How do you make your event the one that everyone wants to go to? What is it that makes your event better than all the others like it?
It is the way that you present your communication to your potential audience. No one wants to attend an event that has no identity and consistency across platforms. You don’t want your attendees confused on who you are, especially when it comes to your website and email campaigns.
etouches wants to give you actionable and quick tips that you can use right away to make your event stand out from the rest:
Event Website
The center of all your event promotions and efforts is your event website – the hub for your pieces of content. Here you will display all the basic and necessary event information that any potential attendee would want to know. It is also the place to house content on your event from speaker information to social media channels to blog content. The possibilities are endless and you need to know how to use it. Get a few best practice tips below:
- Give clear information when and where the event takes place. Ensure to re-cap the main benefits for each attendee type. Keep it brief and simple. A few bullet-points are enough. Don't overload with information.
- Display references / testimonials from speakers, sponsors or attendees to create credibility and raise more interest.
- The speakers page – Amazing speakers draw attention to your event like a magnet. Include professional pictures that show their faces and add a short speaker bio which highlights their professional profile. This can be used on the agenda page.
- A prominent 'Register Here' button is important to increase conversion. Also make sure you give your attendees the ability to modify their registration directly from your event website. You can use different tools like Google Analytics to measure your click-through rates (CTR) and compare metrics to allow you to make amendments and slight adjustments.
- Some of your events might have international audience, in which case you should create all content on your websites in the main languages. If necessary, allow your attendees to toggle between languages so they don’t have to switch sites.
- A custom URL/domain can further help develop your event branding. For example, you can create one umbrella page under which you hold all of your events, e.g. www.example.com/event1 and www.example.com/event2 OR you might have one separate domain for each, e.g. www.myawesomeevent.com
- Event related content: Create video interviews with key-note speakers or previous attendees. Interview can easily be done with Skype or through Google Hangouts, which are free.
Pre-Event E-Mails
How do you get people to go to you event today? If you have an event for 5,000 people do you send every single person a hand written letter? No you use email to let your database know about your event and send invitations. This is also the place where you can send relevant communication about your event to entice people to go. An event email can be a great marketing channel if you have built up your list.
- Make sure the email is sent from your own personal email address and not just a generic one (e.g. marketing). This can help build trust from the beginning and makes it more personal.
- The subject line should be engaging and interesting. Keep it short and simple, 40 characters or less usually does best. Or try to use a subject line which either causes anger, exclusivity, excitement, awe or urgency. Studies have shown that those have the highest opening rates. For example: "10 things you miss out on, if you don’t attend!" or "Here's an exclusive preview of XYZ, just for you"
- The email should have the same look & feel as the event landing page / event website to create and seamless & slick experience.
- Test your email before sending it out to ensure it’s rendering properly in multiple browsers and email service providers.
- Studies have shown that you should send your event invitation emails on Saturdays or Sundays as this is the time with lowest competition and highest unique opening rates (17.8%).
- Keep sending reminder emails, but don't just spam sending the same email. Provide value instead. For larger events you could send the speaker line up and venue information months in advance and then an additional email weeks before the event to promote any discounts. A last reminder email can be sent to communicate that it’s not too late to attend your event and a clear call-to-action that this is the last chance to register.
- Do not send out emails to people who have already registered or declined to attend your event. That can be quite embarrassing.
- No matter how many emails you’re sending, create a clear communication plan in advance.
Your attendees are who matter, so make sure you are providing them with beautifully designed and easy to understand communication that gets your message across. It is all about the user experience after all! Head over to blog.etouches.com for more insights on pre event communication.
