It should go without saying that when holding an event, your boss’s priority is ROI. Their interest isn’t on table décor, the catering, or even the VIP you’ve flown in especially. Your job as event manager ultimately boils down to reporting on the amount of revenue generated as the result of an event.
Here are our top tips, compiled to assist in optimising ROI:
1. Establish clearly defined objectives
In order to accurately identify ways of improving the resultant ROI of an event, it’s crucial that both you and your boss are on the same page. What does your event hope to achieve? Do you want to increase your overall revenue? Find and engage 1000 new customers? Or get 50 existing customers to try a new product?
It’s important that both you and your superior are realistic about your goals, and are in agreement as to the objectives from the get-go.
2. Your event should encourage the most potent form of brand advocacy – word of mouth.
Holding an event that’s so enjoyable that your guests will want to share their experience relies on a slick, well-run affair. If you can successfully hold an event that gets your guests talking and sharing their experience via social media, you’re well on your way to generating ROI thanks to you event management skills.
3. Ensure your emails are deliverable
Don’t set yourself up for failure before you’ve even begun. If your invitations are bouncing or being marked as SPAM, you’ll struggle to populate your event. Your invitations and RSVP process plays a pivotal role in generating ROI from event management – so ensure you’re doing everything you can to ensure the right people know about, and end up attending your event. One way to do this is by making use of online event management software – which will help to ensure your invitations are optimised for deliverability as well as resulting in the maximum amount of RSVPs.
4. Pay careful attention to your overhead costs
One area that event managers fail to pay adequate attention to is the accurate interpretation and analysis of their overheads. You’ll need to establish your costs per head in order to determine whether you’re generating ROI from this aspect of your event management. For example, if you invited 100 people and the cost per head was R1000, but only 50 guests arrive, you’re actual cost per head will be R2000. Your guests would then have to spend essentially double by purchasing from you in order to generate ROI. This will help you to establish which clients resulted in ROI from the event itself. However – if you work out ROI on client level – don’t forget you’ll still have to assign the costs per head per client even if they did not arrive.
5. Remember that ROI from event management is not immediate.
Your guests won’t necessarily purchase the day or week after an event – it’s more than likely to be in the region of a month or two. By making a positive impression on potential clients via a well-run event, you’re automatically increasing the chances that they’ll make a purchase. It’s crucial then to make use of event management tools in order to track the people who became customers as a result of attending your event.
6. Don’t underestimate the importance of post-event communication
In order to increase your ROI, you need to have a plan of action for facilitating interaction with guests after an event. Many people fail to recognise how crucial it is to include means that’ll allow them to communicate with guests once they’ve attended an event. Think about ways in which you’ll conduct this – will it be via email? Traditional advertisements? A sales team? Setting up a strategy that will lengthen the life-span of an event’s impact is imperative in ensuring ROI from your event management.
Terry Sutherland is the founder of the RSVP Agency.
