Below are the top key performance indicators (KPIs) you can use to track the success of your virtual events. You should pay special attention to these KPIs if your organization plans to use virtual events in your lead generation strategy and monitor them consistently as your events occur.
Events are different from other marketing campaigns since the focus is on quality, not quantity. We would have thousands of attendees visiting our event pages in a perfect world, but instead, we likely get a few hundred. This means that the KPIs need to be adjusted accordingly. Below are some metrics you can track directly on your Salesforce that will prove very useful in analyzing your events' success.
The ability to track your KPIs directly on Salesforce can help you run your events very effectively. It's no longer necessary (or feasible for that matter) to export and import data from various sources besides Salesforce. Instead, by setting up certain event-related objects on Salesforce itself, you'll be able to measure your event based on the statistics you get from the platform itself.
Too many event marketers feel like they are flying blind regarding post-event data. They have no idea how things turned out because they paid no attention to the proper KPIs. But these mistakes can be avoided by following a few simple principles:
Here are top Metrics you can track directly in Salesforce if you are using Zoom
This is one of the simple KPI's when it comes to measuring the ROI for your event. You can simply install google analytics on your event and registration pages to get some insights on the website traffic vs the registratoin numbers. If you are not getting the right conversion, you can tweak the language on the page to get more registrations.
Tracking registration is a pretty obvious KPI to track as a general feel for your virtual events. When hosting a virtual event, an early indicator of event success is the number of registrations for that event. If the number of registrations is not satisfactory, you can adjust your virtual event promotion campaign to get more registrations. It's also important to have strategies to ensure that the people who have registered for your virtual event will join during the event. Getting the right number of registrations is only one part of the process. It is equally crucial that most registered participants attend the event. If there is a big difference between the two numbers, this would not be ideal. If you conduct regular events, you can track these numbers regularly. By setting a benchmark, you will strive to surpass it each time. The measure will also help you determine which event was the most successful. This will enable you to understand your audience's preferences.
3. Attendee engagement and retention
Tracking attendee engagement and retention during the webinar is important. Therefore, you should take steps to ensure that your virtual event audience is engaged throughout and are staying longer. The benchmarks of engagement you take should be measurable. Live polling or Quizzes is a common form of audience engagement in a virtual event. You could set a benchmark based on the retention rate of regular events. When your participation time increases with each event, you can consider your strategy to be working. Alternatively, if participants are dropping out mid-way, the level of engagement is not high. The event content may not have met their expectations. An engaged audience will talk about your event; Both in-person and on social media. Whatever you do to engage your audience, make sure you have tools in place to measure it so you can report it to management.
It is another critical KPI to measure the success of your event. Net Promoter Score is an industry standard to measure attendee satisfaction. You can add a list of questions in your post-event survey to collect audience feedback. The questions can include the likelihood of your audience attending similar events in the future or recommending them to their peers. You can also add questions related to improvements your audience would like to see at the next event. Ensure that the response options are in a numerical format to be easier for you to quantify the results later.
Your event's qualified sales lead generally reflects the number of potential customers you brought in. Virtual events are primarily lead-generation events. The conversion rate of your virtual event can be the most important KPI for your event if generating leads is your primary objective. However, generating qualified leads is much more important than just generating leads. Understanding the type of leads and their trigger points will give you a deeper understanding of what worked for you at the event.
Opportunity Created is one of the most critical metrics for virtual events. You want to track any opportunities created from your webinars. Of course, B2B sales cycles are long and can take many months to complete. Attendance at the webinar will be another buying signal to add and perhaps increase sales probability score. More than 80% of marketers consider the opportunities generated by virtual events as a success factor.
The Deals Closed KPI is easy to comprehend as it ties directly to your bottom line. For example, over 70% of event organizers rank deals closed as a success factor. It's the easiest way to determine virtual event return on investment.
Whether you are holding a webinar, virtual event, or conference, collecting feedback from attendees and event stakeholders helps you plan and improve your next event and reveals vital insights. Post-event surveys help you to get feedback from attendees help you build trust and improve future events. Insights from attendees and constructive feedback from your attendees help you plan future events.
One of the critical KPIs to track is speaker feedback. The data will help you you an idea of which speaker managed to keep the audience hooked. You can send a quick survey and share it with your audience to understand their event experience. A higher rating would mean that your audience liked the speaker. It will inform them of what worked and what didn't with the audience.
Everyone loves the convenience of attending an event without traveling; however, not everyone is ready for a virtual event. Recording the event allows people to view the presentations later and answer any questions they may have missed during the live stream. It also allows people who couldn't attend to log in and catch up on the information after the event. In addition, this is a great way to nurture leads and prospects.
You can tweak your upcoming events if you track the on-demand watch metrics.
While it is important to track all this data in your CRM, your customer or prospects will ultimately remember the event from your experience, so focus on delivering the best experience for your attendees.
