How marketers use live events to reap huge ROI from the data (VB Live)

For CallidusCloud, an enterprise software and SaaS company based in California, good old-fashioned events have become a central, and very integral part of their marketing strategy.
Their C3 Conference draws over 1,500 customers, prospects, and partners every year, says Wendi Wang, vice-president of marketing events at CallidusCloud. And live events like these present an unparalleled opportunity to learn more about prospects than any other channel. The average event attendee is hugely qualified already: they travel on average 500 miles, spend more than $1,000, and they’re investing two to three days of their time.
At every point in the event pipeline, your prospects are voting with their time and attention, from the messages they respond to, to the sessions they choose to attend, to the vendors they interact with — and it all can be tracked digitally.
Since integrating the technology that allows the company to track the digital footprints of their attendees, CallidusCloud has seen a 40 percent increase in registration, a 35 percent increase in registrant show rate, and most importantly, a 30 percent increase in their cross-sell pipeline.
Early in their events program, the CallidusCloud team used a mix of homegrown systems and manual processes to manage registration, speakers, check-in, badges, and attendee engagement. But as their events program grew, the team noticed limitations to their in-house registration system, which consisted of piles of pre-printed name badges, directing attendees throughout the events space and keeping them informed of last-minute changes to the agenda.
“It was not very intuitive,” says Wang, “[and] we couldn’t get the data out to show ROI from the event.” During the event, the team was manually gathering data about who arrived, using clickers at doorways to count how many attendees found their way to the breakout sessions, and were manually adding business card information to spreadsheets in order to track leads. The data they were able to gather was sparse, and follow-up speed was dismal.
Martech, traditionally used to track digital leads, has now become a resource for marketers to capture both digital and real-world event attendee data, all in real time. That means essential customer signals from the registration website to the mobile event app, check-in kiosks, attendance scans at every exhibitor booth, breakout sessions, and more.
Before the event even begins, the CallidusCloud team can see who’s registered, who hasn’t, discover what products they use, and what products they’re interested in learning about, helping them gauge how to personalize  messages, and point them to the right sessions, to the right places, and to meet the right people.
On-site, attendees can check in and print their own badges at digital kiosks. During the event, lead retrieval technology allows the team to track who enters each session, and follow their engagement throughout the course of the entire event. Partners can track the attendees that they meet with, which also lets them track the ROI of every engagement once they get home.
The attendee experience is also improved by eliminating a paper agendas, replacing them with a mobile app that guides attendees through the agenda, as well as offers maps to make guests aren’t wandering into the pool or someone else’s event.
Ultimately, harnessing the power of live events drives revenue. Event technology turns events into data pools, and lets you track ROI on a granular level, letting you see how much pipeline your event has influenced, and allowing you close those deals swiftly. “Ever since we integrated our Cvent to our Salesforce instance,” says Wang, “we can very easily pull reports to see how much pipeline our C3 Conference has influenced and, ultimately, close on those deals.”
To learn more about turning events into rich sources of data, how to combine your online efforts with your offline marketing to create multi-channel success, and more, don’t miss this VB Live event!
Source: VentureBeat
To Read Our Daily News Updates, Please Visit Inventiva Or Subscribe Our Newsletter & Push.