Your Greatest Expense Is Your Greatest Return
The common goal of an association’s marketing efforts is member engagement; however, the marketing approach that produces the most member engagement is the most difficult to execute. So, we uncovered some interesting insights through our annual Demand Metric marketing survey to learn more about event marketing and associations.
Event marketing offers the opportunity for face to face interaction with members, it showcases your brand and organization, and allows for the broadest and deepest touch points for members and stakeholders. The experiences that event marketing produce lead to lasting memories, which result in deeper feelings of trust and loyalty. While email marketing can provide touch points and engagement, email marketing doesn’t produce that same level of experience. One quality encounter at an event can advance a relationship much further than months of email sends.
There are risks when taking on event marketing as most associations are aware. Events can be expensive up-front costs. They can be high risk from the cost to the level of attendance. And executing an event is a big investment of time. Participants of our demand metric survey revealed that events take up most of their time right after internal meetings, email marketing, and content creation. In addition, 63% of associations reported putting on four or more events a year, with 21% revealing seven or more events a year. Types of events included conferences, tradeshows, webinars, and partner events.
Since the impact is much greater for events, the return on investment is greater too, but many associations aren’t aware of how to measure or aren’t measuring their investment. Contrary to for profit organizations, the priorities of associations tend to be flipped. Associations seek attendees and registrants and a for profit organization tends to focus on the bottom line. According to our study, of the participants that knew, the average ROI for an event falls between 25-34%, while just 8% reported a loss or breaking even.
The investment for events often reaches half or more of a marketing budget according to 20% of associations in our study. It’s no surprise that 78% of associations reported improving engagement to be the most important goal and 73% said events are the best approach to achieving engagement.
According to results from our annual Demand Metric marketing survey there are opportunities for associations that equate to greater return on investment, greater engagement, and less difficulty executing through technology. The more investment in things like event technology, reporting, attendee lifecycle information, and promotion, the better satisfaction with results. One of the biggest missed opportunity is failing to do homework on attendees prior to the event. With the right intelligence about attendees, event staff can gain a considerable head start in understanding where a member is coming from and where they are in their member journey.
If you found this information helpful, then you are a great candidate for our 2017 survey. Click on the button below to participate (and we'll get you back with coffee on us.)
About Emily Nash
With a unique background in start-ups-to-studios, and consulting-to-corporate settings, Emily specializes in solving for unknowns, pioneering new services, and collaborating with marketers and strategists. In her community, she served on the board of American Institute for Graphic Arts as their Communications Director to help promote networking and mentorship opportunities for area designers and creatives. She’s also a co-producer for Rethink Association, a podcast for associations.