In the last post on building an effective event, we went over strategies to drive registration. There’s a lot of planning involved but if you follow the steps listed in my last post, I ensure you’ll succeed. Once you’ve gathered enough registrations and achieved optimal attendance, it’s time to entertain your guests. No, I don’t mean to do a dance number for them. Instead, you need to find ways to organically engage with your guests that make them feel welcomed and a part of the team. There are several ways to go about it and I will walk through that in this post here. Aside from keeping your guests entertained, I will also mention ways to strategically push your lead further down the funnel by adding a few more touchpoints during the event. Here, creativity is key and I hope these ideas will inspire you.
Create Excitement and Set Guest’s Expectations
Just like any event, you need to create excitement and set an expectation for your guests. I know I’m starting with pre-event tips but trust me, this tip is one to note. Your event is practically your company’s “first impression”. So to set the stage, give your guests a preassumption of the event such as sending your guests a digital welcome kit that includes guidance on the dress code, where to find parking, and when doors open. You can also send them something in the mail to act as another reminder or to add to the experience. For these kinds of gifts, you will want to be selective about who receives this and it likely will be your champion or top lead. Or add a personal touch and have your designated sales rep call or email your guests to remind them of the event. This way that reminder is not coming from a marketing email blast, but a little more personalized showing them a truly white-glove experience. By being particular about what they should expect from your magnificent event, you’ll encourage their attendance and they won’t want to miss out.
Have An Agenda
To add to the “setting an expectation” theme, you should have an agenda and publicly share it with your guests. I find it troublesome when I arrive at an event and don’t know the plan for the day because it almost feels like a waste of my time. As mentioned in my video posted on LinkedIn, your guests who attend are there for a reason. They’re looking to get value from the event and want to solve a pain point. So, let’s make sure that they know that we know that we don’t want to waste anyone’s time. For example, have you waited for food at an event and didn’t know when the food would come out? You want to prevent your guests from being irritated at any cost. So, sharing the agenda is a must. It should be printed out for your guests or on a screen, if available, for your guests to have visibility.
Dedicate An MC
Have you ever been to a party and didn’t know who was hosting? I have and it’s not a comfortable feeling arriving at the party and not being able to say ‘hi’ or ‘thank you’ to the host for having us over. You don’t want your guests feeling that way when arriving at the event. If you’re hosting an event, dedicate someone to be the MC. This person should be the person delivering the presentation for the day, someone who holds a leadership role, or someone who will be the point of contact after the event. Whoever that may be, it needs to be someone of importance. Not your marketing team because that happens way too often and isn’t very strategic.
Also, this MC should be greeting arrivals at the door. Have you ever watched the Rich Housewives of Beverly Hills? Remember Lisa’s opening party for Sur Restaurant. She greeted every person that came through the door. When the traffic at the door slowed down, she trickled her way into the dining room to continue entertaining guests. But what did she do when more guests arrived? She ran back to the front door to greet them.
Gamifying the experience
Now, this part excites me because this is where creativity can soar. Gamifying the experience is not only fun for you but fun for your guests as well. It keeps them engaged and on their toes to ensure they come home with a prize. Now, gamification doesn’t work for all industries as some guests aren't allowed to take a prize home. In this case, donations to a charity organization can be the prize.
When gamifying the event experience, it needs to be strategic. The goal is to push the lead further down the funnel by adding more touchpoints. For instance, you can hand out a survey upon the guest's arrival. Let the guests know that if they fill out this sheet, they will be entered into a draw for a prize at the end of the day. On that sheet, you can ask questions that help give you further information on the lead, and then you can personalize your post-event follow-up. Another neat way to gamify the experience is having them tally up points by meeting with select people in the room. Whoever gets the most points, wins a prize at the end of the day. This encourages your guests to talk with your team on the floor.
There are so many ways you can go about gamifying the event, but you need to remember the ultimate goal in doing so. Engage with your guests and push them further down the funnel. You can even take it a step further by telling the guest that the prize will need to be picked up or dropped off, and then have one of your sales reps deliver the gift to him/herself allowing for a 1:1 meeting. Get creative, and remember the goal.
Strategically Sponsoring a Conference
These event marketing tips are for owned events but what about conferences? If you are a sponsor at a conference, you can further engage with visitors and capture leads by having a raffle or meeting maker. In my experience, we’ve printed out tabletop signs with QR codes for visitors to sign up for our raffle, or meet with someone and they will get a gift in return. Take it further and have guests collect a raffle ticket at the sign-in desk. To participate in the raffle, they have to visit your booth, drop off the raffle ticket, and answer a few questions. There are many ways you can get creative but remember one thing, you need to have a return on these initiatives because there are costs alongside these creative ideas.
These are basic things you need to have at your event but are easily missed. Sometimes we get so caught up in preparing the event and we're more focused on getting guests to sign up and attend, that we forget to check off the tips listed above. When hosting an event, you need to find the balance between creating a memorable experience for your guests and being strategic so that you can get something in return for hosting such an event. It is still business after all. If you have any creative ways to engage with your guests onsite and have seen a return, you’re on the right path to success. In the next blog, let’s talk about post-event follow-up strategies.
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