This article is part of an Events Insight series paid for by Cvent.
Do you ever struggle with collecting event data and then using that data to inform and help prioritize your post-event lead follow up? If so, you’re not alone. Here are tips to help ensure your success, from those who have been in your shoes.
The meeting and events team for Cvent (which is a leading provider of event marketing and management tech) oversees a significant number of events each year. This team is also responsible for planning the company’s annual user conference, Cvent CONNECT. In 2021 for the first time, this team known as The Connectors, took this flagship event hybrid. In this article we’ll get an insider’s perspective on how they went about activating leads from this event as well as tips you can use for your own event program.
Tip #1: Understand the data
At Cvent there are three stages in which we categorize our data collection: pre-event, during the event, and post-event, and we’d recommend you do the same.
Before the event
Pre-event, both segmentation and registration-related data can be captured. Segmenting your audience by interests and demographics allows for you to deliver relevant content and experiences at your event.
During the event
During the event, there are two groups of data to focus on collecting. First, attendance and sessions will help provide critical information about what is resonating with your audience.
The second group of data relates to the engagement elements that let you know which activities and topics your attendees are interested in and most engaged with.
After the event
The post-event data includes engagement scores, survey responses, event cost, revenue, and the ROI. This will let you know if your event was successful, what worked well, and key areas to focus on when it comes to making improvements.
Tip #2: Collect data purposefully
For Cvent CONNECT, we dedicated a lot of time to curating the data we collect to ensure we could turn the knowledge from every conversation and footprint throughout the event into the next step for sales. We worked closely alongside the sales team to make sure we asked the right questions during registration, got the correct people registered, and knew who we were working with prior to the event.
Tip #3: Measure two sets of goals
Creating a hybrid event means you have access to more data and insights. That said, you also need to weigh the value of in-person and virtual data differently. Cvent CONNECT for example, went through a methodical process to identify how to score engagement throughout the event and assign different scores for attending an in-person session versus a virtual session.
Tip #4: Enlist help
Don’t be afraid to look to your internal teams, technology, and community to help produce a great event.
Call on your marketing operations team
With the help of both the event marketing and sales teams, our marketing operations team was able to simplify event processes and make sense of event data and proving ROI. The team assisted with multiple out-of-the-box integrations before, during, and after the event while also helping orchestrate the use of various marketing technologies.
Tip #5: Use technology to transform data into opportunity
Use engagement scoring
The use of a single platform capable of engagement scoring allows for you to create a detailed profile of each attendee in addition to the community you’re hosting. This gives you a clear representation of the attendee journey in its entirety. Your marketing and sales teams will also be able to curate different follow-up messages by assigning an engagement score.
Create a reporting framework
It is essential to have a technology partner with robust reporting capabilities due to the daunting amount of data that is collected at hybrid events.
Tip #6: Rely on your community
In this new landscape it’s important to get your hands on whatever resources you can to help you gain confidence. At Cvent, we’re gathering whatever knowledge we can and handing it off to our peers, like with this blog post! We would also love to share even more tactical how-to insights with you. So, if you’re up for it, read Cvent’s eBook Keeping Up with the Connectors for a full chapter focused on post-event activation, as well as other chapters covering all the details on how we took Cvent CONNECT to a hybrid event format.
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