Determining What Total Event Value Means to Your Company: 5 Factors to Consider

As any event marketer can tell you, no two events are created equal. For every webinar focused on sharing new products to customers, there is a booth space at a 15,000-person conference – and each of these events has drastically different goals, data points, and ideal results. While the events themselves may be unique, the way your organization thinks about events – and event value – should be consistent across the board.

Understanding event value

First, let’s clarify what we mean when we say ‘event value.’ Event value means more than just stating an event was ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘successful.’ Typically, event value for event marketers is tied to ROI (return on investment). So, the event value would look at whatever outcome you are tracking against the total cost of the event. To build a clear definition of event value at your organization, it’s crucial to consider the different types of events, various audiences, and unique outcomes of these events.

Factors to consider when thinking about event value

Taking the above overview of event value into consideration, here are five factors to consider when determining what total event value means to your organization:

1. Revenue-based events: For most marketing teams, events will typically be revenue-generating. This means that every outcome (such as a new lead, demo request, form fill, or conversation) can be connected to a potential revenue number in the future. Therefore, if you’re trying to track event ROI, this revenue potential will be the defining metric for success.

2. Brand awareness events: The purpose of some marketing events, such as a sponsorship opportunity or speaking engagement, may be purely to raise brand awareness. In these situations, the outcomes used to measure event value would be more along the lines of social media mentions, likes, tags, or SEO scores.

3. Events for customers vs. events for prospects: Another factor to consider when considering a company-wide understanding of total event value is the difference between client events and prospect events. Client events, such as a demo of new product features, would typically be measured on renewal potential, while prospect events, like a webinar, would be calculated on total new deal value.

4. Budget considerations: Understanding total event value requires a deep understanding of different events budget considerations. There will be a pretty big difference in budget between a virtual webinar and an in-person conference appearance for 30 employees. As you’re determining a baseline for total event value in your company, make sure you make considerations for these variants.

5. Data tracking solutions: The most crucial part of building any total event value calculation is ensuring the correct data is available to do so. It’s a good idea to run an internal audit across all of your event teams to ensure they have the right tools to measure event ROI, track event success, and report on total event value post-event.

Optimize your marketing events with Circa

Often, it’s the lack of visibility into event ROI and metrics that make it so hard to build a company-wide picture of event value. With Circa, event marketers can seamlessly track event metrics and share results with company stakeholders, giving you the data you need to make better strategic decisions down the road.