Data Learnings from Denise Miller @ Event Tech Live 2023

In April of 2023, the event industry’s technology leaders descended upon Las Vegas, NV for the inaugural Event Tech Live (ETL) US show. I had the privilege of attending and interviewing one of the marketing titans in the industry, Denise Miller from the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB).

If you’re looking for a more impressive stat sheet, good luck, as Denise and her team are setting audience acquisition records despite industry and economic headwinds.

She and her team are responsible for the fantastically well-attended International Builders’ Show - see some of those stats below.

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The focus of our discussion was diving into how Denise and her team view agile marketing and data-driven decision-making during the campaign cycle. You can see the full interview below:

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Here’s some of the highlights:

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• Hypertargeting. This is a blend of not just who your messaging but which channel you’re using to reach out to those groups.
• Analytics Obsessed. There’s no safety line on this tightrope, Denise and the team are literally building the campaign strategy in week-to-week agile settings as the data comes in. She mentions the team’s focus on understanding areas of over/under performance to determine the best marketing activations for that week.
• Flexible Strategy. One point that Denise emphasized is embracing the unknown and being willing to say “No” to something. More marketing isn’t always better marketing - to stick to where the data’s guiding you and execute!

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If you’re like most folks, you may be asking yourself - “how do I get started?”. Well Denise outlined that gameplan as well:

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What are the keys to being more data-driven in your marketing:

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1. Dedicated Space - ensure you and the team has a time and space to JUST focus on what the data’s telling you. Make it repeatable, bite-sized (15-30 mins), and focused solely on the data narrative. This time and space will allow you and the team to determine the next week’s or the next sprint’s strategy.
2. Metrics that Matter - in a world where you can measure nearly everything - focus on those metrics which have a high sensitivity - meaning their improvement will result in the desired gains. Denise speaks of
3. Define Agility - in a world where attendees are registering later than ever, teams are smaller, and resources are still constrained - it’s important to have ruthless prioritization on where you are focusing your activities and efforts. Having an agile mindset and process allows for teams to be more impactful with the resources they have. It also allows for the best utilization of the most precious resource in a marketing campaign - time.
4. Team - the last piece to the puzzle is ensuring everyone is rowing in the same direction. Using data transparently across teams can better strategically align team members and team goals and results in tighter communication. Agile, data-driven teams move in lockstep with one another, ensuring a successful outcome.

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Want to learn more, reach out for a free demo of how Bear IQ’s audience marketing module helped power NAHB to record growth.