In today's economy, companies and organizations are re-evaluating their systems and processes with a new level of scrutiny. Rapid ROI is a key factor in decision-making and online registration and eMarketing tools deliver it immediately.
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Revenue Generation Through Better Attendance
- Improved Response Rates
Jupiter Communications estimates that paper campaigns typically get a 1-2% response rate, while email campaigns get a 5-15% rate. Cvent's system allows you to send automated, targeted, and personalized emails. An invitee is more likely to open and respond to an email if they feel it is personal and targeted to them. No more bulk impersonal emails."I saw a return on my investment within the very first event using Cvent. Out of 3,900 invitees, 3,550 responded - a 91% response rate, most of which came within 48 hours of sending the campaign."
- Larry Hanson, CMP, Director of Special Events, Starwood Hotels and Resorts - Reminders Increase Attendance and Reduce Attrition
Reminders are the best way to make sure your attendees get to the actual event. You can set the Cvent system to automatically send a reminder invitation every X number of days until those "undecided" give you a "yes" or "no" response. Our customers typically see a spike in registration in the days following an invitation reminder by as much as 100%. - Monetizing the No's
This is a new concept, but very important. Do you capture information from those who say "no?" The goal of a marketer is to convert a "no" to a "yes." Here are some examples of what you can find out:Why are they saying "no?" Cost, location, speaker, etc.
Do you want more information on my product?Cvent calls this "monetizing the no's." We do this for our own product seminars when someone can't attend, but is still "interested in receiving more information on the Cvent product." As a result, we get 33% more leads than if we only counted those who actually registered for the event.
- Viral Marketing
By empowering your attendees to market for you, you will increase the number of attendees at your event. For example, if you have 1,000 mid-size business contacts to invite to a luncheon seminar, you might have 10% of those invitees input three other colleagues' names in the "tell a colleague" feature. That means an additional 300 invitees would be exposed to the luncheon seminar. That's a 30% bigger marketing footprint than you would otherwise have had. Cvent customers report 10% - 50% higher attendance due to viral marketing, averaging about 20% more attendees. Moreover, you get to keep the names and email addresses of those additional invitees inputted into the "tell a colleague" area, which means that you are continually growing your database of potential invitees. Our customers have grown their databases 40% annually as a result of the "tell a colleague" feature. - Use Surveys to Deliver Better Events
By using Cvent's pre-registration survey functionality, you can organize better events. Through the survey, you can find out what your attendees want. You can market like crazy, but you must have a good event for them to come back. Use pre-registration questions to deliver a better event by giving them what they want rather than just guessing what content will be relevant.
Reduced Costs and Increased Productivity
- Save Money
The cost savings from online campaigns vs. traditional direct mail marketing are tremendous. You can send email for literally pennies per email, whereas direct mail can cost several dollars to produce and deliver. "With Cvent I not only doubled my response rate, but I also reduced my marketing expenses from $240,000 to $20,000, a 92% reduction." Valerie Feaunati, Director of Marketing Programs, NASDAQ - Register Hundreds in Minutes
With the Cvent system you can set-up and launch a campaign in minutes with a single tool, whereas with direct mail or fax campaigns it could take days or even weeks to set up and launch. That time savings means increased productivity for you and your team and allows you to focus on delivering better events.
Create New Revenue Opportunities through Partnerships and Sponsors
- Generate New Revenue Opportunities
With Cvent, you have a built-in email marketing platform to generate new revenue streams. If your organization is hosting an event, you may want to bring in partners to offset costs, to get additional revenue for yourself, or to increase the potential attendee pool. All of this is made easy through the Cvent system. - Drive Value to Sponsors with Surveys
You can use survey questions in the event registration process to drive leads to your sponsors. For example, for an additional fee from a partner or sponsor, you could survey your invitees to determine if any of them were interested in receiving information about a new program your partner or sponsor is developing. Typically, sponsors get their name everywhere and introduce speakers with no real lead generation. If you use the pre-registration questions for your 1,000 person conference, imagine 10% answered, "Yes we want more information on xxx's products and services." That is 100 real leads that you now have supplied to your sponsor - much better than business cards picked up at a networking event. Your sponsors now have a demonstrable value because of these leads. - Selling "Electronic Real Estate" on the Invitation
Your organization can also increase revenue by selling space on the electronic graphical invitation. Event planners can often secure four or five-figure sponsorship deals in exchange for featuring sponsor logos on invitations and other attendee communications. Being able to quantify exactly how many people will see your logo increases your ability to do this. - Strategic Insight - Reporting and Data Analysis
Cvent offers advanced reporting and data analysis functions that help you track and understand your events. With Cvent, you can easily keep track of those who have accepted, declined, or not responded to an invitation and target them accordingly. You can also do cross-event analysis at the click of a button to understand which events are getting better response rates and what factors might be driving your results. Use the e-commerce reporting functionality to easily track online payments and outstanding balances. Through a single interface, you can evaluate your event's success with up to the minute analysis or aggregate data across events to gain insight on trends. - Double Your Invite List
By working with a partner, you have the potential to double your invitee list and therefore increase new sales opportunities for your organization. If you are a hotel, you may want to partner with an airline as you have the same target market: travelers. With Cvent it is easy to add lists from your partner or sponsor's database to your invite list.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that Cvent is designed to improve your event planning operation by increasing attendance and streamlining the labor-intensive process of executing events. By using the techniques herein, you will see immediate results to both your top and bottom lines. In an age where all departments are under the gun to show real benefits and ROI, Cvent gives you the tools you need to not only achieve these goals but also demonstrate them to senior management.
About Cvent
Founded in 1999, Cvent is the world's largest meetings and event management technology company and has 1,200 employees worldwide. Cvent offers web-based software for online event registration, meeting site selection, event management, mobile apps for events, e-mail marketing and web surveys, and helps more than 10,000 clients in 90 countries manage hundreds of thousands of events, surveys and e-mail campaigns. Cvent's client base includes corporations from every major industry, associations, universities, and non-profit organizations. For more information, please visit www.cvent.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
