A good event organizer can plan every detail of an event, manage staff, and execute a perfectly coordinated event. A great event organizer can do all those things while understanding the event's stakeholders and ensuring all these different groups achieve their desired goals at the event.
For instance, organizations that sponsor or exhibit at large events and trade shows may have different goals for their time at the event. Some may focus on promoting brand awareness, while others could double down on existing customer relationship maintenance.
With 41% of brand marketers citing Events as the most critical marketing channel for achieving their business objectives (Bizzabo 2019 Event Marketing Trends & Benchmarks Report), it’s critical that event organizers help brands maximize their experiences and hit their goals.
Here, we'll discuss the most common event goals brands have and how organizers can use engagement data that is generated before, during, and after the event to prove return on investment (ROI) to each type of exhibitor and sponsor.
According to a recent CEIR study on exhibitor in-booth tactics and outcome evaluation, the top three event goals are brand awareness, new customer acquisition, and existing customer engagement. Sometimes, these goals overlap, but in many cases, sponsors and exhibitors go into your event with one main objective.
Companies that attend events to raise brand awareness are focused on getting their name out. Their main objectives are to make attendees aware of their company and the products or services they offer and to grow brand recognition.
Event data such as in-venue signage impression estimates, exhibit floor traffic heat mapping, and event app views of a sponsored session are helpful in proving ROI to organizations trying to raise brand awareness.
Some exhibitors and sponsors are likely attending your event with the event goal of gaining new customers.
Event data like booth lead scans captured, future meetings or product demos booked, and the count of attendees who engaged at an organization’s sponsored sessions can help prove ROI to this new customer acquisition segment.
The final goal for exhibitors and sponsors at an event is existing customer engagement, also known as customer relationship management. The company is intent on using your event as an opportunity to engage with its customers to maintain or grow existing relationships.
Outcome data such as the number of one-on-one meetings held, renewals signed, or additional orders placed on the show floor are valuable statistics to help prove your event’s worth to these types of sponsors and exhibitors.
1) Are we (or a vendor) even collecting data on this at our event?
2) Is the data easy for us to access in order to report it to our exhibitors and sponsors? Can we report in aggregate only, or down the each specific exhibitor or sponsor?
3) Does our sales team know which event goals are most important for each organization?
If the answer to any of these questions is anything less than an enthusiastic "yes!", consider an Insights as a Service platform like Bear IQ.
With Bear IQ, you can create attractive and insightful post-event reports, track key performance indicators, and adopt a data-driven strategy for your next event—no lengthy tech hurdles, costly integrations, or intensive training needed!
Bear IQ can help you provide the stats and ROI metrics to keep your exhibitors and sponsors coming back, no matter their event goals. Learn more about Bear IQ here.
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