Best of LinkedIn: Field Marketing CW 20/ 21

00:00:00: brought to you by Thomas Allgaier and Frennus.

00:00:02: This edition highlights key LinkedIn posts on field marketing in weeks twenty-and-twenty one.

00:00:08: Frenness supports clients with identifying target attendees for events, crafting outreach that cuts through the noise And driving qualified registrations through strategic LinkedIn engagement.

00:00:17: You can find more info in the description Right.

00:00:20: Okay so let's unpack this.

00:00:22: I mean imagine for a second your dropping I don't know, a hundred thousand dollars on this massive beautifully designed booth at some tier one industry conference.

00:00:31: Oh

00:00:31: yeah we've all seen those Right

00:00:32: and you fly your team out You scan like five-hundred badges over three really exhausting days And you fly home feeling like absolute

00:00:40: champions Like fives all around

00:00:42: Exactly.

00:00:43: But then fast forward three months You're staring at a completely silent inbox and the actual pipeline generated from that massive investment is well it's exactly zero.

00:00:53: Yeah, That Is A Total Nightmare Scenario.

00:00:55: It really is.

00:00:57: And today we are taking deep dive into why that exact scenario just keeps happening to brilliant BtoB marketing teams.

00:01:06: more importantly how best in business actually fixing?

00:01:11: We've basically spent the week analyzing the top field marketing conversations across LinkedIn during calendar weeks, twenty and twenty one of twenty-twenty six.

00:01:19: So we're pulling out the exact strategies that are working on the ground right now.

00:01:22: And

00:01:22: honestly it is the perfect time for this deep dive because if you're listening in your work in B to D Marketing You probably already know that they old playbook has just completely broken.

00:01:30: Oh!

00:01:30: Completely

00:01:31: I mean...we are so far beyond the era of just showing up handing out some branded stress balls and hoping revenue just magically appears.

00:01:39: Right, the stress ball strategy doesn't cut it anymore.

00:01:41: It really does.

00:01:42: And what we found in this source material is massive structural shift.

00:01:47: Top teams are completely rewiring their event strategies.

00:01:51: They're treating field marketing less like a line item expense for brand awareness An entirely precision revenue engine.

00:01:58: Wow, yeah.

00:01:59: So we're going to look at mechanics of that right like pipeline accountability and how AI is fundamentally changing the operational speed of event teams exactly

00:02:08: And also why?

00:02:09: This kind of ironic.

00:02:10: in an age of high-tech automation deeply curated human experiences are actually becoming your ultimate competitive advantage.

00:02:18: I love that.

00:02:19: so

00:02:20: let's start with

00:02:21: terrifying post-event silence I mentioned earlier because, we've all been there right?

00:02:26: You get back from the trade show and the momentum just evaporates.

00:02:29: Why does that happen so

00:02:30: consistently?".

00:02:31: There's actually a brilliant term for this which came up in our discussions when we analyzed.

00:02:35: Mereba Sarayurvi and her former colleagues coined this phrase event brains.

00:02:40: Event brains!

00:02:41: Yeah it describes that sort of bizarre psychological and operational crash that happens after a major event wraps.

00:02:50: Right, think about it.

00:02:52: For months the entire team is just running on pure adrenaline.

00:02:55: You're coordinating logistics, booth builds,

00:02:57: traffic... Stressing over shipping deli-

00:02:59: Exactly Yeah.

00:03:00: And then the event ends.

00:03:02: The booth has packed into a crate Everyone flies home and then Nothing!

00:03:07: The adrenaline just drops.

00:03:09: It's like falling off of cliff.

00:03:11: There are no follow ups queued up No results Just silence.

00:03:16: And Merva points out that events failed precisely in this silent window.

00:03:20: They fail because teams go into the event without a preplanned operational follow-up system.

00:03:25: So they treat the event as the finish line?

00:03:27: Exactly, they treat that closing keynote as the finished line when really it's supposed to be The Starting Gun

00:03:32: Man...that event brain fog is so real.

00:03:36: But well before we even get to the follow up think about the empty seats at the event itself.

00:03:40: I was reading through these posts and Liz Lathan shared some data on attendee drop off.

00:03:45: That genuinely made me pause.

00:03:46: Oh!

00:03:46: The attrition stats right.

00:03:47: Yeah she calls it the illusion of inconsequence.

00:03:50: Essentially, attendees wake up on the morning of a conference.

00:03:53: They look at their crowded inbox and they just decide you know my one absence won't matter.

00:03:58: which makes sense in an individual level sure

00:04:00: but when everyone thinks that way The numbers become staggering.

00:04:04: I mean according to her stats virtual event attrition is sitting around sixty percent And free in-person events are seeing about fifty percent attrition.

00:04:14: Fifty percent, which is painful enough but it gets even worse when you look at the premium tiers.

00:04:18: Yes

00:04:19: Even carefully designed highly curated microevents where you might only be inviting like a handful of key executives They're still seeing about twenty per cent attrition.

00:04:29: That's wild.

00:04:30: It is.

00:04:30: that means if you invite ten VIPs to an exclusive dinner, two of them simply won't show up.

00:04:36: And Lee makes the point that attendee drop-off is no longer a failure of your marketing it's just a harsh industry standard.

00:04:42: you have to plan for Like

00:04:43: overbooking flights

00:04:45: Exactly!

00:04:46: She compared it how airlines deliberately overcook flights because they know certain percentage of passengers will miss their connection.

00:04:53: You have to Plan For The Reality Of The Buyer's Calendar not celebrate your initial registration numbers

00:04:59: Which really brings up a fascinating tension regarding how we allocate our budgets.

00:05:05: Because if you're already fighting at fifty percent attrition rate on the front end, You absolutely cannot afford to waste people who actually do show-up.

00:05:12: Every conversation is gold

00:05:14: Right But what were seeing from practitioners like Taxi Bansal and Kate Slomkowski Is that most teams are doing exactly the opposite.

00:05:23: Yeah, they pointed out this recurring frustration right?

00:05:25: Most companies spend roughly ninety percent of their energy and their budget on just being there like The Booth architecture...the flights..the hotel blocks....the swag...The

00:05:35: fun stuff!

00:05:36: Yeah all the visible stuff.

00:05:37: And then maybe if they're lucky They spent ten per cent of their effort On what happens before or after an event.

00:05:44: It's wild when you think about it.

00:05:46: Okay let's unpack that with a analogy spending all your money to build this gorgeous retail store, but then you forget to hire cashiers.

00:05:54: Oh that's good!

00:05:54: Right?

00:05:55: You have All This Foot Traffic But Absolutely No Way To Actually Close A Sale...You Did All The Hard Work To Build The Connection..But Built Zero Mechanism To Continue It.

00:06:04: That Is the Perfect Analogy.

00:06:05: Yeah You're Building This Incredible Expensive Environment But Completely Neglecting The Transaction Mechanism.

00:06:12: So How Do Top Teams Actually Fix This?

00:06:15: Mustafa Yunz shared a very hard line rule for twenty-twenty six.

00:06:19: Oh yeah, I saw this one.

00:06:21: he argues that leadership should not approve A single event budget unless the marketing team defines exactly who owns The lead follow up how quickly those leads get contacted and what success actually looks like.

00:06:32: And there was a specific timeline.

00:06:35: By quickly, he means a service level agreement or SLA of twenty-four hours.

00:06:40: He shared this really painful past experience where a packed room of engaged prospects turned into just two closed deals three months later.

00:06:48: Ouch!

00:06:48: Why?

00:06:49: Because the follow up was treated as casual administrative task instead of core purpose at event.

00:06:54: Okay but let me push back on that for second.

00:06:56: Having a twenty four hour SLA sounds great in boardroom But how do you actually enforce it?

00:07:02: I mean enterprise sales reps are notoriously busy.

00:07:04: Very true.

00:07:05: If you just hand them a giant CSV file of four hundred badge scans on a Friday afternoon, they are going to call him by Saturday morning.

00:07:12: marketing is gonna say sales dropped the ball sale's gonna say that leads were garbage and leadership is gonna see events or waste money.

00:07:19: You're

00:07:19: exactly right in.

00:07:20: my classic finger pointing is what kills pipeline.

00:07:23: Manpreet Wadan provided really sharp insight into this mechanism.

00:07:27: He noted your event pipeline doesn't actually disappear.

00:07:33: What does that look like in practice?

00:07:35: Well, thirty days after an event the initial momentum fades.

00:07:40: Enterprise buyers regroup internally their priorities shift and if you aren't actively tracking account behavior post-event your sales team is just guessing who to focus on.

00:07:49: it's not a demand problem It Is A Coverage Problem.

00:07:53: Okay so to fix That coverage problem You have To engineer The follow up Before You Even Get On The Plane.

00:07:58: Jimmy Pagan Shared A Massive Whim That Illustrates Exactly How This Works On The Ground.

00:08:03: His team generated roughly four hundred thousand euros in early pipeline at major European events like OMR and Sausageist.

00:08:11: That's a serious number!

00:08:12: Right, And sure they had great booth traffic but the real magic was operational.

00:08:16: They didn't just scan badges...they used per attendee Calendly links..They use custom UTM parameters to track physical interactions.

00:08:23: back to digital campaigns.

00:08:25: There is absolute clarity on lead ownership.

00:08:27: So no finger pointing

00:08:29: Exactly....and here s kicker The exact nature of the sales follow-up was agreed upon and locked in before they even set foot on.

00:08:36: How

00:08:45: so?

00:08:48: Well you can maybe do that intense personalized follow-up manually for twenty VIPs, but what happens when you scan eight hundred badges.

00:08:56: You can't scale a twenty four hour highly personalized follow up SLA without massive operational bottleneck.

00:09:03: And that is exactly where AI and modern event tech are completely changing the paradigm.

00:09:08: Which

00:09:08: makes total sense, if you want a rep to follow up within twenty-four hours with a message that actually references this specific conversation they had someone or something has to process all of those data instantly Exactly But I think we need be clear about what we mean by AI here because it's become such buzzword

00:09:25: Right.

00:09:26: It's crucial to separate gimmick from utility.

00:09:29: Alicia Boykin framed this perfectly in the discussions we reviewed.

00:09:32: She pointed out that AI isn't going to replace the event marketer, like an AI is not walking a trade show floor it's building trust over a steak dinner and certainly isn't lugging heavy boxes of brochures across massive hotel property midnight.

00:09:48: what AIs is?

00:09:49: an essential highly efficient extra teammate.

00:09:52: So What does that team actually do on ground?

00:09:54: It handles the repetitive workflows that traditionally slow marketers down for weeks.

00:09:59: For example, instead of having an intern spend three days manually copying attendee data from a conference website into a spreadsheet AI tools scrape and structure that date in two minutes.

00:10:09: Oh wow yeah.

00:10:10: And teams are using it to instantly draft variations of invite copy based on attendee personas.

00:10:17: They're using platforms like nooks ai sequencing To automatically trigger highly personalized invites, and LinkedIn connection requests.

00:10:25: the second a prospect registers for an event.

00:10:27: Wow so it takes the heavy lifting completely out of the scale?

00:10:30: Exactly!

00:10:31: And it seems like the baseline from what constitutes good tech stack is getting incredibly sophisticated.

00:10:37: Alex Reynolds laid out complete nine pillar tech stacks showing how elite b to be events teams are operating right now.

00:10:44: Yeah

00:10:44: that post was incredibly detailed.

00:10:45: It

00:10:46: really We aren't just talking about a basic CRM anymore.

00:10:49: These teams are using tools like Vendalux to gather deep attendee intelligence,

00:10:54: right?

00:10:54: Vendilox acts almost like a crystal ball.

00:10:57: it allows marketing teams to know exactly which target accounts will be in the room meaning they're booking high value meetings weeks before the event badges or even printed

00:11:05: and then on top of that Reynolds pointed out For those who might not be deep in the op side, intent platforms act kind of like a radar.

00:11:20: Yeah that's good way to put it.

00:11:22: They monitor the web to see which companies are actively researching your specific solutions.

00:11:27: So instead of a sales rep spraying generic emails, they can look at the data and say okay these fifty attendees from this specific company were researching our product category two AM last night.

00:11:39: let's focus all their VIP dinner invites on them.

00:11:42: It is surgical precision yeah!

00:11:44: And that precision no longer viewed as nice-to have.

00:11:47: Attendees and planners just expect a frictionless tech-enabled experience now.

00:11:52: For sure.

00:11:52: Hwang Ann shared her rather blunt take on this.

00:11:54: that sparked a lot of conversation.

00:11:56: A colleague of hers recently attended an AI developer conference And shockingly, there was absolutely zero AI incorporated into the actual attendee experience.

00:12:05: Wait

00:12:05: really?

00:12:06: At an AI conference?

00:12:07: Yes There is no AI powered matchmaking to suggest who they should network with No smart chat bot in the event app No automated session recaps.

00:12:17: Her verdict was pretty harsh.

00:12:19: If you're running an AI-themed conference in twenty, twenty six and you fail to include a single AI feature for the attendees You have absolutely failed.

00:12:28: it's a massive miss.

00:12:29: yeah

00:12:29: That's a total failure of show don't tell.

00:12:32: And this tech integration extends all way down into the physical logistics of the event itself.

00:12:37: Mitchell Kennedy highlighted how platforms like EventMobi are now automating VIP and paid session access.

00:12:44: Which saves so much hassle!

00:12:46: Right, because think about the physical friction of a traditional conference.

00:12:49: you have this highly anticipated VIP only session And there's a massive line out the door Because a staff member is manually checking names off a clipboard

00:12:58: In those awkward conversations.

00:12:59: Exactly

00:13:00: Wait should this person be in here?

00:13:01: Let me check on page.

00:13:02: Automating session visibility and access via smart badges or apps removes that entire headache.

00:13:07: The technology becomes invisible, but the experience become seamless.

00:13:10: Yeah it just runs in the background.

00:13:12: But wait I have to stop here because this is where things get really interesting and a bit concerning for me.

00:13:17: Okay lay it on me.

00:13:18: If every single B-to-B company listening to this goes out and buys the exact same AI tools?

00:13:25: if we are all using the same algorithms describe the same attendee lists And the same AI sequencers to draft the same personalized emails based on the same six cents intent data Aren't we just going to risk drowning buyers in a sea of identical robotic spam?

00:13:42: That is very valid point.

00:13:44: I mean, how do you prevent this highly efficient machine from completely stripping the humanity out our marketing?

00:13:49: Well that's defining tension for B-to-B Marketing right now And your entirely justified and pushing back against this blind automation craze.

00:13:55: The tools are incredible But they're a trap if used poorly.

00:13:59: Yeah Matthew Erbstein spoke directly after attending the experiential marketing summit.

00:14:04: He observed that the industry is currently in this deep honeymoon phase with AI.

00:14:09: We are trying to streamline and automate every single touch point, but in doing so we risk removing the human element from what is fundamentally a human

00:14:17: experience.".

00:14:17: That makes a lot of sense!

00:14:19: He shared a quote from The Summit who really anchors on his whole concept... he said,

00:14:28: I

00:14:31: think that perfectly bridges us into the final core insight from this week's data, because reality is your buyers are exhausted.

00:14:39: Totally burnt out!

00:14:40: Emily Dilbeck pointed this out beautifully in her post.

00:14:43: She noted that prospects aren't ignoring their cold outreach Because they inherently hate vendors.

00:14:48: They're ignoring it because The Outreach feels entirely empty.

00:14:51: It just fake personalization

00:14:53: Exactly...it a generic pitch slapped together by a bot followed By presumptuous calendly link From A Total Stranger.

00:15:00: buyers are exhausted by automated selling.

00:15:03: So the ultimate differentiator in BDB marketing right now isn't who has a better algorithm, it is who can deliver deeply curated human-led experiences

00:15:12: which forces us to ask very basic but critical question what do attendees actually want when they sacrifice three days of their life leave there families and travel to your event?

00:15:22: Winnie Porter shared some recent Forrester research that answers this definitively.

00:15:27: Sixty-six percent of attendees say they want more immersive experiential activities, another sixty six percent wants more structured intentional networking.

00:15:36: but only twenty three percent want more keynotes.

00:15:39: Wait!

00:15:39: Only twenty three per cent?

00:15:41: Yeah think about it.

00:15:43: People do not want to sit passively in rows of uncomfortable ballroom chairs being talked at by a thought leader.

00:15:49: They want active participation, they wanna connect with the peers sitting next.

00:15:58: She noted that women's conferences are currently leading the charge in this exact

00:16:03: shift.

00:16:03: Oh, That's really interesting.

00:16:04: Yeah

00:16:05: They are moving aggressively away from the traditional passive session model and pivoting heavily toward curated community wellness And direct mentorship.

00:16:13: they're intentionally designing events around executive access In a relationship building rather than just broadcasting information.

00:16:20: It is blueprint.

00:16:21: The rest of the B to be industry desperately needs to study.

00:16:25: but designing that kind of organic interaction requires rigorous architectural thought.

00:16:31: I mean, you can't just shove fifty executives into a hotel ballroom with the cash bar and expect magical business relationships to

00:16:38: form.".

00:16:38: Right!

00:16:39: You have to design the flow of the room.

00:16:41: Kayla Drake shared her Rule Of Three for hosted events...and it is honestly a masterclass in experiential.

00:16:48: Our premise is that time is the absolute truest currency we ask our attendees to give us.

00:16:54: So, for sure... We have to curate that time to allow connections to form.

00:16:58: naturally Her rule is during a single hosted event you must give attendees three different physical locations to connect in.

00:17:05: Okay How does it actually map out?

00:17:07: During an evening?

00:17:08: So for example, you start with a standing reception.

00:17:11: People have a drink in their hand the energy is high and it's very easy to float around and make quick introductions.

00:17:16: then You physically move the group into a second space for a seated dinner With carefully assigned seating

00:17:22: which forces deeper conversation exactly

00:17:25: sustained conversation with specific targets.

00:17:28: And finally you create a transition moment like moving to a lounge area or doing a seat swap for dessert.

00:17:35: What is so psychologically smart about that, how it manipulates the energy in this room.

00:17:39: Every time you force a physical shift... You break up natural clicks that form.

00:17:44: It forces new interactions organically without ever feeling like forced awkward corporate networking.

00:17:51: Exactly!

00:17:52: The difference between throwing an unforgettable dinner party and just renting a corporate conference with some catering.

00:17:58: Laurent LeClesio made this exact point after tending Blue Yonder Icon flagship event.

00:18:03: How did he say?

00:18:04: He observed that the very best events aren't just organized by project managers, they are hosted.

00:18:09: They require a level of care precision and hospitality That makes people feel individually recognized.

00:18:15: even in a world powered By massive AI data sets The actual business of B to be remains deeply undeniably human?

00:18:22: That is so true.

00:18:23: However we have to bring this all the way back To the revenue imperative We started with because A beautiful human dinner party Is great.

00:18:32: But how do you scale the impact of that highly curated moment so it drives pipeline long after the dessert plates are cleared?

00:18:39: The ultimate question.

00:18:40: Right, Jay Manash offered a brilliant framework for this.

00:18:44: He argues that modern marketing teams need to treat the trade show floor like a CBS content studio.

00:18:51: Okay

00:18:51: break down the mechanics of what does a Content Studio approach actually look Like?

00:18:54: For A Field Marketer

00:18:56: It means You Do Not Let The Event Die The Moment The Doors Close.

00:19:00: You don't just leave with some iPhone photos in a spreadsheet of badge scans.

00:19:04: Jay operates on the widely accepted stat that it takes roughly thirteen pieces of content before a buyer decides to actively interact with the brand.

00:19:12: Thirteen?

00:19:13: Wow!

00:19:13: Yeah, so you use the live event as your raw material factory... ...you take a live keynote and repackage into a gated webinar….

00:19:20: …you take the transcripts from a panel session and turn them onto an SEO optimized blog post.

00:19:25: That's smart!

00:19:25: And

00:19:26: then pull a customer aside record a five-minute conversation about their pain points, and chop that into six distinct ninety second clips for LinkedIn.

00:19:37: Suddenly you have engineered the event's Second Life!

00:19:41: You've created thirteen distinct digital touchpoints from one single human

00:19:45: interaction."

00:19:46: That is

00:19:46: incredible

00:19:47: leverage!".

00:19:48: And when you get a prospect on camera sharing their insights they suddenly have skin in game...that how this live event becomes starting signal not finish line.

00:19:57: And the genius part is it doesn't just have to be the brand's marketing team creating all that content.

00:20:03: Daniel Christensen talked about this concept of building advocacy architecture.

00:20:07: Advocacy architecture, I like that!

00:20:09: Yeah he says we need to stop just marketing at our attendees and start channeling their own excitement.

00:20:14: give them a gift wrap tool to share what they learned whether that's a beautifully designed graphic highlighting as specific speaker they loved or a quick video template about a breakthrough technology They saw your booth make

00:20:25: you easy for them to brag

00:20:26: Exactly.

00:20:27: When you give attendees the platform and architecture to tell a story in their own voice, they stop being passive bad scans.

00:20:33: They become highly credible high-performing extension of your marketing team

00:20:38: Which really brings this entire deep dive full circle.

00:20:41: We use technology The intent data and AI sequencing To handle massive scale operations And those twenty four hour follow up SLAs But we used live in person events To do one thing.

00:20:53: algorithm will never be able Compress trust and build genuine human relationships.

00:20:59: And the data proves that this combination is incredibly effective.

00:21:02: I want to anchor this with one final powerful statistic from Priya Santini.

00:21:06: She showed it right now, fifty-two percent of BtoB marketers call in person events their most effective marketing channel.

00:21:12: More than half

00:21:13: More than half.

00:21:14: It is beating out email newsletters, it's beating out webinars and has completely outpaced social media for tangible ROI.

00:21:21: Why?

00:21:22: Because the companies that are actually winning in B-to-B right now aren't patient.

00:21:26: they do hard work of showing up to build a relationship.

00:21:29: They use tech to followup digitally with precision And deeply understand.

00:21:33: human connection always will be The ultimate conversion tool.

00:21:38: It absolutely is.

00:21:40: This raises an important question for you and your team to think about as we plan our next quarter….

00:21:44: If in-person events are truly the ultimate test of human trust, what happens when finally stop measuring success by sheer volume of badge scans?

00:21:57: Are you brave enough to abandon vanity metrics that look great on a board deck?

00:22:06: If you enjoyed this episode, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:22:10: Also check out our other editions on account-based marketing.

00:22:13: go to market channel marketing martik social selling and AI in B to be marketing.

00:22:19: thank You so much for taking this deep dive with us today And remember to subscribe So you never miss out on the strategies actually working.