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marketing events? Why hold A


fter a company’s website, trade- shows and events are the most effective tactic in the market- ing mix, according to Forrester Research. Twenty five per cent of


the average B2B marketing budget is spent on events and the reasons are obvious. Tree quarters of attendees have a more


positive perception of an organisation (Event Marketing Institute) post-event, while the organiser generates leads, engages customers/ prospects and builds the brand. Whether it’s a user conference, road show


or seminar, marketing events offer unparal- leled face time with your target audience and accelerate the sales process.


Why Measure ROI? According to the IBM Global Chief Marketer Officer Study, almost two-thirds of CMOs believe ROI will be the primary measure of their effectiveness. So the question becomes, how do you accurately measure event ROI? Measuring the effectiveness of your events is critical - if you don’t know what works, you can’t do more of it.


Five strategies for Increasing the ROI of marketing events According to the EMI’s EventTrack Report, event ROI is improving; 63% of compa- nies reported a 2-to-1 or higher return on their events in 2014, up from 55% in 2013, and organisations seeing a 5-to-1 or higher return doubled. Smart organisations are imple- menting strategies that help track ROI and give them a bigger bang for their marketing event buck. Here’s how you can do the same.


aligned prior to events, as early as the registration path set-up, to ensure they are maximising the quality leads and pipeline opportu- nities that result. How can session interest, product


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interest and onsite data be used to better qualify prospects and enhance customer profiles? Have a lead generation strategy for onsite reps, so in addition to scanning the


ALIGN INTERNALLY Marketing and sales must be


badges of interested attendees, define qualify- ing questions.


Technology can mitigate the cost of staging an event by an estimated 20-30% (Aberdeen Group, 2012) while increasing attendance up to 20% (Frost and Sullivan) and significantly simplifying the process. Companies that use event management


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solutions are also able to leverage email marketing for recruiting, create customised and dynamic registration processes, set up automated payment processing, connect to social media channels, and more, all from a central platform which would be impossible to do manually.


mediately, with marketers communicating regularly following registration. Content can include information on key session topics, industry studies, speaker updates. Encourage upgrading to paid registrations, choosing ses-


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ENGAGE. ENGAGE. ENGAGE. Te attendee journey should begin im-


HARNESS THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY


sions, pre-booking meetings, downloading the event app, and sharing on social media. Keeping attendees interested and involved


in the run up increases the number of people who actually attend. During the event, incorporating the latest


innovations in social and mobile technology adds to the experience. Follow up campaigns should thank attendees, ask for feedback, suggest additional resources or events, and provide next steps.


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GET A BIRD’S EYE VIEW To track individual event ROI, organisa-


tions need effective reporting and budget- ing tools, another area where technology can help. In place, those systems provide an executive dashboard of revenue and expenses across events, tracking KPI’s and increasing transparency and facilitating better decision making. In addition, the turn-around time for


reporting key metrics to upper manage- ment and other stakeholders is drastically improved with centralised reporting. ‘Best guesses’ and manual processes are replaced by concrete data.


by integrating an event management plat- form with marketing automation systems like Eloqua or Marketo and CRM solutions like Salesforce. Trough this, marketing can: l Develop a 360 degree profile of attend- ees, enabling personalised event experi- ences that accelerate the buying cycle l Align marketing even more closely with sales, allowing for the capture and scoring of leads onsite, automati- cally entering prospects into follow-up campaigns l Incorporate rich event data into exist- ing systems, creating powerful intel- ligence for determining the impact of events on key behaviours


5 l Tie event investments to the revenue


cycle, making better comparisons to other marketing channels.


To learn more about how Cvent can help you get more ROI from your events, please visit cvent.co.uk


INTEGRATE Tis strategy has an exponential impact


EVENTSBASE | MARCH 2016 | 41


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