Event planning during the pandemic: 3 proven strategies to skyrocket event attendance
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Business events are outstanding marketing tools that let organizations boost audience engagement, generate leads, and drive conversions. They’re also ideal for boosting brand awareness and establishing your business as an industry authority.
Similarly, organizing an event is an excellent strategy for creating hype before the launch of a new product.
But you can only reap the benefits of events when you get maximum participation. And if you’ve tried organizing an event in the past year, you’ll know that it isn’t a walk in the park. If event planning used to be difficult before the pandemic, the novel coronavirus has turned it into a herculean task.
Between travel restrictions and social distancing regulations, getting more people to attend your events is a challenge. Even if you decide to host a virtual event, you’ll have to struggle with establishing a strong connection with your target audience.
So, how do you get the maximum number of people to attend your business events in the middle of a pandemic? In this blog, we’ll discuss a few effective techniques to maximize event participation. Let’s get started.
Spice up your invites
Irrespective of whether you’re organizing a virtual event or a physical one, invites play a key role in grabbing eyeballs. The most obvious choice is to send email invitations to your existing customers base, as well as qualified leads.
If that’s the route you’ve chosen, make sure you include eye-catching visual elements in the invite. Gone are the days of sending an invitation card that included the event schedule and registration link.
Today, you need to hook potential event attendees with dynamic, narrative-driven invites. Include video testimonials from previous event attendees to highlight their experience. Or you can create a snappy teaser from video footage of previous events.
If you’ve lined up an array of respected keynote speakers, include small video bites from them as well. Also, use images of keynote speakers, as well as photographs of previous editions of the event to attract new attendees.
Establish a personal connection
Just because you’re hosting a virtual event doesn’t mean you can’t personally reach out to your target audience. Instead of relying on evites, you can send physical invitation cards to specific leads and/or customers.
In today’s internet-savvy age, the tangibility of invitation cards will go a long way to help you stand out from the crowd. You can take things up a notch by enclosing a reply envelope imprinted with a return address stamp. It’ll save your attendees from the hassle of finding an envelope and sending their RSVP.
Also, you can encourage them to include questions or personal messages they’d like to share with keynote speakers in the return envelope. Similarly, you can send them a goody bag along with the invitation. Include a few product samples, as well as supplies and stationery they’ll need while attending the event.
Boost your branding further by using a custom address stamp with your logo on all those goodies. It’s a great way to add a personal touch to your invitation, and make your brand more humane and relatable.
Weave a story on social media
Did you know that there are more than 3.7 billion social media users across the globe? That figure is projected to cross 4.4 billion by 2025. So, irrespective of the type of event you’re hosting, your target audience is likely already using some social media platform or the other.
You just have to identify the right platforms to reach out to them. Also, you need a rock-solid social media marketing strategy to cut through the noise and attract your audience. Use creative techniques to stand apart from other businesses that only use social media for promotional purposes.
Instead, focus on using storytelling to establish an emotional connection with your followers and compelling them to join your event. For instance, you could ask participants from previous events to share their experience on social media, highlighting how your event impacted their lives.
Alternatively, you could collaborate with influencers and keynote speakers, and create emotionally charged video advertisements to promote the event. Highlight the key takeaways and value attendees will derive from your event. Don’t forget to use social media ads to help your content reach a wider audience.
Minimize the pandemic’s toll on your events
The key to driving event registrations in the middle of the pandemic is to personalize your communication. Use self-inking custom address stamps to add a personal touch to physical invitation cards. Even if you’re sending evites, use high-quality images and videos to create a lasting impact. And don’t forget to leverage social media to expand your reach and attract more participants.
