Where You Should Spend Your Event Budget
Money talk never gets old. Whether you’re planning for a new financial year - as many South Africans were doing recently - or waiting to hear the national budget speech to see if the government’s decisions on future expenditures will affect your business, money talk is all around! So, it’s no surprise that everyone is finding ways to spend their money in a savvy manner so that they can get value and good return for their hard work. The events industry is not isolated from this. More and more planners are leaning towards strategies that will ensure guests get the most out of the event, but where exactly are event planners spending their money in 2019?
Content: The Core of Any Event Strategy
The ultimate goal is to spend the budget on whatever element is needed to ensure a seamless event experience.
Spend your money where your message will reach the right audience at the right time. Ensuring your message lands with the correct audience means that you decide whether this is done through video, a strong communications plan leading up to, or after the event, or a strong keynote speaker who can take your brief and really deliver. Spread your budget across quality content and a well delivered message. A good venue (with even better catering), technical and entertainment are important but only act as a support to the event content, which should be at the core of your strategy.
Spending Money to Make Money
Return on Investment (ROI) is more than just getting a money injection back into your business for hosting an event. In our industry it can look like a collection of big data, a broader network, acquisition of new audiences, new clients or future opportunities. With that said, it’s important to spend money where the return will have long-term added value. Taking the reality of tighter budgets into account however, it is important to prioritise the audience take-out and make sure you’re offering something they are willing to pay for. Don’t worry too much about the trinkets - branded collateral and giveaways are collectively expensive and ultimately have little impact on what’s memorable at an event.
Will the Real Event Professionals Please Stand Up?
Professional partners are really good at splicing up a budget and evenly allocating the spend to the right places. If you’re clear about your budget up front, and have identified your objectives, a good eventing partner will be able to work within this, guiding you on where it’s important not to compromise, and where you can save some money. There are countless benefits apart from the mammoth responsibility of managing and planning events. Such as their knowledge of the latest industry trends and impeccable attention to detail.
We can’t stress enough the importance of building long-term relationships with suppliers and partners! If you’ve built good relationships and are working with people who are in it for the long run with you, you’ll be in a better position to negotiate – asking them to supply the same standard but within a reduced budget. So instead of seeing an event company as an added expense, tap into their expertise and network so that they can ensure you get maximum impact for your restricted budget without losing important elements.
It’s important to note that these insights will depend on your overall strategy and your goal will determine where you spend your budget. Having knowledge about the financial trends in the industry and seeing where the landscape of events is at the moment will help in decision-making. Keep track of any interesting spending patterns with good returns, then replicate and measure these for all your other events. Get in touch with us to discuss the opportunities for your next event.