Let’s face it. Events are expensive. In fact, according to Forrester, events consume 18% of all marketing budgets and it’s not surprising why. Events are a critical top-of-funnel channel for generating net-new leads, but more importantly, events give marketers face time that likely does more than anything else to turn prospects into opportunities that increase sales pipeline.
Companies spend billions on in-person events every year. With so much invested, it’s crucial that marketers capture event leads effectively and convert them to measurable sales pipeline. Unlike digital programs in which leads flow smoothly through measurable nurture stages and into sales’ hands, event data capture is messy from start to finish. And this problem can’t be solved without the right processes and technology in place.
Marketers can and should only allow high-quality leads enter their marketing automation systems. It's time to take control of event lead capture, processes, and data to effectively attribute revenue to event investments:
Ditch outdated event capture methods. The number one event objective is to establish and solidify connections with peers, customers, and prospects. Antiquated processes and a lack of event-qualified data has led marketers to rely on conjecture and event anecdotes to measure event success. While 76% of marketing professionals agree that in-person events are their top demand generation tactic, gathering and managing event leads is still highly chaotic. For years marketers have used outdated collection methods like badge scanners, collecting business cards in a fishbowl and even having prospects fill out their information on a written, paper form. Eliminate delays in outreach and ensures your data is compliant with industry standards.
- Stop using clunky badge scanners and adopt a more technologically-savvy solution that collects lead data on any device
- Ensure prospect opt-in to accurately capture GDPR compliant event data
- Collect context around your conversations for valuable, personalized follow-up
Learn more by accessing our on-demand webinar: End Event Lead Chaos: How Verizon and Avalara Control Lead Capture to Increase ROI.
Engage with event prospects in real time using personalized messaging. Once you’ve invested in event technology that allows you to capture event prospect data on your own device, you’re able to nurture prospects—sometimes even while an event is still occurring.
B2B Marketers are in competition for event leads and lead lists are often shared with companies competing to get their messaging to prospects, making timely follow up critical. Having contextual data around when, where and what your team discussed with prospects allows for more meaningful nurture and follow-up that’s appropriately tailored to the individual’s persona and lifecycle stage, geared at moving them down the funnel.
Pro-Tip: For your priority prospects, consider branching out from just email follow-up programs. Post-event can be a powerful time for display targeting.
Remove manual processes and connect events directly into your marketing stack. When unqualified event leads are routed to your databases, it creates long-term scaling inefficiencies for your entire organization. Before handing event leads over to the proper MDR, BDR or sales team member, confirm your data is:
- De-duplicated
- Valid and free of typos and fake email addresses
- Complete and not missing key fields (You’ll need a trusted partner to append the data)
- Within the constraints of your persona criteria. Don’t fill your database up with people who just wanted your free swag
Pro Tip: Invest in an integration that does the manual work for you.
Quickly and accurately attribute qualified leads and revenue back to events. Powerful reporting platforms allow marketers to clearly tie events to revenue. Event performance should be measured alongside other top-funnel demand programs to give marketers a clear understanding of how event cost per lead. Having the ability to quickly and accurately attribute qualified leads and revenue back to events will allow you to reallocate budget to events that bring in prospects and minimize budget on events that don’t.
Event marketing is costly, but your pipeline impact doesn’t have to be difficult to measure. It’s time to end disconnected event marketing processes that lead to a lack of information, missed opportunities and lost revenue. Employ a consistent lead capture, nurture, data validation and measurement process for all your events to take ownership of your event data and simplify the process of data collection and routing while maximizing ROI.
If you’d like more ideas about ways to efficiently collect and prove ROI from event leads, listen to our on-demand webinar: End Event Lead Chaos: How Verizon and Avalara Control Lead Capture to Increase ROI.
