The Event Marketing KPIs You Need to Know for Measuring Event Success

Whether you are planning an in-person event, an event in a virtual venue, or managing hybrid events, you need the right tech tools to make it happen and for measuring event success and satisfaction.

 

Why Are Event KPIs So Important?

In short, you need to know whether you’re meeting your goals. How can you track event ROI if you don’t know how you’re measuring it? Tracking event metrics tied to your predefined goals can help you demonstrate that ROI.

Monitoring event management is the only way to make event success a repeatable experience.

Employer branding events are various. There are internal events and external events. They all have different goals. Internal stand-ups, parties, and meetups are hosted to build team spirit. They help to come up with some ideas on how to solve current problems and even to discuss together the development course of the company. The external events can be launched to attract new talents, increase brand reach, or establish a certain image.

Only when you know what you want to achieve can you effectively measure it. And only when you know how to measure it, will you succeed time after time.

 

Setting Event KPIs

Before you can measure KPIs, you must first define your goals. This must happen during the initial event planning stage as you determine the underlying reasons for any event. For example, your event metrics would be very different if you were hosting sustainable events to attract environmental activists vs. a hybrid event for oil and gas companies.

The first step will be to decide what you want to achieve with the event. Will you be tracking event metrics for attendance, attendee satisfaction, new loads, or closed deals? Write them all down. That’s the canvas for your goal map.

Pick the one goal that is the most important from the company’s point of view, and name it the main goal; this will be the key indicator of your success. Then, take the secondary goals and segment them in terms of importance. Make sure your event tech integrations are capable of tracking event metrics the way you need.

Using a virtual event platform you can track every element of your event, whether it’s completely virtual or in-person featuring virtual elements in a hybrid setting.

 

What Are Some Key Event Management Examples?

Even though each event is different, there are a few key event management metrics that you need to track. Here are our top picks and the reason why they are so crucial.

 

#1 Event Attendance

Attendance is pretty obvious, but it’s one of the key event metrics, whether it’s an in-person event, virtual event, or hybrid event. Event attendance metrics validate your expectations.

Why is measuring event attendance crucial?

The coverage of the estimated audience with the real-life one tells you how efficient your efforts were. Also, it is the basis for further calculations, such as cost per attendee, or ROI. What’s more, it keeps track of pre-event promotion efficiency. For the further events, it will help you keep your goals realistic.

How do you measure event attendance?

You can count sold tickets or check-ins. You can check it manually, or use software for event organizers that will do it for you.

 

#2 Acquisition

Many people RSVP the invitation but never show up. Tracking event metrics related to acquisition and attendance can also help you determine the effectiveness of your pre-event marketing and be used for future marketing.

Why is acquisition important?

This is a common problem, especially concerning free events. By measuring acquisition, you will know how valuable your event was to the targeted audience.

How do you measure event acquisition?

This is pretty simple: compare the number of people who RSVP (registrants) with the number of people that actually attended your event (attendees).

 

#3 Attendee Satisfaction

Attendee experience is one of the most important factors that will determine event success or failure.

Why is measuring attendee satisfaction crucial?

If the attendees are satisfied, they’ll have a better impression of your business and learn a thing or two. This can help your branding and may lead to additional word of mouth.

How do you measure attendee satisfaction?

Polls and event engagement tools can help you assess whether attendees felt sessions or events were worth their time. Check the social mentions about the event. Use web-based software to track them and measure the sentiment of the comments. Also, check the sentiment of the comments about the brand itself. Compare the ones from before and after the event.

 

Related: Using KPIs to Measure Virtual and Hybrid Event Satisfaction

 

#4 Audience Demographics

If you attract the right people, you’re more likely to have success.

Why is it important to track audience demographics?

Attracting the right candidates and creating new brand ambassadors will help further your goals. Checking this KPI leads to the definition of target groups that can be used in further actions.

How do you measure the demographics of your audience?

Virtual event products can help you tag registrants in your CRM. You can also ask demographic-related questions on your registration form to help bucket these attendees.

 

Related: Essential Questions to Include in Your Event Registration Form

 

#5 Social Media Mentions

We live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Your event needs to be there, too. You should know how people speak about it.

Why are social media mentions important to keep track of?

Whether you want it or not, social media play a role in branding and buzz. Mentions show you the trends, such as the social perception of your brand.

How do you keep track of social media mentions?

There are a few web-based apps that track mentions and measure the sentiment. Use them to track this KPI.

 

Related: 20+ Creative Ideas for Leveraging Social Media Platforms for Marketing Your Event

 

#6 ROI

The legendary ROI. It’s the metric that describes the monetary return on the event.

Why is measuring ROI crucial?

Business is not charity. Every action should bring a benefit to the company and the monetary return is one of the biggest components. It brings you one step closer to answering the question: “Was it worth it?”

How do you measure ROI?

Add all the costs of event organization. Check the cost of the venue, catering, speakers, software, beacons, promotion spending, etc. Then count all the financial benefits that your company gained by hosting it. Compare the two values and there you have it: the ROI.

 

#7 Post-Event Follow-Up Activity

The event doesn’t end when you turn off the lights. Post-event activity will tell you a lot about its reception among the participants.

Why is keeping track of activity after an event important?

If your goal was to increase brand awareness and establish a certain image, this is what you need to measure in the weeks following an event. If you’re tracking leads, you want to follow them through the sales pipeline all the way through conversions and post-sale interactions.

How do you measure post-event activity?

Check social media for brand engagement and new leads. As you generate leads, make sure they are entered into your CRM for tracking.

As we speak about the post-event activities, these activities will vary depending on your needs. For example, if your event is aimed at brand-building with potential employees, you’ll want to check these event metrics after your event:

    • Awareness: If possible, you’ll want to measure brand awareness and sentiment before the event begins and after the event concludes. This can help you see if you’ve made positive changes in the attitude of potential employees. You can also track social mentions and comment cards.
    • Traffic to your career page: You should always be tracking your website traffic to look for trends. When you are putting on an event tied to hiring, you should look for spikes in your career pages. You can also see if these visits led to increased applications.
    • Employee hiring costs: Attracting qualified candidates is harder than ever these days. You can weigh the costs of the event and the results versus other forms of hiring and recruitment measures.

Of course, which event marketing metrics you track will depend on your goals map.

 

Related: 18 Important Survey Questions to Ask Your Event Attendees

 

The Benefits of Monitoring Event Management Performance

Keeping track of your position on the goal completion map gives you the information you need to determine what’s working, what’s not, and what you need to do more of or less of in future events.

It shows if the actions you picked to organize and promote an event are efficient. If something doesn’t go according to plan, you have a chance to modify it and adjust to the current situation.

No event is perfect, so you also shouldn’t be afraid of bad news. Bad news can, in fact, be a blessing. How many times have you said, “if I only knew that earlier?” That’s your early information system!

The other benefit is that by setting goals and KPIs, you can better control who attends your event. That’s right. No more medical students showing up for an IT event! It might seem trivial, but adjusting the audience is crucial if you want to optimize costs for the event organizers or company. Exclude marketing to people who won’t have any interest in presented topics and will definitely not help you to fulfill your goals.

Also, monitoring event management performance is crucial for measuring event ROI. However, the return on the investment alone may not be enough to determine if it was worth it to organize a particular event. Secondary KPIs will help to complete the picture.

Last, but not least, numbers are the universal language that all departments understand. Event organization requires the cooperation of many people. A transparent KPI system eliminates any misunderstandings and keeps everybody focused on the goals.

Data analysis isn’t just a domain of SEO specialists or bookkeepers. Everyone involved in managing an event should use it to achieve goals and keep track of their performance.

 

In-Person, Hybrid, and Virtual Event Technology

6Connex is the leading provider of in-person, hybrid, and virtual event solutions for enterprises worldwide. Combining the power of imagination, the technology to drive engaging events, and measurement tools to verify success, you can change the way you and your attendees see events and transform the way you do business.

To learn more, request a virtual event platform demo today.


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