Think back to the most memorable events you've been to - perhaps a magic show where a fluffy white bunny disappeared into a black hat, an electrifying basketball game where your favorite player scores a buzzer beater; or a secret show played by a world-famous musician; the reason you can recollect these experiences even now underscores just why field marketing events remain one of the sharpest tools in a marketer's toolkit.
Just like the turn of a magic trick or the nail-biting excitement of a game-winning play, field marketing events have the power to captivate, engage, resonate, and build community, leaving a lasting impression that no email newsletter, webinar, or social media post can reasonably achieve.
However, successfully executing these events can be challenging. They require meticulous planning, resource allocation, and effective collaboration. This guide aims to help you with all of this.
In the following chapters, learn insights and practical advice that leading field marketers swear by to hold impactful and memorable events that build pipeline, support customer acquisition, and strengthen client relationships.
Planning your field marketing program can feel like a lot, but it doesn’t have to be. Follow the step-by-step pathway we’ve shared to put the essential building blocks in place.
Yes, we know it's common practice to establish goals before anything else, but in this scenario, examining your financial resources upfront should come first.
Understanding how much money you have to work with lets you draw out the playing field, helps you to identify the scope and ambition of your efforts and prevents a ‘goals gone wild’ scenario. It’s an approach that Ashley Mauras, Director of Experience Marketing at Quantum Metric, highly recommends.
Why you should set a budget before setting field marketing goals
Even before you set your goals, look at your budget. It will give you clarity on both your limitations + opportunities, such as the number of events you can plan, the level of investment you can make in each event, and your target number of attendees.
For example, you could do a happy hour for 30 people and spend $3K, or you could book a luxury suite at a sporting event for $15K with limited tickets, which may lead you to target an executive-level audience to give you the best chance at ROI. Your budget will help you understand what’s feasible right away.
When calculating the impact of your events on the pipeline, it can help to weigh its efficiency against other channels, explains Ben Winn, Director of Community at FirstMark in this LinkedIn article.
How to calculate the impact of field marketing events on pipeline
Put simply, all you need to know is how efficient your field marketing spend is, and how its efficiency compares to your other customer acquisition channels. For every dollar you spend on it, how many dollars are you getting back?
If you have no idea what your field marketing spend efficiency is, you should start there BEFORE establishing a budget for it.
Now, this will give you a high-level budget to work with, but there’s a lot more to factor into your planning and budgeting, which we’ll unpack in the following sections.
As a field marketer, your primary goals usually include amplifying brand awareness, pipeline generation, and customer engagement - all tied to quantifiable results and revenue. So, it almost goes without saying that collaborating with the sales team to set goals for your events becomes not just beneficial but critical. But here’s a quick refresher on exactly why:
If you align field marketing objectives with the sales team's targets and revenue goals, you can determine how much pipeline and revenue contribution is expected to be influenced by each event and use this as a basis for goal setting, and therefore for budget allocation.
Your sales colleagues already have eyes on where your company has the most propensity to pull targets - i.e. key accounts or industries with high growth potential within a region or target city. You need this intel to tailor your events to resonate with those priority target accounts, for instance, those in late-stage deals, accounts with a long sales cycle, or those at risk of leaving before closing the deal.
Alignment helps to create collective buy-in as a team, where everyone shares common goals and is equally invested. Without it, team members might feel disconnected and disengaged, leading to half-hearted efforts.
After checking in with the sales team, your planner should look a little more detailed. Here's an example of what it could look like:
With this more precise idea of how much revenue you need to influence in each target city, you can then apportion the appropriate funds from your total budget. Like so:
Allotted budget per city: Find your revenue multiplier sweet spot. You can look at your historic ROI, or if you are newer to events, go with industry standards 3-5x return, depending on the kind of field event.
But before you get knee-deep in brainstorming formats, location, and content, it’s good to know the budget for each field marketing event. Here’s how Kelsey Taylor, Senior Event Marketing Manager at Vanta, recommends you calculate this:
How to calculate the budget of each field marketing event
A handy way to calculate the budget you need for an event is using your average deal size as an indicator. If you're going to have 10 people at an event and an average deal size of $10,000, you need to have at least double that in the room to make it worth it.
Now that you have an idea of how much you can afford to spend per event, it’s time to focus on the meat and potatoes of the experience itself.
And once again, to get this right, talking to your sales colleagues is critical. They can share intel that can significantly impact your event format and content. Here’s how:
Now, armed with insight into your target city/region audience, you’ll be in a good position to start thinking about what kind of event(s) to hold for prospects.
Essential. Businesses have a 60 to 70% chance of selling to an existing customer - field marketing events play a crucial role in boosting these odds by keeping customer relationships warm, deepening connections with decision-makers that go beyond just the transactional, and demonstrating value as a true partner, rather than just a vendor. And for at-risk accounts, they can serve as a critical touchpoint to address concerns, showcase value, and reinvigorate commitment.
If you’re just starting out, aim for 1 per quarter. But once you have a healthy program up and running, you can aim for 3 (one event per month).
Absolutely! Who better to advocate for your product or service than someone who already knows its value firsthand? We'll explore this further in an upcoming chapter.
Now, with a better understanding of your target audience, you can start thinking about what type of event format can help you better achieve your goals.
In the previous section, we discussed the different audiences for whom you’ll be planning your events. In this section, we’ll quickly look at the types of events to plan for them. Usually, this falls into two camps:
Upskilling: People want to be in the know; they want to stay updated about the latest industry trends, solve challenges, and enhance professional and personal growth. Your events position your brand as a thought leader and provide a platform for professionals to achieve these objectives.
Networking: With many teams dispersed through remote work, there’s a drive for people to meet and connect in person, usually because they’re not getting to see their coworkers or people in their industry as much as they used to because they don't go to offices as much.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be either/or, and it really depends on the makeup of your target audience (which you can better understand by talking to sales) and your market. Ashley Mauras, Director of Experience Marketing at Quantum Metric, explains further.
Looking at your market can help you determine your event format
If you’re asking yourself whether it’s more important to educate or to build community, looking at your market might be helpful. For instance, if you're targeting a major hub like New York, where you have a critical mass of both prospects and customers, it would be good to host a networking happy hour because there are enough people to pull from to drive value in attending.
But for example, if your competitor is headquartered in Dallas and has a ton of market share there, then it may make sense to host an educational dinner with content that highlights your product's differential capabilities.
Now, with your format figured, it’s time for the fun part of field marketing - coming up with creative ideas for the events!
Field marketing events come in all shapes and sizes, catering to diverse audiences and objectives.
(Hover over the card to reveal an idea)
We asked leading event marketers where they get inspiration to plan events that dazzle, surprise, and forge unforgettable connections in their distinctive ways.
Here’s what they said:
To truly run events that make a difference to your community members or promise value to prospective members, it pays to build community experiences together. At Partnership Leaders, we get our ideas for events from the community itself. We usually look at the top conversations happening in the community, and then run an event on the topic.
Field marketing events thrive on inspiration from diverse sources - customer feedback, industry trends, and team brainstorming. Innovation sparks at the intersection of data-driven insights and imaginative thinking, shaping memorable experiences. But it all starts with keeping in mind the audience. Senior executives may appreciate a day out on the golf course, but young executives may prefer a session that deals with how to get better at their jobs.
Fuel your creativity by diving into your audience's world. People-first at its core. Understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. Craft events that speak directly to them. Collaboration is key – brainstorm with your team and even reach out to clients for input. Stay updated on industry trends, but don't be afraid to put your unique spin on things. Finally, always evaluate and learn from each event. Your best ideas often come from understanding what worked and what didn't.
Turn successful one-off field events into a series. If it works well, keep it rolling! This will also help you churn out a ton of events in a short period of time.
If you can give your guests the option to personalize their experience during the event, go for it. For instance, they could learn to create a signature cocktail in a mixology class, or personalize swag on the spot. It’s an excellent way to make an already top-tier experience extra unique and makes your event the one everyone wants to be at.
We always would have an offsite activation and that was our first touchpoint, letting people know hey not only are you going to get a chance to see us at the trade show but we're going to be having a ton of fun outside of that.
Your attendees are giving up hours of their time to attend your event, so make it even more special or worth their while by letting them invite their partner or family along.
If you want someone to give up 5 hours to come to, let's say, an Ohio State football game, then let them also be able to bring their son, who is an enormous fan. Build this plus-one concept into your plans from the beginning, and adjust your goals accordingly - like if half your audience is going to be children, not buyers.
Be memorable, be thrilling, be unique.
Don’t be scared to dare to be a bit nonsensical, irrelevant, and irrational. That’s what makes a prospect stop and listen. That’s what makes someone excited to work with your company.
Even with a fantastic topic or excellent speakers, your audience's attendance hinges on their ability to join at a convenient date and time. Get it wrong, and your target audience will take one look at your registration page and probably pull a Spongebob.
Use the following recommendations to increase turnout:
Picking the right venue for your field marketing event is crucial. It sets the tone, impacts the attendee experience, and can make or break the event's success.
When you’re starting out and may not have as much budget as you’d like, or you just don't know how certain initiatives will perform, or you might have a risk-averse executive team, lean into hosting an event with a partner. This can be hugely beneficial because you can combine your strengths:
Expand your reach immensely
Inviting customers who are already friendly acquaintances makes the process much simpler. You can look at their customer list to find your prospects for them to invite, and vice versa.
Share the load
You can share the load of the planning and the costs, which is always helpful when starting up your field marketing program.
Benefit from your partner’s knowledge
Learn from your partner’s learnings, especially if they have experience in regions or cities you want to enter.
Let's face it, we're all a bit judgy — especially when deciding to invest time in any activity that requires leaving the house.And that judgment is influenced by credibility, relevance, and trust – all tightly linked to how you present your event, otherwise known as your registration or landing page.
If people see that the design and branding for the event are good, they’ll assume that the event will be good as well.
Good design and branding is a persuasive ambassador that speaks volumes about the professionalism and relevance they can anticipate at the event. Bad registration pages, on the other hand, are the quickest way to have attendees judging your book by its unfortunate cover.
We’re not going to lie: crafting the landing page might take time and effort, but it's prime real estate that holds the key to driving up registrations.
Neglect or rush it; you risk losing your audience before the show begins. Get it right, and you can entice more viewers to sign up. Here's an example of a landing page that ticks the right boxes.
As mentioned in Step 3, you’ll have to build your target registration list with your regional sales team and the customer success teams, as your events should ideally have a mix of prospects and customers. Aim for a 70 - 30% mix.
Prospects
Your Sales colleagues from the target city/region will be able to tell you which in-pipeline or late-stage prospects they want to invite to the event so they can move the needle toward a conversion.
Customers
Similarly, your CS colleagues from the target city/region can tell you which of your accounts to invite. They’ll know which accounts would be best for a networking event (considering the target accounts you’re inviting) and which accounts are best suited for an educational event (given the topic of discussion).
You can also check your marketing database (if you have location data) to see which accounts you can invite.
Having the right profiles will result in increased trust and facilitate peer-to-peer conversations during the event. Remember, B2B buyers want reassurance. Reassurance that the product will work. Reassurance that the decision will be recognized as a good one. There are no better people to hear it from than those who’ve been in their shoes.
Well done on getting the logistics out of the way. Now it’s time to start promotions.
You’ll need to tag-team this with sales and CS.
This way sales and CS teams have all the information they need -an event brief, promotional assets like email copy, and the promotion timetable such as when emails will be going out - at their fingertips, for instance in a Google Drive folder. Make sure everyone knows what to look for and where.
This data-driven approach fuels your ability to fine-tune strategies for increased event registrations. What's more, you can even gamify the process internally, fostering friendly competition to take your event registration numbers to the next level.
AE’s and CSM’s can use this copy to invite their prospects and customers. It should emphasize the event's exclusivity and highlight the benefits of attending. They can personalize the email by referencing the prospect’s pain points or interests - if it is a networking event, the profiles of professionals the recipient can expect to meet.
To ensure that everyone has real-time visibility into registrations, use integrations; for instance, a Slack channel that updates the team and individual account owners when a prospect or customer registers. And those little dopamine hits keep the teams motivated to keep inviting because they see it working in real-time.
After you’ve given the Sales team time to invite their top targets, you can help drive registrations by sending your first marketing email three weeks out, and then a week out.
Reminder emails frequency
Keep the event top of mind by sending registrants email reminders. Aim to send an email 7 days before the event, 1 day before the event, and 3 hours before the event.
At your weekly or monthly syncs with CS and sales, you can help to refocus attention on getting key accounts to register if you’re a little behind your target. You can even set weekly goals to hit with registrations, so it’s easy to course-correct if necessary.
This tactic is especially useful if you need to reach high value customers or prospects in a personalized way.For instance, Canon sent its target list of CEOs golf-related gifts to entice them into joining them on a golf outing.
Be memorable, be thrilling, be unique.
Don’t be scared to dare to be a bit nonsensical, irrelevant, and irrational. That’s what makes a prospect stop and listen. That’s what makes someone excited to work with your company.
2x registrations over the actual attendance goal to account for adequate turnout.
Flexibility in ticketing: enables you to create custom registration flows, for instance, enabling a waitlist once available spots for an event are filled or sending preset emails when someone registers.
Approval flows: let you moderate the registrations that happen for your event.
Analytics: can help you identify the channels driving the most registrations so you can double down on them.
Bonus if the tool requires no coding knowledge to get it going.
Postpone or reschedule the event if you can if you're one week from the event date with less than 50% of your target audience registered.
Ask your sales colleagues to reach out personally to registrants to convey that the event had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances and that they’ll be updated about future plans soon.
With all your pieces in place, there’s just one more important activity to do before the live date: a plan-of-action meeting with your sales colleagues who’ll be at the event. This is the time to align on expectations, roles, and responsibilities and put together a coordinated effort to maximize impact at the event.
Sync meetings should be scheduled more frequently as the field marketing event approaches and should align with the need for up-to-date information and coordination.
Early planning phase
Monthly sync meetings can be adequate for initial planning, brainstorming, and laying out the groundwork.
Mid-planning phase
Fortnightly sync meetings are beneficial during the mid-planning phase, as tasks and details start to take shape, and it's important to maintain a steady pace.
Final preparations
Days to weeks before the event), daily or even more frequent sync meetings may be necessary during the final preparations, as there's an urgency to ensure that everything is on track and make any last-minute adjustments.
You need to hold a final meeting at least 3 business days before the event.
And with that, well done, you’re all prepped for your event!
In the next section, we'll cover the key things you must keep track of during a field event.
You've laid the groundwork during the planning stage, and now, as you transition into execution, it's all about keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings, anticipating any hiccups, and being prepared to pivot if something goes awry.
Stay ready for the unexpected at your field marketing event venue with thorough preparation and contingency plans.
I remember my super scrappy days - we just happened to have this like event space in our office building and I think I had like $1,000 dollars to do something in Boston that quarter and I just like scrappily got some drizzly drinks delivered hired a bartender just had some cool music playing and I think I got Whole Foods delivered as well was like under a thousand bucks - we had 50 people there and it was great.
Inspect the venue to ensure it's set up according to the plan.
Verify the seating arrangements, signage, and event branding.
Confirm that all equipment, Wi-Fi and technology are in working order.
Ensure catering and refreshments are set up correctly and on time.
Identify a point person at the venue to coordinate with for tech issues.
Prepare the registration desk or area.
Set up technology needed for event check-in such as self check-in kiosks, scanners and badge printers so that attendees can get a badge on-demand.
Coordinate with guest speakers and customers regarding arrival times.
If there’s a presentation planned, check microphones, AV equipment, and presentation materials.
Organize a thank you gift for the guest speaker.
When it’s over, cheers to a job well done!
As your guests leave the venue after having a fantastic time, give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. It's time to take a breather and gear up for the homestretch.
Your event isn't truly over just because your guests have left. This is when you can focus on your follow-up efforts.
The day following the event, huddle with your sales colleagues who were at the event to do a post-mortem. These are the activities that should come from this meeting
Follow-up on the asks
Look at the goals set by the sales team and do a status check: What actually happened? How did the conversations go? What are the next steps coming out of it? For instance, a prospect could have agreed to a meeting but not for 3 weeks.
Log this information in your marketing/sales enablement tool and use this for reference in subsequent follow-up meetings
Do a recap for the company
Get images of the event from your colleague in charge of this task, and then put together an event summary. Share this with your company, whether via email or a Slack channel, as it’s helpful for the entire team to understand the event's impact, learn from the experience, and celebrate collective achievements.
The day after the event, send your attendees a follow-up email. Remember to:
Thank them for attending the event.
Emphasize the event's key highlights or valuable takeaways.
Share photos/videos of the event to give attendees a chance to relive the experience.
Invite attendees to share their thoughts about their experience via a feedback survey. Use our template to create one.
And don’t forget to send a ‘we missed you’ email to no-shows too.
Remind your Sales colleagues to follow up with the event attendees.
They can just do a simple check-in.
Or share a relevant piece of content.
Or, ask for a next-step meeting.
Or, they can invite the attendee to an upcoming event (if there’s one).
It’s a truth commonly acknowledged by B2B marketers that the impact of event activities can be challenging to isolate and attribute. However, you can navigate this by revisiting your goals and targets before the event and evaluating your success in achieving them.
When looking at the performance of a single event, you can use these major KPIs - measuring your goal against actuals:
No. of registrations (up till the day of the event).
No. of attendees (that turn up on the day of the event).
No. of meetings scheduled after the event (in 30 days).
Conversion % of meetings into opportunities (in 30-45 days).
$X of pipeline influence (in 30-45 days).
$X of pipeline generated (3 month runway).
Pipeline acceleration (3 month runway).
Various factors can contribute to one of your events not performing up to your expectations (such as failing to generate the pre-agreed-upon meetings with target accounts). For instance, you may not have had enough targets in smaller cities to pull a decent group together.
Putting together an evaluation report makes sure these learnings don't fall through the cracks, and can be extremely useful as a reference when planning field events in the future.
If you have a long sales cycle, a quick pulse check on your event's success in real-time is to stay close to the number of opportunities opened in the subsequent weeks. Most net new opportunities from an event will occur in the first 30 days.
Every event is more than just a gathering—it's an opportunity waiting to happen.
And with strategies from this guide in your toolkit, you're well-prepared to seize those opportunities and turn them into significant moments - like when a bunny vanishes into a top hat or a basketball swooshes into a hoop. These memories underscore the enduring impact of field marketing events in a marketer's toolbox, where unforgettable experiences if planned with thought and care, can turn into tangible results aka pipeline.
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