Written by Warren Fowler, Marketing Enthusiast and Blogger
Digital advertising dominates the marketing universe because it has the power to reach global audiences within seconds. However, customers still appreciate interpersonal communication and crave for human interaction, which is why events remain one of the most productive marketing tactics.
As a matter of fact, almost a third of all marketers believe that event marketing is the single most effective marketing channel. In such circumstances, it is not the question of whether you should utilize event marketing or not, but rather how to do it most effectively.
This post will present you a complete guide to event budgeting. Let’s take a look!
Things to Consider When Planning a Budget
An average company spends 14% of the annual marketing budget on events. It’s a big portion of the budget that forces you to think twice about every item. Here’s the list of things you need to consider while making the event calculations:
Determine goals precisely
Planning is the basic precondition for a successful event. Chuck Cohn, contributor of Forbes, says: “Setting concrete goals, documenting them, and reviewing them periodically can increase your chances of success by up to 95%.”
Analyze previous events
In case it’s not the first time that you are taking part in this sort of activity, you have to analyze the history of previous events. That is a good starting point that can give you preliminary insights into budgeting and event costs. Use it as the orientation point to make a general assessment of expenditures. Doing so, it will be easier to create the plan of activities and set the budget.
Talk to the finance team
Before you start calculating costs on your own, you need to consult finance managers. After all, they are the ones who know the real state of affairs and have the authority to give you the green light to begin investing in event organization. Together, you can see how much there is to spend for this happening.
Pay attention to details
Planning is difficult because there are so many costs to take into the calculation. You need to pay attention to details. For instance, you want to make free giveaways for event attendees. But do you know how many items you need? Is it 150 or 1,500 items? Do you want two-color keepsakes or multiple-color presents that increase production costs? Every little thing matters here, so make sure not to forget any of these.
Set the emergency fund
No matter how precise and well-organized you may be, you will probably miss the point or two when creating a budget. For this reason, it is mandatory to set the emergency fund just in case something goes wrong. It can be anything – from technical issues and gadgets to staff problems and speaker requirements. In each case, you won’t be able to solve the problem without some extra budget aside.
Crucial Event Budget Components
Now that you’ve seen the background of event budgeting, it is time to think about the on-site elements. There could be dozens of different components depending on the nature of your business, but there are a few features common to all organizations:
1. Venue costs
The size of your event venue will strongly influence the overall budget. According to the report, 36% of event planners spend most of their event funds on the venue, so let it be the first item in the budget calculation. If you want to raise awareness, then you probably need a bigger place to present a brand. But if you just want to be present at the industry fair to meet a few clients, don’t waste too much money on the venue.
2. Speakers
This is the tricky part because speaker fees depend on their professional authority, the size of your market, and timing. However, industry thought leaders could strongly contribute to the popularity of your event, so we suggest you choose carefully and accumulate enough funds to invite the best speakers currently available.
3. Staffing
As always, all eyes will be focused on your products, services, and speakers, but your employees are the ones who need to make it all function flawlessly. For this reason, it is important to keep them satisfied and paid accordingly. It’s a big portion of the event budget, but some marketers get it wrong because they want to cut costs and reduce staffing. Don’t forget to hire the optimal number of assistants who can ensure immaculate execution.
4. Event app
A marketing event is an offline activity, but it still needs a little boost from the digital world. Research showed that over 90% of event planners saw a positive return on investment from event apps. You should follow the trend and allocate budget for event app design. Although it increases expenditures, it generates enough leads to justify the investment.
5. Attendee experience
Most event planners want to enrich attendee experience by offering something new and unique. This may be the latest mobile gadget, a VR tool, or anything else that keeps the target audience on the edge of their seats. However, it can be an expensive feature, so make sure to prepare on time and add it to the calculation as early as possible.
Conclusion
Event marketing can give a big boost to the success of your business, but it requires a lot of planning and strategic thinking. This is particularly the case with budgeting because you must take all costs into account to avoid overspending.
In this post, we showed you the complete guide to event budgeting. Make sure to use our suggestions and don’t hesitate to leave us a comment if you need additional explanations – we would be glad to help you out!
About Warren
Warren Fowler is a marketing enthusiast and a blogger at Best Essays, who loves music. If he doesn’t have a guitar in his hands, he’s probably embracing new technologies and marketing techniques online! You can meet him on Twitter and Facebook.