Event Measurement Fundamentals: Installment 3 - Justifying Event Measurement

One of the challenges EMMC members often report is justifying the investment - both time and budget - in event measurement. Let’s examine some persuasive talking points for anyone discussing measurement with event stakeholders.

  • Events may be perceived as expensive marketing investments, and are often the target of budget cuts. Marketers who want to protect or grow their event programs need measurement results which demonstrate value to the business.

  • Event measurement does not need to be expensive - there are simple tools that can garner good data, and you are already likely paying for tools with capabilities to help.

  • Event marketers don’t need to be data scientists to measure impact. There are straightforward data analysis tools and plenty of free guidance available, which should make measurement easy.

Another key suggestion is assuring that the measurement plan delivers on what is important to stakeholders. Understanding what insights they will benefit from allows you to strengthen your argument for measurement. For example, a brand marketer may care about brand sentiment, while someone in sales might be more interested in lead generation.

Outlining event goals and setting up a framework to track progress against those goals is key to justifying an investment in measurement. Check out this example as a guide:

We hope this material was useful. As always, the EMMC is open to questions and comments.

Dax Callner & Matt Sincaglia