So, as well as creating an event that will inspire, inform or challenge your attendees, event professionals also have to know what it takes to capture attention in the first place. Here are some top tips to make sure that your event emails work hard for you.
Know who you are talking to
Knowing who you want to attend is vital to a successful business event. How can you appeal to potential attendees if you don’t know who they are and what they want? Research into your market and your audience is crucial.
Get the design right
Email design is critical to any email marketing campaign. To get the creative juices going, you could look for inspirational examples online (Pinterest is an excellent place to start). But you must also make sure that any design you choose works for your brand and is consistent with your event. Feel free to experiment with colours but make sure that the palette you select can be combined with your logo, etc.
You should also be careful to keep your personal taste in check. For example, if red is your favourite colour, you could be tempted to use crimson when designing your emails. But, if you work in the energy sector (for example) and your market research tells you that your potential customers associate red with danger, blood, and emergencies, then this could be a huge mistake! When it comes to event email design, the unfortunate truth is that too many organisers are still swayed by their own tastes. And, while your likes and dislikes matter, without adopting a more strategic approach, these preferences could hinder your success.
Make it mobile-friendly
With the majority of people using mobile devices to read their emails, one of the most important things to do when creating an event email is to choose a responsive email template.
Create a sense of urgency
One way to boost sign-ups to your event is to create a sense of urgency, for example, by including a countdown timer within the registration email. You could also offer early bird ticket offers to spur people on to register sooner rather than later.
Promote your agenda & speakers
The right content is crucial when it comes to attracting and influencing your audience. Think about how you can use content in your event email to encourage sign-ups and boost anticipation for your event.
This could include things like:
- Highlighting topics that will be of interest to your target audience
- Promoting any professional hosts and speakers
- Showcasing videos, vox pops, drip-feed teasers etc.
As part of your content strategy, you could also look to create shareable content to promote your event and amplify your message.
Make it easy for attendees to sign-up
The last thing you want is to make it difficult for people to say yes. So, consider using a state-of-the-art online event registration software system to keep the process simple and stress-free.
For example, with the Apex online event registration system, potential attendees can:
- Visit a bespoke event page (which we’ll create for you). Here they can find out everything they need to know about your event
- Register and pay in a range of currencies
- Choose from any number of workshops, sessions, or social options
- Use any discount codes you have created
- Use a unique login to let them check their bookings and make any changes.
Everything will be branded in your brand colours and style. And, so you always know what’s going on, you’ll also get a client login. With this, you’ll be able to see who has registered and when. With everything updated in real-time.
If you are charging fees, you can see what has been paid and what’s in the pipeline. And you don’t have to worry about where the money is going. Apex has a secure client account that ring-fences conference fees, and we pay these over to you regularly.
Provide a helpline
No matter how much info you make available, there will still be people who need a little extra help. So, to make sure that the process runs as smoothly as possible, you should consider setting up a dedicated helpline number.
At Apex, we can do this for you, with our team on hand to assist your attendees if they have any difficulties.
Keep the lines of communication open
Once someone has told you that they want to come to your event, that shouldn’t be the last they hear from you until the big day. Instead, be sure to keep the lines to communication open. This will reassure attendees that everything is running smoothly and build a sense of anticipation (and reduce drop-outs!).
At Apex, we often manage this process on behalf of our clients. We can email your delegates with joining instructions, welcome letters and any other collateral you want to send out during the registration period. Once the system has captured all your delegate’s details, we can generate badges and other collateral, directly from the database.
Use Apex to manage your event emails
With our world-class software, backed up by our experience and service levels, you can be confident of a creative, reliable and high-quality delegate registration process. Whatever the size and location of your event. Contact us today on +44 (0)1625 429370 or email [email protected] to find out more or for an exploratory conversation.