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This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast drops you smack dab in the middle of the closed-door sessions where Jess Cook (Head of Marketing) and Joshua Perk (CEO) are working to turn their company, Vector, into B2B marketing’s next big thing.
In each episode, they tackle a real, strategic decision together—"Should we hire an agency?", "Should we push free trials or demos?", "What are we going to do with all the swag Josh bought?!"—dishing out pros, cons, knowns, unknowns, wins, challenges, and stories along the way.
Come for the big picture strategy and day-to-day tactics, stay for the jokes that make HR nervous.
Jess: [00:00:00] Hey, Josh. Why are you upset? Hey, Jess. We had people vote on the T-shirt design for our event series, The Ghost Tour Tour, and they voted wrong. Oh. Well, I guess that's always the risk that you run when you crowdsource- They voted wrong
Josh: Hey, Josh, remember when you wanted to do, like, a big-ass conference for a whole bunch of people? Yeah. If you don't have your own user conference, are you even a real startup? I mean, at this point, it feels a little ambitious for us. That's the problem with you, Jess. Like, at, just, that's the problem that we need to talk about.
Jess: No, you need to have your own named event, Jess. Yeah, okay. Well, we do kind of now. We do. We do. And we're, we're gonna talk about the story of how we got there. Yeah. Should I start with why I wanted one? Yes, please. Okay. As always. I feel like every crazy CEO sees these, like, really cool owned events, like Chili Pepper's Chilipalooza, Drift had Hypergrowth.
Josh: I think Demand and [00:01:00] Expand is, is actually part of Inflection. Inflection.io. Yeah. And it's just not fair that we don't have one. And I want one. I want one, and the fact that you won't give me one- Verruca Salt. Yeah. I want a pony for my birthday. This is that moment, for sure. Yeah, I wanted one. Uh, more realistically, it felt like, like, we market to marketers, we're known for crazy stuff, and it's like, that feels like the mecca- Yes
Jess: of marketing as an- Yeah ... owned event series. Absolutely. You're not wrong. Yeah. Uh, I think you came to me and you were like, "I think, I think we need to do, like, a, a pretty big event. Like a-" Yeah ... like a bunch of marketers, and, like, get them in a room, or, like, do cool stuff. Mm-hmm. Like, make them really, like, make it an experience," right?
And, uh, we were like, "Well, yeah, we, we could do that," but, like, what we tested last year was, like, small private dinner- Yeah ... that worked. Yeah. And so we were like, "Let, can we find something in between?" Was it before or after I told you that we wanted to have a Toyota Corolla where people could [00:02:00] go in and scream-
that you decided this wasn't a good idea? Okay, for the record, I still think that is a good idea. The idea, just for listeners, is, uh, you know, marketers are under a lot of pressure. Sometimes you just need to sit in your car and scream. And so we just wanted to have, like, a room with a- Yeah ... Toyota Corolla.
I don't know why we got so specific with the Corolla. That just felt right. It's the right kinda car to scream in. Yeah, it is. Just, like, mid model, whatever. Yeah, yeah. And you just, you get your turn. When it's your turn, you shut the door in that car and you just scream. Just scream. You just let it out. And we tell people it's soundproof, but it's not.
It's not. You can hear everything. We hear you. And then we vote on who has the best- This part was mine. Who, whose boss we hate the most. Right. It's- So I think we still need to do that. Yeah. I just feel like a, an, a, a series for marketers where it's just, like, a rage room. You get to break shit, you get to yell.
Yeah. Like, maybe I'll, I can, like, sit there and it's, like, a yell at a CEO sort of moment. Ooh. Just one-on-one. Okay. So you just get to yell at me- I'm gonna steal that. That's- ... and call me awful names. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. I cry at the end. I love it. People will love that. People will love [00:03:00] that. There would be a line- Yeah
out the door. You do this really good thing when I bring crazy ideas to you. You have this, like, look on your face, like, "Mm-hmm." You're like, you, you, like, you l- you, you take it- Uh-huh ... for a second. Always. But I can tell immediately that you're gonna say no. This is one of those. It's not that I say no. It's like, let's find, let's find our version of that.
Yeah. What is our version of that? Yeah. It would be amazing to be able to do our own Chili Palooza. I just don't think we're there yet. I think we n- we have some steps in between we need to accomplish. Yeah. And so where we landed was, okay, we wanna do this big thing, but we know this, like, small, private, intimate thing works for us.
Yeah. Let's do small but repeatable. Like, let's do a couple of those- Yeah ... a handful of those. Let's string them together. Let's call it a series. Yep. And ipso facto, Bob's your uncle- ... you got a great event series. Bob's your uncle. I like it. Well, we had been, like, toying with this concept of events and community- Yes
for a while. Yeah. Oh, that's the other [00:04:00] half of this. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Josh wanted a community a lot. I wanted a community. I still fucking want a community. Yeah. Uh, we had, we had gotten this sort of poll, right- Yep ... from our customers of, like, where can we talk to other users? Yep. All this sort of stuff. Like, obviously every marketer wants, like, to own their platform, own their community, et cetera.
Yes. And so I had, before the event, I'd been bothering you about a community, right? Yeah. Let's start a Slack community, like blah, blah, blah. And sort of the feedback you had given me and, like, other members of your, your team that have done- Yep ... communities before is like, "This is harder than you think." Yeah.
This is, like, a full-time job. Communities go sideways real fast. So I was like, "Fuck it. We don't need to do a community. We just need to do, like, a 5,000-person event." Like- ... it's easier one time. No big deal. One day of the year. Right, yeah. You'll be fine. You'll be fine. It's like a giant, it's like a huge wedding.
It's like a party. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. We get- If you can plan weddings while working- Book a Corolla, you're done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we had kinda this, like, Josh wanted a big event, Josh wanted a community. Yeah. Um, both of which just didn't feel like we were quite there yet. Yeah. Established. [00:05:00] Uh, the, the, we didn't quite have the t- the right team, right?
Like, community can be, probably should be, a full-time role. Yeah. Right? Um, if not a couple of different people, like- Yeah ... understanding the content in that community and moderating the community, making sure it doesn't just become a giant pis- pitch fest, because that is- Yeah ... ooh, when that happens, like, you can't salvage it.
Mm-hmm. And no one wants to be in it, and now you have kind of this, like, failed thing that was very public on your hands. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Which most of the communities kinda end up going that direction. S- yes, they absolutely can. So I'd asked you, like, "Hey, let's do an event. Let's do a community." Your response was like, "We can only do so many things.
Why, why event over community?" Yeah. A couple things. If we can't do it, like, really well- Mm ... it's not worth doing. Yeah. And community, again, like, that could be a whole team, whole person at the very least. It just didn't feel qui- like, quite the right stage. Yeah. Community is also way better for [00:06:00] retention- Yeah
than, than growth typically, right? Yeah. And I think the way that our team is set up, the way that our goals are set up right now, where we are as a company and our journey, growth is the real goal. Yeah. And so events typically lend better to that, right? Yeah. Driving pipeline, having conversations with, you know, your target accounts, the people that you need- Yeah
to eventually become a customer. Yeah. It's like hiring, like, a customer marketing team. Like, eventually we'll do it. Yes. But it's certainly not the priority in the early days. Correct. Yeah. And community is very much in that vein- Yeah ... for sure. Totally. So this felt like When we really looked at the strategy, the event route seemed like the much smarter- Yeah
route. And a smaller, kind of more contained, repeatable, scalable- Yeah ... version of that- Yeah ... felt like the smarter route as well. So we kind of took all that knowledge, and we were like, "Okay, let's do something that we know works, small- Yeah ... private." Mm-hmm. "And let's repeat it a few times." Yeah. "Let's do a series of dinners, but how [00:07:00] do we make this vector?"
Right? Yeah. I think a lot of people know, like, we don't just do, we're not just gonna do, like, a just straight up dinner. Mm-hmm. Um, and do you remember how we came up with the Ghost Tour Tour? I think we were, we were in a one-on-one. Yeah. I remember You tell me You were like, "Jess, I just like three words, ghost tour tour."
And I was like, "Say less." Say less. Sold. I see it. You just- Like, it's already booked. Yeah. Ge- te- terabytes of data left my head- Yeah ... and entered yours- Yes ... with three words. Yeah. It was- Ghost tour tour ... yes. What is that? Telepathy- Yeah ... basically? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I knew instantly what that meant. Yeah. Like, the, this is my, I have this theory that, like, the name of something alone is, like, half of the work.
Yeah. I believe that. And the second you said ghost tour tour, I was like- Cha ching ... "Oh, it's, yeah." Yeah. It's packaged already. Yeah. Like, I can see it. Yeah. And, and, uh, you know, we just went with it. I think that's, um, something that I love about Vector and, like, our team- Yeah ... is, like, you can have [00:08:00] just a name, and you're like, "Okay, no, go make that happen."
Yeah. Like- Let's be unhinged. Yeah. Let's just go- Let's do it ... make it work. Yeah. So we did. We, we started to figure out, like, what does that look like? Um, and at first, it was like, okay, we have kinda two options. One, if you do an event series, it can be kind of your own thing. You can round up a bunch of folks.
You can go to some different cities. You can really see, like, who in your database or in your target, in your, you know, uh, target account list live there- Yeah ... or work there, and can you get them to come, right? Yeah. And that's one option. Another one was, what events are you already going to be at? And do kind of a sidecar- Yeah
or, like, a, a little kind of attached event at the event, right? Yeah. Which our, that's what we l- you know, what I learned at least at my first INBOUND last year, now UNBOUND- Yeah ... was, like, that's where it's at. Yeah. The events around the event are like- Mm-hmm ... the cool place to be. And that's one of the things, I think i- in season one, we had talked about, like, your first budget.
Yeah. And, like, one of the rules we kinda put together was, like, there are no nos. There [00:09:00] are only, like, start, stops, and tries. Yeah. Um, or experiments. And we had learned in season two, gosh, this, this just shows, like, cataloging- I know ... uh, the maturity of our company. But we learned in season two, we had, like, a singular really great experience at Exit Five- Yep
with Drive. Yep. Where we basically, like, sidecared an event, a dinner there. It went, like, awful, which made it go, like, terrible or, uh, amazingly all at the same time- Yeah ... because we had to, like, shuffle last minute. And, like, this was just really successful for us. And so I think it was interesting to watch the, the idea of the event sort of morph.
And you almost, like, control my expectations of me being like, "I want our own named event." And you're like, "Well, we'll do like a series of, like, small things." Yes. And I think at first it was like, we'll travel to a bunch of cities. Yep. And then eventually we landed on, like, let's just sidecar everything- Yeah
we're going to. It was funny because two plans kind of converged, where it was like, I was looking at what events are we going to sponsor- Mm-hmm ... this year? And at the same time, this idea was percolating of the Ghost Tour Tour of like, oh, we have this event [00:10:00] series we wanna do. We're trying to figure out how we're gonna do that and these.
And then all of a sudden it was like, no, let's just do them together. We already know- Yeah ... the people that we wanna talk to are going to be at these events. Yep. Let's just like tack it on. Yeah. Uh, and logistically it just made more sense for like- Yeah ... the size of our team and our budgets. Yep. Um, and it makes it a lot easier to actually get the right people there- Yes
in the room. They're already gonna be there. They're already gonna be there. Yeah. And they're looking for something cool to do when the conference is done. Yeah. And what better to do at a marketing conference than go see haunted places- ... and cemeteries? For people that don't have, as they say in Mean Girls, ESPN- Right
uh, the way you and I had where I told you the name and you immediately knew what it was. What is the Ghost Tour Tour? Yes. Okay. Um, I think the thing I love about the Ghost Tour Tour is only we can do this, right? Yeah. I think just based on our brand. Great point. So the Ghost Tour Tour is a private dinner followed by a walking ghost tour of haunted places and spaces- So cool
[00:11:00] in the city where, you know, we're already at- Yeah ... this event. And it's meant for about 20, uh, marketing leaders who are running demand gen or ABM programs. Okay. And we just wanna get people, like, in a room talking, right? Get to know each other, get to understand we all have the same challenges as marketing leaders running similar programs.
Yeah. And I think the thing that's really nice about these from events that I've been at, similar ones, is like you leave them with like three or four new ideas- Yeah ... you hadn't tried yet from people who have, like, tried them before, understand what works, who have the same challenges you're trying to solve.
Yeah. And they have a solution- Yeah ... you have not yet thought about. What's funny about, like, the framing, when, when you sort of brought like, yeah, I had the, like, the name. Yeah. You sort of filled in the details of like- Yeah ... what it actually means. And since then I have been to many events, and you can tell the ones that are planned by CEOs versus the one that are planned by marketers.
Josh: Oh. Right? Yeah. Like, the CEOs are these, like, boring, like there's an agenda printed out. And it's this, like, welcoming ceremony, [00:12:00] right? And it's like CEO will, like, talk and it'll just be like, "Here's what our product does," right? Yeah. And then it's like these, like, very formal things. And like all of the ones that you and I have been to recently are just so fun, are just like- You get way more pipeline out of not having a self-fulfilling agenda.
Jess: Yes. Just like, get good people in the room. Yeah. Like, they're already gonna be at these events el- uh, otherwise, right? Yep. No one wants to be the loser that, like, doesn't have a dinner plan. Right. Uh, right? At Inbound or whatever. Right. Right? And it's just like, okay, there's like a VIP group of people that are gonna get together.
Yeah. And, like, the only agenda is, like, let's just hang out. Absolutely. That's so nice. I love that you said VIP. We made a very conscious decision- Yeah ... to have people request an invite. Ooh, interesting. So this was kind of a risk. Yeah. I wanna talk about it a little bit. So we felt like something unique like a ghost tour tour- Yeah
uh, put on by, like, a brand that's kind of up and coming and cool and people are very excited about- Yeah ... could potentially have, like, wait list factor. Like, people would get [00:13:00] themselves on a list- Yeah ... to hopefully get to, uh, be a part of it, get to participate, get to attend. Yep. And then we would have a lot more control over who ends up in that room.
Yeah. Because, like, to be fair, this is still a pipeline driving activity for us. Yep, yep. But we don't want it to come off as a pitch. Right. We want it to feel like an experience. Yeah. And that is kind of the self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Yeah. Where, like, you have a great time, and people want to know more about you.
They want to understand your product. They want to know you as a person and then look into your technology. So we made the conscious decision to, uh, you know, on the landing page we have a form that's request an invite. Yeah. And I was a little nervous about that at first, and it, it has paid off, so. Yeah.
Go ahead. Well, we've seen it, we've seen it backfire before, right? Yep. And it's, it's almost like one of those, like- When the company has layoffs and you know as a leader that it's, like, the right thing to do, but it still sucks. Yeah. Right? Like, Thrive last year, uh, they moved from, [00:14:00] like, tickets come and go- Yep
to, like, the sort of selective we're going to, like, choose who comes. Yep. And, and it was for good reason. Yes. They wanted to make sure it didn't turn into a pitch fe- fest of a bunch of, like, fractional people or whatever. Yep, agencies. But, like, we had good friends, like Talia's the one that comes to mind, right?
Yeah. That, like, lives in the fractional world, and she was like, "What the hell?" Right? Yeah. And, like, she actually did end up getting to Thrive. But it was, like, one of those things where it's like I, I get why it has to happen. Yep. And the result was, like, Thrive was a really great event last year. Yes. Yes. I mean, it, it, it, it panned out, but it wasn't always popular news.
Yeah. There were a lot of people really upset about that decision. Yeah, yeah. And likewise, like, I think there's probably gonna be people who are pretty bummed- Yeah ... they aren't getting into, you know- Yeah ... the ghost tour tour. Um, but I think we still want to have that control- Yeah ... over, like, who actually ends up in that room.
We'll be back. We'll be back. This ain't our- Yeah ... this ain't our last time. Next year I'm gonna ask Jess to do a 5,000-person event. So don't worry. So everyone. Everyone. Everyone come. Everyone. Yeah. Please, God. Yeah, and bring your mom, 'cause she's, if she doesn't fill up the 5,000, we're gonna have a- I know
hard [00:15:00] conversation. Tell her about marketing on the way. Yeah. If she has some foundational knowledge. Tell her about marketing along the way. Yeah. Uh, but no, I think that was, it was a, it was a scary but right decision to- Yes ... sort of like be selective- Yes ... about it. The other kind of thing we had going for us was because it was a side car event- Yeah
and we were sponsoring these events, we also get the attendee list for the event itself. Ooh. So we had kind of a push-pull going on with who we were filling the room with, right? Yeah. We had people requesting invites, and then we were also outbounding the right people that were on the attendee list for the event- Yeah
to be like, "Actually, there's this event going on after the fact. We think it'd be great for you." Right? Yeah. And so we kind of filled the room half and half with both of those mechanisms. You showed me, I think it was in, um, our one-on-one last week. Which by the way, I think sometimes people don't think that this is, like, actually our dynamic for our one-on-one.
It is. It definitely is. This is it. Um, you had showed me I think a list of attendees for one of the ones that's coming up pretty soon- Yep ... which we'll talk about. [00:16:00] And it was like a who's who- Yeah ... of marketing. I was impressed. I, I like shocked myself. I- I was like, "Oh my gosh, people wanna hang out with us."
I think, I think one of the things I asked you in my one-on-one was like, "Is this, like, the best of the best across all the events?" And you're like, "No, this is next week's event." This is just the San Francisco event. I was like, "Get the hell out of here, Jess." Josh. Yes? Do you know what time it is? What time is it?
Josh: It's time. For? Positive- Affirmations. Let's do it. Let's give it to them. Right in the eyes. Dear marketer, your repurposed content slaps harder than most people's original ideas Dear marketer, your attribution model solved the debate. All right, let's talk budget. Yeah. Okay. I- Let's not. No, I feel like you're gonna be really happy with this one.
Jess: Okay, okay. Even though I know I shared it before, you've just forgotten. Yeah, yeah. It's cool. I went back and looked because I wanted to be able to talk about this for this episode, and between the actual, like, paying for the dinner, paying for the, you know, the venue, paying for the [00:17:00] swag and the actual ghost tour, like, all the stuff that makes up the experience.
Yeah. And we actually brought on a contractor. Yeah. The very talented Steph Pannell. She's awesome. Steph at Ingenu is amazing. Um, and so she is the person who is really taking care of all the details, the actual, like, finding the restaurant options, finding the ghost tour options, which did you know there are multiple ghost tour options in most of the large cities in the US?
Yeah, just people die all the time. I know. There's so many murders. That's all we're trying to do is walk people around death. Everybody wants to... Yeah, I know. Just- But that stuff sounds expansive. It's not that bad. Okay. What was- Oh, yeah, that's where we were going. Yeah. Budget. So all of that combined- Yeah
were around 45K. Per event? No. Total. Total. For four events. Okay. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. Four events. So here's, here's kind of the road show. We're going to Demand and Expand- Yeah ... in San Francisco. Mm-hmm. By the time this airs, that will have happened. Yep. Then we have three back to back [00:18:00] to back- Wow
during event season. Yep. We have Exit5 Drive. Yep. We have HubSpot Unbound. Yep. And we have Pavilion GTM Summit. Wow. All in September and October. Boy oh boy. And so we're doing... I know. It's gonna be wild. Yeah. But I think we've learned so much from this first one- Yeah ... getting ready and getting, you know, invitations out, and people requesting invitations, building the list- Yeah
and all of the planning. We've done a ton of the upfront work, so the, those final three should go very smoothly. That's actually kinda nice. We have, what? What is that, four, five months between- Yeah ... the first one and then the next three- Yeah ... to sort of- Get all our ducks in a row- ... incorporate it ... for those three.
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, at 45K for four events- Yeah ... uh, I'm feeling really good about, like, the return we expect to see. We'll talk a little bit- Yeah ... about goals for this event series, but I'm feeling really good about what we're gonna get back out of this. How did you... I'm trying to remember from a budget perspective, did we know we were doing the event series when we did annual planning?
We did. That helps. Yes. And actually, this is really interesting. [00:19:00] So I had baked in kind of the cost of the actual event and the swag and all the experience of it, and I had put as a nice to have in my budget someone to support us with events, a contractor- Yep ... like Steph. Yep. And Nick was actually the one, he was like, "You're gonna need that."
Mm-hmm. And I'm so thankful he said that because she thinks of all the little details, all the things that I would never think of. Just the actual sheer amount of work- Yeah ... of, like, the logistics of putting all this together and making all the calls and setting things up and- Yeah ... ordering all the swag and making sure it gets shipped to us.
Like, it is a lot, and I'm so thankful that I have a s- like, support on that end. It would've been too much. I feel like a, like, a takeaway for this for marketers is, like, it's so easy to underestimate- Yes ... right? Like, the, the difference between thinking of something of, like, "I can run an event," versus the reality of, like, you're also gonna have all this other stuff going on.
Yeah. And the details and, like... I think we've all been the marketer in that position where you're, like, heads down on a Friday night doing something. You're like, "I bit off way more than I should have." Yes, [00:20:00] 100%. Like, ask for the budget early. Yeah. Get the support. Yeah, it's so worth it. It's not, it's, like, a fraction of a head count.
Yeah. And the, the payoff is, like- Yeah ... yeah, you need it- Yep ... for sure. Yep. Um, let's talk about these T-shirts. Yeah. We wanted a very, like, we wanted people to feel invested in this ghost tour tour. Yeah, that was a mistake. Josh is really, like- I'm pissed ... he's very upset. You guys screwed this up so bad. From the start.
From the start. First thing we let you do. I'm not even excited about this event anymore. All right. But yes, you wanted to, like, get people, you... Uh, classic Jess. Like, something I really appreciate. You will, you will find marketing opportunities in the work to be done. So, like, one of the works to be done was like, "We should have, like, a sick T-shirt because it's a tour."
Yeah. And you turned that into marketing. Yes. Well, I mean, my mentor, Taylor Alison Swift, has, like- ... some of the best tour merch. And I'm [00:21:00] like, "What would Taylor do?" The Alison really threw me off. I was like, "Who is this woman that she's talking about, Taylor Alison Swift?" Well, I'm so close I know her middle name.
Yeah. I just call her Tay. Tay, yeah. Yeah. Or just, like, T. T Swift. I just call her T. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so anyway, she taught me that, like, no tour is a full tour without great merch. Hell yeah. And so we were like, "W- this is a tour. Like, it needs a tour T-shirt." Yeah. And we're gonna have the cities on the back, and it's gonna have this, like, kickass design.
And so we, uh, worked with this awesome designer who, like, gave us three amazing options. Yeah. We're wearing two of them now. Yep. Uh, so we had kind of, like, the, the Ghost Tour Tour, which is, like, this Um, it's, it's really cute, Josh It's cute, but keep explaining- Okay. All right ... and then I'll, uh, then I'll chime in All right.
For the listeners who are not watching the video, it has this really cute little background of, like, a cemetery with definitely, like, a haunted house or maybe, like, a church behind it, and our little ghosty kind of waving, and it says, like, "Vector ghost tour tour," kind of baked into the graphic. Mm-hmm.
Beautiful, like, pink to yellow [00:22:00] gradient that you can find on our website. It's, it's, it's great. Okay, the T-shirt I'm wearing was option two, and this is, like, a very punk, kind of rock and roll, like... This was our favorite, for sure. Yeah. We were like, "Look at this little mohawk." He's a ghost with a mohawk. Yep.
And it says, like, "Ghost tour," and then out of a little speech bubble out of the ghost's mouth, it says, "Tour!" Ghost tour tour. Ghost tour tour. Yeah. It just felt, like, very rock and roll. Which is what a tour is. Which is what a tour is. We had a third option that was, like... It, it reminded me of, like, Guns N' Roses.
Yeah. It was, like, the three, three ghosts that had kind of, like- Yeah ... you know, crazy metal going on, and it said, "Ghost tour tour." Yeah. Um, that was no one's favorite- No ... apparently. That one was just wrong. Totally wrong. So was this one, but whatever. So we put it out to the people- Yeah ... to vote. We were like, "We're doing this tour.
We want to get people excited about it. We want to get some hype going," and we put the three designs out, and they picked the one that Josh is wearing. The wrong one. Josh is still really mad about it. So [00:23:00] I... And I, I really liked this one, too, so I did- Yeah ... because, you know, I have the power to do this. Thank you.
I made- Smart choices ... a handful of these. Of the correct one. Of the correct, the- Yes ... what should have won. Yes. The rightful winner. Yeah. The punk ghost. This is why democracy is questionable. Don't give too much power to the people- ... because they make horrible decisions. Make people think they have an opinion- Right
but don't actually listen to them. Right, right, right. I mean, honestly, like, we could've been, like, "B is the winner," the, this- Yeah ... this punk rock one. We could have lied. Right? We could have lied and been like- But we couldn't do that- ... "We tallied the, the votes" ... to the people because I know somebody would have gone back and been like- Yeah
"Fucking liars." Oh, some... Yes. "I just counted." Democracy won. This is the, this is the shirt. That's the T-shirt. The people have spoken. This is the shirt. Yes. I'm very excited about our swag for this tour, though, 'cause we have the T-shirt. Yeah. We also have this really cute, like, cinch bag that says, "Pipeler or it didn't happen."
I didn't know that. I know. I was gonna have some surprises for you. Did you tell me that, or is this the first time you telling me? No, I just made it myself. All right, cool. We're gonna have this little ghosty. Everyone's gonna get one of him. Yep. Um, we wanted to give each ghosty, like, an outfit that matched- Yeah
the city. Yeah. Do you remember what I told you that was gonna [00:24:00] cost? Oh, it was like- You had like a minimum order of like 10,000 per outfit- Yeah ... or some crazy- We couldn't do ... Yeah, the minimum was like way Yeah. It was like- Way overkill ... more than we needed. It was like 100 times more than we needed. It would've been sick, though.
So it's gonna be amazing. And then I wanna talk a little bit about just like the outreach that we did- Yeah ... actually. So, uh, this was another piece that like staff at Ingenu helped us with- Okay ... um, that was really, really important because like to get people there, right? Yeah. And to like make sure people actually come who sign up- Yeah
like all of that is outreach. So we started with the actual attendee list for the event- Yeah ... uh, which had, you know, all kinds of people on it. And, uh, as I do with any list, I hand it to the talented Sarah McNamara. Yeah. And she brings it back to me with like all this voodoo magic- Yeah ... where it's like- Yeah
oh, they run this, uh, technology, and they spend this much on ads. Her spreadsheets are wild. They come back with like, "This woman has seven kids and hasn't had a night out with her husband in seven years." "Bring her to this event." Right. We're like, "We have to invite her." She needs this. Yeah. The, the [00:25:00] information is so specific.
So good. Like, bring Marlo. Yeah. She really likes red wine. Bring Marlo. Marlo is a very specific name. I'm ... We'll, we'll talk about where you got that from later. So she comes back with this like enriched list, and then Kelly and I are able to look at it and say like, "Okay, who should actually ... Who should we invite?"
Yeah. We're comparing this against our target account list- Yeah ... right? And prioritizing those folks. Mm-hmm. Making sure they have the right title, right? We're looking for marketing leaders. Yeah. Um, so we want somebody like director and up kind of is what we're looking for. Did you over-invite? Like, did you do like the, um- Ooh, good question
the reason, like, uh, Spirit Airlines doesn't exist anymore? Did you overbook? We overbooked. You did? Okay, so you over-invite. Yeah. You know h- you know how to take a reservation, but you don't know how to hold- Don't know how to hold the reservation ... the reservation. Classic sign of hell. Yeah. Uh, this scared me a lot.
Yeah. This was actually a recommendation from our event strategist, Steph. Yep. And she was like, "You're gonna wanna over-invite. You're gonna want- Yeah ... like between [00:26:00] 25 and 30 yeses." Wow, okay. And that scared me- That's scary ... 'cause I was like, "We have... There, this room fits 20 people." Yeah. Um, and she was right, of course.
Yeah. Um, so we do have an... Y- there's always two people that don't show up. Yeah, of course. Right? Or more. Yeah. And, uh, for whatever reason. Mm-hmm. Doesn't really matter, but- Especially if you're doing a sidecar event, where there's- Exactly ... other things that could be going on. They could go to a different event.
Yep. They could just not feel like going out. Yeah. Like, they've been at the event all day, and they're kinda spent- Yeah ... right? DoorDashing in the hotel is a vibe. It, ugh, it's my favorite activity. You get to order way more food than is socially acceptable. Oh, and no one knows. Yeah. You could eat- You can get the cheeseburger-
all of it ... and the hotdog from Five Guys. Not speaking from experience. So I've heard other people do. So I've heard other people do. Obviously, this girlish figure- Right ... was not built by Five Guys. I would never. I would never. Anyway. Yeah. So one, that means you have to have a really cool, interesting experience people want to come to.
Yep. And you do need to over-invite, just because you are gonna have a couple people [00:27:00] that no-show. Okay. So we did do that, which made me really nervous- Yeah ... but was absolutely the right move. And then, so you did outbound with her. Yes. You also, uh, we posted about it to drive people inbound as well, you built the website?
I did build the website. Thanks for noticing. With AI? With AI. That's really cool. Tell me how you went through that process. Okay. This was before Claude Design was out- Yeah ... so I did it- So she went- ... without that ... even harder. Yeah. Yeah. I did. I vibed even harder. I vibed harder. I hit the keyboard really hard.
I was like vibe, vibe, vibe, vibe, vibe, vibe, vibe, vibe, vibe.
Love. Okay. So we needed a landing page, right? Yeah. And I don't know what it is about, like, it's like landing pages and ad creative- Yeah ... for whatever reason, is like that is a real sticking point- Yeah ... for I think a lot of marketers of just like, uh, you have to get it up. Yeah. It's not the easiest thing to get up.
Yeah. Everyone wants to weigh in on the content and how it looks. Yeah. And I think lucky for us, we have, like, a very small team that has really good taste. Um, and I was like, [00:28:00] "You know what? I'm gonna try using Claude to actually, like, spin this up." That's cool. And, uh, I did it in an evening. So- Wow ... you know, kids went to bed, and I was like, "All right.
I'm gonna get this ready because we need to make sure that, like, we, we need some time to get the HubSpot form in here. I need to leave- Mm ... a space for that, right? And we need to make sure that we have it up in time before we actually start announcing this and promoting this." We had influencers who were going to be posting about it as well because- Yeah
we wanted to, like, really open up the distribution- Wow ... of people talking about this. So anyway, I was like, "We gotta get this thing ready, and we gotta do it quick." Yeah. Um, and so yeah, it took me, like, an evening, and a lot of it was, like, I fed it our design, uh, our brand guidelines- Yeah ... which were really helpful.
Um, I fed it our tone and voice. I gave it kind of our brief about what the tour was. So I gave it a lot of context. Um, but part of it is just, like, Claude's getting real good at- Yeah ... just understanding, like, what a good landing page needs, all of the sections, how to keep people, like, informed enough but not so much that they're like, "This is too much information."
Yeah. "Analysis paralysis, [00:29:00] I don't wanna go." Yeah. And what I ended up with, with was this really lovely landing page around, like, what is the event, what makes it unique, who's going to be there? Like, it, it w- it just hit all of the points we needed it to hit, and it felt like us. Well, and that's the thing that was so interesting.
For those of you that are trying to, like, visualize it, you're like, "Well, it's really easy to, like, clone a template from your, your Webflow website-" Right ... "and just, like, add..." No. This was, like, a fully Ghost Tour Tour branded website. Yeah. Like, the color palette was different. We wanted it to match the tee.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The T-shirt. Yeah. It was like, it was, like, dark themed. Yeah. It looked like it was, like, raining outside of a witch's castle or something. Yeah. The vibe was vibing. That was actually the brief I gave Claude. "Make it look like it's raining outside of a witch's castle." The thing that was really fun was after we got, like, the bones of what needed to be there- Yeah
we could have some fun with it. So I was like, "I want these little ghosts kind of floating around." And like, I don't know, I'm ... Kelly on our team is, like, incredible with AI. I'm still, like, cutting my teeth. And so for me, it was really cool to [00:30:00] be able to see. Like, I would just be like, "Hey, Claude, I want these..."
I would give it the images. I would be like, "I want these four ghosts to float around next to the H1. Fade them in and out," right? Each one kind of represented the city. There was one that looked like a ghost that had the Statue of Liberty because we're going to New York, and- Yeah ... one that looked like a Vermont person- Yeah
because we're doing one at Drive Right. Had, like, a little thing of Ben & Jerry's- Yeah ... and, like, a camping vest. Is granola in it? Is that an okay word? Yeah. Is it granola? Is it granola? Very granola ghost. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so it was, like, floating around and, like, interchanging. Yeah. And like, that to me was like, man, I- I could have described that to our developer and I think it would have...
Our, we have an incredible developer- Yeah ... but, like, it would have taken him a lot of time to get- Yeah ... that figured out. And what I was able to hand him was a full HTML file And a Figma- Wow ... just in case. Yep. To be like, "Here's the landing page." And by the next morning, because he's in a different time zone than us- Yeah
he, like, had it up, and it was, like, fully functioning. And his feedback to me was like, "That was [00:31:00] so easy." Really? Yeah. Wow. To get it to do what we wanted it to do exactly. And I, and, and he could see exactly what we wanted it to do. Yeah. That was really cool. Man, we don't have to segue, but we're living in a totally different era of- It's-
like marketing ... wild. It's, that's crazy. Yeah. So landing page is amazing. We're getting, uh, people requesting their invites. We're outbounding people with, like, all of these, like, very segmented messages. They're coming from different people on the team. Yep. Because, like, it makes sense for Kelly to maybe do outreach to, uh, a senior demand gen marketer- Right
that we think would be a good fit for this. Mm. And it makes sense for me to send outreach to, let's say, a CMO or a VP of marketing, right? Yeah. And so we're kind of looking at it from that level as well. Okay. And so we are sending all of this outreach out around, like, getting invites for, like, kind of that list.
Yep. We're waiting a period of time to see, like, do they come back to us? Yep. If no, we move on to, like, kind of the next grouping that makes sense. Were you mass emailing, or were you sending one-to-one emails? We're sending one-to-one [00:32:00] emails from our Google, right? Oh, cool. Like, this is a totally unscalable thing.
Yeah. But sometimes you have to do those unscalable things- Yeah ... like to, to get the right people in the room. For a small event like this, that felt like the right approach to it. Totally. Yeah. So some people over a period of time would say, like, "Yep, I'm in." Some people say, "No" or no reply. Yep. And then eventually, depending on how many seats you filled, you would sort of do it again.
Keep going, or we'd kind of come to a stop, right? Got it, okay. Um, and so between kind of that outreach and the people requesting invites- Yeah ... we were able to fill the room with a really great set of folks. How long was the time period between when you started this and you kinda got the attendee list to where it needed to be?
It was a good month. Okay. If not five weeks. Okay. Um, because, you know, it's funny, it fills up. It's a bell curve for sure. Yeah. Like, the closer you get, it's maybe, like, weighted to the right a little bit- Interesting ... of a, of a bell curve. The closer you get, the more confident people are in their plans. Oh.
That they're actually gonna be at that event. Yeah. "Okay, I understand kind of what the agenda is," and, "Yeah, you're right, I'm not gonna have something to do that [00:33:00] evening, would love to, like, join you guys for dinner," right? That's really interesting. And so a month out, you know, we got, like, a trickle of invite requests- Yep
and responses, and then a little bit closer, a little bit closer you get, like, a, a more, a, a larger influx of people- Mm-hmm ... being like, "Yep, would love to join," or requesting an invite. Yeah. And now it's kind of, like, tapering off, right? 'Cause we're r- the, the event is next week. Yeah. And so we're real- we're, we're there now.
Kinda how, it's like a, it's a, it's interesting to know as a marketer, like, you basically have to convince people, like, this is the coolest place you could be out of- Yes ... all the thing, 'cause that's what people are looking for, right? Yes. They're like, "I'm gonna be at Unbound. I've got these four invites," right?
Yeah. Like, "Why should I pick yours?" Which one's the coolest? Yeah, exactly. For sure. Which one's gonna be the most fun? Yeah. Yeah. Well, obviously the one where the party gift is, like, you get a free ghost. Yeah. It follows you home. Like the ride Like the ride, yeah. Yeah. Ugh, I love- Absolutely ... I love Disney.
Yeah. That you, like, get to... I don't know. Who does that on a work trip- Yeah ... you know? Exactly. Like, how fun. Yeah. There was one person, I forget who it was I was, I was speaking to, but they were like, "Is it gonna be scary?" [00:34:00] And I was like, "Maybe." What's your definition of scary? Yeah, what is scary? Like, there's no, like, we're not gonna jump out at you.
Oh, no. No, you're thinking of a haunted house. Yeah, yeah. No, this is like a th- this, you know, w- this Victorian era woman died- Yeah ... in this location- Yeah ... many, many years ago. But she might still be hanging out there. Her ghost has been rumored to- Yeah ... come out. She's chilling. Yeah. She might come home with you.
And we're gonna get to see that. All right, so, so that's what the event's gonna be like. We know your budget. How are you gonna measure whether this is successful or not? Of course you would ask that. No, actually I, I, events are, like, one of those things where you're like it's, it's relatively easy to track.
Yeah. Like, you know somebody was there, and then they booked a demo. Like, this... It's actually one of the kind of easier ones to, to really understand, like, where the return came from- Yeah ... which is great. So we are absolutely thinking about that. I'm gonna grab my notes 'cause I, I wanna make sure that I, I get this right and I not...
You know me, I'm not great with numbers- Yeah, no, not your thing ... or remembering numbers. Yeah. Um, and I wanna make sure I give the people the [00:35:00] numbers- The numbers, yeah ... that they wanna hear. So, um, you know, we have 20 people in the room. Yep. Um, some of them are Vector employees. We do have a couple- Yeah
Vector employees, and a couple of them are customers. Mm-hmm. Um, so out of, let's say, you know, the, I don't know, 12 people in the room- Yep ... who are prospects- Yep ... we, uh, would love to book six meetings- Okay ... out of each of these events. Okay. That feels, like, very realistic and doable. Yeah. Per stop, per tour stop, that would equate to, like, $220,000 in pipeline.
Yep. So for the entire event series, we're looking at, like, $880,000 in pipeline. Not bad. Right? For, what'd you say? 40... For 45,000. Yeah. So that feels like, like a really nice return, and I think we may even pleasantly surprise ourselves. Yeah. Because I think it's going to be such a fun experience. I think- Yeah
we've got great people, at least for this first one so far, and hopefully the rest will kind of follow. Yep. We have some really great people in the [00:36:00] room who are right in our, like, right in our batting- Yeah ... what's that called? Strike zone. We're, they're right in our strike zone. That was like the batting box.
Ri- right in our Quidditch net. Just enter, insert some sport that, like, no one cares about. We can grab the golden snitch real easy. The golden snitch. That's good. I like that one. Yeah. So yeah, they're showing all the signals that they need. Yeah. A product like ours, their team is of the right size and sophistication, right?
Like, we've looked at all of these things, and so feeling really confident that we're gonna get a great return on this series. Super exciting. What happens if you don't? Um, maybe I become one of those ghosts. I become one of those ghosts. Uh, either way, if it works or it doesn't work, you're gonna be in bad shape 'cause if it doesn't work, I'm gonna be upset, and if it does work, then we're just gonna do a bigger event next year.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Damned if I do. Damned if I don't. Correct. It's always that with you. Yeah. God. This is, this is the theme of marketing. Yeah. Right? How dare you do a good job? Do more of that. Do more, yeah. Well, that sounds exciting. I think it's gonna be [00:37:00] a really fun event series. Yeah. It's not as good as, like, a full event that we own, but whatever.
My only question Do we have enough budget left if we wanted to do the Toyota Corolla? I mean, I think we could probably scrounge up a whole $70 and make that happen, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the hardest part will be finding one that doesn't just reek of cigarettes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good times. Good times. It was a great meeting.
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