How to measure the success of an event

No matter what type of event you're planning, it's important to have clear objectives from the start. Objectives will help you measure the success of your event and make sure you’re on track throughout the planning, execution, and follow-up process. 

When it comes to setting objectives, it's important to be SMART–an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. Having SMART goals will ensure that your objectives are clear and attainable. 

Once you have your objectives in place, you can start thinking about how to measure them. There are several different metrics you can use to measure the success of your event, but some key ones to consider are Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). 

One way to measure the success of your event is through Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). OKRs are a framework for setting goals and measuring progress. They may include a mix of quantitative and qualitative objectives. To set OKRs, you first need to identify your key objectives, or what you want to achieve with your event. Once you have your objectives, you can set goals or specific targets for each objective. Finally, decide how the success of those goals will be measured. All goals should be quantifiable so that you can track and measure progress. 

For example, let’s say you’re a new cookware store and you’re hosting a cooking workshop that shows customers how they can best use your products to make easy meals every day. You host these cooking workshops once a month and have been doing it for the last few months. Your goal in this case might be brand awareness and drawing in more leads. Your specific objective or target for this event then might be to increase attendee numbers by 40%. You could then use attendance measurements such as registration and check-in rates to measure the success of your goal. How did your attendance rates compare to your last event? Did you reach your 40% target? The more specific your goal and measurement tools, the better. 

Another way to measure the success of your event is through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs are specific, measurable goals that you set in order to track progress towards a larger goal. They help you understand whether or not you're on track to achieve your objectives. They are typically financial in nature but can also be non-financial. When it comes to events, some KPIs you may want to track include attendance, website traffic, leads generated and sales made. Whatever metrics you choose to track, the important thing is that you have a clear idea of your objectives from the start. This will help you measure the success of your event and ensure it is on track. 

The definition of success at an event will vary according to your objectives 

When it comes to our events, we’re all trying to reach the same goal: to make sure they are successful. But what does that mean? Is having a good turnout important? What about brand awareness or engagement? As you can imagine, these things can be tricky to measure on their own—but when taken together, they paint a clearer picture of how well your event is doing. Here are some examples of ways in which technology can help facilitate this process: 

The definition of success at an event will vary according to your objectives. If you are running a conference or other type of educational session, then the emphasis should be on learning and knowledge transfer. In this case, the number of people who attend will reflect your success as a speaker because it shows that your message was compelling enough to attract them. 

If you are promoting a product or service in front of an audience that has already bought into what you have to say and they are simply there to hear more details about how they can use your product or service, then perhaps seeing how many people interact with content posted online could be more important than just counting heads in the room.  Also, you can measure the success of an event through online sales. This is a good metric to track if you're selling tickets or merchandise through your website. It's also a good way to measure the reach of your event. 

In most cases though, measuring engagement is probably going to be key regardless of whether it aligns with any existing objectives: 

Attendance/Registration 

The first metric to measure is the number of people who registered for the event. The second metric to measure is attendance at the event itself, which is usually measured by counting the number of people in attendance at each meeting or activity during an event. It's important to note that gross attendance numbers don't always reflect true success--if you had 300 attendees but lost 10% because they left early, your "true" attendance rate would be closer to 270 than 300 (300/ (30+270)). 

Brand Awareness/Likes/Shares 

One of the most important things to measure is brand awareness, or how much your audience knows about you or your event. This can be measured through likes, shares and comments. 

To gauge brand awareness, you'll want to assess what people feel about the event and its content. You can use these tools: 

• Google Analytics (for a post-event analysis) 
• Social Media Analysis Tools (for real time insights) 

Engagement – video and live streaming 

We know that video is a great way to engage people. And there are lots of ways to encourage participation in video streams. First, it’s important to track the attendance to your video stream. How many people are watching your stream at any given time? Pay attention to drop off times (when attendees leave the stream during the session) to spot any lulls or weaknesses in your stream’s content. 

You can also hold quizzes or polls during your video stream and see how many users participate. 

Engagement - email 

Your email marketing campaigns are an essential part of any event marketing strategy. 

Email open rate – the percentage of people who read a message from your brand in their inbox and clicked on it. 

Email click rate – the percentage of people who opened your email and actually clicked on a link within it. 

Email unsubscribe rate – the number of people who chose to opt out of receiving future emails from your company or brand. 

Email bounce rate – the percentage of emails that are undeliverable because they have been returned, either by the recipient or by another server along the way. 

Response time: how long it takes someone to respond to an email sent by you (the response could be anything—a reply, share, purchase etc). 

Engagement - social media 

There are a few ways you can look at social media engagement. Let’s look at two: hashtag engagement and engagement with your event page or account. 

Hashtag engagement refers to how much social media users use or engage with your event’s hashtag. This can be measured by tracking how many times the hashtag is posted in original posts, reposted from other users, or how many times the hashtag is searched for. 

You can also track user engagement with your event page on social media (ex. Facebook and Twitter). This can be measured by tracking how many times people click through from a social media platform to your event page or attendee registration area on your website, how many people follow or like your event page, or how many people find your event page from organic searches on each platform. 

Engagement - chatbots 

Chatbots are great tools for engaging attendees and providing them with information, directions, or help finding their way around the venue. Chatbots could also be used to gather feedback from attendees at the end of the event so that organizers can continue improving upon future events.

Another way you can use chatbots is to promote your next event by asking people about what kind of content they would like to see at future events. This will help you determine which topics need more focus going forward so you have better prepared yourself for your next big show! 

Interaction 

There are many ways you can measure the success of an event, but one of the most important factors is how highly users are involved in different activities. This means measuring how much interaction a person has with their fellow attendees during the event, and how much they enjoy it. There are many ways that you can measure this: 

• The number of posts, likes, comments, shares and other interactions on your social media accounts during or after the event 
• The number of people who are actively participating in discussions about your product or service (this could be measured by looking at the number of times people posted something related to your brand) 

Post-event activity 

After the event, you'll want to follow up with everyone who attended. This could include sending an email or a text message asking if they enjoyed themselves, offering them discounts on future events, and more. You may also want to contact any speakers that spoke at your event (if applicable) and thank them for their participation.

You can also use this data in order to improve future events. If there were issues with space or sound quality at any point during the presentation (or even before), you'll know exactly where improvements need to be made when planning your next one! 

The definition of success at a virtual event is different from a physical event, so you have to know what your objectives are before deciding on the metrics that matter. 

Attendance, brand awareness, engagement, interaction, post-event activity—these are all important factors in measuring success for any kind of event. If your objective is to increase attendance and awareness among new customers or prospects, then these will be helpful indicators of how well you've done on that score. If your goal is more focused on making connections between existing customers and prospects, then engagement could be an important metric for measuring success. If the goal was to get people talking about something specific (such as a product launch) then interaction would be key metric. If there was some kind of contest involved in the event (for example), then post-event activity would also play into this equation. 

The definition of success at an event will vary according to your objectives. Whether you're trying to raise awareness for a cause or sell tickets, there are many ways to measure how effective your virtual event has been. The key is to start by knowing what your goals are and then choosing the right metric(s) for measuring them.