Event managers are under considerable pressure to obtain metrics regarding their events and ensure they deliver a return on investment. Being able to get these stats and turn them into valuable information is something many event managers struggle with. It can be difficult to know what to measure, how to measure it, and then how to analyze the data.
The first stage in analyzing event performance is understanding why the event is being held in the first place. What are the objectives and goals of the event? There are many reasons why companies organize events:
Introduce the company or product.
generate sales
Generate qualified sales leads
Carry out market research
To enter a new market
To launch a new product or service
To influence or establish relations with the press
Educate or motivate partners and/or employees
To help retain current customers
To support the local community.
It’s a good idea to set a primary goal and one or two secondary ones. Trying to set too many goals will dilute the main purpose of the event and lead to mixed and confusing messages for delegates. Each event you run may have different goals, but it’s important to understand exactly what it is, as without a clear goal you won’t be able to identify and measure performance goals for your event.
Try to make your goals and metrics as specific as possible. For example, if the primary goal is to create sales and the secondary goal is to generate qualified sales leads, some of the focused metrics would be:
Entry
Number of transactions made
Number of purchase orders received
Expense to Income Ratio (E:R)
Return on investment (ROI) ratio
Number of new accounts/clients
Volume of leads generated
Quality of generated leads
Once you have identified the goals and metrics, the next task is to obtain this information. This can be the most difficult part of event performance analysis. It can be difficult to get this information and turn it into valuable data.
Many event managers are turning to technology to help with this process. Event management software solutions help event managers in event planning, management and analysis. They often come with built-in reporting and analytics modules, making event performance measurement an easy task.
If generating leads is an important goal, event management software can help identify the quality and quantity of leads. By understanding what makes a high-quality lead, event managers can create custom registration forms, capturing delegate information that identifies good and poor quality opportunities.
Understanding the message you are conveying to delegates is also a key metric that often needs to be measured, but can be difficult to obtain. By using the information collected the day of or after the event, managers will be able to improve future events and enhance customer relationships with delegates. Once again, event management software can help in this metric measurement. By providing a comprehensive feedback management tool, managers can produce surveys that delegates can complete on the day or that can be emailed after events. Online survey results can be automatically populated in the event management solution, ready for instant analysis.
Understanding delegates and their responses to the event will also help managers accurately qualify event contacts. Event management software will provide analysis tools that allow administrators to quickly drill down into the data stored in the system. Providing custom reports, as well as standard management information reports, will illustrate how well attended the events are, how well booked they are, and how successful the program was.
In general, it is recommended that managers spend 5% of their budget on event measurement and analysis. By investing in an end-to-end event management software solution, managers can ensure accurate event results are produced on a consistent basis. Event management software tools not only help in event analysis but also make event planning, management and promotion easier, more efficient and much more profitable.