If your CMO stopped one of your team members in the hall and asked about your event strategy, what would they say?
Often, event teams struggle to see and articulate the “why” behind the work they’re doing—they can’t speak to the business impact of the event portfolio. Imagine being able to connect the dots, and identify objectives and KPIs that speak to your internal stakeholders, all the while simultaneously driving your organization's pipeline and increasing brand loyalty by delivering on the expectations of your well-defined audiences.
For our clients, this type of end-of-fiscal-year strategic planning leads to bigger budgets, greater visibility and credibility among the C-suite, and an impactful way to communicate up and down the ladder so everyone is working from the same playbook.
So how can you do it? It’s simple, but not easy. Here are the steps and a template you can use:
- Consider external, market factors that are impacting your entire organization
- Align objectives to your organization’s priorities
- Paint a 2-4 year future picture
- Clarify 12-18 month must-dos
- Outline annual investment priorities, i.e. headcount, marketing spend
- Clearly identify (and ruthlessly prioritize) your target audience(s)
- Agree on how you’ll measure and report on the success
In a nutshell, you’re developing an event strategy within a simple framework that aligns your stakeholders, team, and resources and flexes what you do. You’re capturing and aligning the best ideas within your team and establishing an ongoing, proactive planning cycle in sync with your organization’s fiscal year and supportive of your company’s strategic goals.
Simple, not easy.
Here are some of the common challenges event teams have with strategic planning:
- “One & Done” — Event teams sink a lot of time into a plan and it quickly becomes irrelevant
- “Vacuum Strategy” — Event teams build a strategy that has no meaning (or value) for the c-suite and other internal partners
- “Quiet Strategy” — Success is unknowable because the strategy is implemented, but never measured
- “Impossible Strategy” — Event teams develop a strategy without aligning to creative and production budgets
This is where Event Strategists come in. At our core, we function as catalysts of change and alignment within your event team, championing strategic initiatives that help companies like yours connect their events to overall business strategy and achieve measurable results.
As your strategic partner, our team of experts will work with you to develop a customized strategy that maximizes ROI and drives revenue and growth.
Don't let another year be another wasted opportunity to gain insights and traction or deliver events and business impact in the way you know it should be done.
Ready to get started? Schedule a 30-minute coffee chat and let's start getting those results.