Every event organizer, be it an employee of a company or a project manager of an event marketing company wants to make sure that the event, conference or team training organized is successful and receives positive feedback from the participants. A lot of effort is being made to make sure that the event is exactly how the customer wanted it.
Customer satisfaction is definitely one of the most important priorities in event marketing. This is particularly important in Estonia, because the local market is relatively small and there are plenty of service providers. Therefore, it is very important to keep one’s customers satisfied and get meaningful and valuable feedback about the event.
HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS AND WITH WHAT TOOLS?
When looking at different metrics, one must think about what kind of event it was, what results were expected and what will be done further on the basis of this knowledge.
▪ Participants’ feedback questionnaire. When it comes to a meeting, training or conference, the fastest way to receive honest feedback from participants is to ask them to fill out a questionnaire shortly before the event ends. The survey should definitely take no longer than 8 minutes to fill out. Direct and instant emotional comments can also be received from the participants on site.
▪ Social media coverage. If during the event you ask participants to actively distribute certain messages, images or hashtags in the social media, it’s good to monitor these statistics. Did the participants follow your request? If yes, what was the quality of the posts and how it benefited and increased mobility on your website. If there were no active posts, you should analyse whether you had the “right” audience for such an activity. Maybe a similar activity would work in a different audience.
▪ Social media is a powerful communications platform. Negative comments should be handled urgently. Also, do not forget to reply to positive posts. This is a great opportunity to ask more questions or to market some upcoming event.
▪ Number of registered participants. If you measure the success of the event with the number of participants, then you should monitor the number of pre-registered people. In addition, during the event you should make an attendance check to find out how many percent of pre-registered people took part in the event. If a similar event is held annually or more frequently, it is worthwhile comparing these numbers periodically. It provides a good overview of the popularity of the event, trends and contributes to the promotion of the event as an input.
▪ Financial indicator. This number is important in case of a charity event that involves asking for donations. If this is a charity of a different kind, you need to find other indicators to look at and compare.
▪ In case of a public event, party, conference or launch of some product/service, it is important to inform the public through the event. In this case, you should monitor the media coverage in all different news portals, radio, social media, etc.
EVERY EVENT HAS ITS PURPOSE
Asking for feedback is important in order to have a bigger success and coverage in a similar event in the future. Think about who should ask for feedback in motivational events (summer days, Christmas parties, team events, etc.), ie whether the company itself or the event organizer? And what to do with the statistics that you have gathered?