19.
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Take Advantage of Measurement Capabilities: A shift to virtual events provides a unique opportunity for marketers to understand the effectiveness of an in-person conference presence on their bottom line. Make sure key metrics are in place to give you a pulse on the engagement from virtual efforts. Then compare these results to past in-person events to identify potential areas for cost-savings on certain types of presentations.
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