A report from last year revealed that most marketers believe event marketing is the single most effective marketing channel for achieving business goals. So, the question is: are you taking advantage of the power of experiential marketing when it comes to driving your brand forward?
For newcomers, now’s the time to dip your toe into the world of events for the first time. If, however, you’re already well-versed on the basics and benefits of experiential marketing, this handy guide should give you all the know-how you need to boost event attendance the next time you get back in the proverbial saddle.
At Six Circles, our integrated community engagement platform gives you the power to create custom events for your members. Coupled with these secrets to maximising your event’s attendance, you’ll have the perfect recipe for a busy event filled with engaged attendees who’ll leave hungry for the next instalment.
Create a dedicated landing page
Every successful event begins with a dedicated page illustrating the details of the event and, crucially, the advantages of attending. Whether this landing page is hosted on your own website or via a third-party platform, it needs to be clean, user-friendly, persuasive and overwhelmingly geared towards driving signups – with no other distracting calls-to-action reducing the likelihood of users securing their space. Maximising event attendance starts with maximising attendee signups, after all.
Promote liberally on social media
Promoting events is essential to increasing attendance numbers, and leading social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn can all play a role in this promotion depending on where your event’s intended audience spend their time online. With catchy hashtags, irresistible imagery and an engaged following at the ready, you’ll have all the basic tools you need to achieve organic reach – with the potential for paid event advertising via many of these platforms if your event needs an extra time-sensitive boost.
Make signing up simple
We’ve stressed the importance of a clutter-free event landing page, but don’t stop there. Once users arrive at the heart of your landing page – the signup form itself – they’ll need to be given as few hoops to jump through as physically possible, so as to avoid a situation wherein users are deterred at the final hurdle. Take a ‘less is more’ approach to the user data you gather at this stage, asking only for the essentials needed to make pre-event and follow-up contact easy and effective. This way, users won’t be repelled by an exhaustive signup form that requires too much time and effort to satisfy.
Confirm attendee bookings by email
The moment a user books their place at your event, they should have their registration confirmed by an email triggered immediately upon signup. Using email workflows, you can streamline this elegant follow-up process – creating a template email that’s sent automatically to registrants, confirming their place. This can and should be the first in a series of emails ensuring your event remains on prospective attendees’ radars – helping you to maximise event attendance simply by remaining at the forefront of their minds.
Facilitate attendee networking
The main draw for many regular event attendees is the chance to network with like-minded people – and as we’re in the business of community building, we relish any opportunity to bring people together based on shared needs, passions and interests. By prompting conversation among prospective event attendees – be it in social media or blog comments, through the use of your event-specific hashtags or within company forum threads – you can give your audience a means of making connections prior to the event, giving them one more reason to make event attendance a priority.
Remember your reminder emails
As part of your email workflow, which begins the moment a user first signs up for your event, there should, of course, be a number of reminder emails – being sent, say, a month, a week and a day before the date of the event. This way, registrants can remain aware of the event throughout the long countdown to the big day, and you can boost event attendance on the day by making it as easy as possible for users to plan their schedule around the event – with regular updates on time, location and other essential logistical details.
Whatever your next event is shaping up to be – from an industry trade show to a hands-on practical workshop – these golden rules for maximising attendance will serve you well. When the big day’s over, with a successful event behind you, you’ll have the pulling power you need to continue building on that experiential success.
Ready to get started? Explore the benefits of being part of the Six Circles community when it comes to growing a community of your own, and kick your next event marketing campaign off with a landing page primed for signups.
