Think outside the box!
There is even more to data than you might think. Don't limit yourself and your organization by using data only for management and financial information. For example, when organizing events, you probably won't immediately think of data, even though it can add a lot of value.
Organizing events is an important means for many organizations to reach new customers or increase engagement with existing customers. We examined the event organization process at a company that organizes more than 50 knowledge events per year. This revealed several parts of the process that could be improved by adopting a data-driven approach.
Let’s zoom in on some of the data-driven improvements that this organization has implemented. The combination of these solutions leads to a more efficient and smarter event invitation process, reaching the right target groups with a higher conversion rate as a result.
How do you reach the right potential new customers with your events?
This organization focuses on the business market and can use data to start targeting invitations. Which potential new customers do we want to attend our events? Was this group also approached, or were invitations sent to other groups? What is the conversion rate and who actually attended the event? What is the impact on our sales?
It starts with understanding who is invited to and attends your events
To analyze this, an initial product was built, the ‘audience conversion tool’. This provides insights into invitees and attendees of all past events. In it, we have distinguished categories that are important for the organization, such as the sector and size of the company in which an attendee works, whether it is an existing customer, and the type of services. When the desired target audience at an event is not as expected, this can have two causes:
- The selection is different from the people they would like to have present at the event.
- The right people were invited but did not register.
We can easily answer the question of which of the above causes underlies the different attendance by using the built audience conversion tool.
Next, invite the right target group by selectively inviting the right people
To invite the right target group for new events, we created a second product, the ‘selection tool’. In this tool we easily compile the right target group based on relevant characteristics for the organization and the specific event. This prevents cause 1: the wrong selection.
When this still turns out not to produce the expected attendance (cause 2), you look at the design and content of the event. Why are the right people invited but not interested?
Increase your conversion rate by up to 50% by sending your invitation at the right time
Finally, the organization has optimized the timing of invitations. How many weeks before the event, on what day and at what time does sending the invitation result in the highest conversion? This clearly proved to be on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. in a range of 40 to 20 days before the event. Conversion at these times was up to 50% higher than during other times.
These simple insights contribute significantly towards increasing support for data-driven work because of their practicality.
So there you go, even for topics where you don’t immediately think of data, data can add a lot of value!
Do you also want to leverage data at your next event?
