In order to hit your event registration goals—and attract the right attendees—you need to maximize every channel, activate evangelists, and keep engagement up until event day. This is a tall order—which is why we hosted our digital event Full House, where top events and marketing pros revealed how to pack your events with the right audience, all in bite-sized 10-minute sessions.
We rounded up seven key takeaways from the event to get you started—but trust us, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Watch the recording for more actionable tips to level up your event strategy.
1. Get internal stakeholders aligned from day one.
Regardless of how far in advance you begin your planning, your internal stakeholders need to be involved from day one. Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever, explains, “It’s very important because before you know it, the event will be around the corner, and people will be chiming, ‘Are we doing this? Why aren’t we doing this?’”
Loop them into early meetings and assign them tasks in those meetings, so they know what they’re accountable for from the start. “If they drop off, then they weren’t the right stakeholders, and that’s a learning,” reassures Rosenthal. But start assigning those tasks from the very beginning.
“When people have accountability, planning your event becomes a much more defined process.”Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever
2. Go either formal or personal to get executives excited for your events.
Vivi Forny, Senior Director of Digital Experience at Okta, broke down how to get different internal teams pumped for your event and to help drive registrants. Busy executives are a special group, and they require some strategy.
“At Okta, we form a steering committee that includes all the execs who need to participate, and those we’d like to participate,” says Forny. It’s a formal way to keep everyone informed, so there are no surprises down the road.
“It gives them a seat at the table to participate in the decision-making, and it also protects the team from last-minute requests (that are essentially undoable) because you’ve brought these executives along,” says Forny.
For those executives who are difficult to pin down, try to find something they’re passionate about—personally or professionally—and involve them in a related activity. “We found out this one exec loved running. We asked him, ‘Why don’t you sponsor a 5K?’ And that clicked,” says Forny.
3. Think like a digital marketer to optimize your website for conversion.
Like a savvy digital marketer, consider UX testing your website with a trusted colleague. Darcy Gabriele, Account Director at BW Events Tech, advises to note where their eye is drawn and whether they’re inclined to take action.
The first step to optimizing your website for conversion? “Eliminate barriers,” says Gariele. Keep your CTA visible, so that the second people land on your page, they can easily jump to the next step of registering.
Second, keep your text minimal and concise.
“A website can convince an attendee not to go. Keep words to a minimum, and find ways to visually communicate the energy of the event, its takeaways, and what it’s all about.”Darcy Gabriele, Account Director at BW Events Tech
4. Offer creative incentives in your digital ad campaigns.
Liz Spektor, Head of Growth Marketing at Apollo.io, walked through a number of ways event marketers could optimize their paid strategies. Just one of her recommendations was to offer an incentive in order to stand out from the other hundreds of events vying for people’s attention.
“It doesn’t have to be a gift card. Getting creative with these incentives will be super beneficial to your campaigns.”Liz Spektor, Head of Growth Marketing at Apollo.io
Consider offering transportation credit (such as Uber credit) to encourage a stress-free commute to the event. Another idea could be to introduce prospects to another attendee, so they’re more inclined to join after meeting someone who will be there. Face time with speakers is another idea. Consider what types of incentives work well for your brand and ICP.
5. Segment your audience and send personalized marketing emails.
We got to hear Dillon Dyer’s four proven email tactics from his work as senior marketing manager at Morning Brew.
His trick #3 for energizing readers for an event: personalize your emails based on audience segment.
For instance, for his email campaign, he targeted subscribers who worked in retail with a personalized email about three retailer speakers from their lineup. Think about what your audience segments are interested in, and tailor your email content around these.
Get Dillon’s other email tactics (with examples) in his on-demand session here.
6. Track your top word-of-mouth marketers (you might be surprised).
When you get a word-of-mouth campaign rolling, you must track who’s doing what (and where) to find out who your top promoters are, says Rachel Stephan, snöballer-in-chief at snöball.
“Take it another step: in addition to them posting about the event, curate some of their stories and ideas as to why they come to your events.”Rachel Stephan, snöballer-in-chief at snöballer
Speakers might lead with the thought leadership content they’ll be sharing. Partners and exhibitors will have a different angle. But don’t forget attendees—ask them why they’re coming to your event, or why they come year over year. These testimonials are gold for your campaign.
Plus, when you promote these nuggets, others will see who else is coming to these events; this is key. People come to events because of the people.
7. Instill FOMO among registrants by marketing an experience available only for present attendees.
This session with Tavar James, Head of Events & Experiences at BetterUp, was a biggie. To drum up FOMO among audiences, one of his recommendations is to make sure there’s something exclusive that attendees cannot get virtually or on demand.
“Stick true to keeping some things exclusively in person—that you have to be there to experience it.”Tavar James, Head of Events & Experiences at BetterUp
Highlight previous event features, exclusive perks, VIP tracks, or the other companies that will be at your event. Show registrants that this is an experience they don’t want to miss, and they don’t want to be the one company who can’t say they were there at their next networking event.
Get More Juicy Takeaways From Full House
These were just a few of the many insights from the session. Watch the full recording for more actionable tips to attract the right registrants to your event, including:
- How to equip and excite your sales team to evangelize
- More tips to optimize your emails (with examples)
- Current paid tactics that draw high direct response rates
- How to structure the “whys” of your event