Is Your Event Marketing Planning Strategy ROI-Driven?

As event marketers, we’ve developed dozens (if not hundreds) of tips and tricks to maximize ROI during marketing events. From demos given at booths to incentive-based follow-up motivation after a virtual event, marketing events are all about the bottom line. While developing innovative and creative event ‘hooks’ that can bring people in, engage them, and prompt them to follow up may be the most exciting part of the job; it starts with planning and developing the right event strategy for your business.

When developing your next strategic event marketing plan, keep these questions in mind to make your plan the most ROI-driven yet:

1. How will you measure ROI? 

Because event marketing is often one of the most high-budget items on a marketing spending plan, some return on your event needs to be. Although your first thought may be an actual dollar amount, your team can measure ROI in whatever way makes the most sense for your team and your goals. For example, if your goal for an event is to drive demo requests, your ROI would factor in the number of demo requests generated during your event. If these requests turn to sales, this revenue number would then trackback to your ROI calculation.

2. Is the wiggle-room spending available in your budget going to strategic event programs or ‘extras.’?

Even though you’re working with a budget, some event teams will come out with a bit of wiggle-room of extra funds. As part of your event planning, make sure you use these extra funds to work in an additional program or initiative (aka something that could actually bring in additional revenue) vs. just an extra splash for the event, such as another marketing resource operating the booth.

3. Learn from your past successes and failures.  

Every marketing event planning and strategy session should make a point to go back and look at the numbers from past marketing events for guidance. If a program was a hit at a similar conference, go ahead and try to make it work for your upcoming event! Making sure things are within budget and putting an explicit ROI/KPI goal for each initiative will also help track ROI down the road.

4. Get input from the team early on. 

Whether you’re managing a team of event marketers or simply working on a team of event marketers, you know first-hand how creative your team can be when pushed to its limits. Get input from every team member, from your graphic designer to your operations resource, for new ideas on making the most of ROI goals. After all, two heads are better than one, and ten heads are better than two, especially when it comes to event strategy and planning initiatives.

Want to learn more?

Developing the right event strategy and plan for your team may require testing new ideas and initiatives, but it doesn’t have to involve challenges. With Circa, your team can embrace transparency, data, and insights to make the right decisions when they matter most. You can learn more here.

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