A 3-minute deep dive into ELG

ELG, or Event-Led Growth, is a go-to-market motion that uses premium event experiences to drive quality connections, information, and revenue.

According to GTM Partners, it’s one of the 6 types of go-to-market motions that make up a holistic go-to-market strategy.

Mark Kilens (CEO and Co-Founder of TACK GTM and Club PF) explains events through the lens of "People-First GTM."

People-first GTM is business strategy that uses storytelling, relationships, and partnerships to create, capture, and convert demand into revenue. It’s designed to put people at the center of every interaction and experience.

The goal is to use content, events, and products to target, engage, and convert the right ICP and personas.

So events, according to Mark, are one of the best ways to create and capture demand.

Why are events important for partner pros

Events are low-hanging fruit for partner pros because they’re an easy place to find a lot of wins.

Your internal teams are excited to do more, with less; your partners are excited for an opportunity to showcase their expertise; your customers are excited to learn.

Additionally, a savvy partner pro can repurpose the content from events for even more wins! For example, she can help marketing repurpose the webinar into blog content, fuel for sales outreach or nurture campaigns, and even enablement content.

Check out Mark’s 3 phase methodology.

Turning attention into intention

In the past, most webinars were glorified product demos but today, buyers demand personalized, engaging touchpoints.

High-level, here’s how you turn attention into intention.

Pre-Event

1. Determine the theme of your event and target audience.

2. Determine which partner(s) to include based on the topic and target audience using account mapping.

3. Approach your partners with a loose direction.

4. Divide and conquer tasks based on strengths.

5. Identify and invite VIP attendees using Reveal. If you identify your top attendees/deals, you can create a premium experience for them, and personalize your pitch/message during the event.

6. Promote the event.

Extra tips from Mark Kilens:

• Every time you do an event (speaking, promoting, and/or hosting) make sure you let your customer-facing team know.
  

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  Involve your sales team while you’re planning the event. They have insights on who you can invite, the topic, the place, etc.

• Focus on personalization before, during, and after the event.

During Event

1. Engage with people while the event is live. Keep notes on attendees and engagement.

2. Make sure you deliver on what you promised.

Extra tip:

• If you’re hosting a webinar and 5 minutes have passed without anybody engaging, you’re in the red zone. Try changing your voice tone, getting rid of slides, or asking a question to break the ice.

Post Event

1. Identify the people who registered and attended.

2. Segment audience follow-up based on intent. The main intent signal is the answer to this question—why did they sign up?
   Attendance and level of engagement are also great sigals.

3. Follow-up.

4. Repurpose content.

Extra tip:

• Personalize your follow-up. For example, if you know a high-intent audience member asked a question that didn’t get answered, answer it.

Drive results with ELG

Emily Wilkes, Director of Field and Partner Marketing at Gainsight, used an ELG go-to-market motion to achieve:

• 400 attendees

• $20M in influenced ARR

• 300 AQLs and 40 SQLs

And you can too! Check out the resources below.

Nearbound resources on events

• How to Run Multi-Partner Webinars

• Turning Online Events Into a Business Machine

• Event Led Growth: Partner Events at Scale

• How to Nail Co-marketing Events in 2024 with Nearbound

• Howdy Partners #66: Pipeline Paradigms: Unveiling Event Marketing Mastery—Justin Zimmerman

• Nearbound Marketing #24: How Partners Made This Event Series More Efficient

• Nearbound Marketing: The 3 Best Event Types for Driving Revenue

• Nearbound Marketing #13: 5 Steps to Webinars that Don’t Suck

• How Splash got 3x Pipeline from Events

Partners partnering

Share this deep-dive with a partner you’ve partnered with on an event!