Key takeaways
- Treat events as a pipeline channel: decide which accounts you want in the room before you book anything.
- Smaller hosted events often produce deeper conversations than large sponsored ones.
- The follow-up decides the result, so plan it before the event, not after.
What types of B2B event marketing are there
The main types of B2B event marketing are events you host, events you sponsor or attend, and virtual events. Most teams mix them through the year.
- Hosted events: your own conference, customer day or user group.
- Field marketing events: roundtables, breakfasts and dinners for a few target accounts in one city.
- Sponsored events: stands, talks or sessions at industry conferences and trade shows.
- Virtual events: webinars, online workshops and live demos.
- Partner events: sessions run jointly with a partner who shares your buyers.
How does event marketing create pipeline
Event marketing creates pipeline by giving sellers time with buyers who have chosen to spend an hour or a day on the topic. That attention is hard to get any other way.
The pipeline comes from what happens around the event: inviting the right people, briefing sellers on who is coming, holding real conversations on the day and following up while the event is fresh. A full room of the wrong people produces nothing.
What does a good event marketing strategy include
A good event marketing strategy starts from the accounts and roles you want to reach and picks the events where they will be. It sets a goal for each event in meetings or conversations, not just attendance.
- A target list of accounts and roles for each event.
- Invitations sent personally by the account owner where possible.
- A brief for every seller attending, with who to meet and why.
- A follow-up plan written before the event, with owners and timing.
- A review afterwards of who came, who met whom and what happened next.
How should you handle event follow up
Handle event follow up quickly and personally, referring to something specific from the conversation or session. A generic thank-you sent to every attendee a week later is easy to ignore.
Split attendees by what happened. People who had a real conversation get a personal note from the person they met; registrants who did not attend get the recording; attendees who asked a question get a direct answer.
What are common event marketing mistakes
The most common event marketing mistake is measuring success by badge scans or registrations instead of conversations with target accounts. Those numbers look good and say little about pipeline.
- Booking a stand without knowing whether your buyers attend.
- Sending sellers with no list of who to meet.
- Leaving follow-up to whoever has time after the event.
Where Pebbles Ai fits
- CapabilityProspecting & customer recordsTo build an invitation list, Find fresh leads takes 1 to 10 named target companies, at least one role and one location, and returns 1 to 100 leads a run from Pebbles Ai's own growing B2B contact database, with work emails where found and a confidence score.
- CapabilityOutreach contentAn assistant drafts event invitations and post-event follow-ups from your company context, and email drafts are saved in your connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox for you to review.
Common questions
Is a webinar a form of event marketing?
Yes. Webinars and other virtual events are part of event marketing; they reach a wider audience than in-person events but usually with shorter, lighter conversations.
Who runs event marketing in a B2B company?
Often an event marketing manager or a field marketer, working with sellers who own the target accounts. In small teams, a marketer or founder covers it.
How do you judge whether an event was worth it?
Look at the conversations and meetings held with target accounts, and at the opportunities those accounts open in the months after. Registrations alone do not tell you.
About this page. Written by the Pebbles Ai team for people who run sales, marketing and growth. Last updated .
