The Long Game
Why brand equity matters as much as lead generation when measuring event success.
Events are a powerful part of any marketing strategy. They provide an opportunity for brands to meet face to face with prospective and existing customers, something that is hard to achieve in other settings.
You invest heavily in events: sponsorships, travel, staff time, logistics, and the pressure to justify these costs often drives marketers toward easily quantifiable metric, such as booth visits, badge scans, immediate leads generated.
But here's the reality: focusing solely on short-term numbers limits your event's true potential.
The Hidden Value of Face-to-Face Engagement
Events create something digital channels can't replicate: undivided attention. When you demonstrate your solution in person, you're not competing with browser tabs or email notifications. You have their complete focus.
This presents a unique opportunity to:
- Build authentic relationships with prospects at various buying stages
- Strengthen existing client connections that drive retention
- Create memorable brand experiences that influence future decisions
The challenge? Communicating this softer ROI to budget-conscious stakeholders who demand concrete numbers.
Rethinking Success Metrics for Long-Term Growth
B2B buying cycles, particularly in technology, span months or years. A prospect who isn't ready today might become your biggest client next quarter. This is why measuring events purely by immediate lead volume creates a dangerous blind spot, especially when it results in a sales-led strategy that might help you hit your lead targets, but may also create a negative brand impression that hurts you in the long run.
Instead, we're proposing a new, integrated approach builds your brand equity in the long run, instead of hurting it. This includes measuring your "return on experience", through metrics like:
- Exposure reach
- Branded search volume
- Social engagement
- Customer retention and expansion
These give you a better insight into your customer lifetime value, as well as how events are contributing to moving your MQLs into SQLs.
Check out the full article to read more on how to measure these metrics, our predictions on the future of events, and what this means for your long-term strategy planning.
