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For many organisations, events such as expos, trade shows and conferences are a critical part of their business. These events offer insights into industry developments, as well as opportunities for professionals to connect and do business in person. The following event industry revenues demonstrate the importance companies place on these events:
- • In the UK in 2015, companies spent a combined value of over £30 billion on conferences, meetings, exhibitions and trade fairs.
- • In the US in 2016, the B2B events industry was valued at over $30 billion.
- • In Dubai in 2015, the Dubai World Trade Centre generated a reported AED of 12 billion for large-scale exhibitions, trade events, conventions and conferences – this is not taking into account the numerous other venues which also hosted events in the city.
Considering how companies invest in these events, it’s vital for the right people to attend and have a positive experience that encourages them to return the following year.
One of the most under-utilised tools to achieve this goal is the right approach to event communication. In this guide, we offer a number of strategies that you can use before, during, and after the event.
Pre Event Communication
The first step is to inform people about your upcoming event. This can be achieved using a number of tools:
One of the most cost-effective tools for communicating about your event is email. To make effective use of this channel, you’ll first need a contact database. Include:
- • Existing customers
- • Event sponsor or partner contacts
- • Opt-in databases
- • Previous event attendees
If this is the first time your organisation is hosting an event, the best place to start building an email database is with your customers. You can also reach out to your event sponsors and partners who might have mailing lists with individuals who would be interested in your event. Finally, you could gain additional contacts through legal opt-in databases that are available in some countries. If this is an event that your company has regularly hosted, you’ll also have the contact information of previous attendees that you can add to your database.
Digital Ads
Digital ads are also a great way to inform people about your event. Banner ads on relevant industry websites are one way you can reach potential guests. Another is to deliver digital ads through remarketing to individuals who may have visited your website or used your app before.
Social Media
There are two ways you can inform people on social media about your event. The first is through a sponsored post. Different social media platforms have different options for sponsored posts so that you can reach the right people. For example, Facebook offers a variety of audience options, such as age, gender, interests and connections. The second way is to leverage the social media channels of your company, partners and sponsors to reach followers who would likely have an interest in your event.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is an underrated but highly effective tool for reaching specific potential attendees for B2B events. Unlike other communication channels which are easy to filter out, it’s more unlikely that someone will ignore a call on business channels. The risk is simply too high of it being a coworker, a client or someone else connected to the business.
Once you’ve decided to reach out to other businesses to inform them of your industry event, the first step is to gather data for potential contacts and add it to a database. Your customer and lead lists, as well as those of your partners and sponsors, are key to building your contact database. You can also gather additional contacts from a company by asking reception staff whether they have colleagues or other connections who might be interested in your event.
If you’re building a contact database and don’t have the time or resources to handle the task yourself, you can hire a company to gather potential contacts from platforms like LinkedIn.
Once you’ve gotten on a call with your intended contact, you can inform them about the event and ask whether they would like to register for it. This approach is particularly useful when reaching out to past attendees who have already demonstrated an interest in your event.
To ensure your event remains fresh in their minds, you can call people to remind them about it, ask them about preferences in terms of merchandise or food, or find out if there are any specific individuals they would like to arrange a meeting with.
During Event Communication
Event communication doesn’t stop once an individual has registered to attend your event. Additional communication during the event, whether it’s reminders for talks, workshops or appointments, is vital to ensure that the attendee has as smooth an experience as possible.
There are three tools that are primarily used to connect with visitors during an event: text messages, Whatsapp or other popular instant messengers, and official event apps.
Text messages
Text messages, or SMS, are a reliable way to communicate basic written messages. The downside to this communication channel is that you can’t include anything else.
Instant messaging
This is why many people choose to take advantage of instant messaging apps like Whatsapp, which allow you to send text as well as images, videos or location data. They also offer benefits such as read notifications and don’t rely on a cellular data connection.
Event apps
A dedicated app for your event will provide you with many benefits that other communication tools will not; for example, providing you with a dedicated communication channel to event attendees, integration with social media and payment platforms, and providing a convenient one-stop location for all your event information.
However, as popular as these three types of communication might be, they can still be quite impersonal and might not be a good fit for more high-profile events. For these events, which are less focused on talks and workshops and more on networking, a phone call to remind delegates about appointments can be a far more effective communication tool.
Post Event Communication
Once the event is over, there are three vital tasks that you need to complete. You need to gather feedback from attendees, follow up and qualify leads, and complete early bird registration for your next event.
Gathering feedback
The first part of the feedback will be to get the guest to rate the event using a simple scoring system. You should then ask whether any part of the event was at all frustrating for them so that you can address the issue and avoid the problem next time around. This type of feedback is critical to ensuring high attendance for future events.
This information can be gathered post-event using email, text messaging, instant messaging or the event app. However, there is the risk that attendees will ignore these communication channels. This is particularly relevant with email, as attendees will likely be overwhelmed by a backlog of messages they weren’t able to address while they were at your event.
Contacting attendees via telephone is recommended for the same reasons as pre-event communication: you’re far more likely to get a response using this communication channel since it’s a more personal medium.
Follow up and qualify leads
One of the reasons attendees take part in industry events is because they offer great opportunities for new business. While some may choose to follow up on these leads via email, the best way to re-establish the connection made during the event is by picking up the phone. Again, this communication medium offers many benefits to marketers, such as allowing you to connect on a more personal level and ensuring your message reaches the intended audience.
However, what happens when you have more leads than you can handle? It’s not unusual for a lead list to have dozens, if not hundreds of contacts, and it can be a costly affair to expect your sales staff to reach out to each one personally. In this situation, it is wise to bring in additional support from a professional telemarketing company. They will be able to assist or take over the task of following up leads from your sales staff while attendees are still riding the post-event excitement. This team of telemarketers must be prepared in advance so that they can follow up immediately after the event.
Early Bird Registration for Future Events
The final task to complete during the post-event high is early bird registration. While the experience is still fresh in their minds, you should encourage attendees to sign up for your next event.
To ensure you maximise early registrations, it’s best to take a multi-channel approach that includes email and social media, and follow up with a phone call for a more personal touch. If attendees aren’t ready to commit to the event, you can also encourage them to follow your company on social media or to sign up for your email newsletter.
How can GCL help?
GCL is a B2B telemarketing specialist with over 30 years of experience in unscripted and multilingual call services across EMEA, the Americas and emerging markets. We offer event communication telemarketing services before, during and after corporate events in European and Middle Eastern countries. We also have legal opt-in databases for many industries so that you can connect with new potential guests.
For more information on our event communication services, or if you’d like to find out more about the other services we offer, please contact us and schedule a consultation today.
