“Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener.” – Michel de Montaigne
I like to organize webinars and I'd like to share something I'm studying/applying for my own activity: how to engage with my audience and how to measure the success of my events.
You can leverage event technology and marketing channels to engage with attendees before, during, and after your event. It gives you the opportunity to:
Share valuable, informative content with attendees.
Start a conversation before the event begins and keep it going long after the event ends.
Collect data throughout the event to monitor and analyze key event marketing metrics.
In this article, I’ll explore some of the different ways you can engage your attendees before, during, and after your event. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll be in a better position to put together a successful event engagement plan of your own.
Finally, I'll present some metrics I use to analyze the quality of my work.
Quoting Peter Drucker:
"If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it." - Peter Drucker
Let’s get right to it.
Engaging the audience BEFORE the event
Send Email Invites The first touch-point you’ll have with your attendees is through the email invites you send out. You’ll also want to make sure you’re using this opportunity to generate some interest in your event and let them know what they can expect by attending. Make it clear to attendees the benefits they will receive from attending your event. #TOOL Mailchimp is my good-to-go tool for this task. (Here a nice article about Email Marketing and Mailchimp > 5 Email Marketing statistics tested in 2020)
Engage with existing groups on Meetup and Linkedin Most Linkedin groups are not really active, so administrators might be happy to "sponsor" your event in their group if the topic is engaging for their crowd. That's also a way for them to make their groups meaningful. Meetup groups are mostly very active and happy to co-host web-based events for their audience. You can find Meetup groups focused on every niche + they can reach 3,000-5,000 members. An event published on a large group can easily bring you hundreds of attendees.
Invite attendees to co-create your event After attendees sign up for your event, you can keep the conversation open by sharing some updates or by presenting the speakers. Your attendees might also have questions or topics they'd like to discuss. You may insert those questions in your Q/A list and include the proposed topics in your conference lineup.
Create an Event Hashtag If you’re looking to promote your event through social media platforms (like Twitter and Instagram), you’ll want to create an event hashtag before the event. There are many different ways you can benefit from creating an event hashtag:
Provides you with the opportunity to engage with prospective attendees and reach a wider audience.
Gives attendees a platform from where they can get quick event updates, learn more about your speaker line-up, and interact with other prospective attendees.
Let you monitor what prospective attendees are saying about your event and get a sentiment analysis.
Engaging the audience DURING the event
Live Stream Videos Live streams always generate attendee engagement, especially if you answer questions you receive through the event chat (e.g. Youtube Live Stream).
Create Networking Opportunities One of the most important reasons why people attend events – especially corporate events like seminars, conferences, and product launches – is to network with peers. For this reason, it’s important that you make some room for networking sessions in your event’s itinerary. You can also answer tweets during the session.
Engaging the audience AFTER the event
Ask for Feedback Asking attendees to fill out a quick feedback survey after the event ends gives you an opportunity to continue engaging with them and learn more about their experience. For instance, you may calculate here the #TOOL Net Promoter Score (NPS): a key indicator of how valuable your event was to attendees. The simplest way to get your event’s NPS is by asking your attendees: On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely they are to recommend the event to a friend or colleague? Once you’ve got the results, classify them based on their responses: Detractors. In the 0 to 6 range; it is unlikely that they will tell others about your event. Passives. In the 7 to 8 range; although they enjoyed your event, they probably won’t share it with their peers. Promoters. In the 9 to 10 range; they are motivated to tell others about your event. Finally, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage or promoters. Alternatively, you can use the formula given below or use an NPS calculator: NPS = [(Number of Promoters – Number of Detractors) / (Total Number of Respondents)] * 100
Create Your Own Community & Content Hub You can create a content hub of video (or audio - aka podcast) recordings of keynote speeches delivered at the event on your event website. It can serve as a resource for attendees who would like to share the presentations with their own teams. In addition to this, you can also use it to give your site’s visitors an inside look and encourage them to register for the next event. Giving your event’s speakers and attendees a platform to connect with each other after the event ends is a great way to increase engagement. I personally like Linkedin groups and Meetup. Attendees are able to ask speakers follow-up questions related to their keynote, hold a discussion on their speech’s focus point, or share ideas with their peers.
Invite attendees to your next event Convincing past event attendees to attend another one of your events is much easier than building a new list of prospective attendees to market to. You can let them know when you’ll be hosting your next event.
Recap Event Highlights Writing a blog post recapping the event’s highlights allows you to engage with those who were able to attend your event and those who couldn’t make it. Your blog post might include:
Quick stats such as how many people were in attendance.
Which industry issues were discussed by panel members.
Photos or videos taken at the event.
Downloadable resources such as presentation slides or keynote videos.
You could even consider sending the blog post out to your site’s subscribers through your weekly newsletter.
4 Event Metrics You Should Be Tracking
Event metrics allow you to measure your event’s success and effectively communicate the marketing costs to the leadership team.
Here, I’ll step through some of the most important event marketing metrics that I'm usually interested in.
Registration trends With this data, you can be more targeted with your ticket offerings and plan better future events. In addition to this, it helps you understand your future events' revenue flow.
RSVP to Attended Conversion Rate Percentage Once your attendees RSVP to your event invitation, you have to make sure they attend the event. For this reason, you need to have different follow-up emails and messages prepared to go out between when your invitation was delivered and the day of the event. It’s also a good idea to keep track of: - RSVP drop-off rate. Prospects who RSVP’ed to your event but didn’t attend. Follow up with these people and try to understand why they didn’t attend. - Email open rates. #TOOL Use a tool like Yesware or SalesHandy to see how many prospects are opening your emails.
Cost per Attendee/Customer/Sale Your event ROI measures the return of your initial investment based on how much it cost. If you’re planning to generate profits from ticket sales, calculating the event ROI is pretty straightforward: ROI = [(Total Ticket Sales Revenue – Total Cost of Event) / Total Cost of Event] * 100 However, if your goal is to increase brand awareness then you’d want to outline the different ways you can measure results. For instance, your event’s objective could be to: - Get 1,000 people to attend the event. - Gain 500 social media followers. - Secure 5 press mentions.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) The net promoter score is popular with leadership teams and is incredibly easy to measure. It’s a key indicator of how valuable your event was to attendees. Once you’ve got the results, classify them based on their responses: - Detractors. In the 0 to 6 range; it is unlikely that they will tell others about your event. - Passives. In the 7 to 8 range; although they enjoyed your event, they probably won’t share it with their peers. - Promoters. In the 9 to 10 range; they are motivated to tell others about your event. Finally, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Alternatively, you can use the formula given below or use an NPS calculator: NPS = [(Number of Promoters – Number of Detractors) / (Total Number of Respondents)] * 100
About the author
Francesco Impari - Master in Public Policy at the UC Berkeley, Aerospace Engineer, book author, and scientific articles contributor. He has established and managed companies in China, Italy, UK, and the USA, bringing them from zero to their first million-dollar revenue (without VC funding).
Now that you are here
Holborn is a Sales advisory boutique, specialized in supporting high-tech firms in the B2B market development.