The importance of using feedback to improve results is well accepted and common practice in so many areas of marketing. Yet it’s often overlooked when it comes to event marketing. Once you’ve focused on creating great event invitations, publicizing your event—including event promotion on social media—aggressively, and carefully planning it, don’t miss the opportunity to use post-event surveys to collect feedback from attendees.
This feedback is invaluable for helping you launch an even more engaging, successful event the next time for a bigger ROI. And this is true for in-person events as well as virtual events, which of course have become much more common over the past year through the pandemic. And it can reasonably be expected that virtual events will remain popular even after the pandemic subsides, as they have lots of advantages. For example, the costs are generally much lower, you can involve people from any location, and you can reach many more people.
So, below are some helpful questions you can ask in post-event surveys to gain insights into what worked well and what can be improved upon. Don’t ask them all, as people are more likely to respond to fairly short post-event surveys and are quickly turned off by long ones. Choose the most relevant questions that will provide the most useful answers for your brand and goals.
It’s also a good idea to provide a small incentive for people to take the time to complete the survey, like a discount on a future purchase. You’ll get more responses, and it’s nice to offer people the thanks.
There’s no substitute for direct feedback from your target audience—even if it’s not always easy to hear. Remember, don’t take constructive criticism personally; use it to do better next time.
Questions for Post-Event Surveys
- How did you first hear about this event?
- How happy were you with the event?
- What specifically did you enjoy about the event?
- What specifically did you not like about the event?
- What was your favorite moment during the event?
- What would you like to have seen done differently during the event?
- Did the event last an appropriate amount of time?
- Were you given enough opportunity to participate/ask questions?
- Were you satisfied with any interactions you had with event staff?
- Why did you attend this event?
- Was the event useful to you?
- Did you get what you expected out of the event? If not, what was missing?
- What was your biggest takeaway from the event?
- Did you have any technical difficulties during the event?
- Would you attend this same event again? Why or why not?
- How likely are you to attend another of our events in the future?
- What type of events would you like to see from us in the future?
- Would you encourage others to attend our events? If so, what would you tell them about it? If not, why not?
- How did the event affect your perception of our brand?
- Please feel free to share anything else you’d like to say about this event or our brand.
