The fast adoption of digital transformation over the last few years has brought its fair share of challenges but also new possibilities across all industries. In particular, the events industry has undergone significant transformation in response to the pandemic and digital advancements.
Faced with customer retention and growth imperatives in an increasingly volatile economy, marketers look to a variety of technologies to help them source new and effective ways to engage with target audiences. Customer data technology is a huge investment area, with enterprises estimated to spend more than $80 billion on CRM applications in 2021, and $100 billion in 2023 (Gartner).
Under these conditions, vendors and marketers must change how they approach these conversations. To develop an effective formula for events, it’s crucial to incorporate both hybrid and virtual elements into enterprises’ marketing strategies – helping organizations accommodate attendees’ preferences and, more importantly, maximize engagement.
The Formula for Effective Events
Marketers have often perceived virtual events as a short-term solution, but now they’re seeing it can provide more benefits than meets the eye. At the same time, consumers are increasingly eager to attend in-person events – meaning there are greater opportunities for organizations to host hybrid events that provide consumers with a truly customized experience. Depending on attendees’ preferences, organizations can utilize essential hybrid components, including on-demand content, to enable event leaders to capitalize on their content.
We’ve entered a new world of consumer behavior that’s constantly changing and becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to keep pace, nonetheless forecast. This means marketers will need to place more emphasis on the art of listening to consumers because today’s consumers have more information, touchpoints, and options than ever before. This shift has made the technology market very sentiment-driven, requiring greater finetuning of marketing budget spend, especially in the realm of events, to deliver an exceptional experience.
As a result, many organizations are seeking ways to consolidate their tech stacks to better manage zero-party and first-party data collection. This starts with marketers implementing or building their own customer data platforms (CDPs), with capabilities that can be leveraged to develop audience activation and expansion. Digital is ingrained in the marketing industry, helping to ensure continuity across the entire customer lifecycle. It binds together each core formula component needed to generate effective events, from data intelligence to content management. With events becoming increasingly crucial for driving business outcomes, organizations are investing more in creating their optimal event portfolio mix that captures key topics that resonate most with attendees – leading to greater engagement at scale.
Connecting the Dots Between CRM and Engagement
The ability to measure if an attendee is truly engaged at an event, in real-time, proves to continuously be a difficult challenge marketers must overcome. Event engagement can be simple with clear metrics and goals. But it’s important to recognize that more components to an event doesn’t always equal better, and requires marketers to intentionally identify which metrics are most important. Doing so is key to striking a balance between company growth and profit that’s sustainable long-term.
Organizations should integrate their event platforms with customer relationship management (CRM) software and marketing automation tools to deliver attendees a seamless, personalized experience. This integration enables organizations to be more agile, leveraging their first-party and zero-party data to its fullest extent and generating in-depth, prescriptive insights for event teams.
While virtual events offer cost-effective ways to reach broader audiences, organizations must also consider the frequency of these events. Implementing mobile apps or attendee chat functionality in virtual events can enhance engagement by offering organic opportunities for connection and community-building, pushing out real-time updates and reminders, and gathering data to provide personalized agendas that lead attendees to their next session. These features enable attendees to generate valuable content through social media and other channels, which organizations can leverage to promote their events and engage with their audience.
Embracing the Event Unknown
At first glance, achieving authentic engagement with virtual and hybrid events can present a robust challenge. But if approached mindfully, it can also allow organizations to enhance their customer experiences and maximize return on investment (ROI).
By prioritizing personalization, repurposing content, and analyzing data intelligence, leaders can apply these best practices to optimize their events and deliver high-value, memorable moments. To stay connected with audiences and keep pace with changing preferences in this ever-evolving world, marketers must embrace the benefits of leveraging elements from hybrid and virtual events.
The formula for effective events lies in harnessing data-driven insights to create impactful and engaging touchpoints with consumers, from their first to last. With the right strategies in place, organizations can build their own effective events formula that leverages both event formats to harness data-driven insights, creating impactful and engaging touchpoints with consumers.
