It is no secret that leveraging data is critical to event success but, the bar has been raised on what data you use and how and when you use it. It is no longer simply a reflection exercise. Whether you are planning your first ever event or carrying on a renowned annual production, data can guide the way during every step of the process - from planning and prepping, to developing a follow-up strategy, and beyond.
The increase in data measurement and analysis is the fourth trend in the New Era of Marketing, a five-part series outlining the five key trends that define the post-pandemic event marketing climate. Read on to discover how to more effectively utilize collected data to ensure your events achieve maximum success.
Your data is ready to talk. Are you listening?
Audience, Location, and Timing: Data-Driven Decisions
To kick off the data analysis, start during your event planning phase by addressing the initial question: Who? Identify the specific roles that you are hoping to drive engagement with. Take a look at the open pipeline and intent data and begin to sift out where your teams are connected. By analyzing these insights, you can develop an event strategy that is aligned with both sales and marketing teams.
Next, answer the second most important question: Where? By evaluating simple geographical reporting you can identify your strongest markets, your weakest markets, and pick a location and event venue that effectively benefits either. For example, in a weak market the venue may need to be the draw that attracts your target audience, as you might lack brand equity in the region. Consider venues like a sporting game box or an elite restaurant, these types of venues will increase the appeal to attend despite not being familiar with your brand. Whereas in a stronger market, it can be more valuable to prioritize thought-leading keynotes, workshops and personalized experiences that will engage your audience on a deeper level.
The third and final question to answer during this process is: When? The timing of an event is critical to its success. But, it isn't as simple as it might sound. The time of year picked should be determined by the intended goal of the event. For example, events during Q1 should focus on pipeline generation whereas, during Q4 a closing event would be more relevant. Strategically align with your sales team’s annual sales cycle and use data-driven insights from your target audience to identify the best season to capture their interest. Then, structure your event strategy around the corresponding phase in the sales cycle when the event will take place. This approach synchronizes the event's objectives and content with the audience's needs and behaviors, optimizing the effectiveness of the event in driving engagement and conversions.
The Influence of Data on Messaging, Content & Design
Once the who, the where, and the when have been decided, it's time to start prepping the messaging and content strategy, as well as your event roadmap. With the data already collected, this phase should flow more naturally. Audience insights give you the ability to develop the event elements like the speakers, content, and activations that will attract your target audience and keep them actively engaged.
Data is also the best determinant of messaging and content. Look at historic engagement metrics on previous content pieces to determine what seemed to resonate most intently in the past. What is more likely to strike your audience: thought leadership or practical pieces? Have you noticed that executives engage with certain content features, while practitioners set their attention elsewhere? These factors can help decide how many content tracks are needed throughout your event. Building a strategic content approach based on what has been proven successful is a smart way to make the most significant impact with all personas in attendance.
Using data and logic to understand how people engage with a venue will help you select and design your venue appropriately. Think about how grocery stores tend to put the eggs and milk at the back of the store. This is because data tells them that shoppers will most likely be purchasing one of the two.So, they want them to walk through the ENTIRE store to get it forcing them to pass items they either didn’t know they needed or suddenly feel influenced to purchase. This increases the value of the overall purchase. Adopt this mindset into your setup and prepping. For example, if data tells you that your thought leaders have been the main draw for your event, but you are aiming to up engagement, set your key activations directly before your speakers' timeslots. This way you can influence your audience to network and participate.
Data-Driven Segmentation for Effective Follow-Up
It is already known (but we guarantee that data will confirm) that blanket emails don’t work. You have to use a more strategic approach to achieve your desired result. Leverage the data from your event and curate a follow-up plan accordingly. Document the following:
All of these data points are indicators of interest level and should be incorporated into a strategic follow-up plan. Segment your audience members into buckets based on their level of interest or engagement to curate appropriate messaging and cadence to pique their interest and nurture them through the follow-up sequences. By doing so, you can increase your conversion rates.
Analyzing Event Performance for Continuous Improvement
Look at the data of how the event performed with a lens of granularity. This helps your team make better decisions about what to repeat, what to tweak, and what to nix altogether. Things like registration-to-attendee rate, attendee-to-meeting rate, meeting-to-pipeline rate, and pipeline-to-closed-won rate are key metrics to document and analyze post-event that can drive your plan and prep phases for your next event. Additional logistic data to consider like:
Can be essential data points to direct future planning. Putting together a comprehensive read-out post-event helps drive cross-organization alignment and rally the troops about how to continue bringing events that deliver to market.
When it comes to marketing in the post-pandemic era, data is both the starting and ending point. The best way to make an impact is to leverage your audience insights and historical data, and use that information to make decisions about your event's content, promotion, and follow up. Data is not just a tool for the seasoned “data nerd” anymore. When utilized effectively, it can drive experiences, create awareness, and leverage better business outcomes.
How do you take all four of the trends that we’ve outlined and tie them up in a bow? Offer on-demand content! In the fifth and final part of our New Era series we will discuss the importance of capitalizing on your event by generating content that can be consumed on your audiences terms.
Stay Tuned!
