Event marketing is a marketing tool unlike any other. For many businesses, this is their main chance to directly engage with their audience in a face-to-face setting. It’s an opportunity to connect on a personal level, to differentiate themselves from competitors, and to attract and increase a customer base.
However, the lingering question remains, “Is this worth it? Are our time, money, and resources being well-spent?”
Uncertainty can haunt a business. The after-effects of a poorly calculated risk can be long-lasting. However, that’s where calculating your event’s return on investment, or ROI, comes in. Knowing your ROI gives you a data-driven indicator of the rate at which event marketing is driving your growth.
That’s where calculating your event marketing ROI comes in. Knowing your ROI gives you a good overview of how your event marketing is going.
Calculating Event Marketing ROI
Let’s start by talking about what ROI is. ROI is a metric used to compare the benefits and costs of an investment–in this case, the investment is the event. ROI is used to determine how effective your event was.
So, how do you approach calculating ROI? You can use a simple ROI calculator, or follow the formula below. The basic formula for calculating event ROI is: ROI = (Benefits – Costs) / Costs x 100%
In this formula, benefits are the positive results and outcomes, such as revenue, sales, leads, and customer satisfaction. Costs are the negative outcomes or expenses of your event, such as purchasing equipment, paying for staff, renting a venue, travel expenses, and catering. In the case of event marketing ROI, you might look at cost factors like your infrastructure costs, staff salaries, and software costs. Benefits may include the number of leads captured via your email marketing campaign.
However, a positive, healthy event ROI is more than strictly just numbers. Your business should also consider factors such as increased brand awareness. These additional factors can influence your brand’s future profitability and potential for growth.
Choosing the Right Events
The cost factors of event marketing are going to vary wildly depending on the type of event you are promoting. However, there are events of all sizes available to your brand; not every event is a week-long expo with thousands of attendees.
Pop-up Events
One type of event marketing is a pop-up experience. Pop-up experiences are temporary events or installations used to create an immersive experience for your brand. In our post on guerrilla marketing, we mentioned pop-up experiences as being creative, cost-effective, and engaging.
So what makes a pop-up event compelling?
The temporary status of pop-up events means two things:
1. You aren’t limited to a specific location for an extended amount of time. Your experience isn’t locked down to one store or site.
2. It encourages clients to visit your experience and take part before the event ends. FOMO, or fear of missing out, can be a powerful marketing tactic.
Don’t underestimate the power of smaller events like these. We’re in the age of authenticity – and in-person events are a great way to win over skeptical consumers.
Pop-up events can be a fun, inexpensive way of promoting your brand, but they are far from the only type of marketing event.
Depending on your business’s specific needs and resources, you can also consider other events such as:
Conferences
Conferences are company-specific events that can span anywhere from a day to several days. Conferences offer multiple speakers, panels, and sessions dedicated to specific roles, skill levels, or interests. Conferences offer a chance for individuals within an organization to position themselves as experts in their field.
Launch Parties
Launch parties are small, intimate events held to celebrate a new business, milestone, product launch, or other major success. A launch party can take the form of a cocktail hour, a book reading and signing, or a live demo of your product. A successful launch party may also attract media coverage, which means free publicity.
Trade Shows
Trade shows bring together similar companies and individuals in a particular industry. These can be great for building awareness of your brand, if your business can stand out from the crowd. Without proper differentiation, your booth is one among a sea of competitors- and you’re limiting potential customers’ ability to see which services, products, and qualities really make your business shine.
Trade shows can also be a great way to scope out your competition to see how they are marketing themselves, as well as which products and services they are highlighting and promoting.
Meetups
Meetups are usually small in scale but offer valuable networking opportunities with like-minded individuals. Brands can sponsor a local in-person meetup, lending their credibility to the event. With social media such as Facebook events it’s easier than ever to schedule an event and have guests RSVP.
Maximize Your Event Marketing ROI
Event marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You need the help of an experienced, trusted digital marketing agency and SEO firm to create and promote your event’s online presence. AEK Solutions’ team of experts can craft a strategy that’s tailored to your business’s needs. Our custom solutions translate to real-world results that are future-proof, ensuring long-term success.
Elements of an event marketing plan could include:
- Creating an email marketing campaign
- Creating a blog or website for your event
- Running online ads
- Pivoting swiftly to optimize your marketing campaign
- Utilizing event SEO
- Post-event marketing, such as repurposing video content for social media
Say you want to create a dedicated website for your event. That website serves as your central hub for all things event-related, such as schedules, registration and ticketing, FAQS, contact information, and links to social media channels. Your social media channels and email marketing can be used to encourage early-bird registration, share important event details, and follow up with attendees after the event ends.
Whether your event is held solely in-person, online, or a mix of both, digital marketing is essential to promoting your event. Digital marketing is not an alternative to your event; it works in tandem with it, multiplying your efforts. The reality is there is no place in the event pipeline in which digital marketing doesn’t belong.
Boost Your Event Marketing ROI
Discerning the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is not always easy. Measuring your ROI and determining the effectiveness of your event marketing strategy can be daunting at first, but with the proper partnership and calculation tools, you can quickly learn how to quantify your efforts.. Remember, ROI is about more than hard numbers. Benefits such as increased brand awareness and retention can also be big wins for your business.
Fortunately, the burden of marketing doesn’t have to fall solely on you or your organization. That’s where AEK Solutions can help. Our full-service digital marketing solutions deliver proven results. Our clients have seen their web traffic grow, received more leads, and generated increased sales. If your current event marketing ROI is not meeting your expectations, reach out to us for a discussion on how we can best support your unique business goals.
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