Certain's New Approach to Event Management Accelerates the Revenue Cycle

SAN FRANCISCO, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Certain, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise event management solutions, today announced powerful enhancements to its SaaS platform that allow CMOs to maximize the value of events in the revenue cycle. This new approach to events enables marketers to "personalize" the event experience for attendees and guide them to the educational content and 1-to-1 connections they need to more rapidly progress through the buying cycle.

"Events represent the last marketing channel to be fully digitized and integrated into sales and marketing infrastructure.  Our platform now offers marketers the opportunity to evolve their event technology and deliver more powerful and productive events that accelerate revenue," said Peter Micciche, Certain CEO.  "With up to 36% of the typical marketing budget spent on events, marketers must look beyond automating event logistics to a solution that will enable events to meet empowered buyers on their terms, provide real value and build lasting relationships."

Personalized Event Experiences

Personalized event experiences bring a new approach to event management.  Attendees now can take control of their event experience and design it to meet their unique educational and networking needs.  Marketers can more easily guide prospects and customers to specific content, target messages and orchestrate connections that nurture prospects through the buying process and transform customers into promoters.

"Aberdeen Group research shows that top-performing companies are more likely than others to personalize marketing content, offers, and experiences to the individual," said Trip Kucera, Sr. Research Analyst, Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy, Aberdeen Group. "Given the strategic focus marketers place on events for high-touch prospect and customer engagement, platforms that enhance the event experience can help firms maximize their considerable investment in the event channel."

New Self-Scheduled Appointments and Event Views™ enhance Certain's powerful attendee management and patent-pending appointment matching technology to enable personalized event experiences.  By integrating with Marketing Automation and CRM systems the platform expands existing profile information to guide attendees to the right sessions, activities, social networks and 1-to-1 meetings.  As attendees personalize their agendas and participate through mobile and social networks their profiles are enhanced with valuable information to optimize post-event sales and marketing follow-up.    

Self-Scheduled Appointments

New "Self-Scheduled Appointments" enhances Certain's Match2Connect™ appointment scheduling capability to deliver the most powerful 1-to-1 appointment scheduling solution.  Announced in 2012, Match2Connect intelligently connects event participants in pre-scheduled 1-to-1 meetings based on their specified interests and preferences.

Self-Scheduled Appointments allows attendees to reach out to other participants and schedule meetings on their own.  All requests and acceptances are handled in the event application without interfering with personal inboxes.

The number one reason people attend events is to network. These 1-to-1 appointments ensure connections happen and allow participants to prepare for and execute meetings without distractions.  Because event organizers control who has access to whom, they can easily configure both types of 1-to-1 meetings to orchestrate connections that move attendees through the sales pipeline.

Event Views

New "Event Views™" offers attendees a single interface for all their personalized event information – personal agendas, social networks, travel and accommodations, and late breaking event news.  It enables event owners to guide attendees to the most relevant aspects of the event, not leaving their experience to chance and ensuring that important brand and product messages are delivered to the right audiences. 

Unlike other approaches where separate event sites need to be created, Event Views is easily configured for each attendee type by selecting from a library of templates, using a drag-and-drop editor and inserting pre-defined widgets.  In a few minutes event owners can design a branded experience that is automatically personalized to each attendee.    

Leveraging Events in the Revenue Cycle

Personalized event experiences bring a new approach to event management, letting marketers meet empowered buyers where they are in the buying process and deliver the information and connections they need to propel themselves forward.  Not leaving this to chance allows marketers to accomplish at a one or two-day event what might take buyers weeks or months to accomplish on their own - decreasing sales cycle time and increasing pipeline velocity.  By digitizing the event channel, marketers are also able to collect valuable demographic and behavioral data to optimize lead nurturing and sales follow-up, and better integrate events into the larger stream of marketing and sales activities designed to move prospects through the revenue cycle.

"Marketers have personalized and digitized many other channels. It's time now for event planners and stakeholders to take advantage of these same technologies and marketing disciplines," said Corbin Ball, Founder of Corbin Ball Associates.  "I am happy to see companies such as Certain make progress in this space.  By doing so, marketers and event professionals can evolve the events channel to deliver more measurable business impact for marketers and more productive experiences for attendees."

To learn more, download the Personalized Event Experiences e-Book or join our webinar, "Personalizing Event Experiences, Accelerating the Revenue Cycle," Wednesday, May 22, 2013, 12:00pm ET and 9:00amPT. 

About Certain: Powering Connections, Accelerating Business

Certain provides a complete enterprise event management platform that powers personalized event experiences and enables meaningful connections to accelerate business. Used by the largest corporations, meeting management companies and event producers worldwide, the Certain platform enables attendee management, event branding, social and mobile participation, and 1-to-1 meetings that engage audiences and maximize event value for all participants.  With Certain's proven SaaS-based technology, cross-functional event teams collaborate, streamline processes, and reduce costs to execute flawless events with operational excellence. To maximize the business impact, the Certain platform integrates easily with marketing automation and enterprise systems to deliver rich customer insights as well as event intelligence. Headquartered in San Francisco, Certain has operations and sales offices in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. For more information please visit www.certain.com.

Contact

Michelle Schofield
Certain,Inc.
(650) 393-0530
[email protected]

Christian Munson
CRT/tanaka for Certain
(804) 675-8151
[email protected]

SOURCE Certain, Inc.