Best CRM for Event Management (Free and Paid)

» What is CRM Software for Event Management?

Event management CRM software provides marketers with customer relations tools to help track and analyze customer interactions. On the other hand, event management software also includes event planning and execution tools. It's a sophisticated toolkit that helps with everything from managing finances to managing sponsorships and attendees.

An event management CRM system can define event contacts, track and analyze attendance, manage sponsorships and promotions, and even send post-event follow-up emails. As with any software, event CRM tools allow you to increase your efficiency and productivity in various ways.

CRM systems for event management help in many ways. For example, it helps you organize your data per the requirements of different events. It will also help you track employees once they are assigned some tasks by their managers. This way, employees can be monitored from early to completion with correct information about the project or task assigned to them by their manager. It will also allow managers to see the progress of their team members and also have the ability to see their performance.

In addition, event management software helps manage sponsorships, tickets, and other related things in an organized manner. You can easily track the number of events and records for each stage or part of it. This way, you can follow your event budget to maintain a check on expenses. This may help reduce your cost because you can use the software for budgeting purposes. Event management software works closely with event management CRM systems because of its integration feature. Both are designed to be compatible with each other and bring you more benefits because they work closely together.

» Features of CRM Software for Event Management

CRM allows businesses to efficiently track their customers, gather customer data and retain important business information. It offers many features, including integrations with social media, project management tools, and marketing automation. Below are some examples of CRM features:

› Attendee management:

Best CRM software for event management enables you to organize and track the communication with customers by categorizing, managing, segmenting, and adding to contact lists the information on people interested in events.

› Leads management:

Did you know you can show statistics on client leads generated by the CRM software in real time and manage them to ensure maximum efficiency in event marketing? Lead generation can sometimes be tedious, especially when you are a small business. Therefore it is best to have a CRM from the beginning so lead generation can be an active part of your company.

› Contact management:

With the best CRM software for event management, you can establish contacts with prospective customers through email campaigns, answering calls, and logging in to websites as soon as they visit your site. This also lets you see which websites are most popular among your clients.

› Venue management:

CRM software for event managers helps you know the number of participants and check the venue to ensure that it has enough chairs, tables, space, and other items needed for the event. It also provides statistics on whether or not attendees will be interested in upcoming events.

› Ticketing:

CRM systems for event management also allow event planners to see how many people are interested in a particular event, how many tickets have been purchased, and how the event generated much revenue. This helps planners determine which events are most profitable while ensuring they do not run out of tickets.

› Registration management:

CRM software for event managers makes it easy to manage all registrations and ensure attendees get their tickets, update registration lists and send reminders about upcoming events via email campaigns or social media.

› Event analytics:

Ensure that the most critical data is maintained and can be easily accessed. This goes for attendees, leads, and even those who may want to enroll in a workshop.

› Reports:

Event planning CRM systems help you understand what your clients are interested in, how many sign up for specific events, and how many attend the event. This allows planners to see which events succeeded and what needs to be done to improve future events.

› On-site management:

With event planning CRM systems, you can keep track of attendees' time and attendance, ensure all speakers arrive on time and track any damages to the venue.

› Session management:

Know what sessions are scheduled for each day and ensure attendees understand which information they need to know during these sessions and how many people attended each session.

› 3rd party integration:

Integrate your CRM systems for event management with vendors such as event planners, printers, or caterers, who may also want to see attendance and revenue by activity or specific types of events that they may manage.

› Pipelines:

CRM systems for event management help send emails and texts to attendees who have been targeted and monitor how many of them sign up for the event. This allows you to invest in reaching as many people as possible about upcoming events.

» What are the benefits of CRM Software for Event Management?

Event management is a highly competitive field. As an event manager, it is your responsibility to ensure all the events you plan go smoothly, and if they do not, you need a tool to help you quickly identify what went wrong and how to fix it. CRM for event planners has evolved in recent years and has become an essential part of what every event manager needs to keep track of their business relationships with potential clients. Here are some benefits of CRM Software for Event Management:

› Easy communication:

The event manager can easily communicate with their clients and other vendors. Event managers can create major email groups and send the messages to specific individuals or groups instead of sending them all to everyone in the event team by hand. This feature allows for better communications and enables event managers to manage a team of professionals efficiently.

› Better tracking:

CRM software for event management quickly helps you track the event progress and also track projects in a single place. This allows the event manager to track every vendor's progress, and they can easily be included if any changes are needed.

› Workflow approval:

Each project has a workflow, and each event management company has a specific workflow for its business development system. The different types of events have different kinds of workflows that need approval from all stakeholders in the project. When this is done via the cloud-based software, all documents can be located, created, and updated immediately by clicking on your PC or tablet. Tracking the workflow is easily possible with event management CRM for event planners, as all your team is on the same page and within exact lines.

› Decreased duplication:

Event managers must ensure they don't deliver the same information in the same email when communicating with several people. CRM for event planners automatically notifies the user if they are sending the same message to several people at once and prevents the event manager from making this mistake.

› No more double-entry work:

Event managers are busy people in charge of many projects at once. This means they must be very organized as they move from one project to another in brief periods. Paying someone for these tasks can be tricky since most event management agencies have tight budgets. CRMs for event planners & coordinators are best to stay organized and always know the latest updates on their projects via the online database, which makes this job more convenient for both managers and clients.

› Automation:

There is no need always to be the one responsible for contacting all parties involved in an event. Event managers can bring their clients to the CRM system for event management and have it automatically locate, organize, update and send documents directly to several people at once. Receiving incoming calls now from your online database is a massive benefit for event managers as it relieves them of the extra work of managing and receiving incoming calls, faxes, and emails.

› More sales:

Marketing agencies are constantly told to improve their sales process, creating more leads, sending out more leads and promotions, etc. Most of the same tasks have been automated in the CRM system for event management, saving event managers a lot of time and improving their bottom line by increasing sales. This can be done through the automation system for event marketing.

› Easily generated reports:

Event managers are still responsible for creating their reports which gives them knowledge of trends, statistics, and other information needed to do their job effectively. CRM for event planners comes with a report generation system that allows them to generate reports quickly and save time by not having to create the document manually every time they need it.

» Things to Consider before Choosing the Best CRM software for Event Management

We are confused when we think of buying CRM software for event management. To help you out, we are here with three things that you need to consider before choosing the best CRM software for event management:

› Cloud CRM Set-up:

There are two types of CRM, i.e., Cloud and on-premise. A cloud CRM has a central vendor that provides you with CRM services at a subscription cost. On the other hand, the on-premise CRM is an in-house CRM hosted by your company for your use. There is no vendor; instead, you own the CRM. For small businesses, a cloud CRM is most compatible and vice versa. For an event management company, it is best to have an on -premise CRM because event management is a diverse field requiring lots of activities to be hosted in the areas.

› Several features:

Make sure you choose a CRM with dozens of features, including some basic features like lead management, integration, pipelines, report generation, client management, and analytics. Apart from this, while choosing CRM software for event management, consider having features like Attendee management, Venue management, Ticketing, Registration management, etc. Also, you need to know that as the features increase, the productivity of employees and the price increase.

› Ease of usage:

Event management CRM for event planners should be easy to use and have a friendly interface. In simple words, the CRM should be able to generate reports in seconds and draw analysis too. Also, every business is different, so there should be some scope for customization. Moreover, the CRM system for event management should easily integrate with project management software.

» How much does CRM Software for Event Management Cost?

The cost varies depending on the needs of the organization. It depends on whether you want to include other tools with your event management CRM system or if you are connecting with third-party vendors that require additional hardware, software, etc. Generally, the CRM costs between $5-$500 / month depending on features and usability. On the other hand, there is some free software for small and medium size companies. It is necessary to have the best CRM software for event management with plenty of features, especially industry-specific features, to ease your work and reduce employee burden and stress. Also, this will increase productivity, where employees can focus on other essential tasks.

» Conclusion

Now that you have understood why and how to buy an event management CRM software, you need to prepare a checklist and analyze the features, benefits, and characteristics of the CRM to decide on one. Event management CRM software is a vital tool to help event managers and attendees to have a great time. It can also save tons of time, money, and headaches. Event managers who invest in CRM will find it easier to deal with the administrative side of running their business efficiently and organize their data and tasks to avoid any potential project failures or slips. Finding mature CRM software for event management will make your life much easier when you start thinking about going big from your local entrepreneurial endeavors.