Did you know that only 56% of B2B marketers use in-person events as a channel in their marketing strategy (Forbes)? That's a fairly low number, considering how much B2B decision-makers enjoy networking and meeting professionals live.

It has to be said: B2B events are a promising lever, yet often underused. The reason? A fear of spending too much time on them for too little business return.

In this complete guide, we reveal every step and key to success for turning events into a growth and visibility driver for your company. All without pulling your hair out!

Why include an event strategy in your B2B marketing plan

Still relatively few B2B companies rely on event marketing to reach their audiences, often favoring other levers such as content marketing, advertising, or taking part in events run by other organizations.

Yet B2B events hold real promise for a marketing strategy!

With a well-run business-to-business event, you can:

  • Bring more human contact into your marketing strategy. Even in B2B, "people buy from people": your prospects and customers buy from humans first, not from a company. Through your events, you can build direct interaction with them and create a relationship of trust.
  • Speed up your sales funnel. By building this relationship of trust, you naturally boost your lead generation and business opportunities. A particularly valuable benefit for long sales cycles involving strategic accounts. That's why 73% of B2B decision-makers cite building business partnerships as the main reason that motivates them to attend a B2B event (Good Firms).
  • Strengthen your customer relationships and loyalty. You can use event formats dedicated to your existing customers to build a sense of belonging to a community.
  • Improve your brand image. By organizing your own events, you showcase your company culture in vivo, boosting your brand's visibility.
  • Create reusable marketing content. B2B events complement your content strategy. Film your conferences, showcase testimonials from happy customers, gather field data about your potential customers, and use that data in your marketing plan afterward.

Enough to make you want to get started, isn't it?

6 types of B2B events to consider

To organize a successful event, you first need to know what format it will take. Here are a few event ideas to consider for your company.

Conferences and keynotes

59.2% of B2B event organizers offer conferences open to their audiences (Good Firms). These events let you position your brand as a thought leader and build momentum around a topic your guests care about. Remotely, conferences and keynotes can take the form of webinars.

Trade shows

Trade shows are marketplaces where your company connects attendees and exhibitors to create business opportunities between buyers and suppliers. This is also a chance for your brand to showcase its own products or services.

Networking events and professional speed dating

More than 91% of decision-makers cite networking as the main reason that motivates them (or not) to attend a B2B event (Good Firms). A good reason to launch networking events, which create business opportunities between attendees and help them grow their network. Formats here vary widely: dinners, cocktail parties, themed evenings, meetups, etc.

Seminars

Seminars account for 52.9% of the event types organized by B2B companies (Good Firms). These are educational events aimed at educating the audience on a specific topic. They also let the organizing company generate qualified leads and build credibility for its expertise.

Workshops and training

Consider creating this type of hands-on event, which helps develop the skills of your prospects and customers. Especially if your goal is to build customer loyalty!

Product roadshow

Roadshows aren't reserved for big, well-known brands! Organize a series of events where your brand travels to different regions to showcase its product and connect with its audience across its various catchment areas.

In-person or digital event?

With the rise of digital, B2B brands are increasingly turning to remote events such as webinars or online trade shows. While the costs for this type of event are inevitably lower, they aren't necessarily suited to every goal.

Torn between an in-person or remote event? Here's how to choose:

  • In-person events, while more expensive, are ideal for deep exchanges and relationship-building.
  • Digital events are convenient, scalable, and well suited if your targets are spread across many locations, but be careful to keep your audience engaged behind their screens!
  • Hybrid events are demanding to produce, but let you combine the impact of in-person with the extended reach of digital.

It's up to you to choose the format that will hit home with your prospects and customers!

5 steps to define your B2B event strategy

Want to launch a B2B event strategy that fuels your growth? Here are the key steps to follow.

Define your event goals

First, you need to align your event with your organization's marketing and sales strategy. Your event should serve your company's overall ambition: speeding up acquisition, driving upsell, building credibility for a new offer, etc.

So select your goals, drawing inspiration from the benefits outlined earlier in this article:

  • Lead generation
  • Speeding up your sales cycle
  • Customer loyalty
  • Building your brand's reputation
  • Evangelizing your market.

Select a maximum of two goals to ensure clear execution of your strategy.

Finally, link a KPI to each goal, for example:

  • For lead generation: number of registrations, attendance rate, number of qualified leads generated, etc.
  • For speeding up your sales cycle: number of post-event meetings generated, conversion of invited leads, etc.
  • For customer loyalty: satisfaction rate, post-event repurchase rate, NPS, etc.
  • For building your brand's visibility: number of social media shares, number of mentions of the event on LinkedIn, etc.

For 79% of B2B event organizers, attendee numbers are the most relevant KPI, and for 64%, it's the sales generated directly or indirectly by the event (Good Firms). Worth emulating!

Choose your event's targeting

95% of B2B event managers say their event's performance depends above all on the choice of audience and the quality of targeting (Good Firms). A good reason to take a close look at the topic and study your target precisely.

To do this, define your priority personas. Are they your existing customers? Your warm prospects? A still-cold audience whose interest you need to spark? Influencers in your
industry? Potential business partners? Don't hesitate to segment your targets, so you can then tailor your communication, or even the activities during the event itself.

Then study the profile of your target audience (if you haven't already). The goal: determine what its expectations are when it comes to B2B events:

  • Which topics or themes resonate with its current challenges?
  • What types of content does it consume: case studies, benchmarks, trends, concrete solutions, etc.?
  • What formats does it prefer: conferences, workshops, panel discussions, demos, case studies, etc.?
  • What constraints does it have in terms of time and mobility?
  • What are its goals when attending a B2B event: learning, discovering trends, networking, etc.?
  • How does it find out about events it could attend: LinkedIn, influencers, trade media, professional clubs, associations, etc.?

To find out, you can ask other teams in the company (sales or customer service) for information. But don't overlook the idea of asking your customers directly what they think, via a short survey, for example in your newsletter. Nothing is worse than an event that misses its target because nobody listened to it beforehand!

Design your event's format

Now you need to create the concept for your B2B event.

First, define the key message to convey to your targets, based on the event's goals. What do you want them to remember about your company, your products, your services?

Then choose your event format based on this message and the audience profile.

For example:

  • For visibility or thought-leadership goals: a conference, a panel discussion, a webinar
  • For targeted leadgen goals: a VIP workshop, a business breakfast, a private demo
  • For customer loyalty goals: an afterwork event, a seminar
  • For sales acceleration goals: a networking event

Be careful to match your event's length to your audience's expectations. While a breakfast or afterwork event might last one to two hours, a themed conference can run up to three hours, and a seminar for highly engaged customers can take up a full day.

Create the journey for your attendees (and exhibitors, if applicable)

This is the time to design the schedule for your B2B event.

Spread the following across the time you have:

  • Welcoming attendees
  • The event introduction
  • A value-adding segment
  • An audience-interaction segment or a social moment
  • The event closing

Then create your attendee journey. Ask yourself what content attendees need to have on hand to take part in your event: venue map, attendee app, immersive journey, networking meeting spaces, etc.?

If you're organizing a B2B trade show, you'll also need to think through the same journey for exhibitors. To do this, define the offers dedicated to them: the features of the booths you rent them, the technical and service provisions you offer them, the communication tools available to them, etc.

Choose your tools

To simplify the organization of your B2B event, and depending on your goals, you might need specific tools.

For example:

  • To organize your event in-house: project and task management tools
  • To communicate about your event: an email tool, marketing content creation tools, etc.
  • To manage your registrations: a ticketing tool that centralizes and qualifies your guests
  • To measure your event's performance: event analytics and reporting tools, a survey tool for sending post-event satisfaction questionnaires, etc.
  • To launch a hybrid event: equipment and a live streaming tool

And to make things easier, there's nothing like a dedicated event management platform such as Digitevent. Everything you need is right there: what it takes to create your event website, manage your invitations, your check-in, your badges, and your registration platform. Digitevent also lets you work on attendee engagement by creating your attendee and exhibitor apps, and your event matchmaking.


Discover how Digitevent supports you for successful B2B events!

Best practices for a successful B2B event strategy

Make your B2B event a success, from planning through to the end, with these keys to success.

Create a well-oiled event brief

Preparing an event usually requires collaboration, whether with your team, colleagues from other departments, or external partners and vendors.

Your event brief exists precisely to support that collaboration. Clear and structured, it lets you give everyone visibility into the strategy and details of the event.

A good brief includes, in particular:

  • Your event's goals
  • The targets
  • The concept and theme
  • The estimated budget
  • The venue and dates
  • The program
  • Logistical and technical needs
  • The communication strategy
  • The KPIs used to measure the event's success


To learn more about this topic, find out how to create an event brief here.

Work on your registration method

When launching your event, your goal is to maximize registrations and your guests' attendance on the day.

To do this, roll out different offers for:

  • The first attendees to register for the event, following the Early Bird principle, which offers discounted rates
  • The last people to register, to maximize your event's turnout

The key? Promote your event right up to the day itself, to get the best possible results.

Choose your partners and vendors carefully

If you organize events often, or if you don't have all the necessary event skills in-house, it's a good idea to bring in external vendors.

Outsourcing your B2B event strategy can help you scale your events and improve their quality.

But to ensure your success, you need to choose these vendors carefully:

  • Check that they're well aligned with your company values, particularly when it comes to CSR and eco-friendly practices
  • Favor vendors who are B2B experts, since B2B events are noticeably different from B2C ones
  • Ask to co-build your strategy with your external vendors, to make sure the event aligns with your company culture and values

Industrialize your processes as soon as possible

Planning an event entirely "by hand" can quickly turn into a real headache. To save time, set up shared templates and tools to industrialize the organization of your B2B events.

In particular, think about creating:

  • A standard timeline for each event format
  • Templates for invitations, LinkedIn posts, and follow-up emails
  • Logistics checklists and production sheets
  • A directory of vendors who are vetted and tested

Center your strategy on the attendee experience

Every interaction between your company and your targets should add value for the target, not just for your company! To do this, you need to think in terms of attendee experience first and foremost.

  • Personalize attendee and exhibitor journeys as much as possible, along with the event content, for each of your guest segments
  • Choose speakers based on the credibility they carry with your target
  • Build in quality interaction and networking moments between attendees

Work on communication before, during, and after the event

A good event strategy relies on multichannel communication before, during, and after the event.

Think about promoting your event:

  • Beforehand, with teaser videos, creating a dedicated event website, social media posts, email follow-ups, etc.
  • During, with live-tweeting, video coverage, attendee activities, etc.
  • Afterward, with replays, a recap video, a sales follow-up or nurturing, etc.

Communicating: that's the key to maximizing the ROI of B2B events.

3 examples of B2B companies that turned events into a key to success

Need some inspiration? Take a look at these three organizations that turned their B2B events into standout moments for attendees.

Business France Mexico and French Healthcare Day

French Healthcare Day 2024 is an event organized by Business France Mexico. Each year, this congress brings together experts from the medical sector, executives, and institutions.

In 2024, the event took place in Mexico City on November 26, with more than 200 attendees. The symposium's program included a series of notable talks, including one from Mexico's Minister of Health.

To simplify the management of its event, Business France Mexico adopted the Digitevent event platform, which lets it:

  • Create a personalized registration journey for different types of guests
  • Set up a multilingual event website
  • Easily manage invitations, reminders, and confirmations
  • Get an overview of key data

The platform helped Business France Mexico minimize its no-show rate and create a seamless attendee experience.

To learn more, check out the Business France Mexico case study.

HubSpot and its INBOUND event

Every year, marketing software company HubSpot runs its INBOUND event. It's an event dedicated to digital marketing professionals, where they can attend inspiring expert conferences and also network with each other.

To ensure the success of its B2B event, HubSpot in particular sets up flawless communication before, during, and after:

  • Their website highlights the big-name speakers and offers a simple, easy-to-understand registration funnel.
  • The brand shares content from previous editions: videos, content created by past attendees, blog articles, etc.

Tightly run organization, which partly explains the success of this event, now a benchmark in the B2B marketing industry.

Weldom's annual B2B trade show

Every year, Weldom organizes a trade show that brings together 2,000 attendees. The event's goal: strengthen ties between the stores, suppliers, and employees that make up the ecosystem of this neighborhood retail chain.

At the most recent edition, Weldom took the opportunity to launch the Home Index, an indicator that assesses the environmental and social impact of a product offered by the brand.

For this event, Weldom needed a solution to simplify the registration journey, check-in, and guest access management. The company chose Digitevent as a partner, which let it industrialize these processes while ensuring optimal tracking of the event and its outcomes.

To learn more, check out the Weldom case study here.

💬 Quote from the Digitevent expert:

"Organizing a B2B event isn't just about ticking a date off an agenda. It's a real lever for creating connection, boosting your brand, and engaging your audience. A well-thought-out event leaves a mark: it inspires, it connects, and keeps fueling your marketing strategy long after it's over."

Raphaël Le Doucen, account manager at Digitevent


As you can tell, events are often the missing link between digital marketing and customer relationships. They fuel your entire funnel, strengthen your brand image, and let you generate content to use all year round.


Want to launch high-impact B2B events too? Digitevent supports you, helping you automate registrations, access control, and attendee engagement from A to Z. Discover the event management platform that makes your life easier, and maximizes the success of your events!