The importance of collecting and using the right data from event registrations
They say data is the new gold. We take a look at why and how collecting attendee data can not only help deliver a great event experience, but can also be used for other business and marketing activities.
By inference, every event, no matter how large or small, is designed to deliver a positive and rewarding experience for those who attend it.
The motives behind why a brand creates an event and what their desired outcomes are from delivering a great experience vary from event to event. The balance that needs to be drawn is between the effort required in time and cost to create an event versus the benefit of creating a great experience.
The event registration is the organiser’s first opportunity to gather really accurate information about their attendees. It can help them tailor the event to deliver a great event experience for the attendees and also be used for ongoing marketing activities. In addition to that, it can make life easier for the event organiser, giving them valuable information to help them plan for catering, fine tuning event content and accommodation requirements.
Pulling the attendee data into a marketing automation platform is a really great way of getting added value from it. These platforms are designed to get the most out of accurate data, using personalisation across multiple communications channels to deliver the marketing message. Integrating your the registration platform with a marketing automation and/or CRM platform is a seamless way of pushing event attendee data and making use of it for other business and marketing activities immediately.
Planning what information is needed to deliver a great event experience and for ongoing marketing activities is essential. It's also really important to make sure the registration form is tailored to the attendee, so it's not asking them to complete fields which are not relevant to them. The Mitingu registration form builder can help with this as it gives the organiser the ability to filter questions based on registration types, known attendee preferences and how they have responded to a previous question.
As they say, "Data is the new gold".
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” ― Confucius
Tagging is a powerful way to drive personalised content in a really simple way. This is how we do it at mitingu.
We’ve already discussed the importance and relevance of personalisation in previous posts. We’ll now tell you why we chose our preferred method of driving the data for personalisation, tagging.
Q. Why did we choose tagging?
A. For it’s simplicity
Tagging is a well established and arguably underused categorisation system that has seen prominence in blog use and more recently, social networks. It is all about assigning words or short keyword phrases to items to group them together. For example, items tagged as “event” would be grouped together if you searched on that tag.
Tagging is an effective and very simple categorisation system and by including it as one of the core features of mitingu we have leveraged this grouping to allow our users to create business intelligence based on the data they have.
One of the historical issues with tagging is that it places emphasis on the content creator to assign tags to their content and often laziness prevails and content is incorrectly tagged or not tagged at all. We’ve overcome this issue in mitingu as tags are automatically assigned to customers not events based on the information they give, not what is assumed.
Tags in mitingu can be used as filters for personalised content within web and email templates, ticket types and registration form questions. Email notifications can also be automatically sent based on an individual’s tag or tags.
Rather than having to write rules around different activities we use tags to simplify the process.
Here’s a simple example of tags used to create a personalised event site in mitingu.
Event name: The Good Wine Conference
Tags used: “red”, “white”, “rose”
Personalised elements: Main banner, intro text, agenda, registration type
Site 1 - John's personalised site
Site 2 - Jane's personalised site
Site 3 - Charles' personalised site
Right people, right event
Getting the right people to the right event might seem a pretty obvious objective for an event organiser however making sure it happens can be tricky….here's a few tips on how combining good data with relevant content can help
Getting the right people to the right event might seem a pretty obvious objective for an event organiser however making sure it happens can be tricky….
It's all down to the data, (Information...it's gold dust), getting hold of strong data is the first challenge. Assuming you’ve been successful in that, the second challenge is using that data to tailor the content towards your audience. Last, but not least, getting the subject line right for your emails provides challenge number three.
The good news is that you can do something about all of the above.
1. You can buy your basic data and build on it. There’s loads of places online where you can buy data lists, some better than others. The basic rule of you get what you pay for generally applies here. Research thoroughly and try and get some test data first to validate. If you’ve got some time and resource available then a combination of LinkedIn and web search makes it possible to build a fantastic database of prospects.
2. Once you’ve got the right information, it’s all about using it and making sure the recipient of your invite reads something that is relevant to them.
Having recently received an email from a health club where I have held a membership for 8 years, the opening gambit was “Dear Valued Member”! They know my name, I gave it to them all those years ago so have no problem with them using it! This email then went on to ask me to vote for their Spa in a “Salon/Spa of the Year” competition. Although I’m a man who takes care of himself ( I moisturize, that counts right? ) I’ve never stepped foot into the Spa. However my wife, who is also a member, has several times yet they didn’t email her. My point here wasn’t that they shouldn’t have emailed me as a member (I expect such emails), but if they’d used their data smartly they could have addressed the email to me and asked if my wife would vote for them and that would have engaged with me.
If you’re sending invitations to clients or prospects about an upcoming event, make sure you target those that may have an interest in what the event is about and don’t forget to use their name!
3. The good people at Campaign Monitor published a post last summer called The 15 most powerful words in subject lines. The subject line is all about making the right first impression and it was interesting to see that when “Invitation” is used as the first word, there is a 9.45% uplift in open rates and when used as the last word, a 7.69% uplift.
There’s no such thing as an exact science when it comes to subject lines, so it’s always worth creating a few and comparing the results to see which one is getting the best open rates.
Getting these three things right isn’t easy, but when you do, the benefits are well worth all the groundwork beforehand.
4 Ways Event Managers Can Use Personalisation to Impact ROI
Are you collecting data on attendees that register for events? Have you thought about and planned out how you might go about utilising this data? These are just 4 ways that personalisation can be used to impact the return on investment for an event...
Are you collecting data on attendees that register for events? Have you thought about and planned out how you might go about utilising this data? During the event registration and signup process, as an event manager or coordinator you have the opportunity to request information that you can then intelligently use to impact the ROI of an event.
These are just 4 ways that personalisation can be used to impact the return on investment for an event;
1. Dynamic, personalised event webpages
Once your attendee has registered for your event, the next time they visit the event webpage, information and elements of the site can be personalised specifically to their interests or motivations for attending the event. For example, the imagery could reflect the industry the attendee works in. You could include a call out box requesting responses to any additional non-mandatory questions they didn’t answer at signup in order to collect even more data. If they selected that they needed accommodation over the course of the event, you could include local restaurant ideas or things to do in the evening during the course of their stay.
2. Valuable meeting suggestions
Based on the attendees’ interests, role, industry and even where they are in their purchasing cycle, you could match-make them with your exhibitors, event partners or sponsors, inviting them to private meetings that will take place onsite during the event. By carefully profiling the data, you offer your attendees meetings highly personalised to their needs or motivations for attending. You will also solidify relationships with your exhibitors by connecting them with pre-qualified leads.
3. Personalised email marketing
It’s annoying to receive multiple and very apparent, generic email blasts in the lead up or during an event. Using the data you have collected, tailor emails based on the individual. Segment your attendees into defined profiles, sending them content or information related to their needs. For example, you wouldn’t send a sponsor email whose product and services pricing starts at £100,000 to an attendee who has indicated that they work at a company with a turnover of less than £100,000 per year.
4. Real-time interaction
During the event there are a number of opportunities to engage with your attendees. When attendees check in at the event you could automate emails containing the attendee’s personalised event programme, if you gave them the option to select and choose from different tracks or talks happening at the event. Even simpler still, but just as personal, you could pre-schedule emails following a speaker or sponsor’s presentation with further information including the slides from their talk to attendees who checked in to that specific talk. If you do not have the real-time checking in capabilities you can pre-schedule these emails to be sent to attendees who fit the profile for attending talks of this nature, perhaps basing your theory on previous event data.
These 4 applications and ideas for personalisation are just the tip of the iceberg with regards to what is possible. Uses for attendee data can be as simple or creative as you are willing to go. But no matter which end of the scale you choose, personalisation can be key to driving the impact on the ROI of an event, as well as creating lasting relationships with all event stakeholders; attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, etc. Personalisation enhances the experience for all those involved and can help in building loyalty and repeat business.
If you want to enhance personalisation to improve your event ROI, Mitingu is a user-friendly cloud-based platform that makes it simple to intelligently utilise attendee data and create a heightened event experience. We’d love to chat about more ways you could use personalisation for your next event. Or if you’re not much of a talker, you can sign up for a free account in minutes.