What’s the best way to add value to your brand when building your event tech stack? Software that will increase lead generation? Exposure? Ease of networking?
In-person events can be incredibly productive when you make the most of their potential opportunities. However, meeting your overarching sales and revenue goals requires thorough planning and tracking to give you a favorable ROI.
So, how do you track all of these metrics effectively? And how do you keep the event engaging and on-target while doing so?
Compelling, modern event technology is here to help. Let’s look at how a powerful event tech stack can help you increase engagement and turn more prospects into customers—and which tools your marketing team, sales team, experts, and executives should be using in 2023.
Benefits of Event Tech Stack
Filling your event tech stack with powerful tools can not only increase your ROI but also streamline your planning, execution, and review processes from the ground up. Organizers can better set up events when empowered with the inhuman efficiency of software, resulting in a higher-value experience for their attendees.
Here are just a handful of the benefits a well-developed event tech stack can bring your team:
- Audience Engagement. Allows members to interact with digitally branded materials or questions during presentations or live panels.
- Compliance. If you’re using enterprise-grade software—it will ensure you’re up to date with the latest regulations.
- Scalability. Enterprise-grade software helps keep meetings robust, preventing any catastrophic shutdown at higher attendee numbers.
- Tracking Key Metrics. Your event tech stack can monitor and display predetermined metrics you’re using to measure success.
- Communications. Keeping open channels of communication with attendees allows relevant, personalized messages for a more cohesive experience.
- Organization. Meeting automation software makes it easy to connect businesses with customers, allowing mutually beneficial engagements.
- Access Control. An enterprise-grade system makes it simple to sort out granular access for the event they paid for.
Expert Insight: A Guidebook survey found that 91% of professional event planners said implementing a mobile event app enhanced ROI.
The Top 5 Event Tech Stack Tools You Need in 2023
Event technology should permeate every aspect of your planning. Efficiency and guest experience depend on the quality of your stack—so digitize every possible avenue.
At a minimum, your event tech stack should be made up of five distinct foundational tools, each serving a different function. Let’s take a closer look at each—and how you can use them to increase your ROI this year.
1. An Event Management Platform
Your event management platform runs the back end of your ticket sales, registration, and on-site check-ins. Using a digital system to manage your event lets you coordinate all your teams across one centralized platform.
Teams are better connected, allowing for rapid response to cancellations or alterations in planned proceedings and resulting in reduced administrative workload. Plus, software that features a custom website builder allows you to digitally integrate sponsors.
Expert Insight: Try gamifying your event with digitally interactive elements that draw attention to your branded materials.
2. Event Marketing Tools
Including a marketing automation platform (MAP) in your event tech stack is a good way to increase your reach while reducing your overhead. Manual campaigns require excessive management on the part of your marketing team; using a MAP cuts your tracking and recording time.
Moreover, your MAP will collect and organize attendee data, so you can customize marketing materials to your key demographics.
MAPs can help you run:
- Paid Advertising Campaigns to increase visibility
- Social Media Marketing to reach your target audience
- Email Marketing to send updates through your contact lists
- Interactive Community Building to foster loyalty and build engagement
3. A Sales CRM to Manage Attendees
Increasing your ROI for an event requires building and deepening relationships with your customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to track and maintain data from interactions. A robust CRM can:
- Keep a database of details on attendees
- Offer a detailed assessment of your ROI, with insights on budgeting and closed deals
- Automate administrative data management
- Follow up with attendees to build ongoing relationships
- Increase lead management by tracking data and outreach for more conversions
- Tailor your event with insights on attendee demographics
Expert Insight: Using a CRM to understand your customers has a positive impact on satisfaction and retention, and can ultimately increase your ROI for live events.
4. Communication Software—for Team Members and Attendees
Implementing strong and ubiquitous communication channels both internally and with your attendees helps ensure an easily navigable and well-run event. There is a wide range of communication mediums available: social media, email, instant messaging, and event apps/websites all make for excellent options.
But first and foremost, ensure that whichever communication channels you choose are clear, accessible, and set up prior to the event, so that your attendees can receive messages.
5. Automated Scheduling Software for Event Tech Stacks
The purpose of any event is to connect with customers, increase conversions, and drive sales. Therefore, meetings and scheduled sessions are targeted opportunities to reach your overarching goals. Above all, you want to make the most of your experts’ and executives’ time, which means getting them in the room with as many customers as possible. Enterprise-grade meeting scheduling software makes tracking and managing scheduled engagements simple and easy for all attendees and businesses.
Expert Insight: Manual scheduling is time consuming and complex, often resulting in conflicts. You want to be available and easy to meet with, so simplify scheduling across events with a digital solution. Automated workflows, simplified bookings for trade shows and conferences, reduced planning correspondence, and easy logistical arrangements will save costs and increase sales.
Build an Event Tech Stack That Maximizes Your ROI
The ultimate measure of an in-person performance is the same as in most areas of business: did your investment turn a profit? Your overall success is manifested in your ROI. So your focus going into events should be on implementing the most effective methods of finding leads and converting them into sales.
A strong event tech stack will reduce your overhead costs and measurably increase leads. For instance, running an event manually won’t result in the interactive experience attendees have come to expect in 2023. The efficiency of tech is unbeatable—meaning the right tools will help you increase the overall success of your events.
