Communicating about your event is time-consuming — it’s an endurance test. You will want to take time to think about and design your event’s branding. What image do you want to project? What is the right tone of voice to address your target audience? Do you need to create a website for the event? These are the first steps for a good communication foundation!
Your goal: to raise awareness about your event and most of all turn your target audience into attendees. In order to do this, you will need a strategy to encourage people to open your email, visit your website and buy a ticket or register for your event! Boost your actions with these few tips:
An attractive website
Whether it is a single page on your website or a whole dedicated website, this is THE touch point that your potential attendees have with your event. Create a space where information is clear and easy to find. The following elements should be easy to find by anyone browsing your website:
- A presentation and introduction to your event and your organisation;
- Practical information: how to access your event, a schedule, the programme…;
- The speakers, the activities, explanations about the different rates, if applicable;
- The virtual box office;
- Your contact details.
Don’t forget SEO — it’s all about your event’s keywords! They must appear in the content and the structure of your website in order to go up in the search rankings. You can even allocate a small budget to promote some of your keywords
If you don’t have a website, we can provide you with a dedicated minisite customised with your branding.
Efficient emails
Emailing can be an efficient marketing tool, you just need to find the right balance between spamming people and getting forgotten. And most of all, you should address your target with the right tone to increase your opening rates AND get a high click rate! And that is not so easy to achieve.
First of all, remember that before reading the content, we all pay attention to the design. You should make your recipients want to click on your email with a catchy or funny subject line aligned with the tone of voice you would like to adopt. Then you can focus on the design. Your email should reflect your branding: think about colours, fonts, maybe add a visual or two (too many will crowd your message). The whole package should encourage people to read and click on your email to know more.
Prioritise your information: what would you like to convey to your attendees? A piece of news, a change in schedule, a reminder to purchase a ticket…Don’t mix all these topics in one email, this will confuse your attendee and end up having the opposite effect to what you want.
Make a plan to spread out your communication
A good schedule is key to planning success. Here, we’re talking about a communication schedule to ensure that you have a good pace leading up to and after your event! The frequency and the consistency can be difficult to achieve if left unplanned.
For any given event, we generally recommend the following emailing campaigns: Save the date, opening of the box office or registrations, several reminders about the time left to purchase or register, and a follow-up email. Reminders are important because it’s unlikely that everyone will purchase their ticket upon receiving the first email, so don’t hesitate to communicate with a sense of urgency — just remember not to fall into spamming territory. Think about automating these tasks with online tools
On social media, communication should intensify the closer you are getting to D-day and it should also be sustained during the event for better visibility and to lay the groundwork for the next event!
In terms of offline communication, your campaigns will depend on your event and your means. Keep in mind that you want to remain visible at the right time and in the right place — where is your target audience? Do you have partners who can relay the information? …
Whatever happens, think mobile!
The golden rule of our era is that most internet users are mobile users, so you should design your supports with this in mind: your website should be optimised for mobile, emails must be easy to read, not too long, with an easy to click button…these details will facilitate the customer journey from awareness to ticket purchase.
Don’t forget post-event campaigns…
After your event, communication is not over — it is important to keep in touch. Sending an email after the event is always a nice touch, you can share the highlights, thank participants and partners, share photos/videos/testimonies… It is also a great opportunity to redirect people towards new content and links to your organisation, your news, upcoming events and for attendees to follow you on social media or subscribe to a newsletter.
No matter how far you are in planning your event, Weezevent can help you. Make your life easier by clicking the button below:
