Audience Acquisition Exchange: Planning Unmissable Events

03.01.23

Laliv Hadar
VP, Marketing

Audience Acquisition Exchange:
Planning Unmissable Events

In a post-pandemic world, where audiences are prioritizing their time with careful consideration, acquiring attendees for events is more challenging than ever. Audiences have higher expectations and want to attend events that offer unique experiences, making it necessary to create spectacular, “unmissable” events.

InVision Communications recently gathered a group of senior marketing and event leaders from across technology, consulting and health sciences in a private, candid conversation about audience acquisition. Below are tips and best practices the group shared around driving strong event attendance currently:

1.    Plan early and frequently: Nowadays, attendees want to plan well in advance. It's essential to have a calendar of events planned out for the year — with details released early and often. This gives them plenty of time to plan their schedule, make travel arrangements, and prepare for the event. The more notice attendees have, the more likely they are to attend. It's also important to prioritize key activities that will have the most impact. Tap into your community and advisory board to get their input on what they'd like to see at the event, and what they hope to gain from it.

2.    Think local: Attendees are less willing and, in some cases, less able to travel far for events, which is why it's important to “meet them where they are.” Local events are more convenient for registrants and make it easier for them to attend. By hosting events in an audiences’ hometown or region, you'll improve turnout. Moreover, it will help you save on costs and increase the likelihood of repeat attendees.

3.    Creating FOMO: “Can't miss opportunities” and creating a sense of urgency is crucial to making attendees feel like they need to be there. Prospective attendees have high expectations and want to attend events that offer unique experiences. Capitalizing on “Bleisure,” which is when we blend business and leisure travel, is a popular way to attract attendees. For example, pick a luxury destination for your event, which then allows attendees to extend their time for personal travel. Allowing attendees to come to your event with a plus one is another way to entice attendees to your event.

4.    Rethink onsite event design: Building more breaks and offering places to relax in the event's design is essential to making the event more enjoyable for attendees. Attendees want to attend events to connect with others, which happens organically during breaks and social experiences. In addition, attendees need time to decompress and recharge, especially during large in-person gatherings, and providing them with opportunities to do so will increase event perceived quality and engagement.

5.    Cultivating value once people are registered: Once attendees are signed-up, it's critical to cultivate value for them. Offering a concierge service to cater to attendees, help them build a personalized agenda, and help them get the most out of the conference is a great way to foster value.

6.    Messaging is key: What's in it for me? Messaging is essential to acquiring and maintaining attendees. Attendees want to know what's in it for them, and the messaging should reflect that. Ideas for compelling messaging include who else will be there, the exciting aspects of the destination or venue, and what is happening that they couldn’t do on their own. The value proposition for each event should be clear, specific and compelling.

7.    Inclusivity: Accessibility and inclusivity are an important part of event programs in today's world, and it's essential to be more empathetic in your messaging and programming. Tapping into a DEI internal expert or external council can help organizations ensure diversity in attendance and panelists. Remember in your audience acquisition messaging (before and after registration) to promote special accommodations for accessibility as well as diverse representation in session speakers.

8.    Measurement: Event metrics aren’t limited to providing validation to key stakeholders for spend or results for the business. Identifying, gathering, and reporting metrics is essential to both determine a program’s success and make improvements for future events. Pre-conference surveys, as well as pre-during and post input gathering touchpoints, can measure attendee sentiment and engagement. Additionally, a customer insights team can help you gather data and feedback to improve future events.

In conclusion, attendees and their organizations expect more from events these days. With the right planning, a brand can achieve a successful turnout and attendee engagement. Creating FOMO, making events local, offering unique experiences, prioritizing key activities, tapping into trends like “Bleisure,” compelling experience design, and measuring what matters to attendees are all critical to acquiring attendees. Using said best practices, organizations can drive strong attendance and make their audience engagement experience a success.

If you’re looking to build a strong audience acquisition program for your brand experience, contact your InVision account representative or info@iv.com to learn more.