Data Use to Bolster Event ROI

Technological advancements enable event organisers to act on data insights before, during and after an event to optimise outcomes.

FREMONT, CA: Any marketing plan must include events. Events provide a singular opportunity to engage and intimately connect with a target audience while enhancing a sales pipeline for the company since they can unite people.

Events changed dramatically throughout the pandemic. Along with adjusting to significant changes in where and how people met, event experience leaders used new technologies to promote connections. They gained more knowledge about enhancing the experiences of all attendees, speakers, and sponsors as a result. The biggest shift in the course of events: Event planners may take action on data insights before, during, and after an event to maximise results thanks to technological improvements.

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It's more important than ever to understand how to get the correct data and use it meaningfully as they go into a new era of happenings. In 2023, 85 per cent of event planners expect to hold at least three live events, with 35 per cent expecting to host at least ten of more than 200 event planners. The time is now to optimise business impact by releasing the power of event data.

When event producers produce in-person events once more, they do it with the knowledge gained through more than two years of constant change and technological advancement. The event impact gap, or the discrepancy between event organisers' aspirations to create impactful experiences and their ability to carry those out with available technology, is being addressed by event experience leaders across all industries.

Even if the job of an event organiser has been changing for a while, the pandemic sped up the process. Event planners bring a variety of other abilities to the table, including data analysis, marketing operations, and digital production, in addition to their planning and logistics knowledge. However, while having improved skills, event planners still struggle with antiquated event software that prevents them from accessing and using their data. This barrier makes it difficult for organisers to create and implement individualised experiences and establish genuine connections with their audiences.

Stronger integration of events into demand generation plans is made possible by better data activation, which gives marketers the ability to customise outreach and generate engagement at scale. As a result, there is greater attendee engagement, which boosts revenue and ROI.

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Leveraging Data to Accelerate Pipeline

There is a wealth of untapped data potential in live events. Events stand out as a fantastic opportunity to gain insight into the target audience's behaviours, interests, and passions. They have an unmatched view of the material, peers, and exhibitors that appeal to audiences on-site and how the audience is connecting with the brand. Overall marketing approach and future event strategy are both influenced by these insights.

The execution of virtual events by event planners demonstrated that having access to data is half the battle. The capacity to transform your data into something useful and use it to benefit is what gives it its true value.

Need technology that makes it possible for teams to quickly and simply use data to customise post-event material and messaging.

They can create more successful outreach if they know who an attendee interacted with, which sessions they enjoyed, and what content they downloaded. As a result, the event's value to attendees and efforts at demand generation is increased. Utilise data to pique attendees' interests and keep them meaningfully engaged rather than sending each attendee the same message with their name appended to the top of an email.

Understanding How Engagement Translates to Leads 

The sales pipeline can be enriched and accelerated using the same data used to tailor an attendee's event experience. Can assign engagement scores to each attendee by gathering information about their activity, such as the polls they took part in, the sessions they attended, and the exhibitors they interacted with. Following that, they can tailor post-event follow-up by segmenting attendees based on their levels of engagement.

Furthermore, by giving sales teams the information they need to identify the most engaged leads, they can concentrate their time and efforts on increasing conversion success. Additionally, sales teams can determine whether there is a link between an attendee's high levels of engagement and their propensity to become an opportunity to the comprehensive data they've gathered on each attendee, enabling better plans.

Using Data-enabling Technology to Refine Experiences

Experimenting with data is not just for sales staff. All events provide numerous chances to test, refine, and enhance participant and company outcomes before, during, and after the event.

Make sure the data collected matches the format of the event. For instance, data-collecting procedures for both audiences are needed for a physical event with a virtual component. Ask questions specific to the differences between online and in-person attendees' experiences. Additionally, use event management software that enables both on-floor and screen audience engagement measurement.

Maximise the Value of Behavioural Data

Create individualised session tracks and networking opportunities using registrants' behavioural data. Comparing it to virtual events, gathering behavioural data at live events can seem intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. Event experience managers use cutting-edge tools, such as wearable technology, to gather data.

With wearable event technology, participants can have more individualised networking and session experiences, and organisers can collect unparalleled data. Although wristbands, high-tech badges, and other wearables may not be budget-friendly requirements for every event, they serve as effective data sources. Wearing these gadgets allows attendees to automatically contribute data that may be used to improve future events.

Event experience leaders can test novel concepts using data and then follow the data's direction.

Everything from registration forms and email subject lines to in-session polling techniques and other event communications can benefit from experimentation. Based on information from previous event data, pick three to five critical metrics to test in the beginning. Examine the outcomes of an experiment after they've conducted it. Based on what they learned, design subsequent experiments, and adjust event planning as necessary to continue improving efforts.

Data Maturity Powers Advanced Insights

Better event experiences are made possible by actionable data, which also gives CMOs and other marketing executives the ability to show how effective events are. The benefits of event experience programmes can be effectively communicated to all stakeholders if given a data maturity model top priority, especially as enterprises manage economic instability. A data maturity model connects each event touchpoint rather than evaluating data independently, giving insights that match event strategy with important success metrics.