How to Start Measuring Event Success

Events can be a powerful marketing tool. However, it’s important to leverage reporting and analytics to prove their success and optimize your event strategies going forward. Read on to learn more about how you can capture meaningful virtual event metrics. 

Conduct Post-Event Surveys 

Sophisticated event technology will feature smart reporting that captures attendee behaviors and activities, but not necessarily their feelings about the event. One way to measure the success of an event is to conduct a post-event survey.   Shortly after the event date, launch a brief survey to capture attendees’ opinions about their event experience. For even better results, consider including the survey in the thank you email. You’ll want to keep the survey friendly and to the point and be sure to create a separate survey for event sponsors or exhibitors.  You can then use this survey data to augment or enhance your next virtual event. 

Poll your Attendees

Live polling is also a useful tool for measuring in-event attendee satisfaction and engagement and overall event success. Polling metrics can provide insight into a session’s success, attendee impressions of the speaker’s content, and more.The right event technology will include event apps like Whova to launch live polls, so you can use insights to improve in-event experiences in real time.

Monitor Social Media Activity

One way to measure event success is to track mentions, reposts, etc. on social media. When planning your event, make sure to create unique hashtags for event stakeholders and attendees to use on social platforms to promote your event and share their event experience with followers. 

Examine Registration and Attendance Numbers

Registration and attendance is a straightforward way to evaluate your event's success. You’ll also want to compare registration and attendance numbers from one event to the next, as this will inform your long-term event strategy. For example, do events held in September yield more attendees than events held in February? Or do events with multiple agenda tracks perform better than events with only one? You can also compare registration and attendance numbers by participation type. For example, how many attendees participated with an exhibit-hall-only pass versus an all-access pass? This information can help you think through pricing and participation level strategies for future events.      

Compare Overhead Costs and Revenue

Another method of measuring event success is comparing overhead costs and revenue. If your event generated a significant profit, you’ll want to make sure you understand why it did and replicate the event “formula.” In addition, it can be helpful to examine revenue by campaign or promo code, so you understand which event marketing tactics had the greatest impact. 

Evaluate Sponsor Interactions 

Maintaining a positive relationship with your event sponsors is key to a successful, long-term events strategy. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure you’re tracking booked demos and booth visits as well as asking sponsor-related questions on your post-event survey and in-event polls. 

Measure Speaker Engagement 

You can gauge your attendees’ satisfaction with the speakers on your agenda by measuring the number of session views and session ratings. In addition, you’ll capture more feedback if you enable the attendees to engage with the speaker through live polls, live audience reactions, or post-session surveys. It’s also a good idea to analyze session metrics such as  average view duration, page views, and virtual versus in-person attendance rates if your event was hybrid. These metrics can uncover commonalities amongst popular sessions, such as topics or session length, and you can use these insights to inform future event agendas.

Examine the Number of Returning Attendees

Evaluate the number of returning attendees at your event. If this number is high, your event is clearly offering something worthwhile. If the number of returning attendees is low, you should examine your event to determine why there’s a dropoff in attendance. Perhaps you’ve moved the event date or location or eliminated a popular activity from your agenda and need to reconsider. 

Review Sales Leads and New Opportunities

While it’s crucial to evaluate attendee satisfaction with your event, you also have to measure how many sales leads and/or new opportunities your event generated, as well as the dollar value of these deals. These metrics will help you calculate marketing-influenced or marketing-generated revenue, which can in turn help you build the business case for future event budgets. 

Learn More About Event Management with 6Connex

Are you looking forward to better hires, more effective fundraising, more entertaining conferences, and so on? 6Connex is here.

As the leading provider of in-person, hybrid, and virtual event technology for enterprises worldwide, it’s our job to ensure your events meet and exceed your benchmarks. We offer virtual event solutions and engagement tools of every kind, and we’re ready to demonstrate how we can help.

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"Embracing AI in Events: Navigating Opportunities and Challenges"

Dive into the future of events with our insightful webinar, "Embracing AI in Events: Navigating Opportunities and Challenges,". Join our esteemed speakers: Dahlia El Gazzar - Founder of DAHLIA+ Agency, Stephen Kaufman - Chief Product Officer at Inriver, and Henry Tran - CTO at 6Connex

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