In the first part of our guide about event website analytics, we uncovered how you can shine a light on an event’s success online using some essential event success metrics. This guide aimed to set the groundwork for navigating the world of event analytics, introducing the vast world of website analytics and their instrumental role.
In this sequel, we’ll go deeper, discussing more advanced event success metrics that can refine, redefine, and ultimately elevate your event strategies. The better your strategies, the more attendees will be at your event!
As we turn the page to this next chapter, get ready for even more insights and tools to supercharge your event’s digital presence. Are you ready for round two? Let’s go!
Understanding the impact of social media
Launching and maintaining a social media campaign is great, but when it comes to measuring the success of an event at-large, it’s only the beginning. Taking the time to understand the impact of your social media efforts is crucial when reviewing event success metrics.
Your social media presence is often the starting point of the customer journey, so it’s essential to know how your efforts are performing.
Begin by identifying where your audience is discovering your event website. Once you’ve identified your traffic sources, dig deeper. Analyze which platform is not only generating more engagement but also converting visitors into registered attendees. For example, do you see more engagement and event attendee conversions on LinkedIn than on Instagram? Using this knowledge allows you to make data-driven decisions and direct your efforts towards the platform that yields the best results.
If you wish to go deeper still, consider the timing. Are there specific days or hours when your social media posts are driving more people to your website? With this insight, you can optimize your posting schedule—ensuring your content reaches the right audience at the right time!
Essential email marketing metrics
Unlike traditional mass marketing, which casts a wide net to reach a broad audience, direct marketing focuses on reaching individuals or a well-defined group of potential customers.
Email campaigns are a vital component of a direct marketing strategy, but simply sending emails alone isn’t enough—your emails need to resonate with and drive action from your audience. For them to be successful, you must measure their effectiveness using two key event success metrics: open rate and click-through rate.
The open rate is simple in concept. It tells you how many people are opening your emails once they reach their inbox. The success of your email campaign can easily be measured by whether your prospective attendees are opening your event email blasts or simply hitting “delete”.
Next, delve into the click-through rate. This metric tells you whether readers are not only opening your emails but also taking action within—via clicking on the links embedded within the email’s body. The higher the click-through rate, the better!
By understanding which elements of your email content are working, you can refine your messaging strategy and allocate resources more effectively.
Measuring your offline event marketing efforts via direct URLs
Many event marketing strategies are still carried offline through posters, print ads, or mail. While these strategies can be incredibly effective, they often can’t be measured nearly as precisely as online efforts. However, there still is a way to ballpark if they are successful using event website analytics.
Here, you’ll want to focus on the number or percentage of visits directly to your event website URL. These metrics reveal the individuals who navigate straight to your event page—meaning they didn’t use Google, an email, or social media to get to your event website. If you see a spike in direct traffic shortly after you’ve deployed an offline direct marketing campaign, that could be a sign it’s working!
Leveraging influencer marketing and referrals
Referral marketing is based on the idea that people trust recommendations from those they know and respect. It is a strategy that relies on existing customers or advocates to recommend a product, service, or brand to their friends, family, or social connections.
Influencer marketing, while related to referral marketing, instead involves partnering with individuals or personalities who have a significant and engaged following on social media or other platforms. Brands collaborate with influencers who align with their target audience and brand values, and in return the influencers promote products or services through their own content.
Both strategies can be a game-changer when it comes to boosting event registration numbers and strengthening partnerships with speakers, sponsors, or exhibitors. If you’re considering a referral or influencer marketing campaign to enhance your event attendance, it is recommended to quantify how many registrants are discovering your event through associated affiliations and referral links.
To track these referrals effectively, you’ll need to create unique tracking codes or links for each source or partner. You can even include promo codes to give your referral’s audience an incentive to attend your event. Within your event website analytics, all these codes allow you to precisely measure the impact of each referral source—making it easier to optimize your event marketing efforts and gauge the success of this type of campaign.
Supplementing your website’s backend with Google Analytics
While your event website analytics can provide a wealth of valuable data, Google Analytics offers even more information to help you optimize your strategies.
This includes:
- Bounce Rate, which reveals the percentage of visitors who leave your site without exploring further. A high bounce rate may indicate issues with your landing page or content that need addressing.
- Session Duration, which shows how long visitors stay on your site. Longer durations suggest engagement, while shorter ones may indicate that your content needs to be more captivating.
- Pageviews, which is how many pages your visitors view. This helps identify which content or sections are drawing the most attention.
- Session Path, which is how visitors navigate your site and the sequence of pages they visit. This insight helps you optimize the user experience and content flow.
- Exit Pages, which is when and where people leave your event website. This allows you to pinpoint potential drop-off points and refine those pages to retain more visitors.
- Popular Pages, which tells you which pages are most popular amongst your audience.
Using Google Analytics alongside your event website’s built-in analytics creates a comprehensive suite of event success metrics. Together, they can give you an even more in-depth look at the results of your event marketing efforts!
Summary of event success metrics
Measuring event success with analytics is the key to refining and optimizing your event strategies. By delving into advanced metrics, you can elevate your events to new heights!
But why stop there? To take your event success measurement to the next level, consider Attendease. Our powerful event software is designed to deliver awe-inspiring event experience and comprehensively measure every aspect of your event’s performance:
- Amplify and simplify your event marketing with integrated marketing tools
- Track performance throughout an entire event lifecycle
- Gather web traffic data from our Google Analytics integration
