Event Measurement seems to be extremely complicated these days. With so many event technology companies, measurement tools, and event metrics available, it’s no wonder many struggle with finding the right answer. CMOs and marketing executives might be interested in measuring brand impact. PR pros are looking for media coverage analytics. Sales leadership wants to know about demand generation, leads, and pipeline influence. CFOs are concerned about impact to the budget. And event professionals need to understand what worked, and what didn’t across everything from event promotion and audience generation, to: brand experience effectiveness, speaker performance, session and track content, social media engagement, and post-event content syndication impact. Whew!
OK. Take a deep breath. Maybe a few. You OK? Good.
The answer to all of your stress is to simplify your measurement approach. Let’s start with one simple question. “Does measuring events bring you joy?” For me, there’s nothing like the smell of fresh spreadsheets after a rainstorm. Or the beautiful rainbow of colors splashed across a data visualization dashboard. Who am I kidding? Event measurement is tedious and boring. But it is necessary to understand the impact of our work, and to get better at what we do. It is the first step on the path to event enlightenment.
We’re not going to talk about specific event measurement methodologies, processes, or specific event metrics here (that’s for another article). However, here are some foundational principles to help you simplify your approach to event measurement.
Event Measurement Should Be Based on Objectives
Consider your one-to-three objectives for participating in or hosting the event in the first place. Notice I said 1-3. Having too many objectives for any event dilutes its focus, weakens the creation of meaningful experiences, and reduces the ability to accomplish these objectives. For every metric, measurement tool or technology you’re planning to deploy, make sure the questions you are trying to answer are directly related to your business, brand, marketing, or sales objectives. Everything else is ‘nice-to-have’ but not necessary. See, I’ve already brought you joy.
Focus on Measuring Outcomes Over Outputs
Outputs are the actions you took to build the event. An outcome is something that happened as a result of your actions. For example, if you sent out 1,000 invitations to a VIP experience, that’s an output. If 11 VIPs showed up and started a meaningful conversation with your sales team which led to opportunities being created, that’s an outcome. Focus on the eleven, not the thousand.
Measure Significant Things
It is so easy to get trapped in the minutia of measurement. And while sometimes understanding the details is interesting, no one really cares. What impacts of your work would your CEO care about? What event measures are ‘resume-worthy’. Attendees eating 3,700 chicken sandwiches vs. the vegan option doesn’t matter. Increasing attendee purchase intent by 23% does.
Understand Success, Then Diagnose
We all want to be the hero of our story and celebrate the success of the team. Hopefully, you set some major objectives for the event and accomplished them. What big numbers support your success story? Even if you weren’t successful, how close did you get? Failures are just as important or even more important than successes because they allow you to learn from the experience and improve over time. Which brings me to diagnostic measures. What elements of the event contributed to the event’s success? What are the reasons for falling short of objectives? No need to get too deep here. Again focus is key. What are the major contributors? Find the metrics that help you understand that, and focus on improving those areas, or leveraging them in the future to replicate your success.
Use Measurement as a Foundation for Change
If you are not planning on making adjustments to any element of your event, do not measure it. Said another way, don’t measure stuff you’re not going to change. Measurement is most potent when it is used to establish baselines and track progress when you experiment with new and different approaches. Whether you’re working on attendee acquisition, agenda design, content relevance, or sponsorship, measure for change. Event measurement is not “one-and-done” Measurement is most valuable when it is tracked, trends are identified, and optimization is applied over time.
Event measurement requires an investment of time, resources, and money. It can take an exorbitant amount to time to be sure with all the spreadsheets, databases, data visualization tools, powerpoint reports, etc. There are also many soft costs associated with event measurement (time spent by employees to measure, analyze and report on events). According to a study by Bizzabo, companies spend 21% of their budgets on measurement and analytics of their events on average. This will vary based on the size of the company and complexity of their event portfolio of course. Understanding this, and investing appropriately, while working to simplify your approach will help ensure the best outcomes at the lowest cost. It’s important to balance the cost(s) of measurement so it does not outpace the value measurement provides. Applying these best practices should help simplify your event measurement approach. And hopefully, over time, bring you joy.