It’s no secret that in-person events play an increasingly significant role in a company’s marketing strategy, both in terms of increasing brand awareness and maximizing pipeline. Companies are recognizing and acting on the success that events have to engage prospects, leads, and customers above and beyond other marketing channels.
But with all the planning and execution that goes into events, event professionals must ensure that their efforts are not going to waste by failing to utilize the necessary tools for meaningful engagement and results.
With the growing need for greater event personalization, having a clear understanding of what drives attendees can be the ultimate tool in B2B events and marketing. With the right event app, event planners and marketers can use real-time data to access valuable insights into the interests and concerns of their customers and prospects, leading to new or accelerated pipeline.
Measuring ROI for Events
A recent survey by Certain and Heinz Marketing reveals that while roughly three-out-of-four B2B marketers agreed that hosting events is becoming increasingly important to their company’s success, nearly 70 percent of those indicted that tying event spend to generating pipeline remains an elusive task.
“One of the reasons it’s difficult to measure ROI for events is that particularly for companies with a long sales cycle it can take up to 12 to 18 months for someone we met at an event to convert into a customer,” says survey respondent Yoav Schwartz, Co-Founder and CEO of Uberflip. “It’s this lack of immediacy in a return that can cause people to suggest there’s no real ROI from event participation. But the truth is it can take time. That’s where proper reporting and attribution come into play.”
One reliable source for measuring event ROI is in the data provided by session-check in metrics, where figures on attendance and engagement combined with live polling and survey results enable a unique view of attendee behavior. It is in this valuable data that the opportunity to learn about both the attendees and the success of the event can be found.
For example, if your sales team has lined up a meeting with a target account, having an insider’s look at what sessions that prospect attended the previous day helps to inform your team of their goals, interests or concerns that might not come up in conversation. This deeper understanding of an attendee enables greater engagement by allowing sales and marketing to better plan for the conversation. It’s this act of heightened engagement that ultimately drives pipeline.
This deeper understanding of an attendee enables greater engagement by allowing sales and marketing to better plan for the conversation. It’s this act of heightened engagement that ultimately drives pipeline.
Informing Future Events
The data provided by an event app not only informs you about attendee behavior, it also helps to pave the path ahead. Attendees’ responses to speakers and sessions are the foundation for knowing what worked and what didn’t, thereby acting as a jumping-off point for future event planning.
Session check-in metrics provide a tangible source for measuring your investment in terms of speakers and session material. They also offer event planners the necessary details to consider and adjust to when organizing future sessions, including everything from room size and layout to speaker preparation. But it’s not just about looking ahead; these metrics enable event organizers the ability to make real-time, data-based decisions based on attendee feedback that can prove to be the difference between a memorable session or a potential mishap.