Recently, someone asked what goes into an event debrief. As a firm believer in tracking the results of marketing initiatives, I was happy to provide a response. My response is below and, if you are a marketing professional responsible for event management, you’ll find this article insightful.

Irene Crosby’s mantra: The value of a Post-Event Report starts with a solid Event Plan

Pre-event

• Read any historical evidence that was documented as a result of participating in this specific event in previous years or similar events
• Do a quick strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to identify any changes in the internal and external environments since the last event or similar events
• Articulate the goals of the event
• Set reasonable, measurable objectives (include description, baseline data, measurement of success and date the measurement will be achieved, tracking method, and owner)

Post-event

• Collect quantitative data and compare it to the objectives
• Collect qualitative data (anecdotal evidence) by talking with relevant stakeholders
• Determine what worked and why, ans suggestions for refinements
• Determine what didn’t work and suggestions for improvements
• Calculate the return on investment (ROI)
• Advise whether you would recommend this event be repeated
• Document all of this data as historical metrics

The Extra Insight: This process can—and should—be applied to any marketing tactic that you implement: a website refresh, direct mail campaigns, email campaigns, webinars, and more. The more historical data we collect, the more likely we don’t waste valuable time and resources on tactics that don’t measure up.

Cheers!

Photo credit: istock

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