A recent poll of American individuals aged 18 and older reveals that people are attending more live events than before. The increased demand is good news for businesses and marketing professionals who are looking for new techniques to interact with their prospective customers in meaningful ways.
Live events provide personal and interactive access to an audience that no other type of engagement can provide. However, this demand for more events does not guarantee success. You can avoid failure by planning accordingly and measuring your results afterward.
What is event marketing?
It is a marketing strategy that focuses on developing live experiences to promote a product or a service. Event marketing manifests through different means like business hosting to trade show participation and industry events, to name a few. Digital interactions like virtual conferences, live-streamed workshops, and webinars fall under event marketing as well. Aside from the event itself, the promotion through email, social media, SEO, and other outbound strategies fall upon the shoulders of event marketing professionals.
Why is it important?
The multi-sensory experiences delivered by live events provide a unique way of interacting with your target audience. Events can also help achieve multiple goals from increasing product demand, giving recognition to loyal customers, and growing prospective clients. Establishing clear goals will boost the chances of the event’s success.
Measuring the impact of event marketing
Before starting the event, you must indicate key performance indicators that you will monitor to quantify the event’s success. It’s challenging to establish an event for the sake of gaining publicity. Instead, the key performance indicators (KPIs) serve as a quantifier that measures the event’s success and an indicator on the areas of improvement for succeeding events. The most common KPIs event marketers use are:
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Registration
More than half of event planners base the initiative of joining future events from the performance of previous ones. Registration count is one of the first aspects they look at to determine whether or not their efforts are bearing good fruit.
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Attendance
If the rate of returning attendees continues to fall, you may want to shift the tracking to new attendees instead. Do your attendees come but never return? Have you built a loyal base, or are you struggling to reach new audiences? Keeping track of attendance indicate whether the interest is increasing or waning. If there is a significant reduction, identify the reasons for their non-attendance and address them at your next event.
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Lead generation
Businesses conduct event marketing to gain leads. Measuring the number of leads generated from an event establishes a sales funnel that measures how many of them turn into customers. A high rate of new patrons after an event is a positive development.
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Attendee feedback
Those who took part in your event are not just part of a bigger statistic. Instead, the attendees are individuals who have opinions and suggestions to voice out. Surveying them before and after an event is perfect for determining their satisfaction level. Good feedback means they enjoyed the event and that you delivered on your promise on what to expect.
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Social media brand impression
Events and social media will always remind intertwined. Close to half of millennials surveyed attend events to share something on their social media channels. Likewise, 75% of them visit events as a form of expression.
Social media impressions serve as free advertising if the event turned out well. It indicates if the event was worth mentioning online and if the brand is reaching the right audience. However, this platform can also reveal the areas that either need improvement or where it faltered. You must address that type of negative publicity if you want people to keep on attending your future events.
Find a reliable event management company
Given that you have other essential responsibilities for the business, hiring a dependable events management company lets you focus on those pertinent tasks. These professionals have extensive experience in establishing events that they already anticipate potential trouble and provide appropriate alternative measures.
They can also measure the event’s success based on the indicators they specify. Aside from their creative ideas that boost audience engagement, it’s their flawless execution that will turn the concept into a rousing sensation.
If you are looking for an event marketing agency to help you successfully market your events, get in touch with us today! We’re happy to help!