Event analytics refers to data associated with a customer’s verified attendance at a specific event. The value of this may not be apparent, until you consider the value of understanding how a specific customer chooses to spend their limited free time, as indicated by the events that they choose to attend.

A customer’s event attendance provides information about their interests, values and motivations. A person who attends a sporting event will likely have interests clustered around that team, sport or venue; while a person that attends a boat show at the same venue has a different interest cluster – and different needs from your company.

Event analytics includes data that can be added to other customer information to provide a company with unparalleled insights into consumers’ motivations, interests and habits.

This information can be critical to a business, offering actionable insights that can be used to improve business outcomes – from growth and revenues, to competitor information and customer satisfaction – event analytics can be the key to unlocking your competitive advantage. In fact, a recent study found that 85% of executives and managers believe that this type of data will be critical to the success of their business in the next three years.

Event analytics can be used to improve business outcomes including:

Understanding how a customer spends their time gives insight as to their interests, affinities and attributes. This offers the opportunity to identify new audiences, that share similar interests and values, and extend marketing efforts to reach them in order to increase revenue. A company can also use new customer insights to identify new products or service offerings, increasing revenues with a different approach.

Information about a competitor’s customers can provide valuable insights, which can then be applied to your own decision-making. For example, you can find out which events your competitor’s customers attend and determine if that presents an opportunity for some conversion-based marketing. In addition, you can analyze traffic patterns at your competitor’s location. By using competitive intelligence, you can reach those customers and make them your own.

A recent study on the value of competitive intelligence found that 91% of companies realized qualitative benefits and 95% reported quantitative benefits as the result of instituting a competitive intelligence program.

More than 70% of marketers responding to a recent survey said that knowing how customers spend their time in the real world is useful in planning marketing campaigns. Real-world attendance, as described by event analytics, can be applied to improve marketing ROI in two ways: targeting and budgeting. Improving your understanding of who customers are, with data on their interests and values from accurate event attendance, can help you to better identify and target marketing efforts, in placement, design and messaging, to improve effectiveness and ROI. Resources can then be channeled to the most effective marketing channels and messages, further improving marketing ROI.

Event analytics can also be applied to improve the accuracy of forecasting and planning efforts. For example, event analytics includes comprehensive foot traffic data, which can be instrumental in selecting a new retail site or location for your business.

A successful site selection can do more than boost your retail business – it can also improve your online sales. McKinsey has estimated that a positive brick-and-mortar experience can drive e-commerce sales in the surrounding area; and that the resulting ‘halo effect’ can improve sales anywhere from 20-40%.

To learn more, read Gravy’s blog post, ‘Why Foot Traffic Data is Vital for CRE Market Research.’

Finally, every piece of information that is gathered about the customer helps to build a more comprehensive view of who that customer is. This understanding can be applied to improve the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction and retention.

Improving the customer experience can have a direct effect on the bottom line. 49% of customers reported making an impulse purchase after an excellent experience, and 86% would be willing to pay a premium for goods and services from a company that offers a great customer experience.

Event analytics – verified, accurate information about where consumers go, and what draws them to a specific place at a specific time – can provide a critical competitive advantage to a business. Not only can it be applied to identify new opportunities and drive revenues, it can also be used for forecasting and planning, budgeting and targeting, and improving the customer experience.

http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/petrol19/papers/PetroGIS_14.pdf
https://www.crayon.co/state-of-competitive-intelligence
https://www.emarketer.com/content/location-intelligence-roundup-2019
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/whos-shopping-where-the-power-of-geospatial-analytics-in-omnichannel-retail
https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-statistics/