Navigating economic uncertainty in event planning can be a tricky process, and often involves readjusting how you would usually tackle your event planning process.
During times of economic uncertainty, budget-friendly event planning ideas are sure to be valued. Solutions for event planning can vary from keeping a close eye on the event and business progress of your competitors, to tracking your own event statistics using specialist event technology.
Continue reading to discover some creative event planning tactics for maximizing ROI for events, useful at any time, but especially during periods of economic uncertainty.
Strategies for successful event planning in tough economic times
Make sure that you have explored all potential situations
Event planning in a volatile economy leaves little room for mistakes. To ensure that you are not spending the precious budget on unnecessary purchases, it is most important to explore a range of different scenarios at your event. Many of us retain our old planning strategies out of familiarity but this might not be the most effective way to plan for specific event scenarios.
Keep in close contact with your attendees
Keeping your business afloat and your events running in a time of economic uncertainty is very dependent on having a strong relationship with your usual clients and attendees. Now more than ever, you must ensure that you are maintaining regular communication with your client base. This can be in the form of regularly posting on your Instagram story or sending out tweets about what you are up to, or you can take a more personal approach and send emails targeting why your particular event will be of interest to them.
A great way to keep your events at the forefront of your client’s mind is by adding professional event photographs of your previous events to your marketing material so that you can visibly demonstrate your previous success.
Failing to maintain regular content with your clients could cause them to lose interest in your business and therefore not attend your events in the future. More than ever, It is a competitive market out there.
Be able to account for any mistakes
Planning for any mistakes or things to go wrong is always a safe financial move. If you have any uncertainty about how to overcome hurdles when they arise then this can unnecessarily use up your resources – both time and financial. By thinking ahead of potential mistakes, and working hard to prevent them, you can prevent the unnecessary use of resources in this way.
Track event stats
Event planning during a downturn is going to involve tracking your event statistics. You should use tracking technology to analyze the attendance that you attract at each of your events and ensure that there is a steady stream of attendees. If you track this data, then you can have a solid idea of your client’s interest and current engagement with your business. Keeping track of your event attendance, and other stats, allows you to know when an event has got a positive response and when it was not so successful. Keeping your events at the top of their game is a smart move financially to keep your attendees interested.
Revisit your planning strategy
Streamlining event planning processes during economic challenges can be of great benefit. If you repeatedly plan events and always opt for the same planning strategy, then it is a smart idea to revisit this from time to time and ensure that you are being as time and cost-effective as possible. Starting your planning process early is a great way to streamline the event planning process, as is using previous event feedback, to ensure that you pay the most significant attention to planning the elements of your event that you previously gained the most positive responses from.
Keep your team motivated
Adapting event planning to economic challenges can also take the form of generally keeping morale up amongst your staff. Economic difficulties are challenging for all, and it can be very easy for your event staff and volunteers to feel disillusioned or unmotivated. But cynicism at your events is not going to be beneficial for attendee event satisfaction. Make your event staff and volunteers feel valued for their work and invest in appropriate training as part of your event planning process so that the whole team can feel supported by your shared mission.
Keep an eye on your competitors
Closely monitoring your competitors is an essential part of the event planning process, especially in times of economic uncertainty. If your regular clients are watching their pennies a little more than usual, they are going to invest in products and services more sparingly. Therefore, you need to ensure that it is YOUR business that they invest in over your competitors. Ensuring that you are aware of what your competitors are doing well and how their strengths compare to your own will help ensure that you remain a solid choice for investment by your regular clients, as well as obtaining any new recruits.
Could you benefit from a financial advisor?
If your financial situation has changed it might be beneficial for you to seek advice from a financial advisor to ensure that your current event planning process is the most cost effective in the current climate. You could also do some research for yourself into the most cost-effective means of event planning to ensure that you are maximizing your event attendance for as little cost as possible.
These solutions for event planning will have you retaining your valued clients, even within a period of economic uncertainty.
As previously mentioned, professional event photographs can also play a role in keeping your events in fine form and in great attendance.
If you are looking for a professional event photographer and videographer to capture the success of your events then look no further than Splento. Splento can provide you with quality photos and videos that you can use in your marketing strategy within just 24 hours – which is their standard delivery time!
Check out Splento for yourself and save on that precious event planning time.