Are you making event reports profitable and effective for your team? Find out how you can get valuable insights from custom event registration forms.
Naturally, you want your event to be well worth the time, money, and effort you put into it. Event value isn’t just about the ticket sales or audience experience (though those are extremely important parts!); the long-term value you can get out of an event is a big part of your potential return on investment (ROI).
Event planners say they measure success based on attendee satisfaction (91%), meeting defined event objectives (61%), and staying within budget (60%). And many event planners look for valuable insights to improve future events through their reports.
Event reports can offer a wide variety of advantages for your team throughout the entire planning process—not just in providing insights after the fact. Keep reading to find out how you can use reports more effectively to support your team, improve your planning process, and increase ROI.
Many planners collect information from attendees during the registration process because it is one of the most convenient times to ask for information. It’s easy to collect attendee information through online registration forms and ticketing systems. Event planners may also use surveys or follow-up emails to collect additional information after the event.
Once the data is collected, event planners can use reporting tools to analyze and gain insights that can inform future event planning decisions.
Without accurate insights, you are flying blind. Event data can help you better understand your target audience and strategize for the future. Some of the most common ways event planners use reports include:
…And this is nowhere near an exhaustive list. There are many creative ways to use custom reports if your ticketing and registration platform supports them.
Let’s consider what kinds of information you might want to gather from your initial registration forms before we dive into additional ways you can use reports throughout the planning process.
If your ticketing and registration tool allows you to set custom report fields, you can capture specific information about attendees that may not be available through standard registration questions.
Custom fields make it possible to glean key information early on in the process when your attendees are focused and ready to enage with you. For example, it’s a lot easier to ask for a t-shirt size during the initial registration process than to wait until a few weeks before the event and hope everyone promptly responds.
Different events benefit from different attendee insights, so the ability to set custom registration fields is crucial if you want to get the most valuable information without making your guests jump through unnecessary hoops. Here are some examples of custom report fields that might be useful depending on your event type:
By adding custom report fields to the registration form, event planners can collect and analyze more detailed information about attendees, which can be used to improve future events and enhance the attendee experience.
Some event planners only think about the value of reports after the event is over. However, custom reports can help improve your events during each stage of the planning process. Here are six examples of how your team can use reports more effectively.
Pulling reports on attendee needs, expectations, and preferences takes a lot of the guesswork out of the planning process. For example, event coordinators can access information on t-shirt sizes to ensure that they have the appropriate number and sizes of event merchandise on hand. Or the catering team can access allergy information and dietary restrictions to ensure that meals are prepared safely to accommodate attendees with specific needs.
You can also use age information, job titles, or industries to segment attendees and create targeted messaging or activities for different groups. For example, if a large number of attendees are engineers or teachers, the planner might consider hosting an event segment geared toward that niche audience.
Set your reports to automatically update the right people at the right time. You can automate reporting by selecting the team member you want to keep informed with the information fields they need to know. This means you can quickly send catering insights to one team member and breakout session information to someone else.
When you set up automated reports for your team, you streamline your workflows. You can limit who gets the alerts so the whole team isn’t sorting through reports that don’t apply to their jobs. Automating the reports also reduces the risk of human error that occurs when someone forgets to send out an updated report or misreads a manual spreadsheet.
Your registration tool should provide remote access to all of your important event data. During the event, you can access crucial information about your guests, including medical history, special accommodation needs, ticket types, and more. Is a guest asking to make a last-minute switch? Real-time insights allow you to make data-driven decisions on the fly.
How do you increase event funding and buy-in from your key stakeholders? The top three features that boost sponsorship opportunities include sponsor/exhibitor profiles (78%), analytics/reporting (77%), and banners in high-traffic areas (70%).
You can capitalize on reports to boost the interest of partners, sponsors, and stakeholders. For example, use reports to show how many guests clicked on a sponsor’s banner or provided positive feedback. Reports should be tailored to the specific needs and interests of stakeholders or sponsors, such as providing data on ROI or highlighting areas where a sponsor’s brand was prominently featured.
Don’t be short-sighted. Gathering the right information now can help you achieve long-term success with valuable insights. For example, look at referral information to identify which marketing avenues, channels, or partnerships are bringing in the most registrations. For the next event, boost your presence in the areas that were most successful at bringing in leads in the past.
Use your attendee information to attract better partnerships for your future events. Analyze registration data to identify potential sponsors or exhibitors that want to target a similar audience. Use your reports to also help you identify the most popular sessions or activities and let that inform programming decisions for future events.
Use attendee information to target your future email marketing efforts. You can use professional titles, industry, location, age, job roles, and differentiating factors to segment your audience. This makes it possible to send follow-up emails with content that is more relevant to your audience. For example, if a large number of attendees are in marketing, you might consider offering a marketing-focused workshop or downloadable guide to that group.
Did any influencers or brand ambassadors attend your event? Use your reports to examine social handles and follow up to see if you can extend the relationship with post-event recaps from popular social media figures.
Brushfire’s ticketing and registration reports can be customized to capture crucial information about attendees during the registration process. This information is automatically compiled and updated, which can be shared as real-time reports with key team members to streamline event planning and management.
Use custom forms and reports from Brushfire that fit your organization’s unique needs and goals.
To learn more about how we help event planners accomplish more, watch this quick demo or schedule a consultation with our team.
