Spending on B2B occasions is perennially one of many largest objects on the CMO’s funds, with upwards of 30 per cent of program spend happening occasion exercise. Excessive spend calls for accountability and in response to Forrester’s Q1 2024 State Of B2B Occasions Survey, the primary precedence for occasion groups over the subsequent 12 months is demonstrating ROI. Nonetheless, efficient occasion measurement is tough with groups dealing with quite a lot of hurdles.
The 5 principal challenges of occasion measurement
A failure to agree on clear, measurable targets. Too many occasion groups nonetheless deal with aim setting as an afterthought. This results in wooly, excessive degree targets that fail to align with wider enterprise and advertising targets. And when occasions lack clear targets, groups don’t know what to measure. As one chief we spoke to mentioned, “occasion measurement turns into about justifying existence versus displaying impression’.
A give attention to logistics, not enterprise outcomes. For a lot of occasion groups their major focus is occasion supply and logistics. This dangers the staff getting relegated to operational supply, with strategic selections being taken elsewhere. The tip result’s a disconnected aim setting course of and poor occasion measurement.
Misaligned occasion stakeholders. Giant scale tier one occasions sometimes have a number of stakeholders, every with a unique perspective on the first goal of the occasion. Groups battle to acquire settlement between these stakeholders, which leads to poor alignment, competing targets, and uncertainty round what to measure.
The complexity of calculating occasion ROI. The rising complexity of B2B shopping for implies that we shouldn’t be judging an occasion attendee as the only supply of a possibility. A number of determination makers have to be engaged, and enterprise alternatives could take years to translate into income. This implies an in-year ROI calculation is fraught with challenges and can doubtless fail to adequately characterize the worth an occasion delivers.
Siloed and unintegrated occasion know-how. Efficient occasion measurement requires the fast and seamless circulation of occasion knowledge from occasion know-how platforms into the CRM. However in response to Forrester knowledge, solely 21% of enterprises have totally built-in their occasion platform into their tech stack, which makes it tough to entry the information wanted for efficient measurement.
Apply the Forrester Aligned Measurement Course of to your occasion measurement
We advocate making use of the Forrester Aligned Measurement Course of to occasion measurement. This course of lays out seven repeatable steps for groups to comply with to provide reporting deliverables tightly aligned to enterprise targets and customised for key occasion stakeholders.
Forrester shoppers can entry the brand new report ‘Mastering B2B Occasion Measurement’ and accompanying occasion metric template which walks by way of the seven steps. They will additionally request a steering session to evaluate their occasion aim setting, learn to apply the Aligned Measurement Course of, and begin showcasing the worth of their occasions!
