What's the Difference Between IPM (In-Person Marketing) and Event Marketing?

In the fast-evolving world of go-to-market strategies, two terms often get thrown around interchangeably: In-Person Marketing (IPM) and event marketing. But here’s the truth—while they may overlap, they’re not the same.

If you're still treating in-person touchpoints as one-off event tasks instead of a repeatable, measurable revenue channel, you're missing the bigger picture. Let’s break it down.

Event Marketing: The Legacy Approach

Let’s be real—event marketing has long been a high-stakes, low-measurement game.

Booths, banners, branded stress balls… The goal? Visibility. Awareness. Maybe some badge scans and an attendee list. But the truth is, most event marketers have been operating in a world where success was more about impressions than impact.

Why? Because traditional event marketing has lacked the tools to track performance beyond anecdotal wins.

• You knew people stopped by.
• You handed out swag.
• You maybe scanned a badge.

But did any of it drive revenue?

Hard to say.

Event marketing is traditionally about planning and executing specific marketing activities at organized events like trade shows, expos, and conferences. Think branded booths, signage, swag, speaker slots, or sponsored happy hours. The focus is on event logistics and presence.

But here's the catch:

Event marketing is often siloed. It's treated as an isolated campaign—something you “check off” quarterly. The success metrics? Usually vanity-based: number of attendees, booth traffic, badge scans.

And while event marketing does a great job at creating moments, it falls short when it comes to creating momentum.

In-Person Marketing: A Strategic Revenue Channel

In-Person Marketing (IPM) is a broader, holistic discipline. It’s not just about showing up—it’s about showing ROI. IPM takes the core idea of event marketing—connecting with people IRL—and makes it measurable, repeatable, and revenue-generating. And it does it beyond the confines of a 10ft x 10ft booth - and even beyond the entire conference floor.

Where event marketing ends, IPM begins. It brings structure, standardization, and systems to every in-person interaction—whether at a conference, dinner, sales meeting, or impromptu encounter in a hotel lobby.

Popl defines In-Person Marketing as the modern way to:

• Capture enriched leads instantly, with AI-powered tools
• Sync everything to your CRM in real time, not days later
• Standardize the process, so teams aren't reinventing the wheel at every event
• Track ROI down to the conversation

With IPM, every handshake becomes a measurable revenue opportunity.

Why Now? The Tech Finally Caught Up

What changed? Two things: AI and data.

Only in the past few years has the tech stack caught up to the opportunity. With the emergence of AI-powered enrichment and access to robust proprietary databases, it’s finally possible to:

• Identify buying signals and high-fit accounts in real time
• Auto-fill CRM fields with verified contact and company info
• Segment, score, and sync leads instantly
• Schedule meetings, and route new leads, directly from the show flow

These are breakthroughs that event marketers never had before. And they’ve unlocked a new, scientific approach to in-person engagement.

Event Marketing vs. IPM: What’s the Real Difference?

Let’s visualize it:

	Event Marketing	In-Person Marketing (IPM)
Scope	Formal, one-off events	Every real-world interaction
Primary Focus	Brand awareness	Revenue generation
Lead Capture	Manual and reliant on 3rd party event-provided systems	Universal, real-time, enriched with context, CRM-ready
Data Ownership	Limited - gated by event organizers	Full ownership—controlled by your team
CRM Sync	Delayed (days or weeks)	Instant, automated
Follow-Up	Manual processing, often inconsistent, or non-existent	Automated, intelligent segmentation, trackable
Measurement	Booth traffic, impressions, anecdotal success	Pipeline impact, revenue attribution, ROI
Team Alignment	Sales and marketing often siloed	Unified GTM team with shared goals
Technology Stack	Spreadsheets, ZoomInfo, rented lead retrieval badge scanners	Universal lead scanner app, CRM integrations, native enrichment, calendar & scheduling tools

Event marketing is a piece of the puzzle. IPM is the whole system that makes the puzzle complete.

Why It Matters Now

We’re living in a post-digital fatigue world. Email inboxes are overflowing. AI bots are cold-pitching with zero context. But face-to-face? It still works—when it’s done right.

The global events industry is projected to grow from $1.4 trillion in 2024 to $2.3 trillion by 2034. But if teams are still using spreadsheets, paper business cards, and waiting days for lead lists, they’re leaving millions in ROI on the table.

In-Person Marketing isn’t just a trend—it’s the next evolution of GTM.

Popl’s Role in the IPM Revolution

At Popl, we don’t just believe in IPM—we built the platform to power it. Our tools unify digital business cards, universal lead capture, and AI-powered contact enrichment into one seamless system. Whether your team is on the expo floor or at a rooftop dinner, you’ll never miss a lead—or the revenue it brings.

Because in-person should mean in-control, in-context, and always in-motion.

TL;DR

Event marketing is an activity. In-Person Marketing is a strategy.

If you're still treating events as branding exercises, you’re playing yesterday’s game. The next wave of high-performing GTM teams are treating in-person interactions like pipeline triggers—and they're winning because of it.

Don’t just attend the event. Activate it.