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 to Harness the Power of Storytelling in Event Marketing

Let’s be honest… it takes a lot of time, attention, and energy to plan and execute an event. The last thing you want is to waste your resources on an event that falls flat. After planning and executing dozens of events for clients over the years, we’ve learned some of the most important best practices for creating an effective and unforgettable event. Harnessing the power of storytelling is one of the foundational pillars of effective event marketing.   

Building your event around a compelling story is beneficial for several reasons. It makes promoting your event easier by creating a more intriguing hook for guests or media outlets. It unlocks creative ideas and opportunities to engage attendees. It is easier to promote, and it creates a more memorable experience for attendees. Ultimately, it enables you to connect with your audience on a deeper level.

How to Harness the Power of Storytelling in Event Marketing

Here are some specific tips and ideas that marketers can use to harness the power of storytelling in event marketing:

Start with a Strong Story

The first step is to come up with a strong story that will resonate with your audience. You need to decide on the core idea behind your event. The “story” of your event should be relevant to your brand, your values, and your overall blueprint for your brand story.

Here are a few questions to consider: 

  • What is the overall purpose of the event? What messages or emotions do you want to convey to the attendees?
  • What are the core themes or ideas associated with your brand or organization?
  • Are there any key moments or events in your company’s history that could be used to tell a story?

Make it Personal for Your Audience

Helping your audience see themselves in the story is an important factor. The events that resonate the most are ones that allow you to connect with the audience on an emotional level. When your attendees can see themselves in the story, they’re more likely to remember and enjoy the event.  

Creating an event that resonates with your audience can be challenging because so much of your attention is focused on your marketing goals. Taking time to ask these questions can help create an event that personally resonates with attendees: 

  • What is the target audience for the event? What are their interests and pain points?
  • What could make it a must-attend experience for your target audience?
  • How can you improve their experience or their life through the event.

Engage All the Senses

Visuals can be a powerful way to tell a story, but it’s equally important to think beyond visuals and incorporate elements that appeal to sight, sound, touch, taste, and even smell. In the iconic words of Marshall McLuhan, “The medium is the message.” The way you deliver your story determines its impact on your participants, so have fun with it! 

Here are a few ways you can create an “immersive experience” that supports the story you want to tell:

  • What emotions do you want attendees to feel during the event? 
  • How can you evoke these emotions using sound and lighting design or visual elements?
     
Real-World Examples of Storytelling in Event Marketing

Over the past few months, we’ve been able to design and implement several event marketing strategies for our Green Apple clients. Here are some examples of how storytelling has been used in their event marketing plans:

The Skylight Grand Opening Event: Sip & Sample 

After months of renovation, The Factory at Franklin wanted to create an opportunity for guests to explore the reimagined space and celebrate the grand opening of The Skylight—the new bar at The Factory at Franklin. We designed an event called Sip & Sample that highlighted The Skylight’s narrative of being a space for the community. We brought together new and current vendors of The Factory and invited the community to join us for this exclusive grand opening event.  

Crain Construction’s 90th Anniversary Celebration

Known for building relationships and structures that last a lifetime, Crain Construction wanted to celebrate their 90th anniversary alongside team members, former employees, customers, and industry partners who supported their growth over the years. By hosting the event at Prancing Horse of Nashville Ferrari Dealership—one of their most recent projects—we were able to create an immersive experience that celebrated the past while generating excitement for the company’s future. 

United Communication’s Project UNITE Celebration

United Communications is a local internet company making tremendous strides in providing high-speed internet access to rural communities across Middle Tennessee. They came to Green Apple Strategy looking for a way to celebrate a state-funded grant for their Project UNITE initiative. Every aspect of the event, including the location, speaker list, and food choices, was designed to demonstrate the company’s commitment as a local provider.

Let Green Apple Plan Your Next Event

Special events are a powerful tool that can be used to enhance your marketing goals. If you’re ready to develop a compelling story or theme for your upcoming event, ensuring a memorable and impactful experience for your attendees, we’d love to talk. Reach out to us for a consultation.

Four Event Marketing Best Practices for Unforgettable Experiences

When it comes to telling a brand’s story, events are incredibly powerful. A well-planned, well-executed event can gather stakeholders, communicate brand values, and build community connections all over the course of two hours. However, the opposite is also possible. An ill-planned and poorly executed event can strain relational ties, communicate inefficacy, and harm PR efforts. 

If you want to support your marketing strategy with an exceptional event, try the following event marketing best practices for an event that can increase brand awareness and bring in new business.

Four Event Marketing Best Practices for Unforgettable Experiences


Set Aside More Time Than You Need

Realistically, how much time do you need to plan, schedule, and run a successful event to promote your business? A week? A month? Six months? A year? Events run the gamut, ranging from sponsoring a local charity gala, throwing a party at a major trade show, or celebrating a groundbreaking with government officials. Green Apple Strategy has helped our clients plan all these events and more — we know how sufficient time can lead to excellent outcomes. 

While some events take days or weeks to plan, others require months of collaboration. As a rule of thumb, estimate how long you think it will take and double that amount of time. It’s impossible to start too early. The scope and cost of events tend to expand, and making extra time for unexpected delays is a best practice you won’t regret.


Over-Plan Your Marketing Event

In addition to setting aside sufficient time for an event, we suggest a similar course of action when it comes to organizing and planning an event. Brands new to event planning may assume that it consists of simply listing what you need to do and assigning those duties to different individuals. 

In fact, event planning requires lists of materials, vendors, attendees, organizers, and expenses. It also requires sketching out a timeline for choosing, confirming, and paying for all the components of the event. If you don’t have an individual at your organization who specializes in event planning, the responsibility of the event is often placed on team members who already have full-time roles at your company. This can cause stress and strain as people add even more to their already full schedules.
 

Team Up With an Experienced Marketing Event Partner

To prevent overwhelm and resentment, it’s best to partner with an event marketing agency that has experience planning and throwing large events. Often, a high-level overview is lost when brands try to add event planning to their areas of expertise. Key components, invites, or aspects of the event fall through the cracks, learning to frustration and embarrassment. 

Outsourcing your event planning and marketing to an experienced partner places the responsibility on them to keep tabs on the overarching strategy and the on-the-ground details and logistics. Your brand can still retain creative control and assist with idea generation and execution while receiving the support you need to throw the best event possible for your brand, your board, your customers, and your community.


Drum Up Anticipation Through Marketing

Event planning is so complex that advertising, marketing, and PR for the event can fall by the wayside. Leaving marketing for the last minute almost always affects turnout and deliverables, making the event a less powerful vector for brand loyalty and visibility. Instead, marketing and publicity should go hand-in-hand with the process of event planning so that the event can be promoted every step of the way. 

Promoting your event means identifying publications and media outlets that should feature your event, reaching out to invitees, sponsors, and community partners who have a stake in your event, and creating a coordinated social media strategy to create anticipation for your event. Sellout events create palpable buzz, interest, and curiosity about brands. (We should know—our sellout event for The Factory at Franklin led to an extensive waitlist invested in future events that is now an engaged email marketing audience.) When it comes to event marketing, there’s no such thing as creating too much excitement. 
      

Let Green Apple Plan Your Next Event

Special events are a powerful tool that can be used to enhance your marketing goals. If you’re ready to use event marketing best practices to build connections while increasing brand awareness, reach out to us for a consultation. 

Events are an incredibly powerful part of building a company’s brand story. Here are some of Green Apple’s best practices for a well-planned and well-executed event.

Event Planning 101: Best Practices for Marketing Agencies

Planning a special event can be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start. Green Apple Strategy has more than a decade of experience solving problems through a variety of strategies and tactics—including event planning. From conceptualization to day-of logistics for in-person or virtual events, our team has learned many valuable lessons along the way. Here are our pro tips to make the most out of your next event!  

 

First Things First

When planning an event, it’s tempting to jump straight to fun stuff like decorations, color schemes, and signature cocktails. But in the words of Stephen Covey, let’s put first things first. 

 

Before contacting venues and vendors, the date, time, approximate guest count, and budget need to be locked down. Now is a good time to start a spreadsheet to track invoices and payments from the very beginning. Next, create a timeline to help everyone involved stay on track throughout the planning process. Finally, think through items that will need to be designed. This may include save-the-dates, invitations, event logos, menus, branded items and décor, programs, handouts, signage, name tags, and other print or digital materials.

 

Pro Tip: Always get approval from your client before you design or book anything.

 

Planning Your Event

Once the date, time, budget, and guest count are determined, it’s time to move on to the details. Begin by asking your client to create the guest list and, if needed, offer your suggestions of people who should be included. If the event should be pitched to the media, you can include them on the invitation list as well.

 

Select a venue and determine food and beverage options. It can be helpful to ask the venue if they have any preferred vendors, as well as what chairs, tables, and linens they already have available. You also want to consider your venue when choosing entertainment, or vice versa. Consider music, photo booths, videos, and speeches. Each has different AV requirements to consider for making your event a success.

 

Now that your key decisions are made you can begin communicating with invitees via a  platform that makes sense for your event. You may need one with just RSVP capabilities, or you may need to sell merch and tickets, too. Plan on sending invitations at least 30 days before the event. Follow up with a reminder email two to three days before the RSVP deadline, a second reminder email two weeks out from the event, and a final reminder email the day before or the day of the event.

 

Finally, it’s time to add extra details that help make your event one of a kind. Consider creative décor and meaningful gifts for guests. Photography and videography can also surprise and delight if used correctly, such as part of live social media feeds, as complimentary takeaways, or in post-event videos.

 

Pro Tip: Check on requirements for event insurance, security, and any necessary permits or licenses. 

 

Begin Marketing Launch 

Now is the time to begin planning your PR strategy, so you’ll need to determine what press releases will go out, when they’ll go out, and what venues they’ll be featured in. Social media strategy is also a key part of event promotion. Create a content calendar to begin attracting attention well before the event is scheduled. And don’t forget about short videos! These can be used on several platforms to increase anticipation and serve as a sneak peek of the event. Finally, an email marketing strategy should be planned, designed, and deployed to pique the interest of your client’s email list. Don’t be afraid to provide multiple reminder emails with key pieces of information that attendees will need.    

 

Day-Of Logistics

Before the big day arrives, think through key logistics. Planning a couple of walk-throughs well in advance will help you mentally plan out the space before crunch time, including check–in and parking. You’ll need to plan where guests will enter and what they will do immediately upon arrival. Will they need wristbands, tickets, or an ID? Do you need a scanner, a cash box, or additional supplies for a smooth process?

 

Regarding parking, consider whether self-parking or valet will work best for your event—and let guests know ahead of time. You can even station event staff in the parking lot to assist if needed.

 

Pro Tip: Always give yourself extra time the day-of to set up and ensure everything is in order.

 

Post-Event Follow-Up

As part of your post-event follow-up, take to social media to recap the event. Plan out and schedule content, photos, and captions to build engagement with attendees and spread awareness for next time. It’s also a great practice to send thank you notes to everyone you worked closely with, including colleagues, clients, and vendors.

 

Pro Tip: Schedule a debrief session as soon as possible to make notes on what worked well and what can be improved upon while everything is still top-of-mind.

 

Canceling or Postponing Your Event

Sometimes things happen that are beyond your control. Even the best-laid plans can be subject to bad weather, health concerns, or scheduling conflicts. If the decision is made to cancel or postpone the event, there are steps you can take to mitigate confusion and keep your audience informed.

 

Let Green Apple Plan Your Next Event

Special events are a powerful tool that can be used to enhance your marketing goals. If you’re ready to build connections while increasing brand awareness, reach out to us for a consultation. 

10 Marketing Questions to Answer Before Launching a Product or Service

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Dreaming up a new idea for your business can be an exciting and rewarding process. You are about to offer your audience something they need or want, and so you’re helping people while growing your company. But, we can get swept away into dreaming about our ideas sometimes, can’t we? In all the excitement, we can lose track of the reality of a launch. 

We want to help you think through how you can launch your new products or services in the most timely, cost-effective, and successful way. Here are ten marketing questions to answer before launching a product or service. 

1. Does it align with my company’s goals? 

When we add elements to our company’s repertoire, it’s crucial to ensure that they align with the vision we have for our brand. Because no matter how small, each product or service says something about your business—and could very well change the trajectory of your brand’s growth. So, it’s first and foremost important that you choose your additions wisely. Picture your business in two to five years. Does this product or service still fit into that picture? 

2. What problem does it solve for my audience? 

The primary reason to build a new product or service is to solve an issue for your audience. Does this idea address a common pain point for your customers? If the answer is yes, you may have just come across your next big seller! If not, you may need to return to the drawing board.

3. How can I build strategic messaging around it? 

Once you have your golden idea that aligns with your brand and solves a pain point for your customer, you’re ready to craft messaging. This is an involved process, but every second is worth it in the end. You can use your answer to question two, “What problem does it solve for my audience?” to inform this process. Once you have the answer to that question, you can begin building your messaging strategy. 

Identify the key messages that you’re sending to your audience and hone in on what your tone will sound like. In general, you’ll use this time to map out how you will communicate your offering to your customers so that they will not only understand it but will then want to take action. 

4. Which platforms should I use to announce the launch? 

Using your messaging strategy, you will send your messaging to customers on the most appropriate platforms. Take a moment to review your analytics for different channels to decide where it will be effective to spend your most effort. You should not ignore the platforms that aren’t performing quite as well, but this step will help you choose your priorities.

A few platforms to consider are:

  • Email marketing
  • Blog articles
  • Social media
  • The local and national media (i.e., press releases)
  • Paid advertising 

For tactics that haven’t performed well in the past, maybe this is your chance to redesign your strategy to build your audience before your launch. 

5. Have I updated my website and social media profiles? 

Launching a new element of your business is a wonderful opportunity to review your website and social media profiles. Whether it’s updating website headers and social media profile graphics or description content, you’ll want to ensure that these channels are updated to reflect the most current and accurate information about your brand. You can also take this chance to boost your website’s visibility by reviewing your SEO practices. If your site is a local brick and mortar, optimize it for “near me” searches. Otherwise, focus on overall SEO, which is a powerful tactic, no matter what type of business you have. 

6. Which customers of my audience will be most interested in this? 

By identifying which customers will be most interested in this new product, you can again position your priorities. Identify where this customer spends their most time, what they care about, and how you can speak to their pain points. Customer profiles are a useful tool when exploring your customers’ wants, needs, and habits. With this information under your belt, you can build targeted messaging for the customers who are dying to have your product or use your service. 

7. How will I continue the product or service’s success following the launch? 

Marketing is an ongoing effort. So, it’s essential that you plan for success not only as you prepare for launch but also for as long as your business is in operation. You can follow proactive marketing principles to monitor the success of your marketing campaigns continually. All the while, you must find new and creative ways to keep your current customers interested and entice prospective customers.  

8. Are my marketing and sales teams aligned on the launch details? 

At Green Apple, we often discuss sales and marketing alignment with our clients. Your launch’s success will largely depend on the streamlined communication in your business, so your sales and marketing teams must be telling the same story. When their message is aligned, your customers know what to expect and view your business as one trusted, unified front.

9. What services should I invest in for the highest return on investment? 

Your return on investment depends on the efforts that go into your launch and the effectiveness of those efforts. But, it’s important to realize that you can’t do it all. You can, of course, but professionals who specialize in those efforts may be able to do them better, faster, and cheaper than you can. For example, you may spend twice the resources to build something internally that an outsourced partner could do in half the time while delivering a much more professional and effective product. Take a second to consider what your team is not fully equipped to handle and identify the best partners to work with to fill those gaps. 

10. How do I market the new product or service to my employees? 

A massively important element of marketing that many companies overlook is internal marketing. It’s just as crucial that you market to your employees as you do to your customers. When your employees fully understand your business and are excited about what you’re selling, they will be more excited to share that with others to help your customers succeed. Your employees are your most valuable asset, so ensure that you spend a great deal of time supporting their knowledge about and overall satisfaction with your brand.  

Do you need help building a robust and effective marketing strategy for your brand’s product or service launch? We can help. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.