I. Introduction
Why Events Matter To Marketing and Sales Teams
A recent industry report states that 80.4% of industry leaders view event marketing as essential for achieving their business goals. Events are not just about publicity; they are goldmines for lead generation, increasing sales pipeline value, and boosting customer engagement.To make your events truly transformative, they must be woven into your overarching marketing plan, including folding event data into your marketing tech stack.
The Accelevents-HubSpot Integration: A Game Changer for GTM Teams
This year is a watershed year for the event industry. While events are back in full swing, teams are dealing with obstacles like limited resources and tight budgets. But here's the silver lining: integrating Accelevents with your HubSpot CRM can turn the tide. Connecting these two platforms isn't just about streamlining operations or maintaining consistent messaging across all attendee touch points. It's about enabling your GTM teams to be more effective and aligned.By integrating registrations and data from Accelevents directly into HubSpot, your GTM teams gain a centralized view of attendee information - in real time! This improves data accuracy and allows for tailored messaging and follow-up strategies based on attendee behavior and preferences.In short, a deep integration of this nature ensures that your marketing, sales, and customer service efforts are aligned, making your event initiatives more impactful.
Purpose and Scope Of This Guide
In this guide, we'll walk you through the advantages of implementing an integration between your event platform and your CRM. And we'll show you how the Accelevents and HubSpot integration can help your business excel in today's event industry.
II. Benefits of Integrating Accelevents with HubSpot
In a business environment that is constantly evolving, combining the strengths of event management platforms with CRM systems is becoming more critical.
Let's look at the many advantages that come with integrating Accelevents and HubSpot:
- Centralized Data Management - Ensuring seamless coordination between your sales, customer support, and marketing teams is crucial when managing an event audience. Whether it's lead generation, registration management, or transitioning attendees from "registered" to "attending," having a unified platform with shared data creates a cohesive event experience for all teams. Additionally, in cases where events involve customers, prospects, and leads, it's essential for these teams to stay informed about customer interactions to prevent redundant messaging or an overflow of reminders from different departments.
- Increased Attendee Conversion Rates - In the case of virtual and hybrid events, the Accelevents - HubSpot integration enables event marketing groups to monitor participants who have registered but are not actively participating. Throughout the event, only those who have registered but not attended can receive reminder emails, encouraging them to log in to the event platform remotely, thereby amplifying the conversion rates from "registered" to "attended" guests.
- Better Sales Efficiency - When it comes to boosting sales efficiency, having a deep integration between your event management platform and CRM is invaluable. Here's how integrating Accelevents with HubSpot CRM streamlines your sales process:
- ~~Accurate Lead Scoring: Integrate attendee data into HubSpot CRM for more effective lead scoring and grading. This allows your sales team to identify high-value prospects effortlessly.
- ~~Improved Sales Intelligence: Insights on attendee engagement and participation, stored within the CRM, guide your sales units in cross-selling and upselling to existing clients. Knowing precisely what your pre-qualified leads are interested in also increases your chances for a successful transaction.
- ~~Tailored Campaigns: Your marketing and sales teams can craft targeted campaigns by analyzing attendee behavior. This is particularly useful for engaging contacts who frequently attend your events.
- ~~More Relevant Conversations: Keep tabs on event attendance and session participation. This data equips your sales and customer success teams to have more meaningful conversations with clients and potential customers.
- Enhanced Marketing Automation - This integration empowers event marketing groups to monitor who among their invitees has confirmed their attendance, enabling them to direct promotional emails solely to those who haven't registered yet. Utilizing segmented attendee databases allows marketing teams to craft more focused and tailored communications, avoiding sending unnecessary emails to individuals who have already signed up for the event. Consider dividing the list based on the following:
- ~~Previous event attendees
- ~~Geographical location
- ~~Job function
- ~~Organizational department
- ~~Business sector
- Lead Generation and Nurturing - Integrating Accelevents with HubSpot offers you more than just a way to capture leads; it helps you nurture them effectively. The integration enables your sales and marketing teams to work closely, ensuring that leads move smoothly through the sales funnel. With personalized follow-ups and timely engagement, you can better guide your leads toward conversion. The data analytics from the integration also offer valuable insights for ongoing strategy refinement. This means you can continuously adjust your engagement techniques for better results, fostering conversions and customer loyalty.
- Real-Time Analytics and Reporting - Leveraging the Accelevents and HubSpot integration synergy provides event organizers with intricate, real-time analytics and reporting capabilities. You can track various attendee activities, including:
- ~~Registrations: Monitor the number and demographics of attendees registering for your event, facilitating a targeted marketing approach.
- ~~Check-ins: Keep an eye on attendee check-ins, enabling you to gauge attendance and adapt event schedules or content accordingly.
- ~~Session Sign-ups: Track which sessions attract more attendees, helping you identify popular topics and speakers.
- ~~Booth Visits: Analyze booth traffic during virtual events to understand attendee interests and preferences, allowing for more personalized follow-up engagements.
- ~~Poll Responses: Collect and evaluate poll responses swiftly to garner feedback and insights, which can be used to enhance future event planning.
- ~~Queries: Address queries raised promptly, fostering better attendee engagement and satisfaction.
With this integration, you get a comprehensive insight into your attendee's journey, all housed within the versatile environment of HubSpot. This unified approach ensures that event organizers remain at the cutting edge of event management, data analysis, and attendee interaction, making every virtual event a more enriched and data-driven experience.
- Cost and Time Savings - Integrating Accelevents with HubSpot is a practical step for businesses looking to streamline operations and save costs. This integration eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors and saving valuable time.
Additionally, automating various processes means that teams can allocate their budgets more effectively, avoiding the extra costs associated with manual handling and data discrepancies. Overall, by facilitating a shorter sales cycle and reducing administrative tasks, businesses can allocate resources more efficiently.
In short, this integration leads to notable savings in both time and costs, making the event management process more streamlined and budget-friendly.
III. Core Characteristics of the Accelevents and HubSpot Integration
Integration is the key to unlocking the full potential of your event planning and marketing efforts. Integrating Accelevents with HubSpot bridges the gap between your event management and customer relationship management, creating a unified and data-driven approach to your events.
Importing Event Data from Accelevents To HubSpot
Understanding how data moves to HubSpot
To ensure data consistency, the integration maps fields in Accelevents to corresponding fields in HubSpot. This mapping tells the integration where each piece of information should reside within HubSpot.
The data journey starts when attendees register for an event through Accelevents. Attendee names, contact information, preferences, and more are collected during this process. As this data is collected in Accelevents, a webhook is sent to HubSpot. In the world of computers and the internet, a webhook is like an instant message, allowing different websites and apps to talk to each other and share important information automatically. Based on the message that HubSpot received, it will take the necessary actions - essentially creating a new contact if the attendee is not in HubSpot or updating an existing contact.
What Happens in HubSpot After an Import
Static List or Marketing Event Creation
The integration setup begins by determining where your attendees should be placed in a static list or a marketing event within HubSpot.
If the event receives its first registration after the integration, this action will automatically trigger the creation of the respective static list or marketing event.
- Static Lists: Static Lists in HubSpot are like your traditional contact lists. Once an import is made from Accelevents into a HubSpot Static List, the contacts on the list remain as is until you manually add or remove contacts. This makes them perfect for situations with a well-defined group of contacts that don't change frequently.
- Marketing Events: On the other hand, marketing events in HubSpot deal with real-time actions taken by your contacts. Once data is imported from Accelevents into a HubSpot Marketing Event, you can trigger automated marketing actions or workflows such as real-time behavior tracking and marketing.
Contact Creation or Update
What’s excellent about HubSpot’s default settings is that they will not allow you to create duplicate contacts based on the contact’s email address. When the system identifies that the attendee is unique, a new contact is created in HubSpot, and it maps all the data you want it to capture.
Data collected from the registration can easily be included in the contact record by mapping that data to matching fields through the integration setup.
Contact Enrollment
If you add attendees to a contact list, they will automatically become list members of the lists created after their initial event registration. The same applies if you've chosen a marketing event.
Centralizing all attendees in one location simplifies monitoring event registrations and facilitates sending marketing emails to the entire group.
Attendee Activity Tracking
The integration extends beyond the mere import of registration data. Within HubSpot's activity section, you can track every action taken by attendees during the event, including check-ins, session participation, and even whether they've downloaded files from exhibitor booths.
Record Updates
Another benefit of this integration is its automatic synchronization of contact records in HubSpot when changes are made to the attendee's order.
For example, if an attendee wishes to update their job title to ensure accurate event information, they can make this change within the Accelevents order, and it will seamlessly update their information in HubSpot. This eliminates the need to manually update information on both platforms.
Importing Event Data from HubSpot To Accelevents
Understanding how data moves to Accelevents
After successfully establishing the integration between HubSpot and Accelevents, the next step is determining precisely which data should be transferred to Accelevents. The primary objective of this data transfer is to register contacts as attendees for your events.
Beyond the standard data points such as attendee names and email addresses, two crucial pieces of information need to be specified: the event to which they should be registered and the type of ticket they should receive.
HubSpot's versatile features provide numerous scenarios for exporting contact data by creating workflows. Think of a HubSpot workflow as your personal assistant, diligently following your instructions to execute a task or project seamlessly. Each workflow kicks off with a trigger, which is essentially an event that initiates the workflow's execution. For instance, a trigger could be when someone fills out a HubSpot contact form on your website or when a contact is added to a specific HubSpot list. This trigger effectively communicates to HubSpot, saying, "Hey, something just happened; take action!"
The subsequent stage of the workflow involves defining actions. Here, you instruct HubSpot on how to respond to the trigger event. You can incorporate various conditions and parameters into the workflow to ensure that only contacts meeting specific criteria are exported. Once you have meticulously outlined all the instructions within the workflow and published it, Accelevents will be notified through a webhook every time the trigger event transpires. When Accelevents verifies that the contact fulfills all the necessary requirements, it will add the contact as an attendee to the designated event.
What Happens in Accelevents After an Import
Attendee Order
Importing a contact can be likened to streamlining the attendee registration process for an event. Instead of navigating through the event landing page, importing takes a direct route to order creation. Consequently, an order is inevitably generated through an import or a traditional registration process.
An order is automatically created for each import operation, incorporating all the mapped fields into the order details. Furthermore, the specific ticket type specified within the workflow will be seamlessly assigned to the corresponding attendee. This streamlined approach ensures that each registrant, regardless of the method employed, is efficiently processed and associated with the appropriate order and ticket type.
Order Confirmation
Accelevents provides event organizers with a convenient option to automatically dispatch order confirmation emails to attendees immediately upon their registration, even in the case of imports. Activating this feature ensures a smooth and uninterrupted registration experience, enhancing attendee satisfaction and event management efficiency.
Other Actions
Aside from importing attendees, you can specify in your workflow if you want attendees to be registered for sessions and check them into the sessions.
IV. Typical Accelevents and HubSpot Integration Use Cases
Integrating versatile platforms like Accelevents with robust CRM systems like HubSpot can significantly bolster your marketing strategies in the ever-dynamic landscape of event marketing. The collaboration streamlines the workflow and enhances the potential of achieving better results.
Here, are some we discuss some typical use cases and insights derived from previous integrations that can help optimize your event management strategies.
- Enhanced Pre-Event Engagement through Integration: After attendees have registered on Accelevents, their data is seamlessly imported into HubSpot's CRM. This integration facilitates a more targeted approach to communication.
Organizers can harness this data to send segmented reminder emails or personalized invitations, encouraging potential attendees to register, thereby potentially boosting the overall attendance rate. Additionally, this cohesive system allows for crafting customized pre-event content, such as workshops or webinar teasers, aimed at nurturing the interest and enthusiasm of registered attendees.
This synergy between Accelevents and HubSpot ensures attendees a more personalized and engaging pre-event experience.
- Real-Time Registration Monitoring for Proactive Engagement: Utilize Accelevents to monitor event registrations as they occur in real time. This dynamic monitoring, paired with HubSpot's central data management capabilities, allows for a more streamlined approach to attendee management.
Teams can swiftly respond to new registrations by initiating personalized welcome messages or providing immediate answers to queries, ensuring a smooth and engaging registration process. Furthermore, this real-time insight facilitates timely and coordinated follow-ups, such as sending relevant event materials or updates, fostering a responsive and interactive relationship with attendees from the outset.
- Strategic Post-Event Communication with Personalized Engagement: Harness the rich data accumulated through Accelevents to create targeted and insightful post-event communications via HubSpot's automated workflows. Delve deep into the attendee's engagement pattern to tailor your follow-ups accordingly.
Here are a few methods to consider:
- ~~Engaged Attendees: For attendees who have actively participated in most sessions, craft an email that acknowledges their enthusiasm, perhaps highlighting snippets from the sessions they attended and offering them exclusive access to supplementary materials or advanced workshops.
- ~~Poll Participants: If attendees were notably active in polls and Q&A sessions, invite them to a feedback roundtable or a discussion forum, encouraging them to share their thoughts in more detail.
- ~~Session Skippers: For those who registered but skipped some sessions, you might consider sending a customized email that offers them a chance to catch up on what they missed, with direct links to session replays, along with a gentle nudge to check out resources or merchandise that were popular during the event.
- ~~First-Time Attendees: If you have attendees experiencing your event for the first time, a personalized thank you note paired with a "highlights reel" or a curated list of "must-watch" sessions might be a nice touch.
- ~~Feedback Seekers: Consider segmenting attendees based on their responsiveness to surveys and feedback forms. More responsive people could receive a more comprehensive survey, perhaps coupled with an incentive like a discount for future events or exclusive content.
By nurturing post-event relationships with personalized and context-driven communications, you not only enhance the attendee experience but also pave the way for more successful and engaging events in the future.
- Optimized Lead Nurturing Campaigns: Utilize the rich dataset compiled during the event via Accelevents to develop finely tuned lead nurturing campaigns within HubSpot, fostering and deepening potential customer relationships. By closely tracking activities such as booth visits, session participation, and engagement with interactive elements, you can cultivate more promising leads with precision.
For instance:
- ~~Booth Engagement: Record and analyze attendee activities at various booths. Share this granular data with exhibitors to help them tailor follow-up communications, transforming leads into fruitful sales and fostering potential partnerships for future events.
- ~~Session Interactions: Leverage data from session interactions to create segmented lists of attendees based on their interests and engagement levels. You can then design personalized campaigns to nurture these leads with content and opportunities that resonate specifically with them.
- ~~Product Demo Responses: If the event included product demonstrations, you could craft follow-up campaigns that provide detailed information or exclusive offers based on the products the leads showed interest in.
- ~~Networking Events: For attendees who engaged actively in networking events or sessions, you might consider setting up further networking opportunities, connecting them with industry experts, or offering them exclusive access to thought-leadership content.
- ~~Content Engagement: Analyze which pieces of content were most engaged with during the event and use this data to create follow-up campaigns that offer more in-depth information, webinars, or workshops on these popular topics, thereby nurturing leads into potential customers.
By utilizing the data collected during the event to its fullest potential, you set the stage for successful conversions and long-lasting relationships with attendees and partners.
Insights Gained from Previous Event Integration Experiences
Companies who've successfully integrated Accelevents with HubSpot have shared valuable takeaways that can guide your integration journey:
- Consistent Data Management: Companies have noted a marked improvement in data consistency through integrating Accelevents with HubSpot, minimizing data discrepancies and enabling smoother operations.
- Precision in ROI Evaluation: The integration has empowered companies to gauge the direct ROI from events more precisely, facilitating well-informed decisions for future event strategies.
- Elevated Customer Engagement: Utilizing the integration has enhanced teams’ abilities to engage their audience meaningfully, delivering personalized experiences grounded in the rich data sourced during events.
- Efficiency in Processes: Businesses that have embraced this integration witnessed a significant efficiency in their processes, with teams functioning more synergistically, thus saving time and mitigating costs.
By analyzing the insights derived from similar integrations, businesses can more effectively circumvent potential obstacles and capitalize on opportunities, fostering a more rewarding and efficient collaboration between Accelevents and HubSpot.
V. Best Practices for a Successful Integration
Implementation Strategy
A successful integration starts with a clear roadmap. In this section, we'll discuss how to align your Accelevents-HubSpot integration with your overarching business goals.
- Clear Objectives - Clearly defined objectives provide a sense of purpose for your integration effort. Start with knowing what kind of integration you need. With the Accelevents integration, you can import and export attendees and even register them for sessions, but ask yourself if you need all these. Knowing what you need will make it easier to allocate resources and narrow down your list of requirements. Define whether you want to increase event registrations, nurture leads, improve post-event follow-ups, or just collect data. Your goals will determine what data you want to export to HubSpot and what kind of workflows you’ll need to create if you’re exporting to Accelevents.
- Integration Tools - Depending on how you want your integration to work, you may need other integration tools or upgrade your plans to facilitate automation. For example, creating workflows in HubSpot requires upgrading to a Marketing Hub Professional plan. In Accelevents, you’ll need a Professional plan or higher to use the integration feature.
- Data Mapping and Synchronization - Aside from importing your attendee’s basic information, what other data do you need to achieve your goals? Define the data fields and types that must be synchronized between Accelevents and HubSpot. Map these fields to ensure that attendee data, event details, and engagement data are accurately transferred.
Implementation
After setting up your strategy, it's time to implement it. This section will guide you through the practical aspects of implementing your integration successfully.
- HubSpot List and Marketing Event Management - After successfully implementing the integration, knowing how and where attendees will appear in your HubSpot account is essential. A common misconception when importing attendees to HubSpot is that a list or a marketing event will automatically be created after the integration is set up. In fact, the creation will only be triggered after the first import post-integration setup. Once you know how to locate them, you further segment the attendees for your future marketing campaigns.
- Attendee Record Management - Another misperception is that all registrations will be imported. Just remember that you can also pause the integration; thus, if it’s paused, nothing happens, so only registrations done while the integration is turned on will be imported to HubSpot or vice versa. Once you’ve located your attendees in HubSpot, add the mapped fields to your view to see all the data on the same page.
Quality Assurance
- Sandbox and Production Testing - Thoroughly test the integration before deploying it for live events. Connecting your HubSpot sandbox account for testing would be ideal so it doesn’t mess up your live metrics. Ensure data flows correctly, automation rules function as intended, and any potential issues are addressed.
- Monitoring and Maintenance - Regularly analyze the integration's performance and make necessary adjustments to improve efficiency. To ensure that your integration is always up to date, check your integrations tab in Accelevents to see if you’ll need to re-authenticate your integration.
VI. Conclusion
In today's competitive landscape, integrating Accelevents and HubSpot isn't just a nice to have; it's essential for staying ahead. This guide has shown that the benefits extend far beyond time and cost savings. The integration improves data quality, boosts customer engagement, and sharpens your ROI analysis.
Businesses can streamline their operations and supercharge their event marketing efforts by applying the lessons learned from past integrations. Adopting this integration sets you on a path to lead in your industry through smarter resource allocation and seamless team communication.
