IET: Marketers Failing to Maximise Value of Events

Research reveals lack of integrated approach leads to missed opportunities

London, 26th October 2011: A new survey shows that most event marketing professionals want to see a change in the way delegate information is recorded.

Almost two thirds of event marketers identify a need to transform methods of capturing delegate details at events to truly maximise a return on their investment. By failing to make the best use of processes and technology, organisations are missing out on key opportunities to fully integrate their marketing around events, according to new research released today.

The Optimising Opportunities Survey, carried out by IET Venues, the premier family of venues across the UK, reveals that 61 per cent of event marketers feel current methods of capturing data at events and ways in which this data is used, need to improve in order to fully realise the value of exhibiting at tradeshows.

The findings revealed that many marketers still use traditional methods with 77 per cent citing the collection of business cards as a method of obtaining information to generate new leads. While 82 per cent have moved on to use badge scanners as well, only 14 per cent highlighted that this data was fed automatically into a CRM system to be used at a later date. 38 per cent of respondents however indicated that this data is often manually inputted into a stand-alone database or spreadsheet

Activity following events is more positive, with marketers using a variety of channels to follow-up leads with 20 per cent moving to social media as an effective post-show tool. However, 48 per cent are still opting to use a database or spreadsheet to track progress as opposed to a CRM system, while 5 per cent revealed that they fail to track progress at all.

“Using events and exhibitions to showcase your business, network and meet potential new clients is nothing new to event marketers. says Simon Timmis, Marketing Manager, IET Venues. “It is however, important that you are gaining the full value from tradeshows and maximising return on the investment by using the information that is given to you for the purposes you state. An overhaul of processes and technologies as such needs to be considered so that data is captured effectively, recorded efficiently and follow-up tracked successfully to save time and generate solid leads.”

Events body Eventia has previously encouraged the idea of capturing event ‘intelligence’, as recently advocated by Anthony Miller, Active Networks. Stating that organisers can better capture key data from events by using new technology, Miller has highlighted how technology can be used to trace each delegate’s unique journey before, during and after each event. Miller adds that such information is essential to other departments of the organisation other than sales including HR to drive measurable results.

The Optimising Opportunities Survey recorded the post show strategy of 84 event marketers in September 2011.

-ENDS-

For more information, please contact:
Jon White / Anne Ligory
Rocket Communications
+44 (0) 8453 707 024
iet@rocketcomms.net

About IET Venues

The IET Venues Group is made up of 3 conference and events venues in city-centre locations across the UK – IET London: Savoy Place, IET Glasgow: Teacher Building and IET Birmingham: Austin Court. Each venue boasts a tiered lecture theatre, built-in technology with onsite support and bespoke options, free Wi-Fi throughout, catering options from fork buffets to fine dining and an experienced events team that organise and hold over 10,000 events per year. Each venue has 15-18 meeting spaces of varying sizes, which are adaptable and versatile to any event set-up with bespoke, transparent packages also available. IET London: Savoy Place and IET Birmingham: Austin Court also benefit from waterside locations and hold full licences for weddings, partnership ceremonies and receptions.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ietvenues.co.uk