Has anyone had success attending events as a customer marketer? If so, what were the specific benefits you saw? The context is that my company is sponsoring an industry event, and I'm trying to evaluate whether it would be worth my time to go (I'm very much hoping yes!) I've thought of a few benefits already, but I'm wondering if there are any I've overlooked
Meeting customers in person has been valuable for me - also a great way to establish a long term relationship and create content (and learn about topics most relevant and interesting to them)
Events are a big thing for CMA, but are you only working on expansion and lifecycle or advocacy too? For advocacy, it's great to connect with customers, ask for reviews, hold interviews with the customers attending, and potentially give awards. For expansion, having dinner with big accounts can be beneficial, you can also host a VIP section for your big clients and invite prospects.
I'm working on advocacy and expansion mostly. We have an events manager who will be doing most of the heavy lifting, so I'm looking to see where I could get added value. I love the reviews perspective, I'd overlooked that! Part of the problem is that this is an industry event, so we don't know in advance how many customers will be attending. I've thought that even listening to how people in the industry talk, what wording they use, what issues they are concerned about, would be helpful, even when they're not directly customers...
Industry events are even better to attend. You can reach out to your customer base, offer unique activations just for your customers, and wrap some of your advocacy/expansion opportunities right into your attendance at the event. Ciana Abdollahian has done an amazing job of this when she was at Snyk. I'd also look to how big brands in your space are showing up for their customers and see how you can disrupt!
Do you know what benefits come with the sponsorship, Sandra? There may be an opportunity to have a customer available to speak or for an AMA session in your booth, if you get one, for example. You may also get an attendee list with your sponsorship, too!
Those are great questions, Sara, I'l look into it. The expo is only a couple of weeks away, so I'm a little limited in offering anything too big. But I'll see what I can do"
