Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

Last year, I discover a book by Victor Cheng titled, “Escaping the Self Employment Trap.” Victor writes about an important concept every event marketer should embrace called “Accountable Marketing.” The ideology has been used by direct marketers for years. There was something about how he presented the concept that got me thinking in terms of event promotion and marketing. He sums up accountable marketing in his own words below.

“When your marketing is accountable, it provides you with an enormous advantage in the marketplace. You have great clarity on what marketing activities are making you money and what activities are not.”
Escaping the Self Employment Trap, Cheng. p.66.

It is unbelievable how many event organizers and business don't track the effectiveness of their advertising.

Tracking Your Return On Investment
Consider this . . . If you spend ”X” dollars in advertising you get “Y” dollars in return. If your an event marketer “Y” could be ticket sales, leads, or people going to your event web site.  Victor also point out that you should think of your advertising as a form of investment. If your advertising isn’t bring you a return on investment then it’s expense.

There are numerous events that have a wide range in advertising budgets. There is a good chance if you asked an event organizer, “do you know what the return on investment is for your advertising?”  Most wouldn’t be able to give you a quantified response. There are some event organizers who spend tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, all without knowing their return on investment. You always need to be on the lookout for ways to track your advertising effectiveness.

Start Simple
One of the simplest places to start is with your web statistics. Look at your daily advertising spend and correlate it with actions on your event web site.  The actions could be anything from unique visitors to a site to tickets sold on a given day. Get into the habit of collecting and analyzing your marketing data.

The Advertising Question to Ask
Every event marketer needs to ask “What am I getting in return for my advertising and marketing?”
Your numbers might not be perfect, and not all advertising can be tracked directly. But, if you at least put your frame of mind around the concept you’ll probably never look at advertising the same.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Tracking The Effectiveness of Traditional Marketing with The Internet
• Are You Taking the Time to Analyze Your Web Statistics?

• The Event Promotion System - Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training