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Be Sure to Track These Metrics at Your Next Event

Tracking the data around an event has become fundamental for event pros. It is very important to track the data during the online registration, before the event and gather surveys and feedback post-event – as well as onsite, during the event.

You can work out a strategy and learn to improve the impact of everything at the event from little elements of information and knowledge such as:

  • Who attended which meetings
  • Capturing feedback from voting systems
  • Q&A sessions
  • Meet up attendance

It is a powerful and useful tool to have to measure success in the long term – the ability to paint a comprehensive picture of the ROI and overall strategy of your events.

Moreover, here are some key metrics that you ought to consider tracking at your next event.

Event invitations metrics

Event invitations metrics
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No matter how the invitations are done, you are still dealing with human beings who have needs, wants, likes and dislikes. It is important to know if you have connected through your invitations since they directly influence the attendance of the event. By measuring sent vs. opened vs. RSVP, you can gain valuable insights and create a comprehensive picture of how well your digital event invitations are performing. From RSVP status to walking through the venue doors come event day, what is the conversion rate?

Eventually you can increase the conversion rate for the RSVP by implementing several different follow-up communications that are set to go out in between when your invitation was delivered and the day of your event.

Attendee Demographics

Attendee Demographics
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What about the specifics on your attendee’s registration process?

How early did they sign up and how?

What is it that guided them and their decision to sign up?

Was it the published blog post, the event promotional video, the email invitation, or the social media?

This metric will show which method and messages were the most effective in leading to attendee registrations. Also, these attendees all have a budget and are the ones to make purchasing decisions. By dividing the program cost by the number of qualified leads that attended, you will obtain the cost per lead for your event. It will be particularly helpful for projecting budget requirements and future lead generation.

Event efficiency a.k.a. event ROI

Event efficiency a.k.a. event ROI
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To find out your event efficiency, look at the expenses to revenue ratio by dividing your total expenses by the total revenue generated. If the expenses in running the event is higher than the revenue, you’re looking at problems with efficiency and you will know that you have to sort it out – on how to make the future events work to justify having them again and the cost involved. A positive event ROI is a ratio that is less than one.

Post-event surveys

Post-event surveys
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Sending a post-event survey is important to determine the success of your event. Find out if the attendees were satisfied and if they are coming back next year. This can easily determine what improvements are needed for the next follow-up event or even changing your overall strategy all together. You also have the potential in getting deeper and valuable insights about the various aspects of the event which make their experience – including the venue, food, speakers and any suggestions.

Social and media impact

Social and media impact
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After the event is over, review all of your social media platforms; examine all likes, tweets, comments, event hashtags and the number of fans and followers and determine which of the social media channels worked the most and why.

How many media mentions did the event receive and which blogs and publications wrote about it? You will be able to have an idea of the value with the media reach simply by calculating the cost to reach that same audience with paid advertising.

Opportunities created and deals closed from attendees

Both opportunities created and deals closed are similar, yet different metrics. One shows the potential of your event toward sales opportunities whereas the deals that are closed are one of the important factors influencing the overall ROI of your event.

In any case, they both need to be monitored closely following the closing of the event by keeping tabs on the companies that attended and their representatives for any deals closed and to see if your event influences their decision to close on a deal further along the way. They are to be measured both in the number of opportunities and deals, as well as the total amount in dollars. And depending on your industry’s typical buying cycle, you may not see the effects for 6 to 18 months following the event.

to determine if you were successful at attaining those targets, you need your event metrics
Source: Mashable composite. Getty Creative, Gary Waters

While different types of events have different targets, you need your event metrics to determine if you were successful at attaining those targets. You may not necessarily need all of them, but they hold the information needed toward improving your events.

The last few years have seen an emergence in technology of a set of new engagement tools and apps to help event managers track individuals through multiple touchpoints. As retaining relationships with clients and focused efforts increase, those tools are becoming more sophisticated and tightly integrated with one another.

More about event data:
Tracking your Online Conversion Rate for Events with Universal Analytics
7 things about Events Data that your boss wants to know

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