Relationship building is a key factor for successful conferences, but how can you measure its impact on your sales and attendance? In this article, you will learn some methods and tools to track and evaluate the quality and quantity of your relationships with your prospects, customers, and partners before, during, and after your conference.
Before you start measuring your relationship building efforts, you need to define what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. For example, do you want to increase your brand awareness, generate leads, close deals, or retain customers? Depending on your goals, you can choose different metrics to track, such as website visits, social media engagement, email open rates, registrations, referrals, conversions, retention rates, or net promoter scores.
If you days are full of meeting, and you are not having time to actually do the work, try some of these tips: 1) Are you really need in all meetings? 2) Do they have an agenda? Ensure to join meetings with proper agenda setup, so it doesn't get lost on the way and unproductive. Always ask the owner of the meeting, what's the agenda, what's the goal of the meeting. This will help you organize your day better, ensuring you are only joining the meetings you really need to be there.
One of the most effective ways to measure your relationship building is to use a customer relationship management (CRM) software that allows you to store and manage your contacts, interactions, and transactions. A CRM software can help you segment your audience, personalize your communication, automate your follow-up, and monitor your pipeline. You can also use a CRM software to integrate with other tools, such as email marketing, web analytics, or event management platforms, to get a holistic view of your relationship building performance.
One thing I have found very helpful is to have a goal for the CRM itself. What do you want a CRM to do for you? A great way to start is by figuring out what you need to see for reporting.
Another way to measure your relationship building is to ask your audience directly. You can conduct surveys and feedback forms before, during, and after your conference to gauge their satisfaction, expectations, preferences, and needs. You can use online tools, such as SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or Google Forms, to create and distribute your surveys and feedback forms. You can also use live polls, quizzes, or Q&A sessions during your conference to engage your audience and collect their opinions.
It is always suggested to ask customers their thoughts on the experience. Not enough clients make the efforts on this level. Here is also where a Persona Development exercise is a good option.
Social media and online reviews are also valuable sources of information to measure your relationship building. You can use social media platforms, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, to create and join conversations, share content, and interact with your audience. You can also use social media analytics tools, such as Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social, to measure your reach, impressions, clicks, likes, comments, shares, and mentions. Additionally, you can monitor online reviews on platforms, such as Trustpilot, Yelp, or Google Reviews, to see what your audience thinks about your conference and your brand.
Finally, you can measure your relationship building by calculating your return on relationship (ROR), which is the value that you get from your relationships with your audience. ROR can be measured in terms of revenue, loyalty, referrals, or advocacy. To calculate your ROR, you need to estimate the lifetime value (LTV) of each customer or partner that you acquire or retain through your conference. Then, you need to subtract the cost of acquisition (COA) and retention (COR) of each customer or partner. The difference is your ROR.