How to Measure the ROI of Your Event Marketing Campaigns

“Was it a successful event?” can be one of the hardest questions for marketers, sales professionals, or business owners to quantify. Whether you’re sponsoring a tradeshow, marketing, or hosting a VIP gathering for your customers, it can be difficult to track the impact of the event. Many times, the impact may not be immediately measurable. In some cases, a company might not have the right tools or resources to measure ROI. Despite these challenges, businesses and nonprofits need to measure the ROI of their events.

At Green Apple, we’ve had the opportunity to plan and execute dozens of events for clients over the years, and we know that measuring the ROI of an event can be somewhat ambiguous. As challenging as it may be, finding a way to evaluate your efforts is equally important to help you understand the effectiveness of your event marketing efforts and make necessary improvements in the future.

4 Keys to Measure the ROI of Your Event Marketing Campaigns  

Here are four important best practices for measuring the ROI of your event marketing campaigns: 

Define ROI, Objectives, & KPIs

Every event has unique goals, and these translate into specific KPIs. For example, a product launch event might focus on lead generation, while a milestone celebration aims at enhancing brand loyalty. The first step to evaluating the ROI of an event is to identify KPIs that align with the event’s purpose and tailor your measurements accordingly.

We’ve added a few potential KPIs below that can be used to track the right metrics based on what you’re hoping to achieve.

Identify Pre-Event Goals, Monitor and Adjust Expectations Accordingly 

The overall success of an event is dependent on numerous factors — many of which occur before the event happens. For example, the number of people who RSVP will dictate the number of leads you generate. If you want to measure the impact of your event, you need to know where you started. Collect relevant data before the event, such as RSVPs and registrations, media interest, and email opens and click-through rates. This baseline will help you quantify changes post-event.

Measure Event Success with a Variety of Metrics

An event can have multiple goals. That’s why it’s important to use a variety of metrics to get a comprehensive view of your event’s success. You should prioritize 2-3 key goals for the event. This will help you determine which metrics are most important to track. It will also provide a more comprehensive perspective on the overall success of the event to determine the ROI and make necessary improvements for future events. 

Gather Qualitative Feedback in Addition to Data

The qualitative feedback — from attendees and your internal team — is also a valuable asset when evaluating ROI. Set aside time for all of the stakeholders to conduct a post-mortem after the event. You can also collect feedback from the attendees through surveys, interviews, and social media analytics. The feedback they offer can help you understand what they liked and disliked about the event so that you can identify areas where you can improve in the future.

Possible KPIs and Metrics to Measure Your Event Marketing Campaign

With these best practices in mind, here are some various KPIs and metrics you can use to measure the ROI of your event marketing campaigns based on your overall goals and objectives: 

Lead Generation and/or Conversion

For events with lead generation goals, track the number of new leads acquired during and after the event. Be sure you have a process to follow these leads through your sales funnel and calculate the conversion rate. 

Metrics to Consider: 

  • Follow Up Meetings
  • Specific Leads 
  • Conversion Rate (compared to other tactics)
  • Upsell or Cross-Sell Opportunities 
  • Follow Up Engagement 
Customer Loyalty & Delight

For events aimed at retaining existing customers or enhancing customer loyalty, a significant increase in repeat business can be attributed to the success of your event. This can be measured by gathering feedback from attendees or identifying any new business conversations that arise from an event. 

Metrics to Consider: 

  • Number of Attendees
  • Customer Feedback / Surveys
  • Social Media Mentions & Engagement
  • Upsell or Cross-Sell Opportunities 
  • Loyalty Program Sign Ups 
  • Post-Event Content Consumption
  • Referral Metrics 

Here’s one of our favorite tools for gathering customer feedback. 

Media Exposure & PR Impact

For PR-focused events, you want to monitor media coverage and mentions. Any surge in positive media attention is valuable, but it’s important to measure the increase in media exposure and compare it to your baseline. 

Metrics to Consider: 

  • Media Mentions & Coverage
  • Press Release Metrics 
  • Impressions & Reach
  • Influencer Engagement
  • Online Visibility (Digital & Social Media Reach / Interactions)
  • Post-Event Coverage
     

Eliminate the Guesswork of Event Marketing

Defining how you’re going to measure your return on investment is one of the most important best practices for event marketing. With a clear plan, strategic KPIs, and a commitment to learning from each event, you can transform anecdotal feedback into measurable success.

At Green Apple Strategy, we’ve honed these practices through our extensive expertise, creating unforgettable experiences through event marketing with quantifiable impact. 

We invite you to check out more best practices for event marketing or reach out to our team if you need help planning and executing an event that is a worthwhile investment for your business.

How and Why You Should Upgrade to Google Analytics 4

google analytics results on cell phone

Last year, Google announced the most significant change in the history of Google Analytics: Google Analytics 4 (GA4). In essence, Google has been working to improve its analytics platform to provide a more powerful marketing tool that helps businesses make better decisions. Since the announcement, we’ve been walking our clients through the changes of how and why they should upgrade to Google Analytics 4.  

We recently interviewed Digital Marketing Strategist, Amanda Bihun, to get her take on why businesses should upgrade their analytics to GA4 and how to successfully implement it. Here are a few takeaways from that conversation. 

Why You Should Upgrade to Google Analytics 4

Reason #1:  Google Analytics 4 will become the primary platform soon.

The main reason to move to GA4 is that Google is no longer updating and supporting Universal Analytics. Just a couple of weeks ago, Google announced that Universal Analytics will officially stop processing data on July 1, 2023. At that point, we will all be forced to move to GA4. However, because the two platforms do not talk to each other, waiting to make the switch will keep you from accessing any legacy or historical data. The earlier you adapt to GA4 while still using Universal Analytics, the longer you have to build up that historical data. 

Why is this historical data important? Without it, you cannot show growth or decline. Numbers don’t have as much meaning without proper context. Capturing as much historical data as possible through GA4 will provide greater insights into the way the data changes over time. 

Reason #2: Google Analytics 4 provides advanced event tracking of goals and conversions.

GA4 is much more accurate and reliable in tracking goals because they are done through Google Tag Manager. This allows users to isolate an event specifically so we can determine how successful it was. For example, if you want to know how a specific email newsletter campaign worked to drive business development leads, that will be easier to do using Google Analytics 4. In Universal Analytics, goals were more loosely defined and often counted traffic to a page that wasn’t actually a lead or conversion. 

Reason #3: Google Analytics 4 provides more detailed engagement metrics.

GA4 got rid of bounce rates and other tactics we would use to try and measure engagement. Instead, it provides a standardized way to measure engagement rates and user engagement. This is important because overall success cannot only be measured by the number of people that visit the site. We need a more comprehensive view that connects the dots between how long they stay, how many pages they visit, what type of content they are consuming, what links they’re clicking on, and which forms they’re filling out. GA4’s updated metrics provide a new line of sight into how functional and user-friendly a website is and also how many people are interacting with it.

How to Upgrade to Google Analytics 4 

Before you officially make the switch to GA4, it’s important to understand your current analytics functionality and website capabilities. For example, are you setting up a new site or one that already exists? What type of site is it? That will help you set up and configure your new GA4 properly. Once you’ve determined those questions, here are a few helpful resources: 

  1. How to set up Google Analytics 4 on a new website or app

Already familiar with Google Analytics but want to set up Google Analytics 4 on a new website or app? Then this is the article for you!

  1. How to set up Google Analytics 4 on a CMS-hosted website

If you have a CMS-hosted website (like WordPress, Squarespace, or Shopify) and want to set up GA4, then this article will guide you through the process. 

  1. How to add Google Analytics 4 to a site that already has Analytics

Does your website already have Universal Analytics, and you’re ready to begin transitioning to GA4? This article outlines how to set up Google Analytics 4 alongside Universal Analytics

Taking analytics seriously is essential for developing a data-driven approach to marketing and business. If you have any questions about Google Analytics 4 or how to use it to create a more effective website, feel free to reach out to our team at any time. 

A Marketing Agency’s Review: Delighted Survey Platform


It’s a dilemma many businesses face: how can you capture accurate customer reviews without being invasive? For B2C businesses, review platforms like Yelp and Google Reviews do provide some feedback. How can B2B companies also leverage the type of feedback B2C organizations have more access to? While we’ve used several survey platforms to capture customer responses for our clients, Green Apple recently began using the Delighted survey platform. What were our experiences? Keep reading to find out! 

What Services Does the Delighted Survey Platform Offer?

Like many survey providers, Delighted offers seven different types of customer surveys, which include simple visual assessment measures. These include a smiley face scale, a thumbs up/thumbs down indicator, and a five-point scale survey. At Green Apple, we often use their more advanced survey types, which allow our clients to track things like a customer’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), a Customer Effort Score (CES), a Product Market Fit (PMF), and a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). These data points can help our clients make informed decisions about product or service changes they plan to implement.

Delighted Provides Powerful Data Analytics

Green Apple originally chose Delighted because it’s user friendly and cost effective, but we’ve been impressed by the data and report options available. We also appreciate the email reports and the ability to track keywords in survey responses.

We’ve been able to really dive into the metrics offered by the platform by segmenting the customer responses and isolating specific keywords. We can also isolate reviews by the employee for the customer served. We have been able to track and report how well that employee has performed with customers. We have recently started reporting on this data monthly to show the client the top technicians and their NPS score or customer feedback. The client has implemented this data into their internal review efforts. 

Delighted Offers Multiple Survey Styles & Delivery Methods

Green Apple’s Digital Marketing Specialist Katie Jackson likes that Delighted offers multiple survey options, including SMS, surveys through a website, email surveys, brick-and-mortar kiosk surveys, and iOs in-app surveys. She finds the Delighted dashboard “simple and easy to understand” and says, “It’s very easy to upload and send customer surveys to our client’s customers!” Katie also appreciates the value-add that Delighted brings to our clients. 

“I think that Delighted has brought value to our clients because they are able to reach out quickly to the customer to fix any issues they may have if they leave a poor review. This has created better relationships with our clients’ customers because they are reaching out quickly after they submit a survey. We have also learned that SMS surveys have a really great response rate and customers like being able to text their responses back rather than going to a link in an email,” she says.  

Delighted Surveys: Our Takeaway

This survey platform has been a positive pivot for our Green Apple team. It allows us to gauge and track NPS metrics and offer actionable data to our clients. We’re also able to easily track data for customer responses through the platform. Over the past five months, we’ve come to appreciate all that Delighted offers. 

Want to Capture More Customer Reviews? 

Green Apple Strategy uses responsive, well-designed tools to help our clients gather and analyze essential data points. If you need more insight into your customers’ pain points, our experienced team can help provide you with the right data to make key decisions. From blogging and SEO to PR and social media management, Green Apple Strategy can craft a marketing approach to help you attract and retain qualified leads. Reach out to us today for a consultation.

How to Find the Angle for Your Next Marketing Campaign

woman-finding-angle-with-finger-frame
Have you planned your next marketing campaign?  Your brand’s growth is reliant on a comprehensive set of tactics to educate and engage your clients. How you plan your campaign, and how you execute that campaign, will make all the difference in your brand awareness, sales, and customer retention. But, how do you find the best angle? How will you catch your audience’s attention?  We’re here to help. When you sit down to plan your next marketing campaign, use the following tips and points to guide your strategy. 

Find Your Audience’s Pain Points

When you put yourself in your audience’s shoes, you can begin to determine what their pain points are. Try to identify what motivates them to buy your product or service and what problem of theirs you’re trying to solve.  At the foundation, your campaign should speak to those pain points to show your audience that: 
  • You understand their issue
  • You’re here to solve it, and 
  • You can do it better than your competitors. 
Before you can present yourself this way, you must first thoroughly understand how your audience is feeling. If you’re having trouble putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, try building a customer profile with these 20 questions. 

Lean on Your Analytics

The numbers don’t lie! Your analytics can serve as a guide as you build your campaign. Review your numbers across all tactics (e.g., email marketing, blogging, website visits, social media, etc.) to analyze what is working, what isn’t, and where there are untapped opportunities.  From these numbers, you can see which topics and conversations garnered the most interest from your audience and what fell flat. Are your customers most interested in a certain area more than others? Maybe that’s a good place to start when planning your next campaign. 

Talk to Your Audience

Market research is now easier than ever, thanks to social media platforms and survey strategies. When planning your campaign, look to your audience to learn what they want to see from you and what they would benefit from. Depending on your social media platform of choice, this will look different. For example, if your audience frequents Instagram, you can easily set up a series of stories that poll your followers. However, on LinkedIn or Facebook, that may look more like starting a conversation with those in your industry. 

Take a Look at Your Competitors

Though you don’t want to emulate your competitors, you do want to make sure that you have a good understanding of what they’re offering your audience. This analysis helps you see what you can improve upon and how you can take your offering a step further. 

Put Your Differentiators at the Forefront

Your brand’s differentiators are what sets you apart from the crowd. It’s crucial that they’re at the forefront of your campaign, as these are your primary selling points. No matter how this campaign takes shape, ensure that your audience is always aware of what makes you different and how those differences serve them. 

Have Fun with It

Create a campaign that they’ll love! Your customers have enough of the mundane in their lives. By creating a marketing campaign with an element of surprise and delight, you can engage your audience and make them excited about the customer experience—and set them up to look forward to what they can expect from your brand in the future. 

Need Help Planning and Executing Your Next Marketing Campaign?

Are you looking for a strategic, full-service marketing firm to plan and execute your next campaign? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

How to Create a Data-Driven Culture for Growing Your Business

hands on devices
In today’s world of advanced analytics and dashboards, creating a data-driven, decision-making culture has become a popular topic of conversation for business leaders and marketing professionals. However, there can be a lot of challenges when trying to implement a culture where data is the diplomat when it comes to making strategic decisions. While there’s always a balance of quantitative data and qualitative experience, businesses that use data to drive their strategies and decisions see tremendous growth. Companies who adopt data-driven marketing are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year. And yet, 87% of companies say data is the most underused asset in their marketing efforts. How to Create a Data-Driven Culture for Growing Your Business So, how do you change that reality and create a data-driven culture in order to grow your business? Here are a few keys:
  • Make sure key stakeholders are ready to embrace fact-based decision-making. It’s unlikely that everyone will naturally embrace the shift toward data-driven decision-making. For some, it won’t seem natural. While you don’t need everyone’s buy-in to start changing the culture, you do need the key stakeholders to get on board. It’s very important that the commitment to data-driven decision-making permeates from the top down.
  • Pick one objective or area to start improving first. Figuring out where to start can be the most overwhelming aspect of making the shift. Business leaders can often suffer from paralysis of analysis when trying to figure out where to start. If you’re trying to become a data-driven culture, it is important to think of things in stages. Start small with one area that might be a priority for the entire organization that has enough data.
  • Don’t forget to communicate “what’s in it for them.” People are more accepting of change when they understand how it makes their lives better. Whenever you’re trying to shift the culture in your organization, don’t forget to communicate how data-driven decision-making will specifically help each person. It could be that data helps them close more deals or prioritize their time more effectively. Answering “what’s in it for them” is essential for getting buy-in from people who might seem resistant.
Many business leaders still rely on their gut to make important decisions. Rather than leveraging the data they have a source for objective insights, they’d prefer to rely on their intuitions when developing their strategy. However, creating a culture where everyone understands the value of data is crucial as things become more competitive.