Guide: How Dreamdata does Field Marketing (without a booth)
Did you know that 67.3%* of B2B marketers are unwilling to invest in field marketing because they think they can’t measure its success?
This feeds into two oft-repeated myths about field marketing: 1) it’s expensive 2) it’s impossible to track.
Well, both of these can be disproven.
Field marketing can be done on a budget and it can be tied to pipeline and revenue. We know this because we’ve done it.
Earlier this year Dreamdata headed over to the States to join some of the biggest B2B SaaS events: SaaStr in San Francisco and Inbound in Boston.
In both cases, we skipped the whole booth thing and instead took a less conventional (and cost-effective) approach.
And guess what?
We still saw a lot of (measured) success!
Here’s our story in a 16-step playbook!
*Source: Dreamdata survey of 52 B2B Marketers.
How we prepared for the events
We all know how useful events such as SaaStr and Inbound are for networking and building relationships with prospects. They are the epitome of field marketing. But how to draw in the crowds Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) without a booth?!
Here’s how we prepared ourselves.
1. Created a list of target audience
Before the event, we created a list of all the relevant companies that we could find were attending, and then identified who the key personas we wanted to target were going to be.
This meant that we at least knew one person whom we could approach.
For our most critical accounts, we reached out to them beforehand!
Of course, bear in mind whether or not they’re already on your Sales radar and who their account owner is - check your CRM. The account owner can then help make any connection.
Use event app to pre-connect/network
PSST! In this process, we used both the event app (check if there is one), Sales Navigator, or attendees on LinkedIn to find prospects
Connecting upfront and knowing what people are talking about at these events is key to navigating them. We had great success with searching for event hashtags on LinkedIn, which gave us an edge when conversation-making!
This way you won’t have an awkward first impression.
2. Prepped conversation starters to keep our pitch out of it
Speaking of first impressions… Do you know what is awkward? Pitching your company straight off the bat. Yuck! As the saying goes: good things come to those who wait, and the same goes for pitching at a conference.
We prepared conversation starters, such as asking about a name we have in common, discussing some of the event’s talks, etc.
Top tip: Events are about normal conversations and knowledge sharing. People don’t want to be blasted with pitches left right and centre. So abide your time, and wait until they ask you before you start pitching.
3. Hosted a side event (with a partner if possible)
In both cases, we decided to host side events. This included a physical activity on the first morning (more below) and a drinks and snacks event the night before the start of the conferences.
The evening events were both co-hosted with a partner (that we share ICPs with), which not only amplifies your invitees but helps keep costs to a minimum!
The planning started about a month in advance, which meant we had plenty of time to coordinate with our co-hosts, assigning roles for the evening (which really saved us from running around like headless chickens), and invite all our target audiences who we knew were in town for the events (and even some who weren’t attending the conference but are based in the city).
Top tip: When the crowds start pouring in, things get tricky quickly, and when you’re a team of just two or three, more so. So we recommend having a tool to register people who attend on your phone.
Running event
We also hosted a morning run with an open invite (on LinkedIn) which were both surprisingly well attended! This helped us socialise in a totally informal environment and was also a helpful talking point in conversations later in the day: “You were the guys who went running?”
We sure were!
4. Prepared swag
Over a month before the events we had a planning session for all the swag we were going to give away. This gave us plenty of time to order the necessary goodies.
Top tip: during the event it’s tough to carry around t-shirts and hoodies (remember, no booth), so take smaller items, so as stickers. Instead, leave large stuff for the side events or for special individuals you really want to give stuff to.
5. Plan a social media strategy
These might be face-to-face events but success depends on a solid social media plan to run in tandem with the event. And this doesn’t include the already mentioned prior outreach to target attendees.
The more the better, but 2-3 posts during the event should always be sought after, and doing more definitely wouldn’t harm your cause. Scheduling the content ie. style, type and angle helps you to focus.
Pro tip: Whenever you do a SoMe-post on LinkedIn, remember to put a meeting link in there, so that people are able to book you during the event.
6. Experimented with braindates
Braindates are another way to ensure that you’re reaching your target audience. We attended a few ourselves and had great success with those. These are a great way to do knowledge sharing and establishing yourself, of course without any intention to sell!
Top tip: Try to attend those braindates whose topic matches that of your own interests and your ICPs. A little icing on the cake is that there usually is a list available of the attendees, so you have to got out of your way acquiring those.
7. Prepared a daily agenda
Entering these enormous events can be overwhelming even for those not easily shocked, so having taken your time and prepping a daily agenda is a great way to overcome this - Especially if your ICPs are hosting or speaking somewhere, then you can easily use it for later outreach!
What we did during the events
Having done all the necessary prep-work we were ready to take on the event!
8. Mapped out relevant booths to visit and where we would talk to who
So when the day arrived, the first thing we did was a little more prepping! We sat down and mapped out the booths that we wanted to swing by to chat to our target personas (many had booths) and created the split the list who was going to approach who.
9. Dressed to impress
Unless a big red nose and looong shoes are your go-to dresscode, standing out in a crowd is a tough one.
Luckily for us, some of Dreamdata’s best work lies in our absolute killer personal branding!
So prior to the event, we went full out on the baby blue, and even though it wasn’t a big red nose, it still got people’s attention!
Pro tip: Having a colour-coded dress code makes you stand out from the crowd. And where booths are your flagship during these types of events, wearing a colour-coded dresscode works just the same!
10. Noted every (relevant) conversation
Even though we had our list of target personas, which was now split by who would be speaking to who, we couldn’t plan every conversation - in fact, most of the conversations we had were spontaneous!
So, to avoid approaching the same prospects multiple times, we made sure to note each encounter in our Slack channel. This would also help us have a better record of who was spoken to and what was said - useful for when we would later make the entries into the CRM (more on tracking below).
11. Conducted recorded interviews
A little hack we learned on the fly was that interviews were a great way to create content (to add to our pre-planned SoMe output covered in step 5 above), but also, and more importantly, as conversation starters - you’d be surprised how willing people are to share their perspectives!
Prep for future outreach
Take selfies of people you speak with and don't book meetings with. And take pictures of booths for later outreach.
12. Attended side events
At events such as Inbound and SaaStr all sorts of minor events are constantly taking place in the fringes.
These were a great way to meet more people, and to meet prospects in a more informal environment!
13. Got talking, and got other people talking about us
The aim of the game is, of course, talking to as many people on your target list as possible. But sometimes even with all the prep work done, it’s hard.
Where it was difficult to get a word in, say because our target person was highly subscribed and ALWAYS chatting in their booth, we got other people to introduce us. Sometimes this was a Dreamdata customer who made the referral or introduction.
Top tip: using mutual contacts to connect you gives you an easy conversation starter!
Top tip 2: if some people need a little convincing for referrals, you can always smother them with merch!
Get others talking about you on social media
Once again, we didn’t ignore the digital world. When we were giving away merch, or even just talking with someone, we were taking selfies and encouraging them to share on LinkedIn - and it worked a charm!
What we did after the events
There’s no rest for the wicked! And the same goes for field marketer… the end of the event does not mean the end of the effort!
14. Started an email marketing sequence
So after having hosted and attended the events we immediately shared signups and emails of attendees with the rest of the marketing-team, paving the way for the pitch…
Having shared the conversations and emails with our marketing team, we were ready able to pitch off with a marketing email campaign. Then we reached out.
Firstly, we started with a softer approach saying thank you for the conversation, then we shipped them a video of the product, and finally invited them for a call.
15. Started Sales cadence
As with any other marketing campaign, those leads that fit our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and went on to book a demo or sign up for our product - or had even just engaged positively - were promptly assigned an account owner and entered a Sales cadence.
16. Measured results!
Being data dreamers, measuring the success of all our efforts was the final but best bit.
Was it all worth it?
A question that goes to the heart of the tracking question we mentioned in the introduction (more in a sec).
Thankfully, we were able to add all our cost data (the total of all our expenses, side events, merch, etc.) and our deal source data (all those lead details we gathered) from the events into Dreamdata.
Good to know: The deal source data can be fed through your CRM or directly onto Dreamdata, either way, it will be taken into account.
Dreamdata then crunches this data as the customer journeys progress and attributes revenue towards those touches, offering an accurate ROI measure.
You can dig into all the details of calculating the ROI of events here →
The point is measuring the success of your field marketing efforts is what’s going to tell you whether or not these events are worthwhile and whether or not you should invest in them in the future.
For us it was a resounding success. And all at a modest cost - no need for a booth!
Bonus: Measuring success matters, a lot!
In a survey we conducted on field marketing, we asked B2B marketers what the biggest challenge they were facing was when it came to investing into Field Marketing.
We found that 69.2% of respondents are concerned with measuring their field marketing efforts and that this, in turn impacts on how much they’re willing to invest.
And why wouldn’t they be concerned?
Compared to the digital marketing side of things, where tangible results and ready-to-react-on data are everyday cost, field marketing faces a unique challenge.
The ability to prove its value and measure its ROI is a central issue in the world of field marketing.
This of course is due to field marketing efforts not leaving a digital footprint. Recording the effect of an in-person conversation in a trade show, isn’t the same as having someone request a meeting online.
Add to this the already complex B2B customer journey - multiple touches, across multiple channels, by multiple stakeholders over a long period of time - and it’s a nightmarish situation, right?
That’s why a tool like Dreamdata that tracks the ROI of your efforts across all channels - including your field marketing - becomes indispensable in making decisions on where to invest your resources.
Overall Learnings
Having embarked on a journey like this we would be lying if we said that we didn’t learn anything.
So here are our main learnings - everything from tips and tricks to well-deserved pats on the back!
For a company our size, three people are the optimal when it comes to large events of more than 5K attendees.
Pre-events are the bomb when it comes to getting attention on a budget! We learned that people will either click attend at the very last minute or just show up without any warning - we had a turn out of over 80 people on one of our events while we were expecting 50 *faints*.
Be ICP focused in everything you do! Even when co-hosting events with others, make sure that have a similar target persona (of course with a different product!!).
Our morning runs were the talk of the town! Sometimes, doing something out of the ordinary pays off and hosting morning runs differentiates us from the more social-mingling and cocktail-sipping gatherings.
Planning and prepping are key to succeeding at conferences. Whether it’s approaching booths or using mutual contacts to hook up meetings, planning is what will make your non-booth experience a success or failure.
A personal one here. Starting conversations is easy, but it can be frustrating handling a rejection face-to-face 🙁
Doing things out of the ordinary works great at these events! We already mentioned the run, but we also had a multi-day camera give-away game at SaaStr that went down a treat.
Personal branding during these events works extremely well. People tend to recognise the baby blue brand (and Laura’s bike!).
We should continue making more and more noise on social media before these events! This way our network knows whether we’re attending and also who from our team is attending.
And of course, number 10.
10. Having a booth is definitely not needed to show your presence at these events! Being there, attending and hosting the events is what matters.
The bottom line is, field marketing, and industry conferences like SaaStr and Inbound can be hugely beneficial to your go-to-market! And especially if you know how to keep your costs down (no booth) and track the impact of your efforts!
Start measuring your field marketing today