Why Are Event Data Analytics Important?

By Ariane Ramirez, Customer Success Team Lead, Accelevents‍

When hosting a virtual event, you might have several goals: having a specific number of attendees, gaining potential leads, or maximizing sales. To achieve your event goals, you must have a deliberate strategy regarding your event analytics. Understanding your market is a crucial element to having a successful event. Without knowing what motivates your attendees, it will be harder to understand why your event is a failure or a success.

The need for data analytics is in high demand right now, and with virtual event platforms having built-in analytics, you won’t need to lift a finger to hassle with any integrations.

A ton of information can be collected from your attendees, starting with the personal information attendees provide while registering for your event, as well as the actions completed while attending the event.  Knowing the trends will make you understand what attendees want and don’t want, allowing you to adjust to improve your next event.

Before we go on, let’s start with the basics and define what analytics are. In simplest terms, data analytics is the process of collecting valuable information to analyze, understand, and gain insights so that you can make better decisions based on what you find.

For event organizers, data analytics will allow you to create a marketing plan that is more meaningful for attendees, capture a global market, and even increase your profit.

More Attendee Engagement

Knowing which sessions have the highest and lowest number of attendees will give you insights into your attendees’ interests. You’ll know what to eliminate or improve in your event agenda with this data.

With an event platform like Accelevents, you will know which part of the session has the highest viewing rate. So if you notice a high viewing rate for a particular speaker, invite that speaker for your next event and highlight them as a featured speaker. Check out that speaker’s style and content to know what appealed to your audience.

Aside from relying on built-in analytics, you can send out surveys after the event. It can be an evaluation for the whole event or individual sessions, depending on what you want to know about your attendees and your event.

Increased Event Profit

If customers are happy with your product or service in any industry, they will likely be returning customers. The same applies to attendees in your virtual event. They may even spread the word about the event platform if they are impressed.

One key thing you have to evaluate is how much they liked your event platform. If most of your attendees had a difficult time logging in, or the live stream keeps cutting out, then maybe you’ll need to consider a different platform for your next event. By checking your attendees’ messages in the live chat log, you will know exactly how they feel about the platform. And aside from surveys, you can have polls pop up in some areas of your event. You can even ask attendees to rate your event or give them a multiple-choice question.

Create several ticket tiers if you have a paid event to give your attendees more options. You can also know how much an attendee will spend on your event with this. The data you gather will help you formulate the best ticket pricing options for your next event while considering your expenses.

Analytics may help you find that perfect balance between paying your overhead costs and raking in profits.

Larger Audience

When registering for your event, ask attendees for specific information that may help you determine how to advertise your event. But of course, keep in mind that asking too many questions may deter them. This article talks about a 15-second rule - the average time a visitor spends on a page. So if your form has 20 questions, you’re going to have someone drop out in the middle of it out of boredom. Keep it simple. For example, ask for their age, sex, and location. I know it sounds like an intro to chatting back in the ’90s, but learning your demographic will help you determine the best approach for advertising and marketing.

If you see a considerable number of sign-ups from a particular country, perhaps acquiring a speaker from that country might help your event get more exposure. If they are in a different timezone, it may be best to consider creating other tracks for different countries or regions, which will allow them to watch and join sessions at a more convenient time.

Creating A/B tests will also help you know which social media posts or landing pages get more clicks. When you determine which one performs better, you can focus your marketing efforts on that.

Attract More Exhibitors

The more data you can offer to your exhibitors, the more they will want to join your event. Exhibitors’ main goal for joining an event is to gain leads. Aside from collecting attendees’ contact information, you can provide exhibitors with additional information such as how long attendees stay in their booth, what documents attendees downloaded, what videos they’ve watched, etc. Create an exhibitor package that highlights your analytics feature. If it can benefit you as an event organizer, and it can also help your exhibitors.

With Accelevents, you’ll have the option to provide this information to your exhibitors, and your attendees will even have the opportunity to choose whether they want to share their contact information or not. This flexibility can be an attractive feature, especially when not everyone has the same preferences.

Virtual events nowadays have an abundance of data to gather. But your team must be vigilant to make that data purposeful and to mine it for nuggets of usefulness. Having a good understanding of your event statistics and making informed decisions based on that data can translate to a more engaging, meaningful, and successful event.