Welcome to 2015! As we move into a new, exciting and eventful new year, let’s prepare for it by going in full force!
The best way to go about this is to analyze what we learned as event pros in 2014, and use the data and golden nuggets pulled together from all of the events we planned and made successful last year!
Look at what recommendations, offers and marketing strategies blew your attendees away last year, and start there – these will be the tools needed to make your personalized event experiences extraordinary in 2015!
Let’s ring in the New Year with a few noteworthy tips to ensure your personalized event experiences are a success for every event planned this year.
Tailored to Perfection
Personalization is the same as storytelling – a story comes to life as the details and characters begin to develop.
As you begin to analyze and configure the data relevant to your event attendees, you will begin to design a moving and compelling event experience for each attendee. Keep in mind each attendee comes to every event with a goal in mind – survey your attendees and find out what those goals are. The Who’s, What’s, Why’s and Where’s are extremely relevant in order to provide a tailored personalized experience at your events.
Deliver marketing, content, and recommendations pre, during and post event based on the data you receive from your audience.
Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk
Don’t leave your attendees hanging. Once you have delivered a promise of a type of personalization, whether it be targeted messaging, themes, speaking sessions, etc., make sure you stick to your promise. Consistently keep in contact with the attendees via social, digital and in-person dialogue during their personalized experience.
Review every element of each attendees experience – are they attending as a speaker, or is it their first time attending this event? Keep in mind your brands image, and how it should be recognized by everyone attending. Marketing to all attendees is a vital role and should stay consistent from day one.
Make an Impact
Event attendees want to walk away from every event with something memorable to talk about. Make their experience count. The event experience you provide has to be on point so that attendees feel their needs were met. As you collect data from the attendees pre-show, strategize and make sure the content you deliver is fresh and new.
You want to make sure all attendees walk away having learned something new, and feel happy having invested time and money after attending the event.
A Few Tidbits
A few key elements to keep in mind as you begin planning your personalized event experiences, are to break down your attendee types. As you market to your attendees, do this by type – it can be by event goals, job title, or sessions attendees want to attend. This will help you create buckets of “event types” attending each event you plan, and design the best event experiences for each of these types.
Other elements to keep in mind are event tools. Use planners, agendas and automation tools to successfully plan your event. You will want to use an automation tool to email each event type, and nurture these attendees for months after the event has ended. Be sure to also tailor your event mobile app and agenda for each event type. By creating tailored session tracks and having specific sessions designed for each event type, this will benefit your personalized event experience and make all attendees walk away feeling like they came to the event of their dreams!
In Conclusion
Event personalization is a great strategy to put into use as you begin planning your events for 2015. It’s always a great method to look at your ups and downs from the year before, and see what worked and didn’t. What do your attendees love? Make sure you brand and tailor your events as personalized experiences for each of your attendees going into 2015. A customized event experience will go a long way, and have a successful impact on your lead to revenue cycle.
