There are three, simple questions that, when answered properly, allow for the full management and assessment of an event marketing campaign’s value or ROI.
You (your team, client, or manager) would like to better understand the overall program ROI, what drives it, and when. This enables them to do more of what’s working well and less of what is not. This is a common, frustrating issue for many in the event, experiential, and promotional marketing industry.
This article builds off of the third PortMA Coaching Video which is free to Bronze-level registered users. I encourage you to learn more about how to measure event marketing.
Event Marketing ROI Can Be Defined by Three, Simple Questions
PortMA recommends that you adopt a way of thinking about this challenge that centers around three key questions.
- How often is the marketing reaching the right people? Think about ways you can profile consumers demographically (e.g., age or gender) and psychographically (e.g., past brand experience). This allows the team to understand if and when there is variation among event patrons and how they are responding to the marketing effort. Variations make the resulting data actionable. In addition, the psychographic profiling should measure how often the marketing is speaking to current customers (thus generating loyalty) versus those who do not currently buy the brand (acquisition opportunities). This distinction is critical when measuring ROI, as it is important to account for those consumers who may have purchased anyway.
- Demographic – who is responding and how they are responding
- Psychographic – how often they are responding
- Is the marketing effort creating purchase intent where it had not previously existed? Look for ways to measure purchase intent (new behavior) and recommend intent (new attitude) to understand the impact of activations. Impact among non-customers should be used as the base for ROI calculations. Data concerning advocacy (recommend intent) will permit the word-of-mouth activity to be quantified.
- Is the campaign generating a positive ROI, and under what circumstances is the ROI maximized? The reach and impact data should be integrated to derive a program ROI. The program ROI may then be segmented by consumer profiles, markets, and activation strategies to identify those situations where ROI is highest. This will provide the team with a road map to generating greater returns for the brand while demonstrating the value of the campaign overall.
Know the Secret: Discover Event Marketing ROI
The secret is that “Reach” and “Impact” combine to deliver “Value,” or ROI. When you frame everything in this context, you can ground your measurement strategy in the simple metrics that deliver useful, actionable insights.
If you want to learn more, check our FREE event marketing coaching videos. Each video is two to six minutes long and will get you fully up to speed in no time.