Best way to import contacts from marketing events?

[CArcher]

A big part of our marketing spend goes to in-person and virtual events. We usually set these up as "Awareness" campaigns with the primary goal of generating new contacts so we can begin nurturing.

When we do in-person events, we try to have a handful of devices at the event so people can fill out a Hubspot Form if they want to be contacted, but the reality is that most of our new contacts still come from business cards or exports provided by the event managers. I end up dumping all the contacts from various sources into a spreadsheet and then importing them into Hubspot.

I'd like to associate the contacts from these events back to the event campaign in Hubspot so I can see how the event campaigns we track in Hubspot are performing and whether we are achieving our goals. I'm hoping this is simple, and I am just missing something. Does anybody know how to associate imported contacts from a Marketing Event back to the Hubspot campaign? Am I approaching this the wrong way? Any other ideas here?

Thanks!

[CArcher · Accepted solution]

I think I may have just answered my own question with this post: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/campaigns/associate-assets-and-content-with-a-campaign

Looks like you can associate a static list from an offline import with a campaign. I never knew that!

[DavidDennison · Accepted solution]

Hi there! I actually have my degree in Meetings and Events and I think I have a better solution for you!

Filling out a HubSpot form on the spot can kinda be a bad user experience. Especially since it takes a human to stand there and have people fill it out. Since it sounds like you do a lot of events, I would look into some event check in/marketing platforms that will streamline this process for you. When people sign up for your events, all this information will be automatically organized for you. At the end of the event, you can simply export the data and then upload to HubSpot with a few tweaks.

One of the most popular event management platforms: https://www.socialtables.com/product/check-in/

Social Tables is really cool because it has some awesome tools that you can use to promote your event as well such as floor plan designs and other planning tools.

Another cool one: https://rsvpify.com/event-check-in-app/

With this app you can easily set up a QR code that attendees can scan. It also has a TON of event marketing features that I think you'll find useful.

If none of those are right for you, check out this: https://www.capterra.com/event-check-in-software/

You should be able to find something in this list that should help you.

Lastly, you can check out Facebook Wifi: https://www.facebook.com/facebook-wifi/

This will enable you to offer attendees free wifi. BUT when they sign in to use the internet, FB will gather all the data you need and then you can export that later. Do some research on this option because it's definitely not for every application!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll be happy to help!

[CArcher]

David, thanks for all of the tips. Very helpful!

[DavidDennison]

Hi there!

Just wanted to check-in and ask what route did you go? Did you find a solution that fits your needs?

If so, please help the community mark this thread as solved! 

[DavidDennison]

Of course! Don't hesitate to reach out if you need some more fine tuning to get the right product for you!

[CArcher]

More detail: Still looking for a solution. While I can associate the static list to the campaign as an asset, it appears that these contacts only get marked as Influenced Contacts, when in reality the majority of them should be new contacts. It seems Hubspot treats a "New Contact" only as one who has visited the website... This seems like flawed logic to me. If somebody visits my booth/talk at a physical event, and I capture their contact info, that event should "get credit" for being their first touch. Am I missing something here?

[CGooley]

Any updates? Same issue here.

[CArcher · Accepted solution]

I think I may have just answered my own question with this post: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/campaigns/associate-assets-and-content-with-a-campaign

Looks like you can associate a static list from an offline import with a campaign. I never knew that!

[aparcan]

Still struggling with this. We receive event lists that we upload as static lists, associate with a campaign, and it appears Deals created on those contacts are not showing up in any campaign reporting. Is there a better way to solve for this?