How the event-first approach to marketing can maximize research ROI

Imagine you’re sitting in a lunchtime webinar that promised “actionable” insights. Those insights are so “actionable” that you’re having trouble keeping your eyes open. Why? The topic isn’t all that fresh, or worse, it’s a disguised sales pitch.

Now, imagine the panelists are talking with you instead of at you. Talking about subjects like they’d seen one of your Slack threads or overheard you venting to a colleague? And what if the panel were experts in your field, a few steps above you on the career ladder, sharing stories about the same problems and offering advice and a roadmap so you can solve them, too?

Some B2B partners are making that happen at an upcoming webinar. On the surface, it looks like just another industry panel. But there’s far more at play here than a generic talk track.

They are using the events-first approach and having the webinar launch survey-based research. By aligning a new report with an interactive live event, they hope to turn a nagging industry problem into an opportunity for engagement and brand momentum.  

Turning messy survey data into an ongoing conversation might sound impossible—unless you have a spotlight event built around it. 

Content that fuels a year’s worth of marketing

The team at Openprise, the survey sponsor, decided to draw attention to a problem plaguing the industry — which the company solves — by letting partners and people in the industry drive the survey. 

Instead of viewing the survey data to see how it would serve their marketing, they focused on how it might serve their community. They let their partners identify what people wanted to learn, enabling the survey expert to craft more targeted questions.

Michele Linn, a survey expert and the founder of Mantis Research, says it is essential to determine your webinar goals before anything else. 

“If you’re working with partners,” she said, “consider getting their people involved throughout,” from shaping questions to identifying SMEs for the event. It might mean a few extra meetings, but you’ll walk away with insights that resonate across multiple organizations. 

Using storytelling to deepen impact

Partnering with associations or companies can provide diverse respondents, boosting participation and minimizing data blind spots. They will also promote the survey and the webinar about it.

Be sure to get outside feedback on survey questions. “Survey questions need to be written for the person answering,” she said, “using language that is easy to understand.”

Once you’ve collected the data, choose “one narrative/throughline per piece of content” to avoid overwhelming attendees. People want insights, not a laundry list of charts. 

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“It’s more important to share what the data means and how your audience can use it,” Linn said. If you need a deeper dive, consider a series of webinars or having industry experts add context. Keep the conversation logical, relevant, and—above all—human. 

These steps ensure credible data and create a network to amplify your event.

Build brand and keep the members’ trust

For Matt Volm, CEO of the RevOps Co-op community, surveying his members on the state of revenue operations was a no-brainer. They are facing everything from market swings to what he calls “the great AI wave.” All this is happening as revenue operations become more integral to business strategy, which has been challenging.

“The learnings and findings are so incredibly valuable and needed to continue to propel revenue operations forward,” Volm said. In a world where members constantly ask, “How do I stack up?” and “Which tactics are working now?” this research underscores where the profession stands and how practitioners can evolve. 

By weaving the survey results into a must-attend webinar, Volm is not just handing out data—he’s supplying insights people can use and sparking discussions. 

“Findings and learnings like that make it possible for us to create the most relevant content for our members,” he said, underscoring that engagement and trust come from sharing information members can use.

Clickworthy headlines with deeper insights

“I understand the frustration of seeing how something as mundane as data quality can make or break the success of a company’s go-to-market strategy,” said Camela Thompson, an operations veteran and head of marketing at RevOps Co-op, who contributed to the survey and report. “The more data we can gather, the more we can provide revenue operators an opportunity to advocate for these projects.” 

For her, the webinar is a way to provide the RevOps community with “statistics about data quality’s impact on businesses.” But Thompson stresses that a webinar about the findings can’t just rattle off stats. 

“They need the tools to help them influence their executive team to take these projects seriously,” she said—and that means hearing tactics from “experienced operators” who’ve achieved substantial results. 

Thompson will use the findings to highlight a common paradox. Executives need hard numbers before investing in data hygiene, yet without analytics, it’s nearly impossible to prove that quality is satisfactory. 

“Having statistics to cite builds a stronger case for executives to invest in data quality and analytics infrastructure early and for operators to develop the necessary skills to ‘sell up’ in their organization,” she said.

A launch, not a postscript

A webinar can be a powerful pivot point to launch a new piece of research rather than a postscript to it. However, it takes a lot of planning—lining up the right partners and experts for maximum exposure and credibility before you go live, yes, but also making sure the survey sets up the story you want to tell.

An event-first approach to marketing can spark a year’s worth of content people want. You’ll promote it, and your partners will, too, because they’ll want to get the research out. A campaign with survey-based content drives brand awareness, community engagement and even pipeline all year. 

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Here are nine ways to repurpose content:

1. Post the report on a dedicated landing page.
2. Feature experts in live and on-demand webinars.
3. Host panel sessions at industry conferences.
4. Write weekly blogs with survey stats and charts.
5. Run social media campaigns featuring qualitative survey responses.
6. Design infographics with the top three survey takeaways.
7. Share findings with industry media.
8. Ask partners to host AMAs and run LinkedIn polls.
9. Create conversation decks so sales teams can discuss findings with prospects.

Original research requires significant investment. With an event-first approach, you maximize content ROI and create multiple touchpoints for your audience to engage with. Now you can turn a single survey into a year-long conversation with your market.

Don’t let your valuable insights stall out in a PDF. With the right event strategy, you can give those insights the spotlight they deserve and keep the momentum going long after the webinar ends. 

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