Event Marketing RoI

And then, many a marketer has scurried away while trying to reply to this question -- "But how do we measure the RoI of this event?"

 Image source: https://goo.gl/CpCgHw

Events do provide a great way to connect with prospective leads at scale, provide tremendous brand building opportunities, not to mention reconnecting with lost customers, launching new products and many more. In fact, for certain industries, event marketing is de rigueur (think consumer goods, fashion, e-commerce, publishing). Think New York Fashion Week, Mobile World Congress, Franfurt Book Fair, the Apple Keynotes, The Consumer Electronics Show.

However, are there any ways to track the RoI of an event? (This may include conferences that you attend or conduct as marketers)

I risk the wrath of many marketing scientists when I say that an objective marketer is the best judge of whether the event served its objectives or not.

There may be highly sophisticated models (and there are) that might mathematically prove (or disprove) the commercial benefits arising out of an event - but to borrow a phrase, events are part math, part magic.

Upwards of $500 billion are spent on events globally per year (A Practical Guide to Measuring Event Success) - and that is a huge amount to spend without tracking RoI. In case you are just starting out attending / conducting events, you may want to consider the following metrics for measurement of event success / failure

Commercial 

New business opportunities, leads generated: Some events lead to tremendous lead generation through form sign ups, query boxes, contests. For a marketer, opt-in data is gold, and hence, events of this sort, a goldmine. Me, personally, would love such events.

New product launch: Launched a new product - thinking of launch announcements at scale? Why not conduct events? An event offers you an opportunity to create a PR / social media / product launch behemoth at the same time. Think about the amount of content marketing engine that you could fire up just through a single event.

Quality of delegates / Attendees : How senior or evolved in the decision making framework were they? One encounter with a C-level executive of a firm / account that you are trying to secure could offset the event costs substantially. 

Branding / visibility

Increasing brand awareness amongst previously uninformed customers. You have host of customers in the city. You have host of accounts that are not your customers, yet. An event could help you connect with your non-customer group at a go. Invite customers to share success stories. Measure the brand awareness of your two groups before and after the event - this could help you track your event RoI.

Beware: This is for the truly brave, though. Inviting customer and non-customers in a single space requires nerves of steel - & a stellar product.

Awareness / Perception
Industry & Customer Insight: Do you have an insight to share with the industry at large? Are you trying to connect with your agents / distributors / partners? An event could help build your perception, clarify your perspective and build your image as a partner-of-choice in a competitive industry. Tracking the awareness / perception post your event in your industry space could help substantiating the RoI of your event.

Anecdotal Feedback
This one is qualitative - but valuable nonetheless. I've had customers sharing anecdotal feedback all the time. Lessons learnt: Create a branded event wall and capture the feedback on video. 

Influencing Public Opinion / Press
Did you provide a point-of-view / take a stand? The press mentions alone could generate more publicity for you than a paid PR program, which could take months to build. An unsought for favourable press mention through an event could generate more RoI for you than any other marketing activity.

Once you have 

References
http://www.ruthstevens.com/articles/measuring-the-roi-of-your-event/
A Practical Guide to Measuring Event Success, http://www.hbaa.org.uk/sites/default/files/Practical%20Guide%20to%20Event%20ROI%20-%20DoubleDutch.pdf