How Event Content Drives Millions In Pipeline with Bryan Funk

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Session Overview

Incorporating events into your GTM strategy not only enhances your marketing efforts but also accelerates sales cycles and strengthens customer relationships to drive revenue growth. Events create opportunities for meaningful interactions, to gather real-time feedback, and go to ground-zero to understand customer pain points. These immersive experiences are a chance to delight prospects and customers, and drive significant pipeline growth. 

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So, how do we ensure that events are a cornerstone of a successful modern go-to-market strategy? 

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Bryan Funk joins Sessions to share the mindsets and tactics utilized at Virtuous to build a flagship brand event and trade show strategy that drove millions in pipeline. In this session you’ll learn how to:

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• Effectively scale a hybrid event model
• Integrate your sales team with flagship marketing events
• Equip speakers to evangelize you as a category leader 
• Develop 365 marketing content from your speaker network 

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Session Transcript

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Chris Carver [00:00:00]

Bryan, welcome, buddy. I appreciate you doing this.

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Bryan Funk [00:00:05]

Chris, great to be here. Really stoked to dive in.

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Chris Carver [00:00:10]

One of the things I'm most excited about is figuring out how we can grow our event marketing strategy. Whether that's webinars, events, or leveraging in-person experiences to create impactful content throughout the year. I'd love for you to give a little background on yourself so people understand what you accomplished over the last four years at Virtuous.

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Bryan Funk [00:00:40]

For the last four years before joining the Sessionboard team, I led the marketing team at Virtuous, a B2B SaaS CRM company. When I joined, we were a small team of 25 people with about $2.5 million in ARR. Over four years, we grew 700%, reaching nearly $30 million ARR. Events played a pivotal role in our go-to-market strategy at every growth stage.

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Events helped us build deeper relationships with customers, partners, and prospects. They provided real-time learning opportunities and allowed us to articulate our unique market perspective. The key is ensuring events integrate holistically into your broader go-to-market strategy, driving meaningful revenue rather than being standalone initiatives.

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Chris Carver [00:04:00]

Take us back to how it all started.

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Bryan Funk [00:04:05]

When I joined, it was just me and one other marketer. Over time, the team grew to 15 marketers, but we only had one dedicated Director of Event Marketing. Initially, we all got our hands dirty, running a lean operation. Our ethos was to provide value over marketing. This started with our webinar program, regardless of whether we had 20 or 200 attendees.

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Chris Carver [00:06:00]

That’s interesting. It seems like your approach applies across different markets, whether it's corporate, association, or show organizers. Keep going.

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Bryan Funk [00:07:00]

We focused on a highly specific ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). For example, we launched a series called the "Build Better Series," targeting healthcare executives. It was invite-only and highly personalized, with a mix of high-profile speakers. Attendees could participate on camera in Zoom discussions. This approach improved speaker activation and fostered sales and marketing alignment. The result? Registration numbers increased, with attendee conversion rates ranging from 52% to 58%.

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Chris Carver [00:09:00]

It sounds like you started small but scaled intentionally. What’s next?

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Bryan Funk [00:09:10]

Over time, we expanded to flagship brand events. These started as glorified webinars but evolved into multi-thousand registrant events with over 100 speakers. Scaling our event strategy allowed us to deepen customer engagement and broaden our reach.

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Chris Carver [00:10:30]

How did you balance content syndication with preparing for the next event?

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Bryan Funk [00:10:40]

We developed a system. Mondays through Wednesdays were for promotion, while Thursdays and Fridays focused on content. Syndicating content included creating SEO-optimized blog posts, enabling scripts for the sales team, and ensuring leads were activated effectively. The key was aligning with other teams to maximize the impact.

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Chris Carver [00:13:00]

When did you decide to double down on events?

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Bryan Funk [00:13:10]

As our webinar program matured, we saw consistent results: strong lead generation and pipeline conversion rates of 33% to 36%. This success convinced leadership to invest in more resources. We hired an events-focused marketing specialist who took over the webinar playbook, allowing me to focus on strategic growth.

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Chris Carver [00:16:00]

How did you engage speakers and ensure their participation?

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Bryan Funk [00:16:10]

We equipped speakers with content to share and emphasized partnership. For instance, in one healthcare-focused webinar, we secured the top voice in the sector, driving 400 registrations. While speaker-driven registrations were valuable, internal efforts consistently had the most impact.

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Chris Carver [00:20:00]

Tell me about the flagship brand event. How did you scale it?

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Bryan Funk [00:20:10]

Our flagship event, the Responsive Nonprofit Summit, started as a virtual gathering on Zoom. It grew from 500 registrations to over 5,000, with $2 million in pipeline in its later years. By year three, we invested in production quality, building four stages in our office to host different content tracks. This elevated the attendee experience and helped us build deeper relationships with speakers through bespoke networking opportunities.

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Chris Carver [00:31:00]

What role did sponsors play?

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Bryan Funk [00:31:10]

Sponsors were integral to our success. We offered them platforms to connect with influential attendees, driving value for both parties. Partner referrals became our highest-converting channel, with a 48% win rate.

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Chris Carver [00:34:00]

How did you manage your speaker network?

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Bryan Funk [00:34:10]

We learned the importance of collaboration between teams to avoid missteps. For example, a speaker we invited later expressed discomfort discussing a topic due to product challenges. This highlighted the need for better visibility and data sharing across teams. Centralizing speaker management would have streamlined this process and avoided unnecessary friction.

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Chris Carver [00:40:00]

What’s your advice for activating speakers post-event?

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Bryan Funk [00:40:10]

A speaker's journey doesn’t end when the event concludes. Building long-term relationships with speakers can lead to mutual benefits like referrals, partnerships, and evangelism. It’s about providing value throughout their journey, not just during the event.

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Chris Carver [00:42:00]

Great insights, Bryan. Thanks for sharing your experience.

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Bryan Funk [00:42:10]

Thank you, Chris. And thanks to everyone for joining. If you're looking for a tool to simplify speaker and content management, visit Sessionboard.com to learn more. See you next week for another great session.

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