#Eventprof Tips

How to Set the Right Goal for Your Virtual Event (and… How to Choose the Right Virtual Event for Your Goal)

If you’re wondering how to set the right goals and metrics for your next virtual event, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the second post in our new #Eventprof Tips series: Defining your virtual event goals and objectives! If you missed our last post, we encourage you to check it out. We covered everything you need to know about planning a successful virtual event by identifying 4 key steps:

1. Developing your content
2. Pre-planning all the details
3. Producing the event
4. Measuring your end results



On today’s agenda, we’ll be taking a closer look at Developing Your Content. As we mentioned last week, developing content always starts with defining your goals and objectives. With that said, ask yourself:

1. What action are you hoping attendees will take after attending your virtual event?
2. How will you measure the event after it wraps?

Taking the time to answer these questions will help you and your team create a guiding force to craft your event around. We’ve found that when event profs skip these questions, the planning process can become cumbersome and inefficient. They end up wasting time on things that aren’t important and don’t drive the results they are looking for (because they didn’t know what they were going for in the first place!).

Always Remember: Your goal should not just be a target number of registrants and attendees. That can be one component of your goal, but you must, must, must establish what action you’re hoping your attendees will take after the event concludes.

Below are some examples to help you set the right goal for your virtual event. We’ve even included ideas for the type of virtual event to hold, based on each goal.



Example 1: Demand Generation

• Goal Attendee Action: Book a meeting with your sales team, or more broadly, move down the Marketing Funnel
• Success Metric: # of sales meetings booked, or alternatively, total dollar amount of pipeline influenced
• Sample Event: 1-Hour Webinar showcasing a customer case study with a Call-to-Action at the end to “Book a Meeting”

Example 2: Revenue Generation (Make money from the event itself!)

• Goal Attendee Action: Pay for a ticket in exchange for access to the event. This is a tricky one because the action is done pre-event! You may have another action you’d like them to take post-event as well if the virtual event is a primer for a higher ticket item you’re selling.
• Success Metric: Total ticket sales amount or alternatively, # of new leads for your higher ticket item
• Sample Event: 3-Hour Online Workshop showing your target audience how to solve part of a problem with a Call-to-Action throughout selling your done-for-you service to solve the problem for them



Example 3: Customer Retention

• Goal Attendee Action: Renew upcoming contract
• Success Metric: Dollar amount of renewals or % of attendees who renew. This one takes some patience. Set a reminder for yourself to look back and do a manual review to see who ended up renewing. This may be months or even a year later depending on the length of your sales cycle. If you need a quick way to show your executive team the success of your event, use a post-event survey instead and ask something like, “Based on your experience today, how likely are you to continue to use Acme Co.’s services?” and share those results.
• Sample Event: 1-Hour Training on part of your company’s offering + 1-Hour Networking Happy Hour

Example 4: Employee Training

• Goal Attendee Action: Increase knowledge on a certain subject (ex. Product, process, messaging)
• Success Metric: Pass rate on post-event quiz
• Sample Event: On-demand simulive training + Quiz



Example 5: Employee Retention

• Goal Attendee Action: Continue to work for your company
• Success Metric: Months with Company or % of attendees still at Company. Similar to the customer retention example above, this one takes patience and analysis later down the line. If you need a quick way to show your executive team the success of your event, use a post-event survey instead and ask something like, “Based on your experience today, how would you rate working for Acme Co.?” and share those results.
• Sample Event: 1-Hour Virtual Game Night with Trivia and Family Feud between departments

The reality is, most events have multiple goals. But by being clear about your primary goal from the get-go, you’ll be able to plan your event with confidence, providing the right content and experience for your attendees to achieve your intended results.

If you’re still unsure about how to set the right goals for your next virtual event or have a goal in mind, but not sure what type of event to plan, feel free to reach out to our team – we’d love to help guide you in the right direction! 😊