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Our top tips to attract more attendees to your next event!
The benefits of corporate events are clear, with endless articles running to its defence and producing valuable research.
One study found that 84% of event attendees say that they have a more positive opinion about the company, brand, product or service being promoted after the event. So with all this limelight, it's logical to assume that consumers see a lot of them!
There's even an argument to suggest that despite COVID-19, business-orientated events have been growing at an accelerated rate. The past two years has been a venue for extensive changes within the events industry; the introduction of digital networking that has allowed everyone and anyone to attend events from the other side of the world (pyjama trousers optional) has exposed opportunities for many companies - but with this, it has also left the event’s market completely infatuated.
The reduced barriers to entry have resulted in more competition now, than ever. They're still effective, you know that, and at First Event, we see that daily! But the new challenge that businesses are facing is how to get your company’s target audience to attend your event over competitors, here is where we can help!
The target audience
The first port of call is identifying your ideal customer.
Top Tip: it's important to be specific here, whether it be a digital, hybrid, or a traditional event, not everyone and their mother can attend. If you do this, you can run the risk of exercising quantity over quality.
Market segmentation
Think about your target market’s characteristics, qualities - are they similar? Do they experience the same challenges, or have certain needs?
It's all about referring to your company’s marketing mix; price, place, product, and promotion. This will allow you to reinforce what your brand is solving or offering through its product/service and how this applies to your target audience. From this, you can identify key market attributes.But remember, you can’t invite anyone so choose one segment from your consumers.
We suggest choosing your event’s target market from one of the following:
- Demographic
- Psychographic
- Geographic
- Behavioural
The above can facilitate educated and defined decision-making - the key for a successful company event!
Leading us onto our next step...
The attendee perspective
Now you know who we are aiming the event at, you can tackle the event itself.
The following questions have to be answered to shape the event’s promotion:
- What is in it for the attendees?
- How does it meet the target audience’s needs?
- How can this event offer a solution?
This refers to what we spoke about earlier, there are a lot of corporate events out there - why should your company’s ideal consumer attend yours?
An integrated approach
Now you have a clear idea of the benefits on offer for the target audience, you can act on promoting them across an array of communications.
For an event, we recommend an integrated approach across various methods; this can be difficult to achieve but will set you apart from other events (we can always help you with this!). This tactful approach is likely to supersede that of competitors because it's thoughtful and specific.
Think of:
- Email campaigns
- Social media
- Public relations
All linking together with one distinct voice and goal - impactful right?
This is only possible by following the above, the process of honing in on a specific demographic and inheriting their point of view informs the campaign prior to the event and helps to build buzz.
Here at First Event we’re utterly dedicated to crafting seamless events and developing your ideas further than you can have ever imagined. We’re big believers in providing endless options; whoever your audience, First Event can identify and implement a game plan to meet your company’s individual goals. If you like what you’ve just read but aren't sure where to start, or feel you’d want a helping hand we can help.
Get in touch!
Whether it’s live, hybrid, or virtual - First Event can work with you, contact us by heading to our Contact page!