How to Define Your Tradeshow/Events Strategy as an EdTech Start-Up, Part 3

In parts one and two of this series, we learned about event selection and different event presences. In part three of the series, we will highlight the metrics you should track to measure the success of your event presence.

As with any marketing campaign, it is important to track the effectiveness of your event campaigns. The metrics you want to focus on will differ, depending on your event goals and event presence.

It can be easy to assume we need to measure leads, but not all leads are equal. I strongly recommend tracking the different types of engagement opportunities at events, so you can customize the customer/prospect’s next lifecycle engagement based on what’s appropriate.

For example, if you scan someone’s information when they come to your booth because they received some swag, they engaged with you very differently than someone who attended a hospitality event or someone who received a demo of your product at the booth. And their follow-up should look different because of that! But if you aren’t tracking those engagements differently from the start, you will have a hard time knowing which types of engagements help convert prospects further down the funnel.  

Here are suggestions for the types of engagements/metrics to track based on your event presence:

Attend Only

• Sales appointments scheduled

• Follow-up opportunities created

Hospitality event

• Registrants for hospitality event

• Attendees at hospitality event

• Sales appointments scheduled

• Follow-up opportunities created

Exhibit presence

• Exhibit booth engagements (e.g. demo given, giveaway attendee, in-booth presentation attended, etc.)

• Registrants for hospitality event

• Attendees at hospitality event

• Sales appointments scheduled

• Follow-up opportunities created

To maximize the return on your investment, you must think of events as part of a larger campaign and experience in the customer/prospect’s lifecycle. End-to-end campaign planning will drive a higher return on investment.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to convert the prospects you meet during the event season into new customers. If you're looking for support in maximizing your event presence and connecting it to your broader marketing strategy, I can help. Contact me to learn more about the work I've done with EdTech start-ups and growth-stage clients.

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