Limited resources, manual work, and slow turnaround time left a top company in the cybersecurity space searching for a solution to support their fast-paced events program. With Splash, the team found the support they needed to expand their global program and develop an event-led growth strategy. Today, they host events across six continents, set up events within 24 hours, and keep deals moving quickly by syncing real-time attendee updates with the rest of their marketing tools.
Speed to launch and repeatability is a requirement for any company driving toward event-led growth. But without the right tools and processes in place, reaching these gold standards can be a big challenge.
We sat down with a Marketing Operations Manager from the cybersecurity team to learn how they increased speed to execution and scaled their event program to more than 700 events a year.
It all started a few years ago when they were struggling to support their small to medium-sized events.
Unlike their occasional large-scale experiences, these events happened frequently and offered their own challenges.
They required quick turnaround time from start to finish. The team needed to set up events with ease and efficiency, and they needed a system for tracking attendee statuses and check-ins so they could send fast follow-ups and keep leads warm.
This ended up placing a lot of manual work and extra hours on their field marketing and marketing operations teams. At times, they’d find themselves outsourcing help due to limited resources.
“We’d either have a local agency help us track attendees or have the field marketers keep track via an iPad and a form. This also meant that lists would be sent to our marketing operations team to vet and confirm opt-ins prior to uploading their engagement into our database. Overall, it was a slower turnaround time to follow up with attendees and keep their attention.”
Knowing there had to be a better way, they set out to find a solution to build events at the speed they needed.
Splash was recommended by a handful of team members who had used it at previous companies.
When it came down to what the team needed, Splash ended being the solution to help them:
Splash’s branded templates have everything they need built right in, helping them to streamline event production and processes.
“The team can quickly build landing pages for events, upload their own content, design their registration forms, review registrations via the waitlist feature, and create cohesive share cards and virtual event pages to match the look and feel we’re going for.”
Splash’s real-time attendee status updates helps the team properly plan for their events. They find the waitlist option especially helpful for reviewing registrations prior to approval.
“Features like domain inclusion and registration capacity limits ensure the right audience is in attendance in manageable proportions. An event with limited seating, food, etc., would be very difficult to manage if we didn’t have some of these tools in hand.”
The team leverages Splash’s Host app to help them on-site, saving them extra budget and resources. The app lets them check guests in quickly by scanning the QR code or swiping the guest’s name on their phone or tablet. Smaller events result in a smaller on-site team, so no-fuss check-in allows the team to engage with customers and prospects without interruptions.
Integrating their event management system with the rest of the tools in their tech stack is crucial for saving time and increasing efficiency across their entire team. Because of that, their Marketing Operations Manager built a robust set of integrations in Splash to ensure data is accurately syncing to their marketing operation platform and webinar platform.
“Being able to integrate our marketing automation platform cut down our lead follow-up turnaround time and saved both our field marketers and marketing operations team several hours in data validation, hygiene, and maintenance.”
With Splash, the team has created a sophisticated event process that allows them to host events across six continents. They create and update event templates, host events, and assist with check-in when needed.
Today, they run events frequently on Splash, averaging around 50 in-person and virtual events a month.
“Events provide us a way to connect with our customers, prospective customers, and partners to build deeper relationships and strengthen our connections.”
Since joining Splash, the team has:
But the benefits go beyond the numbers. They also use Splash to create thoughtful customer experiences.
“The product marketing team particularly loves the hub feature where we’re able to consolidate a body of work and events under one umbrella to truly give customers and prospects a curated approach in the way they consume content and learn more about our products.“
After building out the Splash instance for their team, the Marketing Operations Manager shared they would like to leave a legacy for their company, and if Splash could be part of that legacy, it would be great.
Using templates in Splash, we’re able to standardize the look and feel for a series of similar topic events, dynamically cap registrations and attendees, review registrations prior to the event, and facilitate a faster check-in process with QR-code functionality. We’ve also built robust integrations based on event types and have moved from waiting a few days to consolidate attendance and engagement data to doing it in almost real time. With that, we’re also able to follow up with registrants and deliver targeted messaging based on their level of engagement and attendance.
Marketing Operations Manager
