The Importance of Forecasting a Marketing Event

Forecasting is an essential part of planning, otherwise, there is no way to know what results can be expected and thus how much to spend. Event marketing budgets should be directly correlated with the opportunity an event presents. Also, it is pretty important to set realistic expectations internally with executives and others about expected results and justification for the investment.

The following variables can be forecast for an upcoming trade show for example:

Estimating Resources
Exhibit size
Budget
Number of Staff Required

Estimating Results
Number of visitors
Number of Engaged Prospects
Number of Committed Leads

Expected Sales Results

Number of Impressions - Promotion Impact(Gross and Targeted)
Advertising Equivalent Value (Media Value)

Cost Savings

Customer Relationship Management Value

Payback Ratio - ROI

It really is worth the time to estimate what an event will produce and what resources are required. For more reading on this and other event and tradeshow measurement topics go to our website at http://constellationcc.com.

Ed