A few days ago, a client was very excited to send out a new marketing piece. The piece was being sent to over 30,000 well-targeted people. Most were previous attendees of the client's event. In the client's own words, "it's one of the best we've ever put together!"
Before getting to the results, there are a few crucial points.
All my Platinum client projects are performance-based. If clients are financially successful, I receive a percentage of revenue. Hence, I'm always rooting for clients to do well. Even if I disagree with what they're doing in regard to marketing and advertising.
Because of the sophisticated tracking used for client work, most marketing efforts can be analyzed within a day. In some cases, a client can get success indicators in as little as 30 minutes. For all the sophisticated tracking, the results metrics are simple. We did "X," and "Y" tickets were sold. Or, "Z" leads generated. That's it!
Back to the client marketing piece from above. Everything was on point for all the time and effort invested. By the end of the day, the results were in.
In a nutshell, the campaign failed miserably to generate ticket sales. Ironically enough, there were several days where no client marketing campaigns were active, and more ticket sales generated. One could argue that "you were better off doing nothing!" And based on the data they'd be correct.
What the takeaway from above?
Beware your biased perceptions! We're all human and have personal biases, myself included. Especially on things where we invest a great deal of time, effort, and money.
Never assume that a marketing campaign is going to be a success. By that same token, never expect a campaign or marketing piece is going to be a dud. And always measure the success of your marketing campaigns by the revenue generated or tickets sold.
To some the above might seem a cold hard approach to events. It is! And it will also keep in you and your event in business.
Here are some additional event promotion advice tips: