Mastering Post-Event Data: Essential Steps to Turn Your Data into Revenue

Efficient post-event data management is essential to turn visitors into actionable insights and revenue opportunities. 58% of exhibitors and sponsors say poor attendee data quality is a concern when investing in an event. This guide walks you through a step-by-step process to ensure your event data is accurate, complete, and seamlessly integrated into your CRM.

Step 1: Initial Data Review and Clean-Up

Before uploading any data into your CRM, start with a thorough review and clean-up to address potential inaccuracies and gaps.

Key Actions:

  1. Remove Duplicates: Identify and remove duplicate entries to avoid redundancy in your CRM.
  2. Spot and Correct Inaccuracies: Look for obvious errors (e.g., misspellings in names, incorrect titles) and standardise data formats (e.g., phone numbers, addresses).
  3. Identify Gaps: Highlight any fields that are incomplete or have placeholders, such as missing job titles, email addresses, or company names.

How:

  • Many tools are too basic to give accurate information. If you don’t have the time to spend on this, dedicated data experts are best suited to run this type of analysis. Equipped with data skills and efficiency tools.

Step 2: Ensure Completeness of Data Fields

Data gaps limit the utility of your contacts, so it’s critical to ensure all fields are complete and standardised.

Key Actions:

  1. Prioritise Key Fields: Make sure essential fields—such as full name, job title, company name, phone number, and email—are accurately filled out.
  2. Verify Email Quality: Prioritise executive and work emails over personal or generic ones (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo). Replace placeholder emails with verified business emails whenever possible.
  3. Standardise Job Titles and Companies: Use consistent formats and job titles (e.g., “Marketing Manager” rather than “Mgr, Marketing”) to support easier search and segmentation later.

How:

  • Some large tools Like Zoominfo offer inaccurate information. Match the attendee data to any existing records first, and a manually gap filled by experts is a useful top up.

Step 3: Validate and Segment Email Addresses

Email quality is crucial, as it directly impacts deliverability and engagement. Prioritising high-value, professional emails ensures your message reaches the right audience.

Key Actions:

  1. Identify and Prioritise Business Emails: Flag any personal emails (like @gmail.com) and aim to replace them with verified work emails, especially for executive contacts.
  2. Check Email Validity: Run an email validation tool to weed out inactive or incorrect addresses.
  3. Segment by Priority: Categorise contacts based on their job level (e.g., C-level, manager, entry-level) so that executive-level emails receive priority in your marketing and sales outreach.

How:

  • Use email validation tools like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce to ensure email quality. Ensure to fully validate the “Catch All” Emails to protect your sending reputation.

Step 4: Integrate with Your CRM for Seamless Import

Data integration with your CRM requires attention to detail to avoid duplication and ensure a smooth fit into your existing database structure.

Key Actions:

  1. Define Field Mapping: Before import, define how each field in your event data will correspond to fields in your CRM. This avoids errors and ensures consistent data entry.
  2. Set Up Duplicate Detection Rules: Most CRMs offer tools for detecting duplicates based on unique identifiers, like email addresses. Use these features to prevent accidental duplication.
  3. Flag and Update Existing Contacts: If a contact already exists in your database, update it with any new information (such as updated job titles or phone numbers) rather than creating a new entry.

How:

  • Ensure you have a thorough data governance plan to create compulsory field entries for your imported data.

Step 5: Regularise Data Formatting for Consistency

Consistent data formatting enhances usability and searchability, helping teams easily segment and analyse data.

Key Actions:

  1. Standardise Formatting Across Fields: Use a consistent format for key fields such as dates (e.g., DD/MM/YYYY), phone numbers (e.g., country code + area code), and addresses.
  2. Automate Formatting Rules: Set up automation rules in your CRM (if available) to enforce standard formatting automatically upon data entry.
  3. Regular Data Audits: Schedule periodic audits to review data consistency and catch any deviations in formatting.

How:

  • Most CRMs (like Salesforce or HubSpot) allow for data format validation and automated rules for consistent data entry.

Step 6: Segment and Tag Contacts for Future Use

Organise your post-event data by creating segments and tags based on interests, behavior, or roles to make future engagement more targeted and efficient.

Key Actions:

  1. Segment Based on Role and Interest: Create segments (e.g., “VIP Attendees,” “Decision-Makers,” “Product Interest”) based on details gathered at the event.
  2. Tag Event Attendees: Tag all contacts with the event name or other relevant keywords. This allows you to easily identify and engage with event-specific leads for future outreach.
  3. Set Up Custom Fields: Create custom fields, such as “Event Attended” or “Key Interests,” to capture specific details for each event.

Tools:

  • Use your CRM’s segmentation and tagging features to set up categories and automate some of the processes. Manual effort will be needed to complete the data segmentation.

Step 7: Enrich Data to Enhance Lead Quality

Data enrichment adds additional details to your existing contacts, helping you gain a more comprehensive view of each lead.

Key Actions:

  1. Add Firmographic Data: Enrich contact records with company details such as size, revenue, and industry, which can be crucial for sales targeting.
  2. Leverage Social and Web Data: Pull in social profiles or relevant articles related to each contact to better understand their interests and engagement levels.
  3. Automate Enrichment: Consider using CRM integrations or data enrichment tools that automatically add missing data points to your contacts.

How:

  • Data Enrichment tasks should be carried out by professionals who have the tools to efficiently and accurately fill this information out.

Step 8: Implement Ongoing Data Quality Practices

Maintaining data quality over time is essential to prevent issues from re-emerging.

Key Actions:

  1. Establish Data Quality Standards: Define rules and protocols for data entry, field requirements, and regular updates.
  2. Set Up Automatic Maintenance Processes: Many CRMs offer workflows or automation rules that can flag incomplete records, schedule reminders for updates, or enforce formatting.
  3. Conduct Regular Data Health Audits: Schedule routine reviews to evaluate data completeness, accuracy, and segmentation, allowing your team to address any emerging issues promptly.

How:

  • Use built-in CRM automation and auditing tools to maintain data integrity. Carry out at least one full data validation ahead of the show’s next marketing campaign.

Conclusion: Take Control of Your Post-Event Data

With a systematic approach to post-event data management, you can transform a list of attendees into a powerful asset for your business. Proper data handling not only boosts CRM efficiency but also strengthens your ability to engage the right contacts, drive sales, and optimise future events. Follow this guide to ensure that every entry in your database is an accurate, high-quality lead that will support your business goals. For further information on how we help process and improve your post event data, please get in touch.

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