Getting rid of empty seats and irrelevant guests? Start with a complete plan of communication

Have you identified your ideal target audience? Perfect. Because the right guests will make sure you’ll effortlessly achieve your objectives. But it doesn’t stop there! Because identifying the ideal guest, doesn’t mean he’ll show up…

Do you want more people to show up at your event? Start with a complete communication plan. In this blog, you’ll discover how to bring your event communication to the next level so that more guests will show up.

The next level for event-communication

Imagine you’re organising an event to the fullest: no effort spared. But, because you were so focused on how the event itself will look, you forgot to optimise your communication flow: guests got the same email twice, received wrong information, etc. Your event can be organised perfectly, the total experience for guests is affected. So, invest enough time into the communication you’ll send out to your guests.

We’ll share four of the largest takeaways with you:

Contact moments

Someone subscribes to your event and then… radio silence. You can rest assured that you’ll have a lot of no-shows to your event. It’s better to use communication strategically to generate maximum attendance. Here are four moments where you should contact guests for a big impact.

Confirmation after registration
Let your guest know when he successfully registered for your event. This is how you remove all his doubts. As icing on the cake, you can add a calendar link so your guest can automatically add the event to their schedule. Now there are no more excuses to miss the event.
During the run-up to the event
Send over the more practical event info: where should guests park their car? What time are they welcome? When will the event actually start? Will there be catering? … This type of email will eliminate doubts and questions guests may still have. But, on top of that, you can also use this contact to get people excited for your event!
Follow-up mail after the event
Prolong a guest’s event experience by contacting them when the event is over. Here you can thank guests for coming, and you’ll follow up on what you promised. Like sending over a presentation, some pictures of the event. Or, who knows, a beautiful aftermovie.
Asking for feedback
Send out a small survey after an event has taken place, and ask guests their opinion. As an organiser, you will not only learn from these insights. You’ll also give people the feeling you care about their opinion (and rightfully so). This will have a positive effect on how they look back at your event and brand

Do you contact your guests at these different times? Then you’ll have a bigger chance of your guests turning up to your event. In addition, you have a nice communication flow after your event. This will enthuse people to revisit your future events. To wrap it up: these efforts generate a positive long term effect on your turnout rate.

Branding

The feeling guests have when they think of your event starts with the very first email. It’s a good idea to use your event branding throughout every form of communication. When everything is in the same style, guests will have a positive, consistent image of your event.

On top of that, every moment of communication is a chance to create awareness. InviteDesk puts all your invitations and emails in one style within the snap of a finger. Now you have branded content during every contact: from confirmation to the last follow-up email.

Targeting

Reach the right clients & prospects, and approach them with content that is in line with their interests. A match between your target audience and your offer will result in a bigger audience. On top of that, good targeting will attract the type of guests that contribute to your objectives.

Like said in the first paragraph, personalisation is a best practice. When you approach your target audience personally, the rest of the message will resonate even better. This isn’t always that easy from a marketing perspective. That’s why your sales department also plays a huge role…

Sales involvement

The sales department knows your clients and prospects best. They can tell you precisely who will enjoy your next event. That’s why you should involve sales with your business events as early on as possible.

Because if sales feel involved and understand well what the event’s content, objectives, and target audience are? Then it’ll be a piece of cake for them to identify the right guests and invite them as personally as possible.

Stay on top of all your communication

Keeping track of who you send what when isn’t always a walk in the park. When you invite a lot of different people, it can happen that:

People get emails double.
Guests get reminders when they’ve only been invited recently.
You forget about someone you invited.

This comes across as very amateurish and can lead to fewer people showing up.

A tool that automates and monitors all of your communication can help tremendously. It’s vital to have a transparent overview of all outgoing communication. This way, you can:

Track in real-time who received what, when.
Stay in control of your invitation process
Act quickly when problems arise. For example, when not enough people registered.

InviteDesk’s tool is a fully automated platform. It allows you to create your event communication in your brand’s style and send it out fully automated. It also offers live insights into all your contacts, so you’ll be able to intervene when necessary.

Will you boost your next business event?

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