The 7 Easy Steps to Measuring Event Success

Putting on a corporate event isn’t cheap. Depending on the circumstances and the number of people attending, the average corporate event cost is anywhere between a few hundred to thousands of dollars.

But as the saying goes, bigger isn’t better. Just because you’ve spent a ton of money on your event doesn’t necessarily mean it was a hit. 

In fact, a smaller event might have a better return on investment (ROI). So how can you tell if an event was a wise move?

In this article, we’ll give you the secrets to measuring event success so you can make smarter decisions in the future. Here are the steps you should follow to get your corporate event ROI.

How To Measure Corporate Event Sucess

1. Set Clear Objectives First

You might think that your goal is to measure the event’s success, but that’s much too vague. You’ll want to narrow down exactly what you want to find out, and it should be specific and measurable.

For example, do you want to define how many networking opportunities you gained? Or do you want to see how many leads you generated? Other possible goals you can define include brand awareness, employee engagement, or training.

From there, you can identify key performance indicators (KPIs); these should align with the objectives you’ve made above. Ideas here include social media engagement, sales leads generated, and attendance rates.

2. Look at the Quantitative Metrics

Let’s take a look at some common quantitative metrics you can use to see if your corporate event was successful.

First, compare the number of attendees to your target goals. The closer you were, the more successful your event was.

Next, look at your budget adherence. Analyze the event’s costs vs. the budget. If you’ve stayed within the budget, then that’s a great sign.

Lastly, measure the number of new leads or contacts made during the event. You should also track sales made during or following the event, especially if the goal was to drive sales.

3. Check out the Qualitative Metrics

You’ve got the hard numbers from the earlier section, but qualitative metrics are important too. The numbers alone might seem great, but in reality, your event was only lukewarm.

To find out more, you should ask for attendee feedback by using surveys or questionnaires. Ask about their overall experience, the value of the content presented, and the event organization.

With this feedback, you can evaluate the effectiveness of speakers and the relevance of the content based on attendee feedback. Or if you had a corporate retreat in Mexico, you can find out how enjoyable the experience was and how effective the team-building exercises were.

On top of all that, you can check social media. Monitor platforms for mentions, hashtags, and engagement related to the event. A sign of a successful event is positive sentiment and high engagement.

4. Take a Closer Look at Engagement Metrics

It’s not enough to consider engagement as a general metric; you need to get into the details to find out if people were truly happy and that your efforts paid off.

You probably already have the overall attendee number and have compared that to your target goals. Now dive deeper and track the number of people at different sessions or activities within the event. The next step is to measure the engagement during the event, such as participation in Q&A sessions, polls, or workshops.

In addition, assess the extent of networking activities. For instance, you can count the number of business cards exchanged or connections made.

5. Do a Post-Event Analysis

Remember those surveys from a previous section? Pore through them to gauge attendee satisfaction. 

You can also determine areas for improvement. Not only that, but you should track the effectiveness of follow-up actions too. Examples here include post-event communications or meetings scheduled as a result of the event.

6. How to Measure Event ROI

Now that you have all this quantitative and qualitative data, it’s time to calculate the event ROI. The general formula is the value of investment minus the cost of investment, all divided by the cost of investment itself. Multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

What does all of this mean though? Generally speaking, you’ll compare the event’s cost to the revenue generated or value gained, such as new clients or partnerships.

Plus, you’ll evaluate the long-term impact of the event on your business objectives. For example, if you wanted to improve workplace relationships by having a team-building event, then you’d look at how employee morale has changed.

This might all sound challenging, but luckily, there are many tools for measurement. Here are some to try:

• Event management software: Eventbrite, Cvent, Bizzabo (track registrations, attendance, and engagement metrics)
• Survey tools: SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, Typeform (collect and analyze feedback)
• Social media analytics: Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or any native analytics tools

7. Keep Improving

Knowing your event ROI is a powerful thing, so be proactive with that information. You’ve already gone through the trouble of collecting and analyzing it, after all.

You should regularly review and analyze event data to understand what worked well and what didn’t. These insights can help you make improvements for future events. This will help you align them better with your goals and attendee expectations.

And when you have a string of calculated ROIs for each event, you’ll have hard proof that your company’s budget is going toward something useful. This can encourage higher-ups to keep investing.

Measuring Event Success Doesn’t Have to Be a Challenge

We know that planning an event can be a whole ordeal, and that you don’t want to take on extra work if necessary. But measuring event success is key if you want your business to survive on a long-term basis, so don’t let all that effort go to waste.

There may be many steps, but with this guide, it should be clear and simple to do. Once you’ve run through them once, future calculations will be much easier. Before you know it, you’ll be calculating event ROIs like a pro.

Get in touch with us now to learn more about corporate team-building events in Mexico. Our personalized events will ensure a fantastic ROI for you!