For many event marketers, measuring event program ROI can be a daunting task. In fact, more than half of enterprise marketers admit they struggle with knowing how to calculate the ROI of their events.
With all the questions and uncertainty around ROI, the Splash team dedicated a recent podcast episode of Checked In with Splash to this topic. Camille White-Stern chatted with Splash’s growth marketing guru, Chris Johnson to talk about all things ROI – setting goals, calculating ROI metrics, and measuring success – in a way that can benefit your unique business.
Listen to the podcast episode here →
Measuring ROI should be a priority for any event marketer, but, as Chris explained, it shouldn’t be the only priority when evaluating event success:
“Defining success for your events is very much dependent on what sort of goals you set for your event from the very beginning. For example you may host a VIP networking dinner, where your goals are to get as many of your VIP customers registered as possible, have the highest attendance rate possible, and… for your guests to have an absolutely amazing experience.”
As Chris stated, not all events or programs are designed to generate revenue, and that's okay! Success is relative, so if you’re doing a promotional event or a product launch, your event goals and KPIs will look quite different from a networking dinner.
After you’ve outlined your event goals, there are a few key metrics to help track success and measure return.
Chris shared lots of great advice on the data that event marketers should pay attention to when getting down to the ‘brass tacks’ of ROI measurement. Here are a few of the stats he recommended reviewing with your team, post-event:
Chris and Camille discussed how segmenting your event data unlocks deeper insights into ROImeasurement. A few ways to slice and dice event data and gather the most relevant results for your business include:
Chris also walked through a great example of how comparing these layers of attendee data can help you up your events game:
“Consider asking your attendees whether they shared this event with anyone in their network, and why or why not. If you’re seeing high NPS scores, but people aren't sharing your event beforehand, it may indicate that your event promotional materials, your landing pages, your emails, or your messaging may need to be tweaked a little bit, in order to more clearly communicate what your event is, who your event is for, and what your audience can expect to get out of the event.”
Want to hear more great examples and uncover the different data used to measure ROI? Check out the full episode of the Checked In with Splash podcast, Your Guide to Event ROI, here.
Fun fact - listen to the end and you’ll hear from Splash co-founder Ben Hindman about three ways you can cut through the noise to drive event attendance!
