Sunday 20 October 2013

Measuring return on investment for your event

What criteria should you use to measure the ROI for an event?

Our very own Celeste Whitaker lists various criteria which you can use to measure event ROI. Criteria will be different for each event but should be aligned to your event goals and objectives.

1.       Response from attendees - it is great if you can get feedback at the event so that people share their immediate experience
2.       New client leads – it is very rewarding if you can link a new client directly to an event but you also need to focus on the quality of this lead.
3.       Client retention – it is important to retain clients but a key factor is how you can grow their spend with your company. Staging an event that has relevant content and engagement for your existing clients will enhance (and ideally grow) the client relationship and drive money to your bottom line.
4.       Total attendance – having a good number of guests are your event is a good indication that you have done something well. But quality will be the true indicator.
5.       Revenue Where revenue-generating events are concerned, this is clearly an important ROI indicator.
6.       Survey results  - survey results is a good indicator of ROI—if done correctly and tied back to the event goals and objectives to determine if they have been met.
7.       Quality of attendees  - getting the right audience to your event is the key to any event's success.
8.       Response from management – it is becoming more and more important that events demonstrate evidence of a ROI. A strong endorsement from management can go a long way in helping sustain the event or series of events.
9.       Sales growth – probably the most difficult to measure since there are so many touch-points in a sales cycle, it is sometimes difficult to tie sales to a single event. That being said, a positive experience at an event can go a long way in helping contribute to closing a sale.
10.   Press/media coverage - this is a good criteria to measure where consumer type events are organised and press and media coverage is a primary objective.

All of the above criteria have their place in determining the ROI of an event but it is best to probably use a combination of them.

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