Imagine attending a live event where every detail feels tailor-made for you. Every feature resonates with your interests from the moment you open your first email to when you walk out the doors at the end. You feel seen and understood, and don’t think you’ve wasted a minute on something that wasn’t for you.
Ideally, every guest would feel this way at every live event. In a world where algorithms are constantly improving to provide personalized content, if some elements of your event don’t feel customized, the whole experience can fall flat in the eyes of your guests.
The question is, how do you give guests the personalized experiences they’re after? With so many attendees and so many details involved, how can you possibly tailor the event to everyone? Choosing the best event management software can help put you on the right track.
But First: Why Personalize?
There are several reasons to personalize elements of your live event.
● Differentiate your event and your brand.
Personalization can help you get a leg up on your competitors. When your attendees receive custom content at every step, your event will stand out in their minds as a unique.
● Increase your event’s ROI.
Registrants who receive individualized content leading up to the event are more likely to make it to check-in. Tailored experiences during a live event are more likely to result in guests returning for your next one. A higher guest attendance rate means a higher ROI.
● Enhance your brand’s identity and image.
Build up a positive image for your brand through custom touches. Encourage guests to subscribe to emails and follow your social media.
Next: How to Personalize A Live Event
Tailoring an event for each guest begins well before they arrive and continues after they’ve gone. Here are some steps to take for greater guest satisfaction.
Step 1: Understand Your Audience
Before you can customize an event, you need to know your audience: how they think, where they hang out, what their issues are, and what they want from your event.
Whether it’s your first event or your hundredth, examine your social media engagement, email subscriptions, registrant demographics, and any other available data. CRM programs—preferably one that integrates with or is part of your event attendee management system, can make this easier.
Once you have a firm grasp of your audience and what they would like to see at your event, you can start customizing content.
Step 2: Develop Content
Next, it’s time to ramp up your event’s personalized content plan. Every session, talk, lecture or activity planned should be valuable and engaging to your audience. Find engaging, informative, and entertaining speakers.
Step 3: Segment Your Subscribers
If you divide attendees or registrants into different groups based on shared demographics, needs, and interests, this can make creating content and customization easier. These characteristics may include age, job positions, industry, gender, level of engagement, or based on other answers to event surveys. Most subscribers will fit into several different segments.
With your audience segmented, you can send out personalized email, ads, and mailings. Customization leads to higher open and click-through rates. As you gather subscribers through an event registration platform, it’s imperative to keep them engaged and excited about the event to come, to prevent no-shows. The most effective way to do this can be with personalized emails including relevant content. An integrated email marketing software program will help you do this.
As you build out your event itinerary, make sure to keep guests informed about what to expect. Keep content customized and compelling, sending out information about talks, sessions, and activities that each audience segment would be interested in.
Step 4: Personalize the Check-In Process
When your guests arrive, you get one shot at making an outstanding first impression. At In The Room we are all about first impressions, and while there are tons of ways to wow your audience from the get-go, using customized event badges is a wonderfully simple yet highly effective method.
When guests arrive at an event and receive a beautifully designed, eye-catching badge with all of the important information easily accessible, they will be impressed with the event hosts and ready to start networking. Your goal as an event host should be to make all guests feel welcome, comfortable, and excited to take part. Using on-demand event badge printing software to print beautiful, custom badges for all attendees shows them right from the start what to expect from all the elements you have planned.
Step 5: Gather Feedback
After a live event is over it is time to look back and evaluate the impact of all your efforts. Were your guests satisfied with the level of customization? Did they enjoy all of the lectures, talks, and activities? Did they feel the days were scheduled efficiently? Did they feel comfortable in the venue space?
Sending out a post-event survey helps you gauge what went right and where you can improve in the future. Asking attendees for their honest feedback is another way of adding a personal touch to your live event. Show your guests appreciation and consideration for their experiences.
Optimizing Your Next Event With Personalization
From the moment a guest registers for a live event, as a host, you need to consider all the details involved in giving them the best experience possible. Personalizing the content, communication, and user experience demonstrates consideration for each of your attendees, increasing satisfaction, return rates, and event revenue.
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