We’ve worked with many business leaders over the years who are focused on growing their annual recurring revenue (ARR) from subscriptions - for two key reasons:

1️⃣ Subscriptions revenue tends to be more predictable and renewable - especially for high value subs, and
2️⃣ They’re looking for investment and know that revenue from subscriptions is worth a LOT more when it comes to the multiple. 

So where do their events fit in? How should they prioritise and organise their marketing and sales resources to focus on subscriptions revenue growth when their events seem to suck up so much time and energy? Where should they choose to invest?

The answer is simple: they don’t need to choose. Why? Because events are probably the most effective marketing and sales channel to grow subscriptions ARR. 
 

Running good events will boost your subscriber retention and acquisition

When every stage of event planning, promotion and execution is done well and in line with subscriptions growth strategy - your events should boost renewals, upsells, cross-sells and the acquisition of ideal customers to grow your subscriber base.

Every customer touch point driven by marketing and sales leading up to the event, the event itself and post-event activity is a powerful tactic to engage your customers - boosting ARR. 

This is what SaaS companies have known for years - which is why leading software companies run 'must attend' annual gatherings bringing their most valuable customers and prospects together to help them learn from and network with peers while getting a useful and convenient update on the SaaS product. There is a reason they spend a fortune on these events! They’re incredibly powerful when it comes to engaging and educating current and future customers. 

But somehow in the world of B2B media & events, events are often seen as being in competition with subscriptions when it comes to marketing and sales resources, or are simply overlooked as a driver of ARR. This is surprising if we consider how subscriptions businesses often like to emulate SaaS companies when it comes to product development. Why would they stop there?

Let’s look at how two successful SaaS companies, HubSpot and Triptease, organise and promote their events (Inbound and Direct Booking Summit) for success as part of their ARR growth stories:

• Events are positioned as providing highly relevant and unique content in an engaging, high value face-to-face format.

• The event programme incorporates presentations that demonstrate the value of the SaaS product - supporting the growth of existing customers and helps acquire the right new customers.

• Relevant and targeted, multi-channel marketing is carefully planned and executed to ensure enough of the right people are informed of and invited to the events - so that those who attend the event get a lot out of being surrounded by their peers.

• The event marketing reaches and engages many people who will not attend the event but become aware of the brand and SaaS product because of the event. 

• To reflect the quality of content and networking opportunities, these two SaaS companies ask delegates to pay for their tickets. This elevates the value of the event, ensures only those most engaged and relevant attend, and ensures the event more than pays for itself - also considering the sponsorship revenue they can tap into.

• Any profit generated from these events can be invested in the marketing, sales and product development for their core SaaS product.

The same principles apply for subscriptions focused businesses. 
 

Put your events at the heart of engineered customer journeys to boost your ARR

To be strategic and impactful in growing ARR, it is important to carefully map customer journeys with events integrated into these. Consider all touch points in event marketing, event registration, event attendance and post-event comms when engaging, nurturing and renewing or converting subscribers. The same principles apply here as would in an all digital customer journey. Think about how they engage with the brand and the content at every step. Then optimise every step for the best outcome. 

Events are a unique opportunity for your subscribers to experience the value you bring to them live and in full colour, in a powerful face to face setting. When you strategically design your own event portfolio to be the ultimate expression of your brand value, and to showcase your subscription value proposition - you can attract exactly the right subscribers who are most likely to renew, and increase the life-time value of those customers. 

And don’t forget the value your subscribers get from being together, in real life. In the age of AI and remote working, being authentically and meaningfully connected with peers in a community setting is invaluable. If you don’t create these experiences and make your events the ‘must attend’ ones every year - then someone else will. Use your own events as part of your ‘moat building’ strategy. Don’t let your competitors get there first!
 

If your events are good enough to boost ARR, they should be making a profit

Events are expensive to run and must be financially sustainable. At a minimum they should break even based on true total costs, not just direct expenses. If you’re running a content and speaker rich conference, you  should charge for delegate tickets. If it’s worth someone’s time to attend an event, they will almost always find the money!

And your strategy should be focused on creating a high quality event. So charge a high fee! Otherwise your event will be under-valued by those who attend, and if you’re giving tickets away for free or a low price you’re likely to only get half of your registrants attending. The trouble is, you won’t know which half won’t attend - making ‘events as part of the customer journey’ and creating value for those who attend much, much harder. 
 

Pay event experts to get your events right!

We would never expect a team without subscriptions experience and expertise to be able to develop, market, sell and deliver a subscriptions product well. So why do so many subscriptions-focused companies expect they can run events well without events experts?

When we consider event marketing only:
It’s important to recognise that asking your subscriptions marketers to also take on events marketing is not going to go well. Although this is an approach we often see, it never works because events require a specific skill set and a lot of time. Splitting their time will only compromise both your event outcomes and your subscription efforts.
 

Here are your two options when you’re working out how to resource your event marketing for success:

Option 1 - get internal focus and event marketing expertise
Allocate specific marketers to work only on your events - and make sure they have event marketing experience already. They will need to be fully dedicated to mastering and deploying their event marketing skills to ensure your events play the part they need to in growing ARR. You might find our blog on The foundations of effective event marketing useful to get an idea of what they will need to cover. Accelerate learning and ensure their work is integrated with subscriptions marketing by using specialist consultants or appointing marketing leaders with proven event experience to guide your team. 

Option 2 - Outsource your event marketing
This is often the most practical and expedient, and the lowest risk and cost option for ARR-focused businesses. Event marketing is highly dynamic, fast-paced and intensive when compared to subscriptions marketing. It is also very resource-heavy - even when AI tools are used.

Outsourcing event marketing campaign execution allows you to maintain lean operations and maintain internal focus on your subscriptions. For a subscriptions focused business, excellence in subscriptions marketing should be a core capability - with as many automated processes as possible built into customer journeys to ensure marketing is highly responsive and scalable while being customer friendly. 

With the right approach, events can become your most effective marketing channel for your subscriptions. It should be a marketing channel that pays for itself while creating powerful thought leadership for your brand. And handled well within the overall customer journey, events will boost ARR by effectively engaging current and future subscribers while generating profits that you can invest to create more ARR.

Don’t let your competitors get there first.
 

---

If you don’t have the event marketing expertise you need in-house, maybe you should outsource your event marketing to a specialist outfit like Team MPG. Get in touch to find out more about how this would work.