Your event wrapped up successfully but the post-event follow-up phase of your event marketing campaign is yet to come full circle. As an event marketer, you’d definitely want to leverage this opportunity to connect with your event attendees and patrons as a thank you gesture. It’s a healthy practice to make them feel connected with your brand. Not only are you getting some crucial feedback out of them but you’re also establishing yourself as someone who really cares.  

We’ve noticed that event presenters who followed these post-event practices, managed to create a lasting impression among their audiences. Here’s how you can too:    

Share Photos & A Highlight Reel

Don’t make your event attendees feel like you took their money, let them into your event, and that’s the end of the road. 

Not having a professional camera crew on deck isn’t an excuse to NOT capture the moments. Put that expensive phone to use but make sure you share photos and video clips on your social media. Utilize the power of video to create a highlight reel of the night to refresh their memories. A video montage of your past events, if done well, refreshes memories of your attendees and works as a magnet for new audiences. Don’t forget, your video might just be a few DMs away from being the talk of the town. 

Use Surveys and Feedback

Understand your attendees better by giving them the opportunity to share their thoughts. Remember that there is no such thing as the perfect event. It’s only a constant motivator to give your best shot with every minute detail. Even then there are chances of a slip-up. 

This is when your attendees become your sharpest critic and best friend. A simple post-event survey or feedback form gives you an idea of what they thought about your event. With Yapsody Questionnaire & Surveys, event presenters asked their attendees all the right questions through logic-based questionnaires, so they could design the ideal event experience next time. 

Personalize Your Thank You Emails

A simple thank you note with your event photos and highlight reel can make their day. Event presenters on board with Yapsody use our MailChimp Integration to personalize their emailers for this simple yet effective post-event follow-up practice.  Avoid being a moth to a flame and flooding their inbox with a salesy plugin. Subtlety is key.

Follow Up on Social Media Conversations

If your Instagram and Facebook notifications are blowing with mentions and comments on how awesome your event was, you can do a few victory laps in your office. But keep an eagle eye lookout on your social media channels. User-generated content is a great way to turn event attendees into event promoters. A brand that interacts with their follower’s likes and comments will surely win a place in their hearts. Humanize your communication and keep it short and smart. 

An After “After Party”

It’s rare to see an instance when the party turned out to be so mindblowing, they had to throw an after “After Party” to celebrate its success. It might be rare but not unheard of. Nothing’s better than a free party as a thank you gesture to celebrate the success of that party, right? Let your audience realize that you do it for them and for the love of bringing people together. 

Yapsody is Free for Free Events which means ZERO Fees for “Free Entry” Events.

Just in case you needed another reason to sign up on our event ticketing platform. We hope these tips help you clean up your post-event follow-up practices. Check out how you can Step Up Your Event Marketing Strategy in 2020 and win audiences. 

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As we live in a tech-savvy world, there are several technology based methods that simplify your job of getting connected with your fans. It’s all about using the apt event technology and social technology to get the maximum out of the stocked up database.

Feedback Please

What is the best way to know about your fans likes and dislikes? ASK. Yes, asking them about their opinions, and seeking their valuable feedback help in discovering more about them. You shouldn’t hesitate to ask for their feedback – negative or positive; be open to them and see where and how you can implement them to give your fans a better and satisfactory experience.

 Be there on Social Media

We simply can’t do away with social media technology. It is here on this medium that you can get most of your fans, and understand them better. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, they are out everywhere. So, creating proper social media tactics to capture these fans will be a wise thing to do. Make yourself available in real-time on this platform to interact with them and get their immediate responses. Always come up with new and interesting contents on your social channels to keep them hooked, and also to get an idea of their activity on social media.

Using WiFi and Mobile Apps

Setting up Wi-Fi routers at event venue can prove to be a useful source to collect data. With fast Wi-Fi network connection, you can generate a vast pool of data, which when analysed properly can yield great results for your business. Mobile application is another effective tool to gather and analyse data. Based on the data analysis, you can identify those who are genuinely interested in you and build your marketing strategies without wasting time and efforts.

Involving your fans

The whole idea is about turning your event attendees to loyal fans. And that’s only possible, when they feel to be a part of your event. Giving them a sense of involvement through many ways can go a long way in building a strong relationship. May be an opportunity to sing along or interact with the performer can create more personalized experiences for them. You can reward your most loyal fans with ticket discounts or free tickets to increase their engagement.

So, let’s get on to utilize these ideas to give your fans an enjoyable experience as, you know, they are your sales driving force.

The post How to Increase Fan Engagement For your Events in 2020 appeared first on Yapsody.

Organizing and hosting an event are definitely big, BIG tasks. Often, these tire out presenters so much that once the event is done, they don’t care to look back and analyze anything; instead, they move on to the next event, looking for a change. This, I believe, is one of the biggest mistakes that event organizers commit.

Unless you evaluate your event, your success, your downfalls, you won’t be able to figure out the kind of mistakes you’ve committed, and what changes you should bring about in order to evade those mistakes in your next event. Hence, we have compiled a guide to the evaluation process for your event so that the next time you’re through with the event, analyzing it doesn’t seem like a big, BIG task.

Before we start…

There are a couple of things you need to have with you in order to start off with the evaluation process, and these include:

1. Attendee Feedback

This can be obtained through various means, and it is an absolute necessity if you want to know if your event goals have been reflected in your audience’s perspectives. You can ask them to fill out online forms in exchange for some incentives, or you can hand out hard copies during the event and collect them as they leave. If you have enough time on your hand, you could also create a focus group and have a meeting.

2. The Raw Data

Meaning, the initial information that you obtained before the event started. For example, if you asked a few questions to the ones who registered (why are you attending, where did you hear about the event), you could define the attributes of your target audience. At the same time, you could tally their answers with the responses you get from the event feedback and see if you’ve lived up to expectations.

3. Some Dedicated Time

Within 1-2 weeks of your event, schedule some time that your team can dedicate only for the evaluation of your event. Don’t make it longer than that, because with fading memories, you might lose important insights. At the same time, don’t keep it on the next day of your event because everybody needs time to settle, let things sink in, and do personal analyses.

I. THE BEGINNING

When you start working during the “dedicated time”, the first step is to analyze the basic questions, or the key questions that sum up the entire evaluation process. These questions are:

What went well?

It is only human to have the desire to jump on the improvement section first, but if you have to keep the meeting going and your team motivated, you need to start with your successes. Celebrate your accomplishments and make sure every team member, by the end of this session, has at least one thing to be proud of. Discussing this only gives you a reason to continue practicing the activities that were successful, and maybe make them even better for better results.

What can be improved?

Do. Not. Accuse. People.

Just don’t. Because, nobody is perfect, and if you pinpoint people for their mistakes, it will only demoralize them. Plus, it makes much more sense to discuss improvements in things and processes. Ask every team member to contribute at least one idea that could’ve made the event better (and can make the next one the best one) and appreciate the team’s efforts to learn and grow.

How can the ROI be increased?

ROI (Return on Investment) revolves around efficiency, of appropriately utilizing time and resources. A lot of things work in the favor of the event, but that need not imply that they were just as feasible. They might have taken up a lot of time and efforts to actually give required results. On the other hand, there may be tasks, activities, and practices that may have just consumed 20% of your total time, money, efforts, and resources, and given just as amazing results. You need to look into these, and avoid repeating or continuing the ones that are favorable as a whole, but not really efficient.

II.BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN STRATEGY AND EXECUTION

Did this event reflect your vision?

First, remind everyone about the mission and vision of your organization. Next, ask them these questions:

1. What part of the event reflected the company’s vision in its entire entirety and how?
2. What part, on the other hand, was distant from the company’s vision and why?
3. As a whole, was this event an embodiment of the company’s ideals?

Did this event go hand-in-hand with the needs of your customers?

Because if it didn’t, honestly, you practically wasted a lot of time right there. That sure sounds scary, so here’s how you evaluate this portion:

1. Who were your target audience, the people for whom you put on the event?
2. Did the list of attendees comprise of these people?
3. If it didn’t, why? What were the reasons for them to not attend your event?
4. And those who did attend, what were their goals behind it?
5. Did your event meet their goals? Were they content?
6. From attendee feedback, what was the one change almost everyone suggested?
7. Also, what aspect was the most loved one?
8. Would they like to attend your event again?

Every time you define your target audience, you need to have framed the persona (the attributes) of your ideal customer. Cross-check if your attendees meet the same attributes as that of an ideal customer. If no, then your demographics have been altered and you need to update the persona.

III. EVOLUTION OF A NEW STRATEGY

Now that you’ve successfully evaluated your previous event, you have to let the results of the same reflect in your strategy for the next event. For that, we’ll have four main aspects we’ll be looking into:

The Target Audience

Your strategy should revolve around your customer. Quite a lot of time, you base it on your customer demographics, while in reality, basing it on their needs can actually prove to be a lot more fruitful. Consider the following points-

1. What are their primary concerns and opportunities?
2. What is it about your event that they can’t find elsewhere?
3. How does it answer their concerns and offer them the opportunities they need?
4. What would be the repercussions if your event didn’t do the above?

Think about this – picture your attendee describing your event to a friend. Make your event something that would match that description. Once you’ve figured that out, you’re halfway down the road to a successful event strategy.

Your Needs

Of course, your customer’s needs are important, but not at the cost of the needs of your own company. You need to set a primary goal for the company that the event is supposed to fulfill, and 2-3 supporting ones. They can range from marketing to revenue generation, but you have to set them down clearly and not deviate from them while strategizing.

Measuring Your Needs

Once you figure out the needs of your customers as well as your company’s goals, you’ll have to figure out ways to measure them and track them. For example, if your company wants to generate revenue, costing should be your priority. On the other hand, if you’re looking at growth, you might want to consider the amount of sales and sideline the costing.

SWOT Analysis

The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis is a classic that NEVER fails. This is how you can use it while creating your strategy:

• STRENGTHS: You could be the proud owner of the most brilliant sales department, or an amazing marketing team, and these pose as the strengths that make you different from your competitors.
• WEAKNESSES: Are you not able to retain your attendees? Are you running low on staff? These are internal issues that are inhibiting growth, and need to be rectified.
• OPPORTUNITIES: Identifying and rectifying your weaknesses definitely comes under opportunities, but there are other aspects like new technology warding off old competitors but giving birth to new ones, the availability of a new kind of location, and so on.
• THREATS: While weaknesses are within the company, threats are usually external factors that may disrupt your event. Global economic downturn, launch of a similar event, all come under this roof.

IV. EXTRACT GOALS FROM YOUR STRATEGY

Now that you know the needs and requirements, you need to aspire to meet them. Hence, list out some goals for your team.

The Bold Ones

Nope, not just the highlighted ones; I mean the goals that are audacious and strong in their spirits. You need to have one or two of these in order to keep your staff motivated. These include, doubling up the size of your event as compared to the previous year, inviting an influential celebrity, getting mainstream media to cover your event, etcetera. More of these may work negatively for you, as you may be exhausting your resources and asking for way too much.

The SMART Ones

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound – that’s what SMART stands for. Of course, having big goals is important, but they should be SMART in order to make sure you’re not putting your team up only to fall down and hit their heads. Your strong goals could be broken down into smaller, smarter goals that the team finds easier to tackle.

Milestones

Set up milestones and break down your goals according to a time frame to keep track of your progress. If there’s no progress, adopting this method will let you know when there should be a course correction.

V.THE FINAL PLAN

Once you’re done analyzing, strategizing, chalking out your goals, you need to have the final plan ready, which is basically the last step in the process before you actually start with the execution. For this, you need to consider three following factors:

Resources

The skillsets of your staff, whether you need more staff, or the existing staff needs more training, whether a new technology can be used, or content management system needs to be updated – these are all resources that are going to help you put your ideas into execution. Make sure you answer these questions before you start off.

Tactics for Growth

What are the ideas or tactics that people are suggesting that can bring about growth? These can include outsourcing, trying out a new technology, building a new website, a cool new campaign idea, and other related inputs. Sit together with your team, brainstorm, and list out these ideas to implement in the next event.

Improved Processes

Remember noting down your successes and mistakes in this event? Go through them and figure out if there are certain activities or processes that are responsible for whatever has gone awry, and modify them. Think about other workflows that can replace these and guarantee betterment.

VI. CONCLUSION

After almost two thousand words of strategy and planning and improving, it’s only fair if you’ve forgotten exactly why you were reading this. So, in conclusion, I’ll remind you why evaluation is necessary for your event. And for the same, I’ll quote James A Belasco – “Evaluate what you want–because what gets measured, gets produced.”

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Yes, there is a positive way of handling that. You, as an event planner, dedicate all your life to make someone else’s evening special. So, your proficiency will be measured by the satisfaction of your attendees. If you aren’t up for healthy criticism, my friend, you’ll be spending most of your nights with an Old friend – the Monk.

To start with, there are two primary reasons why you should have attendees giving their feedbacks after an event,

1. So that you know what improvements can be done the next time, and
2. To show your attendees that you are approachable, and that you respect their inputs.

The above two points are analogous to the two sides of a coin –  one for you, one for your attendees, and the next three will tell you exactly how the feedback from your attendees can power your event:

1. TRUST: When you ask for feedback from your audience, they feel valued. And when they honor you by responding to your request, a deeper relationship based on respect and trust brews between you and your attendees. It is this kind of a relationship that makes an attendee a regular for your future events or concerts, too.
2. CREATIVITY: Getting opinions from your attendees will tell you about the grass on the other side. These perspectives can help you break out of the pattern you’ve been following and try something new and creative. Once you break barriers through communication, it’s easier to have an inflow of different productive ideas.
3. GROWTH: Similarities bring people together, differences help them grow. You can only learn new things if you challenge what’s old, what’s being said. Difference in opinions often leads to situations where the solutions are disguised as “eureka!” moments. What is the fusion of matter and anti-matter but the greatest source of energy!

Simply having a Feedback form on your page won’t help unless you are actually analyzing what your attendees have to say. Also, don’t forget a Thank You e-card, you don’t want them feeling their opinions aren’t valued.

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