The Case for a Speaker CRM | Sessionboard

The Power of Influencers in B2B Marketing

The term “influencer marketing” may be overused in the B2C world, but its relevance and impact in B2B marketing are undeniable. Consider these findings:

• 63% of B2B buyers trust what influencers say about a brand more than what the brand says about itself (Edelman).
• 71% of B2B buyers are more likely to engage with a brand's content if shared by someone they know or respect (Demand Gen Report).
• Influencer marketing can generate up to 11 times higher ROI compared to traditional digital marketing tactics (Nielsen Catalina Solutions).
• 61% of B2B marketers believe that building brand awareness is the top benefit of influencer marketing (LinkedIn).
• 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to engage with a brand after reading a trusted review (Salesforce).

In the B2B world, your most valuable influencers are often your speakers. Here's why a Speaker CRM can be as transformative for managing your speaker relationships as a Sales CRM is for managing customer relationships.

The Need for a Speaker CRM

In the world of sales, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have become indispensable tools for managing customer data, nurturing relationships, enhancing productivity, and driving data-driven decisions. These same principles can be applied to managing event and webinar speakers, who are often subject matter experts, thought leaders, and influencers with deep networks in relevant fields.

The Challenge

The challenge is that very few organizations have figured out a way to consolidate speakers into one system. Event teams are often siloed, with the tier 1 conference team doing something completely different from the field marketing team, the webinar team, and the community team. Often, it isn’t anyone’s responsibility to track every speaker in one place.

‍

Why Your Organization Needs a Speaker CRM

Just as Sales CRMs revolutionized how companies manage customer relationships and sales processes, a Speaker CRM can significantly enhance how organizations manage their speaker engagements, ensuring more efficient operations, stronger relationships, and better event outcomes.

Benefits of a Speaker CRM

Centralized Information

A Speaker CRM centralizes all speaker data. Having a comprehensive database of speaker information, including past speaking engagements, feedback, topic preferences, and network connections, simplifies the management process.

Improved Relationship Management

You can track communication history, engagement levels, and follow-up actions, ensuring personalized interactions that make speakers feel valued and more likely to participate in future events.

Enhanced Productivity and Efficiency

Managing speaker logistics can be time-consuming. Automating tasks such as scheduling, follow-ups, and contract management, allows event managers to focus on strategic tasks rather than administrative ones.

Data-Driven Insights and Reporting

Understanding which speakers are most effective, which topics resonate best with audiences, and how to improve event outcomes can all be derived from the analytics and reporting capabilities of a Speaker CRM. This, of course, means more informed decisions on future events.

Steps to Implement a Speaker CRM

Step 1: Identify your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), thought leaders, and influencers. 

Step 2: Implement a Speaker CRM to centralize and manage these relationships.

The Power of a Centralized Tool

Enhanced Collaboration and Coordination

With a CRM, the marketing team can collaborate more effectively across departments, leveraging the expertise and influence of thought leaders and SMEs throughout the customer journey.

Targeted Engagement and Communication

By segmenting and categorizing thought leaders, SMEs, influencers, and brand champions within the CRM, the marketing team can tailor their engagement and communication strategies, leading to more meaningful interactions.

Optimized Content Distribution

A CRM enables the marketing team to track content preferences and engagement history, informing content distribution strategies and ensuring that relevant content reaches the right audience at the right time.

Measurement and Analytics

A CRM provides insights into the effectiveness of engaging with thought leaders, SMEs, influencers, and brand champions, allowing the marketing team to continuously evaluate and optimize their strategies.

Brand Advocacy and Amplification

By nurturing relationships with brand champions, the marketing team can cultivate brand advocacy, increasing brand awareness and driving customer loyalty.

The Big Question

Should this be your Sales CRM or a best-in-class system that is integrated with your Sales CRM?

Conclusion

Just as Sales CRMs have become essential for managing customer relationships and sales processes, a Speaker CRM can become an indispensable tool for managing your speaker engagements. It ensures that your organization can effectively leverage the expertise and networks of thought leaders and influencers, leading to more successful events and webinars. Investing in a Speaker CRM is a strategic move that will pay dividends in the long run.

About Sessionboard

‍Sessionboard’s deliberate focus on continuous innovation in speaker and content management has created a best-in-class platform that saves organizers hundreds of hours per event while providing speakers with a streamlined, modern experience. From call for papers, abstract evaluation, awards, applications, agenda building, to speaker onboarding and communication, Sessionboard helps event organizers work smarter, move faster, and improve their ROI.

Our Speaker CRM enhances your speaker network and empowers your marketing team to refine their content strategy year-round.

The results? Faster-growing events, more productive staff, seamless collaboration with speakers, and more time to do what you do best—building epic experiences.