by Linda Forsstrom Torres 
The Event Marketing 2018 Benchmarks and Trends report showed that 80% out of the 400 marketers included in the survey believed that live events are critical to their company’s success.Event marketing was also the most effective way to market a B2B company according to this report’s marketers (31%).
Live events – like trade shows, fairs and exhibitions – are all great opportunities for your company to attract new prospects into your database. However, your company’s process of gathering, nurturing and reporting this data may not have changed over the last couple of years. This is why your company need to explore the power of a marketing automation tool, such as Pardot.
So how can and should you use your Pardot in order to reach success with your next live event?
Start off by setting up a Landing Page with a form to collect information from your prospects at the venue. The prospects could fill out this form on the device you brought to the event, meaning you no longer have to worry about how many forms you should print out and bring to the event. This will also save you tons of paperwork and you will decrease the risk of misplacing any of the forms after the event.
Tick the Kiosk/Data Entry Mode option in your form settings (under Look and Feel) to avoid tracking the wrong cookie. By enabling this option, you will avoid tracking your new prospect through the wrong IP address when they are filling out your form on your laptop/tablet.
Once the event is over, then it’s time for lead nurturing your new prospects. That’s right, not only you can save time and money by using Pardot in collecting data onsite, but think about what you can do with the prospects afterwards. You might want to push these leads into a specific List, associate them with a Campaign or include them in an existing or new lead nurture program with Engagement Studio.
Finally, you want to make the reporting of the event efficient and accurate, so it can help you and your company in the future events decision-making. You have already eased the process by associating the landing page and form with the event’s own campaign in Pardot, along with the prospects you’ve acquired in the process. If you also know the costs of your campaign, Pardot will be able to help you calculate the ROI and deliver a custom report, tailored directly for your campaign.
Don’t forget to check out our articles where you can learn how to make your Pardot forms ready for your next event.
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