Communication Tools & Strategies for Event Planners

Why communicating with your event attendees matters. 

It’s not enough anymore to just sell tickets to your events and wait for your guests to show up.  With all of the different methods and ways that we can communicate with people these days, it’s important to use the available technology to reach and connect with your attendees before, during, and after your event.

Establishing communication channels between your organization and prospective attendees allows  you to:

• Share valuable information before the event.
• Engage attendees during the event
• Gain valuable feedback about your event and
• Stay in touch with them long after the event ends.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the communication tools and strategies you can use to keep attendees in the loop throughout the entire event process, from registration to post-event thank you’s and follow-ups.

Before the Event

Here are some tools and strategies that can help you communicate with attendees before the event.

{image source: Launchpresso}

Emails

One of the first interactions you’ll have with event participants is through the email confirmations you send them after registration. It’s your first chance to make a great impression on prospective attendees.

It’s also a great opportunity to spark interest in the upcoming event and let them know what you’re bringing to the table or what sets your event apart from the rest. Here are a few different ways you can communicate with attendees over email before the event:

• Send attendees a welcome email or a registration confirmation email once they register for your event. Be sure to include important event details and contact information. These can be automated messages that you customize like the Custom Confirmation Messaging system available in Event Smart.
• Encourage attendees to check out the resources on your event website for more information about the event.
• Share links to your social media pages so that prospective attendees can follow you on the platforms you’re most active on.
• Send attendees friendly reminders in the days leading up to the event – especially if they’ll have to travel to a different city or state to attend.

Pro tip: If you’re using Event Smart for your events, consider adding the MailChimp Integration to your event tech stack to automatically build an email list of attendees after they register for your event.

Social Channels

Promoting your upcoming event on social platforms is a great way to get the word out and create hype among your target audience. If you want to promote your event through social media sites – like Facebook and Instagram – you’ll need to come up with an event hashtag well before the day of the event. There are a number of benefits of creating an event hashtag:

• It gives you the opportunity to interact with prospective attendees and increase your audience reach.
• Gives attendees a familiar platform to get important event details, learn more about the speaker panel, and communicate with other prospective attendees.
• You’ll be able to easily monitor audience sentiments about your event and facilitate conversations.

Event Website

Your event website is a valuable resource when it comes to communicating with attendees before the event. Think of it as a complete resource hub that your attendees will access to find information, learn more about your event and speaker lineup, and get in touch with you.

Here are some of the ways you can use your event website to better communicate with attendees:

• Publish blog posts. For example, about the cause you’re supporting, interviews with event speakers, or what attendees can expect to take away from the event.
• Create a short video, share galleries, or publish testimonials and reviews from past events – or a little bit of everything!
• Have an easy-to-access FAQs section that covers basic questions attendees may have regarding event details or the cause you’re supporting.

During the Event

Here are some tools and strategies you can use to interact with attendees during the event:

Event App

If you organize multiple events throughout the year, you might consider investing in an event app. We recommend going for one that supports push notifications that you can use to share news and updates with attendees (directly to their mobile device!) during the event.

If your event app offers a bulletin board, you can use the space to post promotional ads or employment openings from sponsors, lost and found news, and event happenings. You might even consider posting an FAQs section that attendees can quickly refer to.

Additionally, you can also use the event app to encourage attendees to participate in Q&A sessions and live polls. A good event app enables you to facilitate internal group chats so that your team members can communicate event issues and resolve them effectively. It’s also a great way to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Social Channels

Event organizers use social walls to project a live stream of their event’s hashtags at the event venue. You can do this by using tools like Tagboard. This encourages participants to share their event experience on social platforms using your event hashtag and gets them to stay engaged with your event.

Additionally, Twitter is a great tool for collecting feedback from event attendees that are present in the venue. Live-tweeting, Twitter polls, and hashtags let you communicate and engage with participants in real-time. You’ll also be able to use event hashtags to keep those who couldn’t attend informed about what they’re missing out on.

Leveraging social channels also lets you start two-way communication with event attendees and boost audience engagement during the event. You’ll be able to quickly find out and resolve any issues attendees may be facing. For instance, if someone is unsatisfied with the event, chances are they’ll post about it on social media using your event hashtag. By actively monitoring your tweets, you’ll always be ready to reply to them, take necessary steps, and increase attendee satisfaction.

After the Event

Here are some tools and strategies you can use to communicate with attendees after the event:

Emails

Emails are a great way to collect attendee feedback after an event ends. For instance, you can ask attendees if the event met their expectations or if they were able to network with other people and build business connections. This also allows you to gain a lot of useful information that can be used to improve future events.

After the event, you can create a content hub on your event website and encourage attendees to check it out. For example, it may include audio and video recordings of speeches and training sessions conducted at the event. Essentially, it’ll be a knowledge resource for attendees who would want access to these resources after the event and share the information with their team members. Additionally, you’ll be able to use this content hub to offer prospective attendees an inside look and get them to sign up for your next event.

Twitter Chat

Twitter chat enables event attendees to get in touch with speakers and quickly get answers. It’s also a great way to share ideas with fellow attendees, event organizers, and connect with speakers. For example, you can set up an AMA (ask me anything) style discussion.

You can also use Twitter to share event slides, galleries, and resources with your audience, collect responses from attendees and measure their satisfaction. This way, you can create a feedback loop with your audience and enable them to get in touch with you and share ideas for future events.

Facebook Group

A great way to improve audience engagement is to enable your event’s speakers and participants to talk to each other and hold discussions. You can do this by creating a dedicated Facebook Group after the event. For example, you could use this sort of platform to share photos from the event as well as resources like presentation slides, checklists, and downloadables.

Conclusion

Event management can be made easier using communication tools and strategies that help you get in touch with your audience, convey important information, and gather valuable feedback. It’s also important to set up a system that facilitates internal communication on the day of the event so that you’re able to resolve event-related issues efficiently.

What are some of the ways you communicate with your event attendees? Let us know by commenting below.