Ep. 51 Adam Beck - From Idea to Sold-Out Event: How to Successfully Host Your First In-Person Event

Speaker A: This is the Master Marketer show powered by proofpoint Marketing. Each week we explore the mindsets, skill sets and tool sets the top B2B marketers use to drive results, gain actionable insights, one masterful revenue generating success story at a time. Let's get started.

Speaker B: What's up everybody? Welcome to the Master Marketer Show. I've got Adam Beck here with me. Adam is the director of marketing of King of Parts Solutions. Adam, good to see you.

Speaker C: Good to see you too. Thanks for having me.

Speaker B: Yeah. So, uh, to frame up the topic here, we're talking about events in uh, person events and you know, as we're getting out of COVID if you will, and events are back in full force, you know, you're seeing everybody to post their photos from Inbound and from Saster and you know, other uh, other events. There are a lot of, you know, and a lot of companies are starting to set up, do their own events too. And it's a huge effort. A lot of people see it and they want to do it but they either a don't think they can or they're scared to do it because it's expensive and a big effort. But uh, you have done an awesome job of really baby stepping your way into it and really having the right mindset of why do you do it and how do you do it and that's what I love to talk about. So um, from what I know in our past conversations, you started the Industrial Marketing Summit back in 2019.

Speaker C: Correct.

Speaker B: And you baby stepped your way into what it is today, which is a much bigger event, standalone, etc. So tell me, what was the thought process like? Why start the summit in the first place? I mean I know there are many.

Speaker C: Selfish. I was being selfish. I wanted to go to an industrial marketing event and it did not exist. And I was frustrated that it didn't exist. I wanted to learn from my peers and see what actual marketers were doing at ah, real manufacturing businesses and industrial suppliers and these things. And uh, I couldn't find it and I'd gone to Inbound, I'd been to Content Marketing World, I've been to other events in the space and you could always extrapolate the nuggets, you know, the B2C thing that you can take two leaps and apply it to B2B or whatever, but there was never a real one to one industrial marketing event. So um, we took the leap and uh, you know, fortunately, uh, we had a partner event, uh, to do it with the first couple times, which helped us um, on the legitimate and the infrastructure side, uh, we were an event within an event and um, from there it grew and we listened to the audience and uh, got to the point where we're taking it, uh, to be a standalone event.

Speaker B: Let's talk mindset. And how should like let's say take your situation? I mean you were, I think you're a small team, right? It was maybe two or three people, right?

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, how should a marketing leader in that type of situation, uh, and even like a piggyback event, which is what you did, which I, I want to dig into specifically, that's still a big effort, right? This is not, it's not something you just kind of go, hey, we're doing an event.

Speaker C: And you know, you can, you can do that. You won't, you know, uh, you won't get the results that you want.

Speaker B: Right. So again, thought process and mindset, like how did you frame this both for your team and executive leadership? Like, how did you frame it for them to think about, uh, so that it was set up for success?

Speaker C: Yeah, a lot of it is, it seems like, oh, overnight we said in 2018 we're going to have event in 2019 and we just didn't event. But it really, there was seven or eight years of our, our marketing process evolving to there. So we were really. A lot of our content is built on customer stories and that started as an evolution from things that are simple as just like a customer interview and publishing it into a press release announcement kind of a thing, to videos, to on site videos and then to giving, uh, these marketers that we work with a platform. And uh, so it wasn't just like jumping in ice cold to the, to the deep end. We were really, it was, it was just, we were stacking these, these blocks of industrial marketing stories to the point where, all right, the next thing here is to have an in person event.

Speaker B: So what I like about the thought process on that is you're not thinking about this as a tactic. You're thinking about this. How is this an extension or distribution channel for an existing strategy that we already have?

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, it was um, it's twofold. So um, the part of the strategy is we're always, we work with all these industrial manufacturers and we're always trying to help them see new ways to promote their products, um, on a consultative way. We're not always, it's got nothing to do with us selling them a thing at a certain point. It's us trying to help them level up and by helping them connect with each other and helping them learn from each other and see the best of the best. They do it, everybody does a better job and it makes our jobs easier at the end of the day and everybody wins.

Speaker B: And the other. What I'm hearing from you there is you're. This is not about Cadenas or any of the other sponsors, which I'm sure you have, you know, for the event. It's about the customer and it's about the, the attendee.

Speaker C: Exactly. So how do you.

Speaker B: Oh, go ahead.

Speaker C: No, go ahead.

Speaker B: I was gonna ask you is like, how do you, uh, how do you again, frame that up as, um, as the value internally? Like, how do you, um, help your team and executive leadership sort of see that as a good thing versus, like, hey, we're gonna plaster our logo all over the place and that's going to benefit us and we're going to talk about ourselves and whatever, because I think

Speaker C: you and I, they see it through the goodwill generated, the amount of goodwill generated from doing a good thing. And you know, we could write a hundred articles or a hundred videos. That's like us two thumbs in the. At ourselves, how fantastic we are, our solutions are. And it'll get about this much traction when we, when they can see the smaller volume of content, but the larger acceptance and people buying into it and really enjoying and sharing and believing in it. It's just it, you know, it's, it's the snowballs rolling down the hill and it's just another way to, to build onto it.

Speaker B: Tell me, like, why an event? Right? So what you told me is it was an evolution of our marketing strategy. We, it's all about telling customer stories. Why an event? Why not a, um, I don't know, why not just do a focus on a customer advisory board? Maybe you already have one of those. Or why not, uh, more podcast? I know you were as we're running a podcast as well. Why not do more of those? Or live, you know, live event, virtual events or things like that. Why an in person event?

Speaker C: It's not the event, it's everything around the event. So the event is, you know, it's the main, it's the main event. But all the things, all the relationships that are built, all the conversations, all the hallway chats over, you know, a taco or a beer or whatever happens are so much more valuable. You know, I, uh, you know, I've made great friends, uh, by taking somebody that I knew professionally. You hang out for a couple times at an event and you find out, oh, shoot, I. Now we have this in common or. Oh, you were in bands too, back in the day, or whatever the thing is. And then it's just there's so much more. It's like the difference between. And I'm definitely not all about the in the office guy, but there's just those intangible things that can happen from hallway chats or, you know, a quick conversation with somebody that, uh, at the office that turns into something more. And it's the exact same thing in an event.

Speaker B: I mean, you're definitely speaking my language, you know, kind of with that relationship first mindset. Um, how. How important is that? Like you mentioned, you know, I hear this a lot from people talking about, you know, whether it be being active on LinkedIn or going to events and things like that, and talking about, um, you know, I was able to make friends from these professional acquaintances, let's just say, um, how important is that to the business?

Speaker C: It's hard to put a number on it. At the end of the day, I think, um, there's twofold. I mean, there's friends that are, uh, in our orbit and that are LinkedIn, the LinkedIn parallel or whatever. People that help magnify our message, and we help magnify their message. But there's also, you know, we are a digital business, and we have sold a digital tool for 20 years, and we have customers that we've never sat in the same room with before because we've never had to. They're on the other side of the country. We'll do. We do regular web meetings and all those things. But taking it from digital to reality, just. There's something there that. That is, uh, intangible.

Speaker B: Yeah, I completely agree. And I think it's those intangibles that are often the most important. And it's. It's interesting, actually. I don't know. I'm curious on your thoughts on this. Going a bit of a tangent, but call them, you know, we call them intangibles. The reality is, I think if we really tried and we looked at the measures of what a healthy relationship looks like, I think we would see things and we would. We do see things like, you know, uh, incremental, uh, referral revenue. And incremental LTV is when we. When I talk about ltv, it's not like how many times did a customer renew? It's that plus how much business did they refer to you.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then looking at it also as, uh, the LTV of a relationship. So it might be something, somebody that's not a customer. But they continue, they refer you business and things like that.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: So are those things that you measure at all?

Speaker C: Um, to some degree. I mean, I can tell you around the event when we had, you know, last time, uh, was 2022. And I could tell you we saw, you know, there was some tangibles, there was an increase in web traffic or increase in conversations. But um, yeah, it's just, it feels dirty when you're like, uh, how many more relationships did you make? It's like when I, I sent my, send my five year out at the door and said, go make some friends. It's, it feels forced like that. So there's something like I don't know how to, you know, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker B: Uh, I see marketers and sales folks and things like that consistently, like almost afraid to admit that the reason they're doing some of these activities is to drive business. But then there's. And it's just, it's this weird and I don't know, I don't know that I have an answer to it, but

Speaker C: it's like, yeah, we can definitely trace business back to it, but it wasn't. So the challenge with our, a lot of what we do is we, we nurture so many of our prospects for so long that it's another touch point along the way. And uh, we can see, you know, there's some key touch points, especially when we're hanging out for a while and uh, you know, they're learning more about our team and who the people are, those kind of things. It's a great adder and it's a great way to prove that you're a group of humans, uh, worthwhile of doing business with.

Speaker B: Yep. I love that you said that because I think that's the, for me, the, the justification, if you will. So, you know, again, we're sort of afraid to admit, well, yeah, we're doing this for business impact. Right. I mean, at the end of the day, if there was no tangible business impact, I have a feeling that leadership wouldn't approve this for next year. Right.

Speaker C: You can always compare it against. You could go visit 100 customers and see how expensive that gets. And it's probably more expensive than this. Uh, so you could, you could pit it against, uh, you know, one on one meetings. But.

Speaker B: Oh yeah, I mean, I totally agree that. But I think what I was getting at is it's this, hey, we're, we're a group of humans. That makes business better and easier. Right. And it builds trust, which, which justifies this well, yeah, we're doing this because we want a result, but we're also human beings, and human beings need contact.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: Um, awesome. So really, the main thing from a mindset perspective, customer and relationship first, is the way you really have to think about. I mean, I would say all marketing, but definitely an event.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: So let's talk skill set. Uh, you know, something you mentioned again, going back to this was an evolution of an existing strategy. It was about telling customer stories. What are the skill sets needed to tell customer stories effectively? And then I'd love to take that and dovetail into how does that translate to events?

Speaker C: I think to tell the story, you kind of have to turn on your journalist mind. You have to, uh, I asked my team to remove themselves and us from the conversation when at all possible, and just make it about the customer and make it where we want to come to it with a, uh, curious mind and ask good questions and find the story there, as opposed to, you know, we start a lot of times with these customer stories and somebody's like, yeah, just send me the questions, I'll email them to you. And we're like, could we just. If we talk in person, it's going to be that little nugget that falls out of it that we can build a whole story around, and that's all these things. And when you, when you can talk in person, because everybody can copy and paste the about us and send it to us and we can regurgitate it and it just, it'll fall flat. But when you can build it, uh, genuinely, uh, from something that a human said and another human interprets and publishes, it becomes more. I mean, we've done hundreds of these over the years. We would lose our mind writing the same story over and over again. So from our own sanity side of things, it's like we got to find unique ways to tell these and unique threads and unique applications of these marketing tools.

Speaker B: That's actually, that's an interesting, um, thread to me. Pull on a little bit so, you know, you can make, and maybe incorrectly make the argument, well, you know, manufacturers, manufacturers, manufacturer. Like, how many, how many different stories are there? So how do you make things, how do you make these stories interesting? When maybe you're on story number 100,

Speaker C: you got to find that thread. So we start asking stories, probing questions about their process and their products and who exactly their customers are. And, uh, they love share, and, uh, these manufacturers are all unique and especially the ones that sell a commodity product. They don't want the copy and paste from commodity product number two, their delivery is faster or their processes are different and they want to tell you about that. That applies to everything that you don't see on the product every day. So when you crack open the lid and you start talking to them about what they do and how they do it and who they're doing it, it's like, wow, I thought you were exactly like company B, but it's completely different and your pain points are different and your customer, um, needs are different.

Speaker B: So let's take that, um, to the event side of things. So obviously when you're making case studies make sense, how do you then take that, say, journalistic mindset, if you will, and skill set, I should say, and make an event that allows, encourages these people to tell interesting stories.

Speaker C: So that's twofold. So one of those ways is I've heard, uh, some of these pain points again and again and again in these customer interviews. And I can say SEO is a common thread that our audience really would like to hear an industrial take on. And so some of the speakers are companies we know and companies that we work with. That's a couple of them are. Many of them are companies that are relevant to them and we're trying to foster a learning relationship between them. So things like SEO and AI and marketing, uh, automation, these things that we hear again and again and again, manufacturers are struggling with. We're just, we're trying to just curate, um, a selection of, of presenters that will be relevant to them and help them level up. And we're just there to facilitate that.

Speaker B: Are you doing anything to help the various presenters, uh, figure out their topic?

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, we definitely, that was one of the things I learned the first time and I didn't do enough of that. I didn't, I mean I, we, we talked about the, the, the high line. What's your topic? That, the abstract. And I kind of let them all go and a couple of them stepped on each other's toes a little bit and told the same, similar nuggets. So since then we really dig in and we try to talk about what are we going to talk about, what's the story and how do we keep it in this lane? Uh, that's both relevant but doesn't overlap. So we have eight or 10 people speaking and we don't hear eight of the same, same thing. There's no chance of that this time, but it's definitely something that we, we work with the speakers to make sure they're prepped, uh, they're comfortable and they're telling something that really means something in this audience.

Speaker B: So journalistic mindset to help people tell their stories. What other skill sets would you say are important, uh, to put on a good event?

Speaker C: That's a tough one, um, because it's, I mean, I think having a good team around you, delegating, um, uh, this time we are partnering with uh, the teams at Gorilla 76 and True Marketing, which is just a huge boost to us, um, especially because, uh, Wendy Covey at um, TRU is in Austin. That's where the event's going to be. She's boots on the ground and she's fantastic with those kind of logistics. So I think having a great team around you, delegating, um, and then it's a little bit of just one, uh, of the things that came up, uh, last time, uh, especially with our social media team was we were getting sick of our own story on this one. It's like, okay, we're at six months of talking about this event, uh, but just stay in the course because everyone, because we kept asking people, are you guys. You know, it even came up and they're like, you guys are doing a great job. The right cadence, the right volume of talking about it, the right mix of content about it. But after you have about the 30th post about something on LinkedIn, you're like, oh my gosh, one more of these. So stay, uh, in the course, believing in what you do, um, but also listening to feedback. If somebody's like, all right, it's a little bit much on this. You can dial it back.

Speaker B: Two things I want to dive into. First is you mentioned this time around you're partnering with two other organizations.

Speaker C: Yep.

Speaker B: Um, talk to me about that. Like, how do you, how do you select the right partner to host an event with?

Speaker C: It's people that I trust and that we trust and I have worked, you know, tangentially with Wendy and Joe for years, um, in different ways. And uh, it's, it's, you know, it's somebody that like, I feel fully comfortable kind of going into battle with and that I've known for quite a while. So it wasn't just an out of the blue thing. It's not just somebody that we, we, we sent a couple emails and did this. They know us and we know them. And it really helps as far as just trust and um, ability to lean on each other and each other's teams.

Speaker B: So you don't have to name any, any names. But were there any other partners that you considered before you settled on These two?

Speaker C: No.

Speaker B: So you already knew like those. It's not like you were, it had come up.

Speaker C: I mean we had talked in general terms uh, a couple different times, like hey, it'd be cool if we did a little thing or. And then we, it just kind of evolved into like, you know, let's, let's take the industrial marketing summit and make it that thing. Uh, because I don't think doing two of these in a year would probably uh, max me out. But yeah, so um, yeah, it really was that simple.

Speaker B: So the other thing I want to touch on is promotion. So you mentioned, hey, we're getting tired of our story but people are telling us we have the right cadence. What's the, in your opinion, what's the right way or what are the skills needed, I would say to um, promote an event effectively?

Speaker C: So for us there's a couple different ways that we're promoting it. It's different this time again because we had the audience from a larger event that we were trying to, you know, that last one, we had a booth at the event on the first day of it and we were trying to steer people to it on the second day of the event. So we just made sure that we had a clear story, a clear, you know, it's right down the hall on the third door on the right kind of a pitch. Um, but we went old school too. So promotion wise, uh, we have an ABM team and we pointed uh, a lot of our ABM team at this so uh, trying to make sure our customers knew about it. So a lot of them, um, you know, they're not, if they're not necessarily on LinkedIn or they're not uh, super engaged with our emails. We sent mailers, we called and ah, did personal invites and just making sure that each one of them knows that uh, we'd love to have them there. And it's, you know, that's that personal touch.

Speaker B: Again, were customer attendance spots free or did they have to pay for it?

Speaker C: Uh, they paid. Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, anything else from a promotion perspective?

Speaker C: I mean, not really. We have done some, we did some LinkedIn ads, uh, and some, you know, just the general type of, you know, industrial marketing promotions. But um, honestly it's, it's been kind of a self propelling uh, event.

Speaker B: It's lots of word of mouth.

Speaker C: Lots, lots and lots.

Speaker B: Awesome. Um, anyway, uh, skill sets, we talked about journalistic skill set to help tell the stories. Ability, uh, to build relationships for partnerships to help with, you know, kind of spread the load if you will. Yeah, ah, and then promotion anything else that you think is critical from a skill set perspective to put on a good event?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think, uh, just the vision, um, knowing what other events are out there. I, um, haven't been to a ton of events in the last couple years, but I've been to so many over the years that I know I knew the things I didn't want it to be. Um, and I, you know, I, you know, I'm. When I go to a session and it's completely a commercial for whatever I'm at, I'm just tuned out. So having a vision of, uh, what you want it to be and the alternative of how those can go. Um, and that's another part of we're on the exact same page with uh, Wendy and Joe and that this all has to be about the value to the audience. And we've all been to those events where it's like a two day commercial for something and we don't want it to be that.

Speaker B: How did you decide, you know, what things to do versus what not to do? Was it strictly your own kind of vision opinion or the, you know, the three of you, the three folks you mentioned, or did you poll your audience? Uh, just more of the conference as a whole?

Speaker C: Yeah, uh, yeah, the three of us, um, and a few others from our teams. Uh, we debate it out and hash it out. But we're really all of a like mind. It's fairly rarely that we've had anything that was a real sticking point so far. That uh, it's really, you know, I had the luxury of, and the curse of it being, you know, on our shoulders for the first two times. So we kind of built uh, the framework for an event and they both agreed with a lot of what we're already doing.

Speaker B: Yep. So, uh, I want to go back to a couple things to the early days, if you will. Y1 is, you know, your decision to piggyback this off of an existing much larger event. Um, talk me through that. Like, how did you decide which event to piggyback off of, for example?

Speaker C: So, yeah, and we were, it was content marketing world that we were um, attached to the first couple times. And uh, they were an awesome team and they were open to the idea. And that's really, um, I was at the event in 2018. It's in our backyard. We're located in Cincinnati, that is in Cleveland. So logistically we could get a lot of our team there. Um, it was also, uh, within, you know, if you drew a bullet of all of our customer or A bullseye of all of our customers in the United States. Cleveland is like the dead center of a lot of manufacturing. So those things made it um, a great way for us to dip our toe in the water. Um, it's a fantastic event in itself. Um, there's a lot of content around, well, obviously content marketing, but, um, around other topics that uh, we wanted our audience to see and learn from and uh, that they were super eager to work with us, come up with creative ways to, um, make this happen, and were supportive all along.

Speaker B: So, um, you know, the general tactic has been around for a long time. You know, people will go to conferences, they book a separate room or something, or they do dinners and things like that. Um, but for those who are maybe looking to dip their toe in the water, if you will, what would you recommend to them in terms of finding the right event to piggyback off of?

Speaker C: I think it would start, I'd go all the way to the beginning and make sure that you're talking to your customers, uh, to the level of, you know, they'll share with you their pain points and their challenges. Um, and baby step it, I would start with smaller things. Uh, even if you did, you know, we've done much, much smaller events for other products that we've done. Um, and it doesn't have to be a huge thing to have a whole lot of value. It could be a meetup or it could be a networking thing outside of an event. The challenge that we've always had when it's uh, you know, in the same time as a larger event, uh, while being outside of it is pulling people out of the event is a very big challenge. So you can either have it before, the day after. Got to make sure travel can line up. If you can do a local thing and get people to come out and just. It doesn't even have to be anything more than a meetup. But if you want to take it to sessions and uh, uh, curated content, I think you really got to know what your audience wants to hear, what they need to hear. Um, and make sure they have your trust to want to come to your event and uh, know that it's not going to be something that they don't want to be at.

Speaker B: What about, um, logistically, I would guess that if you came to, um, the organizers of Content Marketing World and said, hey, we're going to put on an event at the same time, but we're not, but we're not going to exhibit at your event, they probably wouldn't be terribly happy. I Would guess.

Speaker C: Yeah, we don't. We don't. We think of our event as a, uh, yes. And to Content Marketing World. Uh, and that's why we. So this. So Content Marketing World is in a week, uh, and a half from now, except mid, uh, late September. Uh, and our event is going to be in early 2024. So we are making sure that we are not competing with them in any way or inbound or any of the other, uh, events that we don't want people have to choose. We also, we have the list of all the manufacturing events and we found a little gap in there where we, uh, could fit our event in. And hopefully it's nice and warm in Austin and people want to come down there.

Speaker B: Yep. Well, and I was. That makes total sense. I was talking more about the. Again a couple years ago when you're piggybacking off of theirs. And I think.

Speaker C: Yeah. Just having it with it. Yeah. I mean we benefited from being in, you know, I didn't have to think about catering or, you know, all the other. The infrastructure things that go along with an event because we just ate the food at Content Marketing World and all those things. Now we have a whole new can of worms that we have to think about. Uh, which is. It's the fun and the challenge.

Speaker B: Yeah. Let's talk tools. And again, when I, when we talk about tools, it's broader than like, what tech did you use for ABM promotion or whatever. Although feel free to bring any of that stuff up too. But like, it could be a process that you found that was, that's successful. It could be a, uh, you know, hack. Whatever, whatever you want to talk about. But, um, what are the tools that you found that uh, really help with this?

Speaker C: With events?

Speaker B: Yeah. Or.

Speaker C: Man. I mean, it comes back. I live in HubSpot. I'm a bit of a HubSpot junkie. And uh, you know, crunching the data as far as, uh, people that uh, are more apt to talk to us. You know, some people are tough to get a hold of. All those kind of things, um, are a big helper. But really, uh, as far as. And I love all the tools, uh, this is kind of manual. It's, it's. It's kind of old school as far as a lot of this goes. So, um, it's elbow grease. Making calls, sending. We, you know, we'll do three. I've done three mailers on the last couple. We'll do mailers. And I don't do mailers for anything else. And that's one of those things, that's like, you know, that's a bit of a dead tactic as far as I see. But it, if it gets a couple more, uh, responses for a very, you know, I'll send a mailer if I know exactly where it's going and there's somebody at the other end of it and um, you know, there's people. Not being in the office is a new challenge for those kind of things. But yeah, we'll go a little bit old school on something like this.

Speaker B: So, um, the fact that's manual makes total sense. Like what are the, are there any processes or, um, again, tips and tricks, if you will, that you found that helps that manual process go smoother, if you will.

Speaker C: Um, I don't know. I don't think I, I, you know, a lot of it is, uh, we have a couple good, um, partners that we work with. There's fulfillment companies that make up something like a mailer, you know, a snap, um, and that, uh, saves everybody on the team from having to lick a thousand stamps or whatever it would be. But, um, process wise, again, we use a lot of HubSpot, uh, for nurturing, tracking who we're interacting with, making sure that we have a fresh, clean list, making sure that we're not sending things, uh, out into the abyss. But again, some of the stuff is manual. I mean, we're doing LinkedIn marketing for this and other things too. So it's not entirely that kind of manual.

Speaker B: Right. What are you using to, or how are you managing the speakers and presenters in terms of like, you know, I know we talked about earlier helping them flesh out their things. Like, is that all managed in HubSpot? Do you have a spreadsheet? What do you, what are you doing to do that?

Speaker C: So we're, um, each of us is working with, uh, about a third of the, uh, speakers and we manage it in a, generally in a shared spreadsheet. And we're just um, building out that content so we know there's no overlap, that everybody has, um, sort of aligned topics. But, um, I guess that's kind of manual too.

Speaker B: Yep. What are the things like, what are the things that you're tracking in that spreadsheet? Just topic and speaker name or yeah,

Speaker C: you know, speaker name, the company, kind of what the company's about, um, and then things like the agenda topic, the abstract, um, some bullet points, uh, on where that story is going to go, just so that we again, don't have too much overlap.

Speaker B: So, uh, let's talk about the fun part. Results. I Know, we talked about initially, like, hey, you know, there's a lot of intangibles. But, uh, again, I'm guessing if there was no business impact, this was not, this would not be happening. So what can you share about business impact?

Speaker C: Yeah, like I alluded to before, the months leading up to the last two events were our highest traffic months, all time. Um, on our website, which for us that's always a leading indicator of things to follow. Um, so it's, you know, from a brand perspective, from, uh, an awareness perspective, it was a big driver. And then downstream, uh, from that on the other end of it, we heard from so many of our customers, um, the direct one to one anecdotal feedback. I had a great time. Thanks for having us. You know, looking forward to the next one. They're all lined up ready to sign up for this year's and that's what we want to hear. We want to hear that they had a good time, that they're at the event. And um, we definitely had more than a few deals that, that came out of it or, you know, that, you know, downstream, you know, relationships were built and uh, that's always a good thing.

Speaker B: Awesome. Um, anything else that if you're first time event organizer, anything else that we didn't talk about that you think is important to call out?

Speaker C: I mean, I would find, you know, there are companies that can do all this for you. It's very expensive. So if you're, if you want to offload almost all of the work, you can do that. Um, it's just a challenge. If your event isn't big enough to pay for that bill, at the end of the day it's tough to justify. So I'd say baby steps and prove it out. Test, um, uh, test, analyze and, and start over again.

Speaker B: Perfect. Well, Adam, really appreciate the insight. Uh, I know for, I'm sure for you as a, this is the third or fourth iteration of this. Like, this is all kind of second nature at this point. But for there's a lot of folks out there that want to do it and don't really know where to start. So thank you for sharing all this detail. Um, let's hit the lightning round.

Speaker C: All right.

Speaker B: So lightning round. What is the main KPI you use to evaluate marketing success?

Speaker C: Uh, it tends to be marketing qualified leads, uh, and new, uh, meetings set. So, um, we always look at things like web traffic, uh, just our general broad conversion numbers. But I know we get a lot more conversions than are qualified. So, uh, the marketing qualified and then sales qualified Basically becomes when they take a m meeting,

Speaker B: what is something new you're looking forward to testing out this year? Now, I'll qualify this. This could be completely outside of events or maybe something new you're. You're looking forward to testing out in your upcoming event.

Speaker C: Um, outside of the event space. I need to, uh, finally start, uh, getting on the whole AI train. I got to start. You know, I've tested it a few times, haven't been super impressed, but every time I go back to it, it seems to get better and better. I think using it strategically and using it, uh, sparingly is kind of the key, as far as I've seen so far.

Speaker B: What is a marketing best practice that you actually hate and thinks? Needs to think needs to go by the wayside best practice and air quotes?

Speaker C: Um, marketing best practice. Um, I don't know. You have any examples? I'm ones that need to go by the wayside.

Speaker B: M. Like, things that people commonly do that you don't think are the smart way to do things anymore.

Speaker C: I mean, I think, uh, you know, ask. Asking too much too early, I think is one of those things. I think, um, things need, uh, to be nurtured along a, ah, fair amount, uh, longer usually than they are given, you know, a little bit more breathing room. So kicking something over to sales too, uh, early would probably be one of those things.

Speaker B: What is your least favorite business word or phrase?

Speaker C: Oh, man. Uh, bumping this to the top of your inbox. And I've. I've even done it a few times. I'm like, ugh, gosh, I'm that guy. Sometimes you need to. But, like, when it's somebody that's just blown you up and you get it, like, three times in a week. And like, all right, it wasn't accidental. The first two times, I didn't respond.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there. There's definitely a difference between doing that internally to whatever, your boss or somebody, a colleague or something where you think they might have missed it versus the cold Outbound. That's like bumping this up in case you missed m it, like. Nope, didn't miss it.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, what is your favorite business or marketing book?

Speaker C: Um, uh, Joseph Lewin, who you might know, turned me onto a book called Writing Without Bullshit, and we reference that all the time. Uh, that and the original Inbound book was good.

Speaker B: All right. Something, uh, on a more personal level, um, what is your favorite song or genre of music or playlist to listen to while you work?

Speaker C: Oh, while I work. So, uh, I'm I'm a big Pink Floyd fan, so I can listen to, uh, there's a Pink Floyd album called Pulse that's like their kind of life. Greatest hits. I basically wore that one out at this point. It's, it's. I can just.

Speaker B: It's on repeat.

Speaker C: It's, it's, it's there all the time. Yeah.

Speaker B: Awesome. Um, well, Adam, thank you for playing along. This has been fun. Hope you enjoyed it as well. And, uh, obviously I know people can find you on LinkedIn. Cadena's part solutions. Feel free to follow them too. And, um, uh, check out their event if you're in the manufacturing space. For sure.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Anything else you want people to know about you, Adam?

Speaker C: Yeah, Industrial Marketing Summit, uh, is, uh, happening, uh, January 31st to February 2nd in Austin. Uh, industrialmarketingsummit.com we will be announcing speakers, uh, very soon. So excited about that.

Speaker B: Awesome. Adam, thank you again for everybody else. Appreciate you listening and watching, and we'll see you next week.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker A: Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Master Marketer Show. We'll be back next week with more B2B marketing success stories. Visit our website, www.proofpoint.marketing for the full episode library, complete with show notes, guides, templates, and more. Make sure to follow Proofpoint Marketing on LinkedIn and YouTube so you never miss an episode. Listen every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time.