Strategic Guide to B2B Event Communications: What Your PR Agency Should Deliver
Written by Tessa Flanagan, Senior Media Relations and Creativity Director at B2B Tech PR Agency GingerMay.
Events are riding high as the strongest-performing category for marketing budgets in the recent IPA Bellwether report, with 27.4% of respondents allocating them more funding. From a B2C perspective, this isn’t surprising as in-person experiences increasingly capture attention, with brand activations supported by multi-channel content to engage consumers. But events aren’t just about consumers, B2B events are an opportunity to create real buzz that can build relationships to deliver business outcomes. And, a strategic PR and communications partner can accelerate and amplify their impact.
For B2B brands, in-person events offer something online interactions struggle to match, helping develop deeper trust through shared moments and experiences. With 72% of marketers reporting that deals close faster when prospects attend an event, and nearly half of marketers attributing over 40% of their total closed-won revenue directly to event touchpoints, events will likely continue to be a staple in our marketing calendars.
Hosting a roundtable, product launch, or a more casual drinks or breakfast event isn’t just about picking a venue and ordering the most tasty food and drinks. Event execution needs to be viewed through a strategic lens, as a narrative tool to deliver long-term returns.
What Does Good Strategic Alignment Look Like?
Getting a date in the diary shouldn’t be the only consideration in initial event planning stages. Before looking at venues and floor plans, consider your broader strategy and objective, and build the event around that communications and product pipeline. This will ensure the activation brings value to your business and those you want to attend. Think about:
- Value for your guests: How can panel content reinforce your current campaigns, positioning, and product roadmap? What value will it actually deliver to guests who have taken time out to attend?
- What do you have that’s new to tell them; can you reveal new data or research on the day that supports a key narrative?
- Commercial value for your business: Will you be accelerating warm leads, launching a product, or positioning your executive team as category leaders?
When the starting point is your brand messaging rather than just venue logistics, every presentation, panel session, or informal drinks event can genuinely advance your company’s position and build valuable relationships.
Securing A Strong Guestlist
Filling a room with people can be easy, but filling it with the right decision-makers or journalists requires much more precise planning and targeting. This may involve:
- Coordinating with your sales and marketing teams to identify and target the right contacts with the right event narrative
- Building a realistic timeline to secure attendees in good time
- Creating engaging promotional materials to encourage attendance
- Sourcing, briefing, and managing industry guest speakers, relevant to your target attendees
- Managing attendees and sign-ups ahead of time and on the day
Event Logistics: Zero-Friction
On the day of the event, your team should be prioritising networking with attendees and prospects, not worrying about the venue, dietary requirements or tech support for presentations.
An experienced team will have been working on these logistics long in advance to ensure seamless delivery. They will:
- Manage pre- and during-event plans and timelines, including guestlists, food services and name badges, plus coordinate any content producers such as videographers or photographers
- Be on site to support the smooth running of the event and solve any last-minute challenges such as technical glitches or overrunning schedules
- Manage guests and guest speaker arrivals, any session preparation, and private networking spaces
Multi-Channel Content
The return on investment of a B2B event shouldn’t end when the venue doors close at the end of the session. Each event should provide the opportunity to capture not only prospects’ details, but also new insights from discussions or presentations.
While it can be difficult to secure journalist attendance at company events unless they know they will get a very strong story or access to high-profile spokespeople, a PR agency will use your event and live sessions as an opportunity for ongoing content generation, such as:
- Opinion pieces for editorial publications
- Short-form videos, graphics or posts for social campaigns
- Owned blogs or event summary reports for the website
By treating the event as a content generator, you extend the value of your investment from a single experience into an ongoing campaign.
Event ROI & Learnings
Following your event, you shouldn’t be left with vague feedback like ‘everyone seemed to enjoy it’. A strategic communications partner will support you in capturing solid data that links physical interactions directly to your broader PR and business KPIs. Identifying no-show rates and drop-off points to optimise future invitations, capturing attendees’ details to enter into CRM systems and enabling the tracking of ongoing conversions with prospects post-event.
If you are interested in organising your own B2B event, GingerMay can help. We combine strategic storytelling with smooth event execution to build experiences that capture the attention of your target audience, and build trust to drive measurable results. Get in touch with us here to enquire about how we can help.