Each event expert needs a particular set of skills to organise the perfect event. The big question remains, what to do after these events? And how to measure its success?
In this blog, we will look for the ten great ways to measure your event’s success and how to use this knowledge in future events.
#1 Defining the KPIs
A key performance indicator, or KPI, is a measurable value to measure success. In terms of business, it usually shows the overall performance. However, when it comes to events, it is mostly about the performance of your event and whether or not it has reached its targets. Setting them is crucial if you want to set up a structured and targeted event for more success.
Some examples of event KPIs are event check-ins, speaker engagement and social media mentions.
#2 Post-Event Survey
A pretty literal but beneficial way to measure the success of your last event is through post-event surveys. They allow you to set up strategies to help improve your event quality and continue your success. Just make sure you ask the right questions when putting together the survey.
Not only can surveys provide a perfect success measuring tool, but they can also help you measure engagement, gather feedback and improve your overall event planning skills.
#3 Tickets vs. Attendees
Counting the number of tickets you sold should be an easy and obvious task, but in order to measure event success, you should also keep count of how many individuals actually attend. Many people and businesses book tickets beforehand, but fewer may actually attend, and this ratio will tell you a lot in terms of event success.
Even in the long run, comparing one year’s ratio to another can support you in determining how much your success levels are growing. If you have worked hard on the marketing campaign for your last event and see an improvement in the previously mentioned ratio, this means your work has paid off.
#4 Generated Revenue
Another easy-to-follow and obvious way of measuring event success is the actual amount of generated revenue. After all, one of the objectives is to make money. In order to measure event ROI, you will need the correct formula to calculate it.
In the simplest form of events, most profit comes from registration or ticket sales. Based on that, calculating the ROI is fairly easy. A simple formula: (Total Sales Revenue - Total Cost of the Event)/ Total Cost of Event x100 = Event ROI.
However, when calculating ROI in the case of profit not being your main objective, think of how well you have achieved other goals, such as the amount of knowledge offered, the increased brand awareness and perhaps increased membership numbers.
#5 Sponsorship Satisfaction
Each event has sponsors, and sponsors can either express satisfaction or dissatisfaction after any event. A simple survey will suffice in order to measure this. If your sponsors end up happy with the eventual result of the event, chances are they will offer you sponsorship for your next event as well. This means that the return of sponsors is also a great way to keep track of your progress and overall event quality.
#6 Brand Awareness
Brand awareness plays a crucial role for any brand or business, and events are a great way to improve brand awareness and let other businesses or potential clients know what product or service you have to offer.
In order to use brand awareness as an event success metric, you will have to compare the situation prior to the event to the one afterwards. And the good news is brand-tracking can be done in-house. There’s a wide variety of tactics to use for this, including regular brand awareness surveys, checking your social media follower count and tracking your content performance. Checking these right before and after your event makes for a great success measuring tool.
#7 Customer Relationship Management
If you haven’t heard of Customer Relationship Management software yet, the time to read into this is now! Simply put, CRM software systems support businesses in tracking all relationships with their leads and clients.
In terms of events and measuring their success, CRM software is a great asset. But what exactly does it do? Through this software, you are able to connect with attendees after the event, manage leads and track the overall experience, all of which will be collected in a single central spot where you can find and access it easily.
#8 Mobile Event Application
Event apps have the power to eliminate some of the greatest pain points when organising an event and improve the overall attendee experience. Besides that, they are perfect if you want to measure the event’s success afterwards. Through data collection, instant evaluation and real-time communication, event apps can help you measure the quality both during and after the event. .
#9 Original Plan Comparison
This might sound somewhat simple, but it's more functional than you would expect. Setting up a plan with clear goals is an absolute must for any event expert, as it is great help when measuring the eventual success of the event. Simply compare the original plan to the actual outcome, and you will be able to see if you have succeeded in achieving your goals. Check out our 4 step planning cycle which can help with planning and setting clear goals.
#10 New Clientele
Did the event boost customer numbers and sales? That is a success on its own, isn’t it? After the event, track if any further revenue has been generated and whether or not this is consistent. In the end, the reason for setting up an event is to gain brand awareness and, more importantly, regular clients.
All of this comes down to the fact that measuring your event’s success goes hand in hand with the initial organisation of it, and this should be something that is taken into account from the very beginning rather than something you “add later on”.
If you would like more advice and to learn everything you need to know about event apps and CRM systems, ExpoBeacon’s event technology is here to help. Visit here and get in touch today!
