So, I am doing this event…
In the last two weeks, I’ve had several consulting and coaching clients tell me they are prepping for upcoming events that they’ve paid to be part of such as expos, wellness fairs and community events. They’re all working hard to ensure they have the right branding, materials and engagement opportunities to stand out in a crowd. When they are stuck on a decision, I often find myself saying, “Well, that depends. What is your goal of being at this event?” This may seem like a simple question, but many of my clients are one-woman shows or have small teams. They find themselves in the weeds of simply getting to the event with basic marketing materials and getting people to their table.
It’s not that they haven’t thought about what they hope to gain from paying for and having a presence at the event, but the reasoning tends to be vague. I want to get my name out there. I want to reach new clients. I want to network. All excellent reasons, but you have to dig deeper if you’re going to make the most of the opportunity and truly understand if it was worth the investment of not just money but your precious, precious time. These events are often weekend affairs or evenings that require sacrifices and juggling on the home front.
So, how do you dig deeper to determine if the event is worth it and establish what you want to get out of the experience? You need to have a) have clearly defined business goals that you use to decide whether the event supports them and b) set KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) to understand what you’ve actually achieved. If words like KPIs, metrics or even business goals make you shudder — I completely understand. I hate numbers, but I’ve learned if you have a creative and entrepreneurial spirit (and are a mom!) — you are way more analytic and strategic than you realize. Promise.
Let’s dig deeper into the two most common goals for an event (we’re considering expos, fairs and community events with new audiences) that typically align with business goals related to growth, since this is primarily a goal for most of the women I work with.
Brand Awareness (I want to get my name out there)
Make Sure To:
Do your research.
Yes, brand awareness is good. But you know what’s even better? Brand awareness with your target audience. Does the event attract the audience who wants to and can work with you? Many of us have “mom audiences” but different events attract moms in different phases of life, from different locations and from socio-economic statuses. Smaller events with clear niches can be more effective than larger, more broad events.
Does the geographic location make sense? Sure, a fancy expo in Boston may make great social content, but are your people there? And is the event saturated with businesses targeting them? What kinds of businesses have participated in the past? How many businesses will have spaces (this is important, especially when you compare to how many participants) Will competitors be there? If so, how many? What have they done in the past? Ask the event team not only how many registrants they had for previous years, but how many participants on site? It’s common for an event to promote the registrant number versus the participants (always lower) on site. Ask your colleagues and contacts who have done the event in the past what they got out of their participation and if they felt it was worth the investment (this is probably the most valuable research you can do).
Honestly, I often see newer business owners be so happy to be invited to participate in something that they overlook things like attendance and demographic.
Prioritize social media and engagement
If you see the event as mainly a brand awareness play, then you want to prepare to capture content to amplify on social media channels. Again, this may seem obvious, but events can easily get chaotic, and photo ops fall to the wayside. Make a list of content you want to capture and do as much as possible before the event officially gets underway. If you have a team member or two with you (or a hype women!), assign someone to specifically get photos of XYZ. A brand awareness goal also means you likely will have to get more creative and interactive to ensure you have high traffic and engagement. If someone has brand awareness as their number one goal, they may go with a fun/interactive element at their table versus someone who has a conversion goal for a specific offering might be better off doing mini 1:1 consults, focusing on individuals versus drawing a crowd.
Maximize new audience opportunities pre, during and post-event
When considering which events to participate in — consider what the organization’s audience is like (do they have an email list? How many social media followers? Are they active on social media? Do followers regularly engage with their content? Do they have an event page?) If your event goal is boosting brand awareness, it’s reasonable to have high expectations in these areas.
You also want to make sure you maximize your collaboration with the organization hosting the event as they are an outlet to a new and often larger audience. Depending on what you signed up for, you may get included in certain promotions. Be sure to share/comment/like with all social content they share. You also want to proactively share your own promotional content tagging them, as it’s very likely they will want to share. You should also consider seeing if there is an opportunity to collaborate on a post with the organization or with fellow businesses participating in the event.
Basic KPIs to Track Success for Brand Awareness (*even picking one is way better than not having any idea! You can also set specific goals beforehand, such as I want to grow my email/social media/engagement rate by this amount)
Social Media Engagement Rate (this is a combination of likes/comments/shares for a post or certain amount of posts during a specific time frame. Noting your engagement rate over seven days before the event, then comparing for seven days after can be good. Or even seeing if a social media post had higher engagement than past posts)
Social Media Audience Growth (this is a simple one to track. How many followers you have a specific platform. You can compare before and a few days after the event)
Website Traffic (another simple and important one. You should know how many site
Email list growth (this can also fall in conversions as you’ll see below, but one specific thing to consider is if you notice more opens and clicks in your emails after the event. This indicate more awareness and interest from existing audience)
Media mentions (ok, so the paparazzi may not be any of these events but any mentions — even in local press, blogs or influencers in your field should be considered a win for a brand awareness goal — or if the event leads to any interviews or appearance requests.
Profit/Conversions (I want to find new clients)
Be specific and ready.
In crowded, busy events, participants can be overstimulated. You should have a clear call to action that can be made live at the event. For example, if you are looking to gain more 1:1 clients, have an incentive offer that makes it easy for them to understand what you do and sign up. This can often be a discounted paid initial session for those who sign up at the event or even free consult session. They should be able to see the specific offering clearly and quickly. You may have a great conversation with someone and they could be ready to take action. In this situation, you want a place to drive to in that moment versus handing a business card/SWAG item with your name on it.
Again, this is all if your main goal is those conversions. Your presence may have a totally different feel if you are building brand awareness/looking to grow on social or your email list. You also want to consider how you will be able to connect with prospective clients in a meaningful way despite a very public atmosphere. One way to make that more likely is to have a team member on site to allow you to give undivided attention to those wanting to learn more. You could also opt to do demos of services or mini consults versus giveaways, photo ops and the “louder” strategies. Overall, you are looking for quality visitors versus quantity.
Basic KPIs to Track Success for Profit
Conversion Rate (The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out form to sign up to your email list) You get this rate by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visitors, then multiply by 100. If your event goal was to convert guests into a complimentary session and 20 people visited your table and three people signed up for a session, your conversion rate is 15%.
Cost per acquisition (If you know your conversion rate, you can now take it a step further and see how much it cost you to get that conversion. If you spent $800 for your table, supplies and time (FACTOR THIS IN!), you would take your conversion number (the 3 people) and divide it by the $800. In this case, your CPA is $266.67. This can be incredibly eye-opening to see how much it costs for you to acquire a new client through event marketing. Of course, you could also consider people who signed up for your email list etc. as a conversion and that might make your efforts seem more valuable. But bottom line is that it’s one thing to know how much you spent on an event. Understanding what that money got you (or didn’t) is KEY.
Welp, this short paragraph I thought I was going to write morphed into…a lot. I hope it was helpful as spring brings many opportunities for events and our lives get even busier. If you need support with your making decisions related to your marketing efforts, want to be more strategic and make the most out of your time/resources, I’m always down for a one-off or multiple consulting sessions. Learn more here. And remember, when you say “So, I am doing this event….” let’s follow it with “because I want to get X and X — and I’ll know I accomplished this by—-”
You got this.