Traditional events can be difficult to track data for, unlike online marketing where tools like Google Analytics make it easy.. Nowadays, event clients demand data-driven results, with 85% of exhibitors saying that their primary reason for exhibiting at a trade show is to generate leads and sales and  64% of exhibitors highlighting the quality of attendees as the most important factor when deciding to participate in a trade show. Yet, turning these leads into sales remains one of the most difficult parts of growing a business. 

That's why it's so important to have a data-driven lead generation strategy in place for your events. By collecting and analyzing data about your event attendees, you can identify high-quality leads and target them with the most relevant marketing messages. You can then follow up with them promptly to nurture the relationship and move them closer to your sales and business goals. In this article, we will explore ways to funnel the right data to empower your clients and position yourself as an event brand that takes their concerns and acts on them.

What is data-driven lead generation?

Data-driven lead generation is the secret sauce for generating more qualified leads at events. For event organizers, it is important to note the significance of it, and its impact to your events. It uses data to design an effective lead generation process, which can help you maximize ROI and minimize wasted resources.

For event organizers, having a data-driven lead generation strategy in place would mean providing your sponsors with unbiased data. This data is not influenced by personal biases or prejudice, meaning that you can be confident that the leads you generate are the most qualified ones, leading to a higher chance of conversion.

Let’s face it, leads don’t pay the bills, conversions do. So, instead of focusing on reaching as many people as possible, data-driven lead generation helps sponsors focus on the right people, making quality a priority over quantity. These are the people who are most likely to be interested in their products or services, who have the pain points, desires and interests that your sponsors can address.

Leveraging data-driven lead generation for you and your sponsors

By using data-driven lead generation strategies, event organizers and sponsors can make better decisions about their lead generation efforts and improve the overall success of their events. To execute this properly, event organizers must also keep in mind and avoid potential pitfalls that may occur.

For greater accuracy

Accurate data speaks for itself. By collecting and analyzing data from event attendees, you can gain a better understanding of their needs and interests (or even past behavior for returning attendees), what they are looking for in an event, and what they hope to achieve by attending. This information can then be used to create more personalized recommendations and messages, which will lead to more qualified leads to process and nurture. 

For sponsors and exhibitors, having this information prior to the event days could even help them create and compile the marketing materials or even determine the channels for them to maximize lead generation. 

Event platform features such as AI personalization can be used for content and individual event agenda and even for scheduling meetings through profile matchmaking. For instance, AI can be used to recommend content that is relevant to each attendee’s interests or to match attendees with others who share the same interests. This data can be used to create a more personalized experience for attendees which can lead to increased engagement and lead generation. 

For more validation

Event organizers can build stronger relationships with their sponsors by providing them with accurate information about the leads generated at their events. Having a lead retrieval system at events can assist data collection by scanning attendee badges and gathering their completed profile information.

In this sense, lead retrieval apps can do even better than traditional name cards by allowing more key data to be shared with individual scanned leads. For example, an exhibitor may be interested in the location of an attendee/ potential buyer, their product interests, or even their level of interest in the exhibitors’ offerings. 

In addition to collecting lead data, event organizers can use sentiment analysis to understand how attendees feel about the event, the speakers and the sponsors. This can be done by analyzing feedback or survey responses or conversations. The goal of sentiment analysis is to identify leads that are most qualified, and can help with determining follow-up strategies.

With specific event features such as having a data collection and analysis system in place, event organizers can provide sponsors with valuable insights into the leads generated at their events.  By understanding what attendees are interested in, they can optimize their event content to be more engaging and informative. This can help improve the overall experience of the event and attract more attendees, helping sponsors build stronger relationships with their own customers and prospects, and leading to more sponsorship opportunities for future events.

For increased ROI

Data-driven lead generation strategies can help event organizers and sponsors alike to identify, target and measure leads more effectively. By increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of lead generation efforts, which results in a higher event ROI.

For sponsors, an example of how data-driven lead generation can be used to improve ROI is through lead scoring. By rating the leads obtained through the event based on demographics, interests, and engagement and by prioritizing leads based on their score, sponsors can focus their resources on the leads that are most likely to convert, and create a more targeted follow-up system for their qualified leads, thereby increasing the overall ROI of the event 

Another example is through automated lead nurturing. Sending out personalized emails to leads based on their interests and engagement can help keep leads engaged and interested in an event or a sponsor’s offerings, which can lead to more conversions. For example, a sponsor can use automated lead nurturing to send out emails to leads who have visited their booth at an event. These emails can provide more information about the sponsor's products or services, or they can invite the leads to connect with the sponsor on social media. This can help to keep the leads engaged and interested in the sponsor, which results in leads being generated and  thus higher ROI for the sponsorship.

Boost your event lead generation with us!

Data-driven lead generation is essential for event organizers who want to identify the most qualified leads and target them based on valuable insights into their event attendees and their behavior.  By collecting and analyzing data at events, event organizers can improve the quality of leads generated and boost the business efforts and goals for their events as well as for their sponsors and exhibitors. 

Jublia Engagement Hub harnesses event data and uses the power of AI to help event organizers generate more qualified leads by connecting event attendees with the right people and content. See how we’ve helped power global events with our solution and speak to our Solution Specialists at info@jublia.com to find out more about how Jublia can help you with your data-driven event lead generation efforts.

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