How To Keep Your Business Event Attendees Coming Back

Promote Your Events Early

You can lay the foundation and grow interest for your next event by promoting it as early as possible. In fact, you can begin the promotion during your current event. Send out newsletters, social media posts, and email blasts to let your attendees know that your organization will be holding another event next year.

If you announce the next event at just the right time, your present attendees will be aware of it and will have something to eagerly anticipate. They will reflect on the experience they are presently having, and they will assume it will be just as great of an event next year.

Keep Attendees Engaged and Informed

It is important to keep as many attendees in the loop about your events. After your event has concluded, continue the contact immediately. Establish a follow-up to your event and send it out that evening or the next morning. This contact can be a short “thank you for attending” email, or you can include short surveys to get immediate feedback while the event is still fresh in the minds of your attendees.

Send Out A Social Media Post, A Broadcast, or A Newsletter

In the months leading up to your event, keep promoting your to your prospective attendees. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, among others, are a fantastic way to keep your event in front of your attendees. Ways to promote your event on social media include:

• Instagram stories about last year’s event and what to look forward to at the upcoming event
• Facebook Live chats to announce details of your event and advanced ticket sales. You can also promote this on your Facebook business page.
• Collect feedback from LinkedIn connections who may have attended your event. Ask them to engage by sharing their experiences at your event.

An email newsletter is also a good way to keep attendees informed about your next business event. Continue to share your newsletter regularly with information about your brand. In the months leading up to your next event, begin promoting to your attendees. In your newsletter you can include:

• Early, discounted ticket sales
• Past shows to remind attendees of the great time they had
• Videos of past speakers
• A list of this year’s speakers
• What they can expect as changes from last year and any new services coming this year

Host Smaller, More Regional Events Often

In-between your large national or international travel event, it may be wise to host smaller events closer to home. When you host a smaller event, it will connect you to the subset of your customer base. It will be a place where they can get the information they need, plus it can connect you with even more people on the local level through their connections.

These smaller events can also be an enticement for your local customers to attend your larger event. This is where the old-fashioned word-of-mouth can work for your event attendance. These business events are also great places to keep industry conversations going all year round.

Make the Most of Your Content

After your business event, it is imperative that you up the ante on your content. This means coming up with a blog calendar with intriguing content to keep attendees interested in your next event. You can use this content to make yourself appear as an expert in the industry, and use a traditional marketing strategy on your list of previous attendees. Remember that your attendees are your target audience; therefore, you need to share content that speaks to them and their problems and issues.

After hosting a successful business event, retaining attendees for your next event can be a huge asset to your business. All the hard work you have done has paid off since they have attended your event previously. Now, getting your attendees to come back will be much easier, as they are familiar with your organization.

Traveler’s Q has many expert corporate event planners who can assist your company in making the ultimate business event that will bring clients coming back. Contact us today to take advantage of all our event management tips.