Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Vasil Azarov, CEO of the Growth Marketing Conference, a must-attend for startup founders and marketing execs.
Tune is to hear Vasil discuss how the Growth Marketing Conference gets a 30% attendance rate from their 100K community of entrepreneurs and marketers, why events are essential for generating attraction if you already have a product, why he believes that events are the future of marketing and sales, and the best way to build an audience fast.
Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How the Growth Marketing Conference Brought in $2M in 2 Years in Such a Competitive Space TRANSCRIPT
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:46 – Review, rate and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast
- 01:03 – Eric introduces friend and special guest, Vasil Azarov, CEO of the Growth Marketing Conference
- 01:29 – Vasil has been in the marketing and event space for the last 10 years
- 01:50 – “Events are the future of marketing and sales”
- 01:55 – They are the vehicle for connecting people and Vasil is very passionate about events
- 02:09 – His previous event was sold to United Business Media
- 02:19 – Vasil met his cofounders and joined them at Startup Socials—the company his partners were involved in at that time
- 02:36 – In 2013, Vasil began with a startup marketing conference and they grew it to The Growth Marketing Conference
- 02:44 – Their events bring in 2,000 people
- 02:48 – They host events in 15 cities around the globe
- 02:58 – This year their large event is in San Francisco
- 04:10 – How are they different? They connect startups with larger enterprise companies under the umbrella of growth marketing
- 04:46 – How much does it cost to attend the Growth Marketing Conference?
- 04:51 – Early bird for $400 – $1,200
- 04:59 – With a Lexus pass, it’s $700 – $2,000 (includes speaker dinner and workshops)
- 05:09 – $300 for self-funded partners
- 05:18 – How many attendees have they had go through their events so far?
- 05:29 – 100,000 supporters in total, 30% have gone to our events in person (small mixer, workshop or larger conference)
- 05:50 – Some subscribe to the blog and others to live webinars
- 06:26 – Vasil started events in 2013, the large conferences took off in 2015
- 06:45 – They have earned close to $2 million total with their growth booming in the last two years
- 07:34 – The best way to build an audience is to invest into community building
- 07:38 – “It’s never about just one single event, it’s always about thinking what is next—how are you going to engage your community after it’s over?”
- 07:45 – They plan their events a year in advance
- 07:58 – They have a lot of events leading up to the main events
- 08:02 – Logistics and experience are important for planning events, but how you engage the audience IN BETWEEN these events is of the utmost importance
- 08:38 – Vasil lists his core events for the year (inc. New York, San Francisco etc.)
- 09:11 – How is he building his clientele today? It has been through virtual summits
- 09:29 – It’s a fast way to build an audience quickly around a very specific topic
- 09:37 – It’s an advantageous way to build relevant content, as well
- 09:53 – Word of mouth—create an unforgettable experience
- 10:12 – We send speakers gifts—wine that has the Growth Marketing logo
- 10:40 – When you give a good gift, they remember you
- 10:55 – Be very thoughtful about the gifts and swag you give your speakers
- 09:50 – Eric refers to the book Giftology and highly recommends it to everybody
- 11:54 – How does he structure the main events?
- 12:07 – The art is putting the guests/content together, so that the whole day really makes sense
- 12:17 – Vasil uses his conference from 2015 as an example – the conference went from user acquisition to conversion to customer retention
- 12:50 – They include actionable workshops and work really well
- 13:01 – They put everyone in one room for these workshops, so that attendees can build intimacy with speakers
- 13:46 – Should you aim to break even or plan to make a profit?
- 14:20 – It depends on the goal of your conference
- 15:07 – When you’re starting out, breaking even is totally fine
- 15:23 – Vasil advises people new to business of event planning should commit to doing this type of business for a couple years to see growth
- 15:30 – What kind of people should those new to event planning hire?
- 15:45 – Vasil just held a conference called Event Marketing School
- 15:58 – Vasil recommends discovering the business by yourself
- 16:22 – If your long-term goal is to make high quality events, hire a consultant to help you, not some event planner to do the work for you
- 17:13 – What’s one big struggle he’s facing right now? – Vasil needs to build an infrastructure to plan and organize the events so that he can scale his business
- 18:21 – What’s one big change he’s made in the past year that has impacted him or his business in a big way? – We heavily rely on email when it comes to ticket sales
- 18:45 – They created a very clear process on data scrubbing so that they could clear their bounced emails in a short amount of time
- 19:03 – They want the bounce rate to be fixed within a 2-day timeframe
- 19:33 – This has helped them keep their list clean and convert the email list into attendees
- 19:46 – He also puts all his tasks into Google calendar
- 20:13 – He has 10 main goals that he wants to accomplish at the start of the week, check in on those goals mid-week, then track his progress at the end of the week and use this as the basis for his next week
- 20:56 – One tool he’s added in the last year that’s added a lot of value? ZenProspect—they’ve tried Salesloft, Persist IQ, but ZenProspect is their #1 choice
- 23:05 – One must-read book (and podcast) – Hard Things About Hard Things
- Vasil also listens to Eric and Neil’s Marketing School podcast, Noah Kagan’s podcast, and Startups for the Rest of Us
- 24:49 – One blog he reads regularly? Growth Hackers
- 25:33 – Connect with Vasil on Linkedin and on his website
3 Key Points:
- If you don’t have passion in what you’re doing, you won’t make it.
- It’s never about just the one event, it’s about having that next step or level of engagement with your following.
- The key to a successful event? Make sure your event structure and progression of topics make sense AND plan for high-level engagement/actionable workshops.
Resources From This Interview:
- Growth Marketing Conference
- Startup Socials
- ZenProspect
- Must-read book: Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
- Must-listen podcasts:
- Growth Hackers
- Vasil on LinkedIn
- Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention by John Ruhlin
Leave Some Feedback:
- What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.
- Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here.
- Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes.
- Get the non-iTunes RSS feed
Connect With Eric Siu: