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DIRECT MARKETERS are adept at trade show marketing. We know how to select the shows that our prospects are likely to attend. We set up plenty of meetings with customers and prospects. We conduct pre-show campaigns to drive booth traffic — although some of us still have problems getting the mail onto the prospect's desk before the show. And we follow up religiously after the show to keep the sales process moving.

But I'm always surprised at how few DMers take advantage of a powerful business-to-business marketing tool: the proprietary corporate event. There's exclusive access to customers and prospects, and you can really get down to delivering your message in a way that cuts through the clutter. These events include opportunities like client conferences, user groups, executive briefings and road shows.

Let's look at some of the key advantages of the corporate event.

• When creating this event, the marketer has nearly complete control of the customer's experience with the company. It can be shaped to suit your audience's needs, and to meet your sales and marketing objectives.

• Such events are an excellent opportunity to build relationships with key customers — from end users and technical personnel to purchasing officials and senior executives. The relationship can be deepened on both sides: You get more focused selling time, and customers have time to reveal their business problems.

• Corporate events are designed to allow higher-level conversations than can be expected in the hustle and bustle of a trade show.

• Customers and prospects are able to focus on your message without distractions from competitors.

These events tend to be applied to current customer marketing, vs. prospecting, for the simple reason of efficiency. For one thing, it's easier to persuade a person you already have a business relationship with to come to your corporate event. For another, the future value of a current customer or inquirer is much higher than that of the average prospect, which justifies the expense of creating and running a dedicated event.

To get the most value from a corporate event, keep these principles in mind:

• Consult with your target audience. In order to attract and influence them, you must first find out what works. Let their preferences and needs guide your planning.

• Seek opportunities to defray your costs. Ask your business partners to take sponsorships, or suggest that clients pay their own travel and hotel expenses. Some conferences even charge attendees a fee, which both qualifies their serious interest and supports the budget.

• Corporate event management is complicated, and requires expertise and resources from multiple parties inside and outside the company. So a focus on project management and team building will enhance the likelihood of success.

• Proprietary corporate events share many characteristics of trade shows with regard to marketing strategy, planning and execution. The same rules apply about setting objectives, promotions, post-event follow-ups and so forth. Treat the corporate event like a full-fledged marketing campaign, not a one-off.

It's not easy to categorize events, since there's so much overlap in function and activity, but here are some of the more common types. Most are focused on current customers, but the last one (road shows) is designed for prospecting.

The user group meeting has taken center stage in the information technology arena, but also is in wide use in other industries. Typically the company's objective with a user group is multifold:

• Offering education about current products in use at the account.

• Uncovering problems and suggesting solutions.

• Identifying customer needs for additional products or features.

• Deepening relationships with customers.

Most companies find attendees cite networking with other product users as one of the key benefits of corporate events.

User groups target engineers or middle managers who use a given product day to day with an educational or troubleshooting goal. On the other hand, a client conference is designed to engage more senior managers, addresses more strategic issues and often is more sales oriented. The typical client conference pursues the following:

• Developing customer relationships.

• Communicating corporate vision, culture and strategies.

• Cross-selling and upselling.

• Encouraging networking among peers.

A client conference may have any of these components:

• Keynotes and breakout sessions.

• Exhibit hall.

• Meetings with sales reps and senior executives.

• Sports events, such as golf outings.

• A client appreciation dinner.

• Entertainment.

Those events focusing on a single customer can be a useful element in the event marketing mix.

Limited to top customers, these gatherings can be as simple as an expanded client meeting, where the business carries on into ancillary activities like dinners or outings. Or they can be workshops or facilitated sessions — whatever meets sales and marketing objectives. One common type of single-customer event is also known as a “vendor day,” when a large company arranges for suppliers to come in and show their wares.

They can be an appealing way to deliver product information within a larger business context — which adds credibility and also increases access to hard-to-reach customers. Most common are daylong or half-day programs taught by a credible third party on a subject of strong business interest to your customers. If you include speakers from your own firm, it's important to keep the presentation's tone more about solving problems or sharing ideas, and less a blatant sales pitch.

One of the secrets to success in seminar marketing is balancing good content with amenities. Consider this wisdom from Mark Amtower, a specialist in marketing to government buyers. Amtower conducts seminars all over the country for clients and prospects as part of his sales outreach.

“The seminar content is important,” he says. “But the food is how they'll judge the seminar overall. I have learned to provide great food, and plenty of it. And I get rave reviews — and new business — from my seminars.”

They're intended to bring senior-level customers together for education, peer interaction and face time with senior company representatives. Usually kept fairly small, repeated at regular intervals and held in desirable locations, these events combine customer appreciation with sales opportunities. The primary hook to attract attendees is content — topics of strategic interest to senior managers. The events thus serve to position the hosting company as a partner as opposed to a vendor, a trusted resource that can be relied upon to help solve pressing business problems. Attendees appreciate the chance to learn about solutions and to network with their peers from other companies.

Designed around social outings, or food and drink, these events are most successful when linked to a specific sales objective. Attendees should be carefully selected and qualified, since you don't want to be investing in entertaining the universe. Most companies find that entertainment events only work if they're driven by the sales team, and when marketing assists in logistics and strategy.

Consist of a multi-city series of meetings designed to deliver richer product information than is possible through mail or phone, but to be more efficient than solo sales calls. The road show takes the event to the market — sparing customers and prospects the need to travel. Typically, the marketer bears all expenses and no fee is charged to attendees.

The road show site is usually a hotel meeting room, with a half-day session that includes breakfast or lunch. Because the cost per contact is fairly high, ranging from $25 to $100 or more, road shows typically are reserved for clients or prospects who are fairly far along the buying cycle. Most road shows target a customer based within driving distance from the site.

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D RUTH P. STEVENS (ruth@ruth-stevens.com) consults on customer acquisition and retention, and teaches marketing to graduate students at Columbia Business School. She is the author of “The DMA Lead Generation Handbook” and the recently published “Trade Show and Event Marketing.”

Paper promotions company Structural Graphics has made good use of educational seminars in its account sales and marketing strategy. They're used for account penetration, in cases where the company is looking to get larger jobs, or to cross-promote its services into other areas of the account.

Its first seminar was with a large tobacco firm for which Structural Graphics did quite a bit of magazine insert and direct mail work. Mike Maguire, the Essex, CT-based company's president, saw an opportunity to grow the account.

“Our primary contact for the magazine and mail work was the ad agencies, and we wanted to figure out ways to develop more direct contact with the client. We also wanted to make the company aware of the other areas where we could help them, especially with our expertise in point-of-purchase promotions.”

So, while accompanying his sales rep on a call to the head of the tobacco firm's production department, Maguire inquired about her needs and ways his company could add value. The department head said she was looking for new ideas and for ways to lower costs. Maguire offered to come in and do a seminar for her team on project management, an area where his company excels. He put together the content, and on the appointed day delivered a 90-minute talk to 12 people in the department. The seminar got rave reviews.

“While you usually expect to pick up a couple of ideas at a session like this, the attendees told their boss they'd picked up five or six. The department head was very pleased, and we now have several pieces of point-of-purchase business with them,” says Maguire.

Maguire believes the cardinal rule of seminar marketing is credibility. “The fact that I was president helps. If I were too overtly involved in the selling process, they never would've reacted as they did.”

The other key to success is relevant content. Maguire recommends that you probe carefully about clients' needs, and shape content very specifically to help them.

“This is not about what you want to talk about,” he says. “It's what is of real value to them.”
— Ruth P. Stevens

Compared with trade shows, corporate events sound like a dream. You can control the message, there's no competition, and you set the agenda and impress your customers to buy more and more often.

But like any marketing opportunity, events can be problematic. Here are some pitfalls to watch out for:

• Can you attract the audience? As events have gained in popularity, the competition for customer and prospect time and attention has intensified. Much of the event cost structure is fixed, so if attendance falls, the cost advantages can disappear.

• Beware the dissatisfied customer. If customer gripes get out of control, the atmosphere at your event may be ruined. You need a plan for speedy, discreet resolution of complaints before they escalate.

• Customers may compare terms and conditions, another source of potential dissatisfaction. One way to counteract this is by assigning handlers — dedicated reps who will shepherd particular clients throughout the event.
  — RPS

Consider some of the other ways you can maintain contact with your customers and prospects using proprietary events:

• Company tours, which are particularly suitable if you have a manufacturing process, laboratories or assembly plants that would appeal to visitors.

• Executive breakfasts or luncheons, with a speech by the CEO or an outside expert.

• Advisory councils, made up of key customers or business partners, who meet several times a year to air problems and provide insight into customer needs.

• Executive briefing centers, a dedicated space at your site where products are on display and key customers can visit for education and information.

• Mobile marketing, where a tractor-trailer is decked out with demo stations and exhibits, and driven to the parking lots of key customers and prospects. It's a targeted strategy that is being used more and more by business marketers.

• Very high-end hospitality, such as a trip to the Olympics, for senior executives at top accounts.

• Executive forums organized by third-party firms, such as analyst groups or business publications. Attendees are there by invitation only, and corporate sponsors gain special access.
  — RPS