The Importance of Clean Data: How It Drives and Improves Event Marketing ROI

When it comes to spreading the news about a new product launch or service offering, piquing the interest of customers and prospects alike and simply improving the visibility of your brand, trade shows can be a valuable business investment. In fact, this business sector alone is a 13.2 billion dollar industry, making it a relevant and viable advertising route for both B2C and B2B companies.

Yet, presenting the case to either host or attend a trade show can be a challenging sell to upper management, especially if marketing budgets are already stretched thin and other initiatives such as sales campaigns are ramping up, requiring all in-house and field teams on deck. With the average show costing exhibitors more than $1350 to attend due to travel costs, hotel stays, booth materials and more, one has to prove that the expenditure will result in an improvement for the company‘s bottom line, though this step is often easier said than done.

This is due in large part to the fact that with events such as trade shows, it can be difficult to prove a measurable ROI. Why? With so many moving parts and quick, on-the-fly presentations, it can be hard to gauge just how many people were impacted or persuaded by your display.

The answer to determining how much value was gleaned throughout the experience lies in capturing customer data both before and after it. For instance, if conversions are on an uptick following a week-long booth at a major industry conference, analysts might conclude that the increased visibility assisted in this shift. Yet, historically, business leaders are slow to analyze this data in relation to event marketing. In fact, according to a recent survey, only 35% of exhibitors actively measure and then report how many trade show leads ultimately wind up as a sale.

One reason for this hesitancy or oversight might be that the amount of customer information gathered during a trade show can be overwhelming due to the influx of people. As such, to improve this statistic and encourage more active data analysis, the process must be as streamlined and efficient as possible. This is where data cleansing comes into play. When an analyst is only searching through relevant and informative insights, they can discern more buying patterns and trends as opposed to sifting through loads of information they can’t use.

Today, we’re exploring why clean data is so essential across every business aspect, but most importantly in the case of event marketing. We’ll also cover how exhibitors can make the most of every interaction that occurs at their booth to maximize visibility and improve conversions.

Taking Care of Pre-Show Logistics

Some might think that event marketing data analysis is a process that takes place entirely after a trade show is over, and all the booths have been broken down. Yet, to ensure the data is as clean and useful as possible, there are several steps that must be accomplished before the flight is even booked.

To ensure you’re reaching the right people and promoting your brand in the correct way, marketers should start by having a conversation around who their ideal buyer is. What does he or she prefer? What are their pain points and interests and how can your product or service align with or help mitigate them? This brainstorming session alone can help you focus your efforts once you arrive at the trade show, ensuring that the conversations you have are more targeted and direct, thus resulting in more informative data that your team can use when you return.

The data required at this step doesn’t have to be overly detailed but should be intricate enough that exhibitors understand who does and does not fit into their target audience. For instance, if you’re showcasing your company at a trade show aimed at millennial digital marketers and featuring new technology, you’ll likely steer your focus toward this group of advertisers, rather than the 65+ crowd who might still prefer traditional, print-based forms of outreach.

Before the event, it’s also critical to reach out to any specific individuals you especially want to connect with while you’re there. Is a business partner attending? What about that company you’ve been negotiating with for months? An on-the-fence prospect you’d love to convert? Leverage the power of your CRM marketing platform to identify these persons and make sure you connect as soon as possible. Before accessing it, be sure to use appropriate data cleansing tools to rid the database of duplicate records, outdated contact information and other oversights that can muddle the information.

Too often, exhibitors attend a show and simply hope that the right people find their booth and peruse their materials. Yet, a proactive exhibitor will communicate the details of the event with key stakeholders beforehand to plan lunch meetups, on-site meetings and other interactions.

Getting the Contact E-Mail List Right

Studies reveal that email continues to rank near the top of ways to communicate and share ideas in the business world. To this end, many trade show exhibitors will ask for booth visitors to leave their name and email address on a list. The idea is that, once the event has concluded, business leaders can use this list to create an email marketing program wherein they distribute e-blasts and updates to their followers revealing new product launches, special promotions and more. This aligns ideally with customer expectation, as 55% of consumers want companies to send them emails that suggest a product or service that are relevant to them.

Studies reveal that almost 70% of business leaders use email marketing as a cornerstone of their advertising campaigns, and for good reason. The avenue is cost-effective and highly successful in most cases. Yet, it is rendered useless if tons of emails bounce back after the end user presses send. To this end, it’s important to cleanse your CRM database of all erroneous or outdated email address before the event, then ensure that the ones you capture at the trade show are accurate. An email validation resource is helpful in this regard and can save a company valuable time and money down the road. In fact, industry research shows that the average company spends about $10 per subscriber on its email list. Losing just a handful of these to incorrect data can derail efforts to improve sales and conversions via this method.

Keeping Event Show Data as Accurate as Possible

While you’re at the trade show, it’s also important to ensure the data you’re collecting is free of errors and as useful as it can be. One way to do so is to determine exactly what kind of data your exhibitor team hopes to capture. For instance, if you only want a long list of emails from interested parties, you might not want to spend time capturing and analyzing how many people took your brochures or watched your product demonstration. Or, these might be exactly the metrics you want to look at, and you’re less interested in obtaining contact information.

While it’s helpful to know the general categories you want to focus on, exhibitors should still seek to capture as much data as possible during these interactive events. While data cleansing resources can be applied down the road to mine the information for helpful insights, this is an especially valuable time to learn as much about your client base as possible. So, take in as much as you can and make those connections. You can go back later and discard the data that isn’t directly applicable to your campaign.

Keep in mind that if you’re exhibiting at a trade show that utilizes RFID wristband technology to help identify attendees, you may be able to capture their contact information by simply scanning the band with your smart device. In cases where this is available, it can be invaluable in providing up-to-date contact details that you know are accurate in real time. This is another time wherein you can use your email verification tool to ensure that all the data you’re capturing is correct.

Post-Show Follow-Up: Data Cleansing and Outreach

The days and weeks directly following a trade show are critical to maximizing your company’s impression on its audience. If event marketing is designed to spur customer interest, this follow-up period is for reeling them in, starting those important dialogues and closing deals.

Begin by cleansing the data you collected at the show and updating the profiles in your CRM database accordingly. Then, use this data to create pitches and outreach methods that are tailored to the preferences of your current customers and prospects. The easiest and smartest place to start: Create that email marketing campaign you’ve planned. Yet, instead of sending out a large batch of generic messages, tailor them to reveal what you already know about each recipient.

Do you know the industry they work within? Open your email with a fact on an interesting trend in that niche or a statistic that will catch their eye. Mention a product or service that aligns with their interests. The most important aspect of this step? Time. Be sure to send these follow-up emails as soon after the event as possible, while the swag bags are still sitting on desks and your company is still top of mind.

How to Correct Unclean Data and Maximize Insights

Upon returning from a trade show, you might find that some or all of the data your team gathered is inaccurate or missing key details. If this is the case, you can use third-party data cleansing tools to help remediate the situation.

When applied, these tools help you add a batch amount of leads into your CRM database to help reduce the potential for manual error. During the process, if the tool identifies a duplicate record, it will be flagged so you can compare the two for the most recent and updated information. You can also use these tools to include any new insights you’ve gleaned directly into a specific lead’s CRM record so you always have a comprehensive overview of your customer base.

Maximizing Your Event Marketing ROI with Accurate Data

To make the case for trade show attendance, team leaders will need to share with their supervisors that the campaigns bring in a measurable ROI and are valuable to improving conversion rates. This task is rendered almost impossible when the data collected and analyzed is full of gaps, outdated or only partially completed.

Clean data helps to make pre- and post-show reports as accurate as possible, painting a clear picture of how a trade show impacts an organization as a whole. Using this analyzation, exhibitors can reveal how the measurable costs of attending such an event are outweighed by the value of the leads it brings in. Numbers continue to speak volumes in this regard, so long as they’re the correct ones.