Introduction

Imagine the buzz of a bustling conference floor, where industry professionals are mingling, ideas are sparking, and every handshake holds the potential for a new business opportunity. In these high-energy environments, teams are on the lookout for tools that can effortlessly capture leads and make every interaction count. Popl digital business cards are emerging as a game-changer for in-person lead capture, offering a tech-savvy and sustainable way to network. With just a Popl QR code shown from a smartphone, team members can exchange contact info instantly, without the worry of running out of traditional business cards, misplacing those they receive, or never hearing back from those they give their card to.

On the other hand, more traditional event badge scanning tools like Cvent have been a staple in lead retrieval at events for years. These badge scanning softwares offer a straightforward method of collecting contact details through a quick badge scan. While they might not boast the same lead management and integration capabilities as Popl's digital solution, they are a familiar part of many conferences and provide a tangible way to keep track of the people you meet. These traditional solutions are comfortable, but they may not actually be the best tool for your needs. Now that new technology and CRM softwares like Salesfore and HubSpot have changed the way businesses manage leads, and it may be time for you and your team to consider other options.

In this blog, we’ll do an in-depth comparison of the two lead capture options and see how they compare! Let’s dive in 🚀

In-Person Lead Capture

Popl provides a comprehensive networking platform that supports various methods of capturing contact information at events. Unlike traditional event badge scanners, which are limited to scanning badges,

Popl can scan three different sources of leads:

Event badges
Paper business cards
Digital business cards & QR codes (Yes, you can scan LinkedIn QR codes and QR codes from other digital business card companies using the Popl mobile app)

Event badge scanners can only scan one source:

Event badges

Popl’s multi-faceted capability ensures that regardless of the contact sharing method, you can effectively capture and store the information.

Another major advantage of Popl digital cards is that the lead capture forms that they present to prospects can be fully customizable. Popl lead forms allow for any number of text input fields, dropdowns, checkboxes, disclaimers, and more. Learn more about Popl lead capture forms here: https://popl.co/pages/lead-capture

Sync Leads to your CRM

Event badge scanners traditionally operate by collecting attendee data throughout an event, culminating in a CSV file of leads. This CSV file is often delayed in being sent to you as well, as the event organizer needs time to compile all leads in a CSV and send them over. This delay results in less excited, warm leads for your team.

This file requires post-event processing, as event teams must then import the CSV into their respective CRM systems and manually organize and tag each lead. This step can be time-consuming and prone to human error, often delaying the follow-up process with potential clients and contacts.

In contrast, the Popl platform streamlines the CRM lead syncing process by offering automatic synchronization with popular CRM platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, and more. This eliminates the need for any team member to do manual data entry and eliminates the subsequent risk of inaccuracies. Popl's robust CRM syncing features include:

Unlimited custom CRM field mappings
Built in campaign setting logic
Unique CRM sync customization per group (subteam)
Automatic deduplication checks that ensure duplicate leads/contacts are never created
Lead auto-tagging with team-wide tag libraries

The platform's auto-tagging feature can be used to categorize leads based on certain criteria, such as event name, date, or custom tags relevant to your business's needs. This ensures that leads are sorted and ready for targeted follow-up as soon as they enter the CRM.

Additionally, campaign settings can be configured to track the performance of different marketing efforts, allowing teams to measure and analyze the success of their event-based networking.

Measure the ROI of your Events

When teams utilize Popl at events, they gain access to a wealth of actionable data that is crucial for evaluating performance and strategizing future interactions. The platform's analytics provide detailed metrics on how many people viewed the team’s digital business card, which links on the cards were tapped, and how many new connections were made. This data is especially valuable for teams that frequently attend in person events, as it allows them to track engagement in real-time and make data-driven decisions on how to improve their outreach and follow-up strategies.

Furthermore, Popl's insights offer a deeper dive into the effectiveness of a team's event efforts by analyzing the tap-through rate, a metric that reveals the ratio of views to clicks on a digital business card. These analytics enable teams to understand which aspects of their digital presence are capturing the most attention and which may need to be adjusted for better performance. By leveraging these insights, teams can refine their messaging, optimize the placement of content on their digital cards, and ultimately, enhance their lead generation and conversion rates.

With Popl, teams are not just collecting leads; they are cultivating a sophisticated understanding of their lead capture efficiency, allowing ROI of events to finally be measurable and visible.

Popl works at every event, not just one

Another incredible benefit of Popl Teams is that it offers a dynamic solution that extends far beyond the scope of any single event. Unlike event badge scanners that are event-specific and become useless after their designated event concludes, Popl's digital business card platform is designed for continuous and repeated use across multiple events, networking meet-ups, dinners, and more. Team admins can manage team members’ digital cards and the leads they capture for any number of events all within Popl. This ensures consistent and streamlined CRM syncs and lead nurturing, while also providing access to powerful performance analytics and metrics.

The ongoing utilization of Popl not only fosters better relationship management, but also provides valuable insights through detailed analytics across various events. These insights can inform future event strategies, optimize lead generation, and improve networking outcomes.

Pricing (I bet you can guess which is cheaper ;)

For many years (and still to this day), the conventional model of event badge scanning software has placed a costly gate between companies and their hard-earned leads, with large fees being demanded for the release of lead data post-event.

This practice effectively holds leads hostage unless companies are willing to open their wallets and pay thousands of dollars per event. Those teams that do agree to pay the price are rewarded with nothing more than a basic CSV file that requires additional laborious sorting, tagging, and importing before it can even be leveraged via a CRM.

Popl stands against this outdated and unfair system. We are committed to empowering event participants by ensuring that the leads they work so hard to acquire are rightfully theirs from the outset, without the need for a financial toll. The Popl platform is engineered to grant immediate ownership and control of lead data to the teams that gather it, liberating them from the restrictive practices of traditional badge scanning solutions and allowing them to capitalize on their networking efforts without delay or additional cost.

The event badge scanning fees can range from $100 - $800 per member at the event. So if your event team is say 10 people, and the event charges $500 per scanning member, that is $5000 for leads from just a single event. Let's say your team attends 10 events per year, that's a $50,000 cost! Popl Teams yearly cost for a 10 person team is $900...The difference is staggering.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while both event badge scanners and Popl offer solutions for capturing leads at events, it's clear that the convenience, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of Popl makes it the superior choice. Traditional event badge scanners might have been the go-to in the past, but they come with limitations—most notably, the high costs associated with accessing your leads and the manual labor required to process them. Popl, on the other hand, revolutionizes the process by putting the power back into the hands of event attendees, offering immediate access to lead data without hidden fees or cumbersome procedures.

As the landscape of event networking continues to evolve, Popl emerges as the innovative leader, ensuring that every interaction counts and that every lead is an opportunity waiting to be harnessed.

If you are interested in maximizing your team’s in-person lead capture and maximizing the ROI of your events, learn more about Popl Teams here: https://popl.co/pages/popl-teams. We look forward to meeting you!