As a professional NYC event planner, you know there is so much more that goes into event planning than just throwing a fun party. There are countless hours of hard work you dedicate to bringing together an event to ensure it runs smoothly for the attendees. However, you can only do so much with what you know from experience. Marketing and event analytics are a must because they go beyond anecdotal knowledge and provide verifiable data. These marketing and engagement metrics help event planners create more successful future events.
Track Event Attendance
Tracking and measuring attendee metrics will help make event production easier. Tracking should include all stages of the attendee experience, from registration and ticket sales to actual attendance. This can help NYC event planners improve marketing leading up to the event. For example, an event may have strong interest early on but low attendance on the day of the event. An event planner may need to increase marketing efforts right before the event to keep potential attendees engaged.
Better Understand Your Event Demographics
Tracking demographics is the most basic form of marketing data, but it can also be the most valuable. NYC event planning starts with the basics of who the attendees will be. Tracking age, gender, race, location, economic status, family status, and shared interests are all demographics that should be tracked. This data can define the target audience that event planners should use to define their target audience.
Measure Event Traffic Flow
Using RFID technology, NYC event planners can track the traffic flow rates and check-in data of attendees. This can help you better understand when attendees arrive at events. Then, they can create a heat map of attendees moving about an event. It can follow when attendees pause to spend more time in a particular event area. Finally, the tracking can identify when attendees leave the event. Modern technology innovations make this level of tracking possible through RFID badges, bracelets, or other items that attendees take with them.
After the event, a New York event planner can use the data gathered from these devices to create a valuable source of information. By analyzing attendee behavior at the event, NYC event planners can create even more engaging and immersive experiences at future events. It can also aid in more streamlined event production. For example, perhaps the analytics show that the majority of attendees arrive two hours after the event starts, implying that future events can begin later. An event planner may decide to create a different floor plan to encourage better traffic flow. Or they could seek out new sponsors that complement the areas of the event that attendees find the most engaging and exciting.
Analyze Your Marketing Channel Engagement
Tracking social media engagement across different platforms helps event planners improve their social media marketing promotion. Event planners can adapt their future event marketing strategies to lean into the most successful social platforms. Event planners should consider different behavioral elements for the most detailed social marketing plans. For example, one social platform may generate the most reach, increasing event branding recognition. However, another social platform may generate the most ticket sales.
Calculate Event Ticket Sales
Look at ticket sales tracking data to determine attendees' behavior when buying their tickets to attend your event. This will help you as a planner better understand your target audience’s behavior to tailor your event marketing. Tracking ticket sales activity will help event planners improve ticket sales by understanding target audience behavior.
Ticket marketing analytics should include when the most tickets for an event are sold, the most popular ticket package sold, and the most popular price point. This data can help event planners highlight the tickets that are in most demand in their marketing efforts. It can also mean more robust marketing during times when ticket sales are at their lowest.
Engagement During the Event
Tracking how attendees engage with an event is essential for organic marketing. It is one thing for a NYC event planner to promote their event. It is much more impactful when attendees promote it themselves. Tracking social media posts, shares, mentions, and hashtags helps an event planner better understand how attendees engage with an event across platforms. These metrics show how the event goes from being in-person to digital. Consider what attendees shared the most. Was it pictures or videos? What was the topic of the posts? It could have been the food, the venue, the entertainment, or the activities.
Understanding the content of the posts will help event planners know what attendees are interested in most, allowing them to highlight these things more in the future. By focusing on these things in the future, event planners could increase the number of social shares attendees make, thereby increasing organic social marketing.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, event planners can quickly identify negative aspects of an event that attendees are sharing. If something goes wrong, an event planner can quickly correct the issue. They can also craft marketing messages to address the issue, helping to minimize any potentially negative impact.
Review Food and Drink Consumption Rates
Tracking the consumption patterns and volume of food and drink consumption can help NYC event planners adapt to attendee’s tastes. Event planners can use this information to develop future event menus by knowing when and how attendees indulge. Eliminating unpopular items and expanding on popular ones can increase attendee enjoyment and satisfaction.
Measure Event Sponsorship ROI
When your event includes sponsors, tracking their ROI is essential for future continued relationships. Event sponsors want to gain a positive ROI from their investment. They will not continue to be a sponsor if they do not see an increase in brand visibility, leads, or profits. In addition, they can leverage this data to network and source additional sponsors. Future sponsors will want to see the performance data from previous events before opting in as event sponsors for future engagements. And as an event planner, you have better negotiating power by showing how previous sponsors profited.
Overall NYC Event Response
Thorough event planners follow up with attendees post-event to gain valuable feedback. This information becomes useful for the next event, as it can guide an event planner in decision-making. Event planners can focus on improving and optimizing the event’s elements that attendees liked the most. They can also modify or eliminate elements that attendees didn’t enjoy. These changes can then be communicated in future event marketing. By doing this, event planners can encourage attendees to return for future events by using marketing that shows they improved the experience.
FAQs About Event Analytics
What can Net Promoter Scores measure?
Calculating NPS ratings for your events will help you measure guest experiences and event loyalty. Great for analyzing repeat events and conferences, sending post-event survey questions prompting attendees to share whether or not they would recommend the event to others, you can learn about where your event can improve.
What other event KPIs should I be tracking?
Consider evaluating data related to your event’s speaker engagement, breakout session participation, and networking opportunities. Talk with your event clients about what defines a successful event for them, as well, so you can focus on delivering the KPIs that matter most to them.
What makes an event successful?
Use your event analytics to help you gauge the overall success of your event through a lens of any event’s pillar elements: attendance, guest engagement, seamless logistics, speakers, event profitability, and post-event impact. When you excel at each of these elements, your event is incredibly valuable and successful.
Learn How to Improve All Your Events at The Event Planner Expo
NYC event planning requires a sharp attention to every detail, including the post-event analytics. Event planners can strategically optimize and improve their future events by tracking these marketing and event metrics. From demographics to ticketing and traffic flow, even the smallest of details and data can be useful.
Want to learn more about how to improve your event planning skills and increase profitability of all your events? Get in the room with the industry’s best of the best at The Event Planner Expo 2024! This is the premier events industry conference of the year, assembling top pros, event experts, six and seven-figure business titans, and more - all ready to share their knowledge and expertise. Get tickets to The Event Planner Expo 2024 today!
