It’s no secret that events are one of the best ways to source leads for your business. In fact, one study even found almost 7 out of every 10 respondents (68%) used events to generate qualified leads. Hybrid events, in particular, present tons of opportunities for marketing, because they combine the advantages of both in-person and virtual events. 

Against that, B2B marketing is turning more complex. Stiffening competition, compliance, and a host of other factors are leading to sales cycles that are longer than ever before. 

Fortunately, marketers have found that micro events are just the right solution to drive growth.

But before we talk about how micro events can grow your business, let’s understand what micro events are and what benefits they bring to the marketing table.

What are micro events?

Micro events are small sized events that are designed to drive better engagement and connection with a smaller audience.They are more often virtual or hybrid than in-person, and that’s for a number of reasons. For instance, attendees at virtual microevents don’t have to worry about health hazards or social distancing regulations. Even if there is in-person attendance, with hybrid micro events the small number of in-person attendees makes it easier for the organizer to manage and comply.

What is perhaps most interesting about micro events is that they can be either completely independent, stand-alone events or run-up events leading to a bigger, overarching event. In the latter case, they provide both a window during which to better engage the audience and a promotional activity with which to drum up the excitement ahead of the marquee event.

Consider the annual Salesforce conference that will be held in San Francisco very soon. Despite being a big, respected brand, Salesforce doesn’t want to take chances in making the event a big success. As a result, they will arrange multiple micro events whose different themes will dovetail with the goal of the annual conference. 

How micro events can grow your business

Some of the benefits of organizing micro events are pretty obvious. For example, they are easier to organize and promote, since you are looking at a much smaller number of attendees. 

In addition to that, micro events present very real, very achievable opportunities to grow your business. Here are the five important ways your business can grow with micro events

1. Micro events provide better interaction

Over 45% of marketers target generating pipelines through virtual events. That can be possible only when the event provides you with opportunities for quality interactions. 

By the very virtue of their small size, micro events make it possible for every attendee to participate. Smaller group sizes encourage people to interact with one another. Detailed conversations help you understand the pain points of your target audience at a deeper level.

Later, you can use these insights to frame your solution in the language that resonates with your audience. And don’t forget that better interaction is also a major reason why micro events are easier to sell!

2. Micro events offer complete flexibility

So what happens when we say micro events give you better opportunities to interact? Collecting insights is a great outcome, yet there’s more: flexibility to re-pivot.

Let’s imagine you’re holding a micro event where you originally intended to discuss how your digital platform can offer competitive intelligence. But right off the bat you figure out that the challenge your audience faces is not so much of the insights as is of interpreting those insights. 

While it may appear to deviate from the original goal, you can actually repivot the event in order to walk your audience through how to use the insights. This helps your audience get real value from the event, value that translates to superior attendee experience. 

If you were to be organizing a big event, chances are such a pain point may not have reached you - and even if you could figure it out, it’d not be possible to shift the focus because of the sheer size and preparations for the event.

3. Micro events means more hands-on activities

Imagine your Chief Product Officer is on the stage, the in-person audience is 100 strong and there are another 350 virtual attendees. How easy would it be for your CPO to carry out a deep-dive  product demo and hold the audience’s attention for an hour?

Chances are, it’d be tricky. That’s because in front of a large audience, such product demos can quickly slide into being one-way communication - the speaker talking and the audience listening (or at least politely giving that impression). Engagement levels can drop pretty fast, you know.

On the other hand, detailed product demos can be interactive and engaging in micro events. Because of the extremely small number of people attending, everyone gets an opportunity to ask questions and get involved. What’s more, the smaller numbers enable the presenter to easily gauge the non-verbal cues of the audience and make extempore changes.

In essence, product demos are one of the many hands-on activities that you can carry out in micro events but probably not in huge events.

4. Micro events means you conserve resources

This one’s so obvious that we don’t need to elaborate this too much.

Micro events, because they involve small numbers, are very budget-friendly. A location that could accommodate, say, 250 people could itself cost you upwards of $3,000 for the venue alone. In contrast, micro events are far less expensive. 

Besides, when you have very small numbers for in-person event, or an entirely virtual event, your cost of compliance for pandemic related regulations drops drastically. Don’t forget that social distancing norms in certain locations could require you to hire twice the size of the venue you’d otherwise need, which could be a big drain in your budget.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you’re skimping on the efficiency or data security of the event. At Zuddl, for instance, we take data security very seriously. We regularly conduct third-party penetration tests, vulnerability testing and similar audits so that your attendees and speakers get a completely safe and pleasant experience. 

5. Micro events allow you to respond faster

The past decade or so has been marked by disruptive forces and few, if any, industries are left untouched. In that context, organizing huge events that require months of planning and organizing face an unpleasant risk of being labeled obsolete.

The pace of change everywhere creates an unusual challenge. You plan to add value by drawing attention to and discussing a major industry challenge. However, some unprecedented changes that happen elsewhere can suddenly reduce the value of what you were trying to deliver.

Let’s say you begin organizing a huge event around a big problem your industry is battling with. But when the actual event happens three months later, things might have changed enormously. Regulations might have changed, some disruptive startup might have at least partially solved the problem, some alternative methods might have emerged, rendering the problem largely irrelevant… any of these can take the steam out of your event. While this doesn’t happen often, the risk is always looming large.

Micro events represent agility. You plan, promote and make it happen in a matter of 2 or 3 weeks. This speed presents a dual advantage. One, you are not at a risk of being seen as outdated. And two, you can respond faster and enjoy the early mover advantage. 

Opportunities ahead

What The New York Times said in 2010 remains true today … “(events need) to generate interest and convert that into actual leads...” Virtual and hybrid events of all sizes do exactly that and that’s why they are here to stay; each kind comes with its unique strengths. 

So if you’re wondering where to begin, learning about how a powerful end-to-end platform can hugely simplify things for you is a good place. And because technology has grown sophisticated than ever, be demanding in what to expect from the platform. The security of the platform, its integrations, its ability to encourage and smoothen networking, give you a consolidated solution for your entire event lifecycle… all this and more will tell you if the platform is a good fit for you.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.