How to Make the Most of Your Event Investments

Tips for improving event ROI

Like all marketing activities, investing in events can yield terrific results – but can also be a waste of time and money when not well-planned and executed. There are many reasons some events deliver a good return on investment (ROI) and others don’t. While external factors may occasionally determine an event’s outcome, most often we control our own success or failure.

Event selection strategy is guided by marketing goals and those of the company as a whole. Be focused; and choose only investments that will work toward accomplishing your goals. Regardless of what type of events are included in your marketing plans, knowing a few key things can help improve your ROI.

Know your objectives
Establish your objective for every event and select only activities that work toward your purpose in being there. Before spending any money, ask yourself the question, “Will this investment directly help accomplish my primary objective?”

Know your budget
Determine what you’re willing to invest and then manage to that budget. The costs for client dinners and other activities should be estimated in advance or allocated to sales or travel budgets to prevent them from diluting the ROI of the actual event itself.

Know the audience
From communications to in-booth giveaways, consider what you know about the audience. The promotional trinkets coveted by some are often of no interest to others. Know what resonates with the audience to ensure your message speaks directly to them and isn’t lost in the noise.

Know your metrics
Decide how you will measure the success or failure of every event in advance so that you can fairly determine ROI. If no clear objectives were set and no metrics identified, it’s hard to say after the fact whether or not anything measurable was accomplished.

Successful execution of any event also requires the right people representing your company. Participants should know their purpose in being there and stay focused to ensure all activities support that objective to maximize the event’s ROI.

By: Jennifer Marsnik