Category: Personalisation

How Attendees and Planners Can Benefit from a Streamlined Registration Process

 

As a profession, event planning is rewarding and exhilarating in equal measure, but this is a calling that often comes with its own unique challenges.  For example, as any planner will tell you, an efficient registration process is one of the most critical aspects of any event.  After all, a seamless registration process not only makes for a positive attendee experience, but eases a planner’s workload.  But achieving this win-win scenario takes considerable thought and so in this blog, we’ll consider the tools and strategies that planners can use to simplify their registration process, all while reaping the benefits of a more streamlined system.

Utilise Online Registration Platforms

The days of paper registration forms and manual data entry are thankfully long gone and today’s planners can now take their pick from among a wide variety of online registration platforms.  This transition has ensured that registration is almost guaranteed to be quick and hassle-free.  What’s more, these platforms enable planners to customise their registration forms, to send automated confirmation emails and also to accept payments online.  Even better, these many platforms are built to integrate with a wider suite of event management tools, making it easier for planners to track and gather valuable data.

Streamline Your Forms, Tailor Your Questions, Maximise Your Registration Process

While online platforms have contributed considerably to the simplification of the wider registration process, planners should still approach the design of their registration form with care and thought.  Try to keep your design simple and concise and only ask your delegates for the most essential details (i.e., their names and contact information).  When creating your form, consider incorporating conditional logic into your wording so that delegates only see questions relevant to them.

For example, as part of your registration process, you may be asking delegates if they require accommodation and flights. If they answer ‘no’ the form will simply move onto the next question.  However, if they answer ‘yes’, they will be asked questions pertinent to their hotel and flight requirements — questions that would have been of no interest to delegates who don’t require these details.

But above all, when creating your form, the more straightforward it is, the more likely it is that delegates will complete it without frustration.

Different Registration Options, Different Delegates

As a planner, it’s also worth offering various registration options to suit the needs of different groups of delegates during the registration process.  For example, you’ll want to tailor your registration options to take into account delegates who have taken advantage of concessions such as early bird pricing, group discounts or different ticket types (VIP, general admission, etc.). Offering flexibility in registration allows attendees to choose the option that best suits their needs as delegates.

Utilise Mobile-Friendly Registration for Maximum Reassurance

Using a digital platform for registration is one thing, but ensuring that your event registration process is mobile-friendly is quite something else.  By using responsive design to build your registration pages, you have the reassurance that your attendees will be able to register for your event from any device.

Accept and Integrate Online Payments

Your chosen registration platform may well enable you to accept payment for your event and by integrating this with secure payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, or Square, you can help to streamline the payment process.  By taking the foresight to include this kind of facility, your attendees can pay instantly, a point that reduces the need for manual payment processing.

Use Automation to Full Effect in Your Registration Process

Automation is a game-changer for event planners.  When utilised efficiently, it can help to free a planner from some of their more mundane tasks.  For example, automated confirmation emails can be set up to be sent to delegates immediately after they sign up for your event.  If needed, you can also schedule automated reminders to be sent to delegates closer to the date of your event.  This strategy reduces the likelihood of no-shows and ensures that attendees have all the necessary information they need prior to the start of your event.

Provide Dedicated Customer Support

Bear in mind that — even with a streamlined registration process — some of your attendees may encounter unexpected issues or have additional questions.  In these instances, it’s worth making sure that you can direct delegates to a dedicated customer support team to help resolve any queries.

Analyse Post-Event Data for the Future

Just as you would with any other element of your event, take the time to gather and analyse your registration data along with any feedback you receive on your registration process.  You may even consider conducting post-event surveys to collect attendee insight.  Use this data to identify areas of improvement and to refine registration for future events.

An essential for planners and attendees alike, registration is one of the most critical parts of any event.  With foresight and care, planners can simplify and streamline the process, a move that not only eases their work, but one that helps to create a memorable, meaningful and valuable event experience.

 


Running live, virtual or hybrid events? Want to maiximise event success and have the best registration process possible? Give your attendees an event experience they’ll remember with technology you can rely on. Learn how Eventsforce can make your next event fabulous and successful. Book your personalised demo now.

Thanksgiving planning like a pro: tried and tested strategies

Family enjoying Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving planning is no mean feat. Like any other occasion, it has its own logistics and practicalities, yet Turkey Day is a banquet of epic proportions, a cornucopia of endless culinary iterations (you’re either Team Apple Pie or Team Pumpkin Pie, OK?) and often — as any gathering of family and friends is wont to be — a feast of deep and rich emotions.

Bearing in mind the complexities of the day — the large and sometimes disparate guest list, your diners’ multiple dietary requirements, the obsession with perfect timing, the endless simmering (of both gravy and feuds) — we at Eventsforce wondered what it would be like if we applied some of the planning tactics familiar to every event professional to organise and pull off a perfect Thanksgiving. So without further ado — and because every Thanksgiving chef is well and truly a planner at heart — this is your perfect Turkey Day, portioned out, plated up and served with efficiency thanks to the power of professional event planning.

  1. Define the Day and Choose the Date — With Care

A thoughtful host and a careful planner begins by naming and defining the purpose of their occasion. For many Americans and those around the globe with a broad awareness of American culture, Thanksgiving speaks for itself. However, there are many for whom the day is entirely foreign; bear this in mind and be prepared to describe the holiday to give context to anyone not familiar with Thanksgiving festivities. In the US and its territories, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, which is a public holiday. As those marking the day overseas well know, Thanksgiving is not observed internationally and so you’ll want to schedule your feast for a weekend and/or a time appropriate to the surrounding culture (i.e., avoiding local days of religious observance, etc.).

  1. Pause and Prep for effective Thanksgiving planning

What’s a planner without a schedule? In terms of overall preparation, a savvy Thanksgiving host begins their initial preparations approximately a month to three weeks out from the big day. Here’s a rough timeline for your Thanksgiving preparations; feel free to add in your own points and adjust, as needed:

  • 1 month to three weeks before: know your budget, select your date, have a rough estimate for guest figures, choose your venue
  • Three to two weeks before: create a WhatsApp group/some kind of platform to communicate with guests, issue invites with RSVPs, set your menu, order turkey, verify freezer space for cooking ahead (see next point)
  • One week before: ensure you have enough seating, cutlery, plates, glasses, mugs etc., for everyone in attendance, cook/freeze side dishes
  • Three days to one day before: defrost turkey/pick-up fresh bird, check that your  roasting tin is large enough and that your turkey and tin can fit in the oven, defrost your sides and create an on-the-day masterlist for cooking timings
  • On the day: Cook and rest turkey, make your mash, bake rolls and heat through sides, gravy and pies
  1. Selecting the Venue, Setting the Time

A professional event planner may have multiple venues up for consideration, but your home — with its familiar kitchen — is absolutely your best bet. There is nothing more disorienting than cooking Thanksgiving for a crowd in an unfamiliar kitchen. On that note, if you decide to use an alternative venue, do as any planner would do and familiarise yourself with the space ahead of time, making a note of where pots, pans, plates, dishes, cutlery and all utensils are stored. Test the oven to ensure that you know both how to adjust the temperature and also if it runs hotter or cooler than your appliance at home.

When you set your time for the occasion, take into account the intricacies of your menu (for example, a whole turkey takes much longer to cook than a crown), the schedules of your guests, the size of your oven and even things such as the nap schedules of smaller diners. HINT: when setting the time, suggest an early afternoon sitting to allow your guests to enjoy a leisurely meal, a point that also enables you to avoid cleaning up late into night.

  1. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

You might already have a reasonable idea of who you want to invite to your Thanksgiving feast, but it’s wise to firm things up with a more formal invite, issued via the platform most convenient to your guests. Unlike a professional planner, you won’t have a bespoke app at your disposal for the occasion, but consider setting up a WhatsApp group specifically for the day. After all, all you really want is a platform that will enable you to communicate with guests directly both in the run up to and on the day of your Thanksgiving feast.

Once you’ve issued invites — preferably with some kind of RSVP to enable you to move forward with a precise number of guests — you can use this forum to provide arrivals with information on points like transport options for getting to your venue and, if needed, details on parking.

  1. Menu Madness with a side of Guest Engagement

Now is the time to plan your feast in earnest. With your platform set up, you can easily gather information on any dietary requirements. In keeping with convention, the traditional Thanksgiving feast is comprised of the following core dishes:

– Turkey

– Stuffing

– Mashed potatoes and gravy

– Cranberry sauce

– Green bean casserole

– Sweet potato casserole

– Dinner rolls

– Pumpkin OR apple pie

Depending on your personal custom, taste, diet and budget, you may not follow this exact menu and instead opt for a variation on these foods. But know that once invited, guests may offer to bring certain menu items. While this level of enthusiastic engagement certainly is the stuff of planners’ dreams, you should — as the person who is ultimately responsible for feeding your guests — consider these offers with care. After all, should someone volunteer to cook one of the above key items and then either forget their offer or be unable to attend on the day, this hole in the menu will create serious last-minute stress for you.

So, to any kind offers of help, you may want to ask volunteers to bring a dish or an item that — while perhaps not traditional to the Thanksgiving table (hello vegan quiche) — if forgotten or not made, won’t ruin your feast. With this diplomatic and discreet tactic, your guests are actively participating in the occasion, but you still have full control over this event in the culinary sense.

  1. Maximise Time and Budget: Shop and Cook with Care

Like any other planner, you need to maximise your time and your budget and so it pays to carefully comb through your freezer, fridge and cupboards to see what you can use to shave both pennies and seconds off your pre-Thanksgiving shop. Take the time to walk back through your menu — down to the individual recipe ingredients — and try to incorporate what you already have in your cupboard into your meal — be it spices, tea or coffee, potatoes, onions or a few bottles of wine for the table. Anything you can find will help lessen the cost of your feast.

If, like many modern hosts, you find yourself cooking for guests with multiple dietary restrictions, you’d be wise to find a recipe that meets all requirements (rather than cooking multiple variations of a single recipe). For example, if you’re catering for vegetarians as well as those who are gluten and dairy-free, you can easily make a vegetarian gravy with cornflour that suits these requirements and still tastes absolutely delicious. Most importantly, if you work ahead, cranberry sauce, sweet potato and green bean casseroles, rolls, gravy, stuffing and pies can all be made in advance, frozen and then defrosted a day or so ahead of Thanksgiving to be heated through on the big day.

  1. Find a (Sober) Second in Command to help with your Thanksgiving planning

Even with the best organisation and preparation, the frank truth of Thanksgiving is that you’ll still be spending a lot of the day in the kitchen. As the chef and chief organiser, you know your timings and what needs to be done exactly when and that’s why it pays to delegate any other tasks — be they cleaning, setting up, decorating, answering queries via your WhatsApp channel or greeting guests (and keeping them out of the kitchen!) to a trusted second in command. But before you do this, talk them through what you need and expect from them on the day because — just as with any other event — communication is absolutely key to the success of your Thanksgiving. Likewise, if you need and expect them to be stone cold sober for the day, be honest with them (and buy them a nice bottle of wine for later).

  1. Handling Disagreements, No-Shows and Leftovers

The gravy’s not always the only thing that simmers on Thanksgiving and so — when it comes to handling familial disagreements and tensions — if you feel an assigned seating chart will help keep things civil, feel free to draw one up. Likewise, if you know that you can rely on your guests and your second in command to resolve any issues that might crop up, don’t worry about assigned seating. But if you are worried about any extra prickly guests or potentially awkward situations, speak to your number two to agree on a strategy to handle these so as not to impact the overall good vibes of your day.

Family tensions aside, the other things you can always rely on at Thanksgiving are no-shows and leftovers. Whether it’s down to illness or a scheduling conflict, it’s frustrating to realise that you may have over-catered your event. But if you are aware of no-shows even just a few hours in advance, you can always ask your guests to come with empty containers in hand, explaining that they’d be doing you a huge favour by taking some extra food home with them. You’ll find that many are only too happy to oblige and — what’s more — that this level of guest participation makes you look extra generous, all while cannily relieving you of the burden of leftovers.

  1. No, Thank You!

Yes, of course your guests should be thanking you for your outstanding culinary efforts. But even if your Thanksgiving planning doesn’t quite go to plan (and what event does?), there’s nothing that adds an extra glow to the day like a gracious host. This is precisely why you need to deploy a final tried-and-trusted planning strategy and offer your thanks to your guests when the day is done. After all, they have given you their time, their attention and — of course — their willingness to eat sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows (hey, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea).

Indeed, by being a grateful host, you’re the living embodiment of everything that this unique day — whether you’ve celebrated it before or not — truly symbolises. And what’s more, by striking a gracious note, you — as the chef, the host and the planner — are setting exactly the right tone for next year’s feast and for all the good things yet to come.

 


Running live, virtual or hybrid events? Want to maiximise event success like you’ve done with your thanksgiving planning? Give your attendees an event experience they’ll remember with technology you can rely on. Learn how Eventsforce can make your next event fabulous and successful. Book your personalised demo now.

Personalised event registration: barriers, pitfalls, and solutions

 

When it comes to events, first impressions matter. As the kind of “opening act” to any occasion, registration sets the feel and tone for things to come. While personalisation is now inherent throughout many elements of any given event, it’s not necessarily always easy or straightforward to include an element of personalisation in your registration process. But be they delegates, potential delegates, exhibitors, or sponsors, everyone deserves the warm welcome that only personalisation can offer. And you, as a planner, certainly deserve to reap the benefits of a thoughtfully personalised registration process.

Barriers and Pitfalls of Personalised Registration

There is no getting around it: personalisation takes time and demands substantial effort from planners. This is especially true ahead of the event registration process, when planners need to ensure that they kick off their event by targeting the right audience with the right message. But before they can even begin to work on messaging, planners need to analyse the personal data they’ve gathered — whether this information has been collected via past events, emails, or surveys — in order to carefully and correctly segment their target audiences. With so much information to hand, it’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of segmentation and even — as Sitecore references — to in effect become paralysed by your data.

Likewise, with time and resources finite — and with so many other details to attend to in the run up to an event — it’s also understandable for a planner to perhaps not give personalised registration the attention it fully deserves. This is also a mistake; indeed, by neglecting to give considered thought to the element of personalisation at the point of registration, you’ve also missed an opportunity to more fully connect with your target audience.

The Simple Solution

A sense of perspective is a powerful tool when it comes to considering the importance of personalised registration. After all, registration is not the main event, but it is a key element of almost any and every event (and certainly, of those done well). To that end — and especially when it comes to considering both the personal data you’ve gathered and your target audience — it’s worth zooming out to identify broad demographic categories within the details you have to hand. Once you’ve done this, consider the elements of registration that will resonate the most with your audience. Isolate and identify the strategies that will have both the greatest positive impact in terms of successfully opening your event along with the ones that will help serve your overall goal of engaging with those you really want to target. And here, it’s important to implement strategies that not only serve your audience, but also to choose the ones that slot seamlessly into your existing time and resources.

A final key point on personalisation — and this concerns both the registration process as well as your event at-large — is that there is no single way to ‘do’ personalisation. Whether you opt for segmented and personalised invites and e-mails or distinct registration paths or have dug deep to welcome delegates to your event with their favourite coffee, only you truly know the registration techniques that will resonate best with your core audience. As an event planner, your time and resources are precious, but with careful consideration and perspective, you can efficiently create the kind of welcome that benefits both your attendees — and yourself — now and in the future.

 


 

Want to learn more about how to personalise your events?

Get answers to the fundamental questions, as well as insight on the current state of personalisation in the events industry from a recent research study with 150+ event planners with our eBook, ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to Personalisation’.

Eventsforce and EVENTIT partner to shape the future of the MICE Community

At a time when many industry professionals are planning their event portfolios for the year ahead, and navigating a challenging and unpredictable global event environment, Eventsforce is delighted to announce the continued partnership with EVENTIT — helping them connect, inspire, and educate event professionals across the UK and beyond.

EVENTIT is dedicated to providing event professionals with the opportunity to acquire information, ideas, education, and networking opportunities throughout the year. With a commitment to powering the future of events, Eventsforce is ideally placed to help them achieve this, offering a comprehensive suite of next-generation event management solutions for live, virtual, and hybrid experiences.

Choosing the Right Event-tech Partner

We are delighted that EVENTIT chose to extend and strengthen its partnership with Eventsforce. Having already embraced “Eventsforce Awards” to simplify the management of award evenings, making the submission and judging process simpler and quicker, EVENTIT will now rely on additional Eventsforce solutions to help them meet their organisational and event goals.

Eventsforce Registration” will allow the streamlining of the registration experience for in-person events. EVENTIT will have access to tailored experiences with personalised agendas, pricing, packages, and branded websites, as well as automation of event communications, improved agenda management, and contactless check-in using “Eventsforce Kiosk.”

EVENTIT will also benefit from Eventsforce’s latest registration and ticketing platform, “Eventsforce Groups & Ticketing”, which will allow them to promote events, sell tickets, and manage all their attendees in one place.

Positive Partnerships Driving the Events Industry Forward

Ian Webb, head of business development for Eventsforce adds, “I am incredibly proud that the partnership with EVENTIT will be continuing in 2022. As the industry continues to recover, we’re delighted to provide EVENTIT with our full range of tools, allowing them to take a flexible approach to their in-person and virtual events as they stand firmly behind the events industry.”

Judith Wilson, Director of EVENTIT said ‘Having worked with Ian and the Eventsforce team over a number of years we are delighted that they have come on board to support our full programme of events over the next 12 months. Eventsforce are continually developing their technology, keeping abreast of the growing demands of their clients but never losing sight of the need to keep things simple and intuitive for the end user and maintaining their amazing customer training and service. They really are an extension of our team!’

Eventsforce Next-Generation Platform Set to Transform Group Bookings for Events

Eventsforce Groups & Ticketing

Denver, Colorado – 29th September 2021 – Eventsforce has launched today a new ticketing and registration platform that is set to revolutionize the whole process of managing groups around events.  Built on Eventsforce’s next generation of event management solutions, the ‘Groups & Ticketing’ system is designed to help organizers sell more tickets and increase revenue from group bookings.  It also offers a unique and innovative group invitation tool that allows group bookers to secure places at events a lot more quickly.

“Groups & Ticketing is an exciting new platform as it is one of the only booking tools that allows people to buy group tickets but invite individual group members to complete their own registration details,” said George Sirius, CEO of Eventsforce.  “This means both organizers and group bookers no longer have to chase people for information before securing bookings for an event.  It speeds up the sales cycle, it’s efficient and gives individuals in the group a lot more flexibility to personalize their own event experiences.”

Group bookers have the choice of providing registration details themselves or use the solution’s unique group invitation tool that allows group members to complete their own registration information. They can also assign group members to sessions (individually or in bulk), amend registrations, track incomplete forms and buy additional ticketed items too.

With group attendees, the platform gives them a lot more choice on how they want to experience an event. They can register their details and choose their own sessions and activities without sharing any personal information with the group.  They can manage their own opt-ins and preferences which helps with data protection compliance like the EU GDPR. The system also makes it easy for them to edit details, make changes to schedules and check-in to events without the constraints of the group.

“The platform has been developed to solve some of the biggest problems organizers typically deal with when managing groups for events like conferences, festivals, workshops and community gatherings. It cuts out a big chunk of admin work and helps them secure money from group bookings a lot more quickly. More importantly, it gives them the tools to manage group experiences just as easily as individual attendees,” continued Sirius.

The new platform also supports organizers that need a fast and modern registration solution for non-group events – whether virtual, in-person or hybrid.  A simple set-up process ensures organizers can launch their events quickly, while a WordPress widget allows them to set up ticketing on multiple websites. The platform also offers a lot of flexibility in creating packages and ticketed items for virtual and in-person attendees – you can change prices, offers and availability in minutes to increase conversions and meet demand.

Organizers can also benefit from improved data management. All registration data is automatically synched with Eventsforce mobile apps, check-in tools and the VCD virtual event platform, making it easier to manage all virtual and in-person attendee data under one roof.  All event data can also be easily connected to existing tech stacks via Zapier, along with hundreds of other popular apps on the platform.

Join our exclusive launch webinar next week and see ‘Eventsforce Groups & Ticketing’ in action – sign up today!

 

4 Ways Tech Can Help Personalise the Virtual Event Experience

how tech can personalise the virtual event experience
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Personalising the event experience has always been a big challenge for planners. In fact, research from Eventsforce shows 73% of organisers see personalisation as a big deal for their events.  And it’s not surprisingly really. Personalisation helps engagement and improves both experience and satisfaction measures, which means better ROI.

But with virtual events, personalisation takes even more importance – especially as screen fatigue kicks and organisers try to find more creative ways of engaging people online.  And this is exactly where technology can help.

The challenge is, however, that with all sorts of tech available, it can be hard to understand how it can be used in a way where personalisation can successfully add value to the attendee experience.  To address this, we have taken four key areas where tech can make the impact you want.

FREE eBook: The Event Planner’s Guide to Personalisation

1) Get Noticed

You need your event to stand out. That has always been the case – but when the only events on offer are virtual, you face even stronger competition. This is where tech that enables you to personalise invites and web landing pages should be top of your list of requirements.

Personalising invitations can be simple and effective. By tailoring them as much as possible to the invitee, you can significantly increase their chances of attending. Virtual event platforms like Eventsforce VCD have integrated tools that can help you target people based on their behavioural personas and demographics.

For example, if you know that your attendee list is made up of corporates and academics, then you can create two separate versions of the same invitation with each one outlining the sessions that would be of interest to them. Both audiences have an interest in attending your event, but they have quite different goals and different ideas on why your event matters to them.

You should also aim to tailor your event web pages for different audiences. For example, a landing page with information on peer reviews, abstracts and referenced publications may be more interesting for your academics.  Whereas your corporate audience will be much more interested in seeing commercial ideas that the event aims to address.

Using tech in such a way as outlined will help to get your event noticed.

2) Drive Attendance

When attendees decide they want to come to your event, make it simple for them to sign up. Registration is such a critical element of the user journey. Get this wrong and attendees will not come.

Again, many event management solutions can help you personalise the registration journey by creating different registration paths for each type of attendee.  Before starting the registration process, segment your audiences, whether that be a delegate, sponsor, exhibitor, speaker, industry sector etc. You can then set up your registration pages so that each attendee is led through a set of registration questions that are specific to their selected category.  For example, exhibitors may get asked about web-banner sizes, whereas journalists may be asked to upload accreditation documents.

Using the tech, make sure that your attendee can get to the place that they need to be, in the simplest way possible, without added distractions. Make sure event registration is as streamlined as possible.

On-Demand Webinar: Virtual Events – How to get the registration experience right!

3) Connect People

With many people unable to go out and meet, it’s imperative that your virtual event offers as much as connection as possible. Attendees want to connect with each other and share ideas, insights and experiences. Suppliers want and need to meet buyers.

The good news is that event technology helps you connect the right people and all you need to do is decide what you want to offer. Let’s take a couple of examples to illustrate this.

By integrating networking tools as part of your registration process or virtual event platform, attendees will be able to see who is attending that may be of interest to them and set up meetings with people they want to meet. These tools are quite good in that they don’t allow attendees to schedule meetings that clash with other meetings or sessions that they will be attending at the event.

You can use smart matchmaking tools to help exhibitors, sponsors and attendees make the right connections.  For example, with Eventsforce VCD, virtual exhibitors can find attendees that have shown a specific interest in their offering.  They can then set up meetings and deliver more targeted messages and campaigns.  And if you are concerned about analytics, don’t be. There is much data that you can dig into and learn from.

4) Maximise Your Content

Attendees are often attracted to virtual events because of the content on offer. And because there is much competition as we mentioned earlier, it’s critical that you maximise the content you deliver.

Again, technology can help with this. Even before you decide which sessions to hold you could be mining the data to establish which subjects and hot topics people are really interested in. And in what format? Do they want short presentations, do they want lots of break-out sessions, do they want panel sessions? Find out what they want and you will be well on your way to a great event.

But, once you have established what the event content will be, don’t forget to promote it especially during your event.

Push notifications or in-platform broadcast messages are a great way of doing just that. By identifying your attendees’ interests and needs around speakers and sessions, your system can make it easier for you to personalise the notifications you send through your virtual event platform. For example, when an attendee registers for a session, the system can send them a reminder 30 minutes before starting.

Using tech to make it easy for attendees to personalise their schedules at events is also a good idea. The Eventsforce VCD platform, for example, gives automatic recommendations – it also has advanced filtering options that allow people to view and choose sessions that focus on their chosen themes and interests.

 Conclusion – Pay Close Attention to Feedback

Personlising the virtual event experience is an effective way of engaging attendees. Having done that with the multitude of tech tools at your disposal you should then listen to the feedback. What does it tell you that you can improve for the next edition of your event?

There is so much value in feedback. Review it from all sides. Does the tech add or detract from the user experience? Is there something obvious to you, that is not seen by attendees which could produce better ROI? How are the personalisation journeys of the different stakeholders?

Pay close attention to feedback to improve. All attendees expect more from your virtual event production and using tech for personalisation is one of the quickest ways of addressing this.


Looking for practical ideas on how to use personalisation around your events?  Get your copy of the ‘Event Planner’s Guide to Personalisation’ for advice and tips!

 

8 Event Marketing Ideas to Boost Attendance

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Creating buzz and excitement around your events is so important as it makes it easier to convince people why they should attend in the first place. As well as encouraging them to sign up, successful event promotion can also drive people to share their experiences more and come back year after year.

Whether you’re looking for some fresh new ideas or want to go back to basics, have a look at our list of popular marketing activities that engage people and convince them to come to an event:

1) Create Exclusive Content      

Content is so important – specifically exclusive content that is not available anywhere else. The content can take any form: such as blogs, podcasts or videos. But the key point is that this is new content. It is not recycled content.

You can create interest around your event by developing sneak previews of what will be on offer. For example, let’s say that your key speaker for a medical event is an expert in Toxicology. She has written many books on the subject. Her previous talks are available on YouTube and she has presented several webinars. Many potential attendees may already be aware of her work.

What you need to do is to offer people a sneak preview of what she will talk about that is new. Promoting the fact that she will be a speaker will generate some interest but with exclusive content you can really ignite potential attendees and increase their anticipation.

Related reading: 3 Content Marketing Tips for Event Planners

2) Harness the Power of Video    

Video is a great tool for marketing events. It gives your attendees the opportunity to learn more about your event and does a good job of conveying the personality of your organisation. It also is a lot more engaging than text.  Forrester Research claims that a minute of video can be equivalent to 1.8 million words.  That is the equivalent of 3,600 typical web pages!

Mini videos can be extremely useful to aid your marketing efforts. You could create a number of mini 30-second video clips and release them as part of your campaign over a period of time, building interest in your event.

As well as previewing what is to come, you could use testimonials as part of your awareness raising. You could also get a few people to talk about why they are coming to your event.

The opportunity to use videos and tell the story of your event before it’s happened is enormous as long as you keep in mind the benefit to your viewer of attending.  For more ideas, check out this article that lists a number of ways you can use video when promoting events.

3) Use Partners and PR

Events as you know, are not produced in a bubble. There can be any number of partners involved helping to bring your event to life. Just think of possible partners that could help with broadening the reach of your marketing. Partner up with the host venue, host destination, sponsors, an association(s) or speakers and discover ways in which you can work together.

For example, when working with a speaker you could ask them to produce a blog post or a mini video clip for you. It doesn’t have to be about the content they will deliver at your event. It could be on a separate subject, but it will provide potential attendees with a glimpse of the speaker.

You could provide partners with some pre-written social media messages, including registration pages and maybe a discount code to share with their followers or members. Promote your partners and tag them on social media channels.

If you can also obtain coverage in their newsletters or LinkedIn group(s) that would also help.  It’s all about spreading the message far and wide. Don’t forget to use PR where you can. You or your partner(s) may have an agency that can help with media interviews, show previews and by-lined articles.

4) Engage Influencers and Use Word of Mouth  

People are basically social. We rely on our circle of family and friends for support and assistance. We tend to trust people we admire and often model our behaviour after theirs. This fact along with the explosion of the internet and social media has led to the rise of digital influencers and influencer marketing.

Traditionally, an influencer could be anyone from an A-list celebrity to a subject matter expert. The only criterion being that they must have a substantial following on some type of online platform.

But, let’s change our thinking from seeing the ideal influencer as someone who has an impressive number of followers, to someone who might have a smaller but more relevant following. You can use micro influencers who are immersed with your target audience. They are extremely valuable and often have highly engaged followers.

As well as using influencers, you can use of word of mouth as another technique to boost attendance. Encourage your attendees and interested parties (stakeholders) to talk about the event and inspire people to come along. Word of mouth is great for getting people who are not on your email lists, in your event management system or on your social media radar.

Related reading: How to Choose the Right Influencers for Your Event Marketing Activities

5) Get Your Email Marketing Right   

Email marketing is essential for promoting events. It is also one of those things that needs to be executed in the right way. For example: creating the email invitation, inviting VIPs and maximising email signatures are just three things that spring to mind.  If you get any of these wrong, you could be in trouble.

Invitations are one of the most important things to get right. They help set the tone of an event and are often one of the first opportunities to make a good impression with potential attendees. However, research has found that getting people to open that email, click through and sign up to the event is something most organisers struggle with when it comes to event invitations. Strong subject lines and simple design and layout of your email will help.

Related reading: How to Create Invites that Draw People to Your Events

If you decide to invite people as VIPs, then make sure that they are significant to your event. Some organisations send VIP invites to lots of people without filtering who really should be a VIP. Send your special invites to the people that really matter. A small number of well-considered invitations could make a big difference to the success of your event.

Email signatures are often overlooked but they provide a great way of amplifying your event. Include a call to action to drive more registrations. Change the email signature as you get closer to the event and highlight different aspects of it.

6) Make Your Social Special  

Social media is another effective way of promoting events.  But you will need a strategy, otherwise you will waste time and energy. Target the right social media channels for your audience – there is no point creating buzz in the wrong places.

You will need a variety of content to share and a posting schedule. You can reflect your events’ branding throughout the campaign by replacing generic background images with event logos and your event hashtag.

You can tag in people that are participating such as speakers, hosts, the planning team and maybe delegates that have registered (just make sure you don’t violate any GDPR rules). Have a simple hashtag for your event, one, that is easy to remember and spell. Incorrect spellings of your hashtag will not help your marketing.

If you have some budget, you may choose to buy advertising or sponsor content on social media channels. There is currently a trend to do more paid social as the organic reach of social media is reducing – especially on platforms like Twitter. Use search engine marketing platforms like Google’s AdWords where you can pay to have your event advertised at the top of a search results page.

A combination of paid and organic social media is likely to provide you with the best results.

7) Use Text Messaging

Messaging potential attendees is another way to boost attendance. Not all of your marketing messaging should be done through using only email or social media. There are other ways in which you can get your message across. Some people respond well to texts or messaging apps. Whilst others are happy to take a phone call (yes it still happens).

Then there are messaging apps that you can use. For example, WhatsApp and Slack are pretty good for building interest and community.

Whatever means of messaging you decide to use, it has to work for your potential attendees.  You will probably need to use a combination of methods as everyone has a preference on how they like to be contacted. You should be able to locate their contact preference information within your event management solution.  Systems like Eventsforce can also help you track this consent to ensure you’re always communicating with attendees in a GDPR compliant way (watch video).

8) Personalise Registration & Don’t Forget Discounts   

Though it has its own set of challenges and can vary in effectiveness from one event to another, personalisation doesn’t have to be as complicated as one might think. Most organisations today use some form of automated system to manage registrations around their events and it is good starting point for any kind of personalisation you may want to do.

You could use your event management system to personalise the registration journey for your different audiences to demonstrate how important they are. For example, having a unique registration path for your VIP guests will ensure the questions and prices offered to them aren’t visible to other attendees which will make them feel that the whole experience was ‘personalised’ for them the whole time.  You can get all sorts of similar personalisation ideas from this industry eBook – ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to Personalisation’.

An event management system should also provide you with the flexibility of offering tiered pricing, one off sales and early booking discounts. Using discounts is one way to boost event attendance but it shouldn’t be the one that you rely on.

Conclusion

The ideas we’ve outlined can be mixed and matched according to the individual event. Some techniques will work better for some events than others. The important thing to remember though is to adjust as needed. Make sure you have a strategy for your event marketing campaign and understand why you are following certain actions.

In all the ideas, there is a simple common thread: You have to be clear on what you are saying and why people should come to your event. If you are not clear, it doesn’t matter how many things you do or how much money you spend, your efforts will fail.

Understand who your potential attendees are, use straightforward language, offer a clear proposition and you should see the results you want.


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