All About Events: Tips for Event Planning and Tracking ROI
Events are major opportunities for lead and new business generation – in fact, 68% of B2B marketers think that events are the most effective way to get new leads.
But are you getting the most out of events, especially trade shows? Find out the top tips to ensure your team is engaging at a booth, what the event lifecycle looks like, and how to measure ROI.
Tips for More Effective Events
1. Engagement is everything
At any client-facing event, engagement is one of the most important factors for success.?
Not only does engagement bring more leads and business, but it helps the business build top-of-mind awareness. It’s important to train your team members before the event on best practices, expected behavior and responsibilities, and remind them that they need to be focused on engaging with people.
Also, it’s a good idea to bring in fun and creative goodies to attract people. Some people will just wait in line as snack or swag grabbers, but the more people come by, the more opportunities will exist for connection.?
2. The importance of note-taking
Take notes whenever you have a meaningful conversation with someone at an event. What did you talk about? What did they respond to? What brought them to your booth? What are they looking for, and what are their pain points?
Taking detailed notes helps you create more specific outreach strategies. You can then label your notes and categorize leads in your CRM.?
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3. Post-event follow-up
Your marketing strategy will look different post-event. You’ll use those notes you took on all the leads that engaged with the sales team.?
During days-long events, holding one-on-one meetings is key to engaging as much as possible. But post-event, all the follow-up contact is based either on what happened in those meetings or on the notes taken about those meaningful conversations.
In meetings, the team should clearly communicate expectations about when they’ll be following up to set expectations.
How to Calculate ROI from Events
Being able to measure ROI from any given event is just as important as understanding how to prepare for the event. This helps the business assess the event's impact and plan more effectively in the future.
Tracking ROI requires these elements:
Every business may do this differently, and may integrate tools like HubSpot or Salesforce to align CRM data. Typically, a simple spreadsheet will include manually inputted values for each item so marketing and business leaders can assess ROI. Then, annual reports can be generated based on this event data.
Talk to Us About Events!
Do you have further questions or thoughts about events-based marketing? We’d love to hear from you. Use the comments section below to let us know what you think.