The Best Marketing Tactic for Hotel Tech Vendors to Drive B2B Sales Leads, More Quickly | By Jennifer Nagy

Of course, high-quality content marketing (i.e., tipsheets, guides, how-to articles, whitepapers, etc.) will always drive some leads, over time, but it requires active marketing for the content to be effective, which is time-consuming and can have a low ROI if your social media following and email marketing lists aren’t reaching the right target demographic.

So, how can hotel tech vendors maximize the number of sales leads that they receive and boost the ROI on their marketing spend?

The answer is simple… event marketing.

What Is Event Marketing?
Event marketing leverages the power of memorable, engaging and experiential events – including webinars, hybrid events, in-person conferences or even events in the Metaverse – that connect businesses with their target audiences. The primary goal of event marketing is to foster meaningful interactions with potential customers, leading to increased brand awareness, credibility and engagement… and as a result, generate more sales leads.

During COVID, event marketing emerged as an important strategy for hotel tech vendors looking to generate sales leads quickly and cost-effectively. When we were all working from home, planning for the time when the world would reopen and travel would start again, the demand for webinars and online events was at an all-time high; however, the market’s desire for traditional webinars and online events has diminished dramatically, post-COVID. But that doesn’t mean that events – either online or in-person – are no longer effective at delivering strong ROI (sales leads).

By developing unique, strategic and non-promotional event concepts, delivered in out-of-the-box formats, hotel technology vendors can leverage the power of events to enhance their visibility and credibility among potential clients in the hotel industry, and drive significant sales leads.

What Are The Key Benefits of Event Marketing?
What makes it more effective for generating new sales leads than content marketing? One of the biggest challenges facing hotel tech vendors today is the low (or even abysmal!) rate of technology adoption by hotels worldwide. As a result, marketers at hotel technology companies spend a great deal of time trying to educate hoteliers about the benefits of operational technology, rather than on selling their actual product. The goal of this type of marketing is to help hoteliers realize the HUGE benefits of operational technologies, especially in today’s highly dynamic online travel industry; once their mindset has been adjusted to understand the ‘why’ behind operational technology, in general, then the customer can be considered a warm lead for purchasing the vendor’s tech solution.

Hospitality technology marketers spend hours creating and promoting new and different types of content, all designed to educate hoteliers about the benefits of these different types of technology – some of which is effective at driving sales leads but, more often than not, creates only a slow, inconsistent drip of inbound leads, over time.

That’s where event marketing comes in, as it can be much more effective at generating B2B sales leads for many reasons, including:

1. The Ability to Develop Personal Connections With Potential Leads - One of the most significant advantages of event marketing is the ability to forge personal connections with event attendees, be it in the form of a live Q&A or a spotlight on a hotelier’s specific problem to show how it can be solved using technology. This personal connection benefits the company by building credibility and rapport with all the attendees because it humanizes the technology company. As many decision-makers – especially in the service-focused hospitality industry – prefer to do business with people that they know and trust, the human connection goes a long way in shortening the sales cycle and warming up potential leads for future sales outreach; in short, stronger relationships create higher-quality leads. A bonus to events: they give your sales team the ability to “meet” potential clients and have more meaningful conversations about their specific needs and challenges; this information is invaluable for customizing future sales pitches. After all, knowledge is power and events are the best way to connect with a large pool of potential sales targets at one time, giving you the ability to better understand the people who you will be selling to.
2. Fosters Real-Time Engagement With Attendees - Similarly, event marketing enables real-time engagement with potential sales targets – a powerful tool for closing sales more quickly. Prospects attending events are often in the decision-making phase of the sales cycle, as they are actively looking for solutions to their specific problems. By answering potential clients’ specific questions and addressing concerns on-the-spot, it is quicker and easier to move prospects down the sales funnel, from interest to purchase. In addition, the dynamic interaction of events is something that makes events even more effective, as content marketing is a static, one-way marketing tactic. Events create a sense of urgency and excitement, which can be useful in motivating attendees to make quicker purchase decisions. Try offering an “event special” to see if you can convert attendees more quickly at your next event, by eliminating one of their key barriers of entry (i.e., cost, effort, time, etc.) if they make a purchase during (or immediately after) the event.
3. Builds Credibility With Potential Customers and Establishes Company Leadership as Thought Leaders in The Industry - By hosting and participating in B2B events, tech vendors offer their executive team the opportunity to share their expertise, insights and vision for the hotel technology industry, and establish themselves as thought leaders in the industry. These marketing activities build trust and credibility with potential customers and within the industry, overall. Taking this idea one step further… because one of the key barriers to entry for hoteliers in technology adoption is a lack of understanding of the core benefits and functionality of the various operational solutions available to them, educational events that speak to these two topics can be a very effective way to educate many potential sales targets at one time. Think of it this way… if you are the company that makes a hotelier finally understand why they need an RMS, don’t you think that you will be the first company that they approach when they are ready to purchase one? (Answer: Of course!)
4. More Effective Audience Targeting, Resulting in Higher ROI - One of the most valuable benefits of event marketing is the ability to design the event’s messaging and takeaways to appeal to a very specific demographic of potential customers (i.e., geographical location, placement in the sales cycle, size or type of hotel, etc.). Hoteliers who attend B2B events are usually already interested in the products or services being showcased, which means that leads generated from events are often of higher quality; contrarily, content marketing captures potential leads who are in various stages in the sales cycle, which requires marketers to segment and nurture the leads with multiple campaigns over a longer period, resulting in lower conversion rates and decreased ROI.
5. Provides Networking Opportunities - Events can offer both the organizer and attendees fantastic opportunities for networking, which can lead to unexpected opportunities and/or leads which might not have been possible through content marketing alone.
6. Creates Memorable Experiences for Attendees - The immersive nature of high-quality events, combined with the built-in opportunity for learning and networking, creates a positive association with the company in the mind of event attendees, which is likely to be remembered when/if they are making purchasing decisions. This emotional connection is harder to achieve through content marketing alone, as your materials will often get lost in the sea of hospitality tech-related content available online.
7. Offers The Chance to Experience The Solution Firsthand - Seeing a solution demonstrated in a live event is far more compelling than reading about it in a blog post or watching a video online. During events, potential clients can see and experience the product firsthand, which can improve their understanding of the business case for implementing operational technology at their property and develop more appreciation for the specific benefits of the vendor’s solution – once again, shortening the sales cycle and decreasing the cost of acquisition on securing new clients.

As you can see, event marketing offers significant benefits over the more traditional marketing strategies that are being used regularly today by tech vendors to generate sales leads (cough, cough… content marketing). By providing a platform for direct engagement, building credibility through education and thought leadership, and leveraging unique event topics/angles/formats to engage and build relationships with attendees, event marketing offers a cost-effective solution for sustained business growth, no matter how demand in the travel industry changes over time.

For hotel tech vendors aiming to stay ahead in today’s ever-expanding technology marketplace, event marketing is not just a strategic choice but an operational necessity for long-term financial success.