The five biggest frustrations in event marketing and how to avoid them

How many people have been invited yet? Are we going to get all seats filled? Or are we exceeding capacity? How many tools are we using? Is everyone communicating the same message and using the right tone of voice? Is the sales team targeting the right guests?

The first and most significant frustration is the lack of control and overview during the entire marketing event process. It usually starts out well with a nice briefing document. As soon as more people get involved, whether from inside the company or 3rd party, communication tends to get complicated or messy. Add the introduction of multiple tools that don’t quite work together, and the hassle increases exponentially. For a significant amount of companies, this is the number one issue, and the cost- and time-saving potential of their event organisation is enormous. The return on investment isn’t just the value you create but also the losses you avoid, after all.

Will they provide us with their preferred guests on time? Is the sales team committed to making the event succeed? Which guests did they already invite and how many? Why are they at the event only talking to each other?

The second frustration is a lack of engagement from your commercial teams. An event is so much more likely to turn into a huge success when sales and marketing join forces.  Give the sales team responsibilities and accountability over the invites. It would be a real shame if everything up to the event itself was orchestrated perfectly, only to find out you have the wrong guests or a half-empty room… And at the event, it always helps when sales received a proper briefing who to talk to, what their objectives are at the event, and maybe even how to report on it.

Why do we need to start last-minute calling actions to fill empty seats (again)? Why do we have so many no shows? We see the same guest over and over again – rather than interesting new prospects.

This one is not always completely under your control, but having the wrong guests or empty seats is very annoying- and costly. Empty seats or lower-tier guests can give your event a rather poor image. You don’t want to promise your CEO a table where he’ll be surrounded with top tier guests, only to have him/her flanked by random replacements because of last-minute cancellations.   There is no magic formula to avoid no-shows, but timely and continuous communication with your guests, clear visibility on the registration process so you can take the right measures when needed, and the right targeting will get you a long way.

Can you quickly invite another set of customers as well? Sometimes it seems like all guests change their minds constantly and we need to keep their subscriptions up-to-date. Distributing hundreds of tickets, making sure every guest gets the right one, can be a real administrative pain.

The amount of work that goes into managing the marketing event activities is often severely underrated. Things are never set in stone, and constant changes lead to more work, often without management even noticing. Getting some clear processes in place might help – as long as your colleagues are aware of them. Next to that: surround yourself with the right tools to deal with constant adjustments.

Can you provide a smooth registration experience for your guests? How do you register unexpected guests? How do you inform your colleagues when their top guests arrive? 

The last common frustration is one that is only noticeable during the event itself. When guests come in you want to avoid a poor registration and attendance process. For example, a paper registration overview can cause mayhem very easily when it’s crowded. Jotting names down and changing badges takes time and people hate to wait. Also expect a lot of “have you seen him/her already?” from your sales team. Let’s not forget that the start of the event is not the end of the line: the attendance list is the number one resource to base your post-event marketing on, so you better get it right.