Is your association struggling to hit its goal for event attendance numbers? If so, your organization might be missing out on your event’s ROI, making it a challenge to justify your overall events budget.
We’re here to help you learn how to boost registration at your next association event. Read our blog for more tips.
Six proven strategies and marketing tactics to boost future event registration
It’s time to boost your event attendance and improve your member experience too! Here’s how to get started:
1. Personalize emails. Don’t just settle with adding your member’s first and last name to your next event promotional email. Go above and beyond by tailoring the content to your member to make the opened email worth their while.
According to Community Brands Research, 45% of members said that targeted valuable content was one of their most important benefits. Leverage your AMS to do the heavy lifting of offering valuable content when promoting your next event.
2. Share in your online community. Boost future event registration by posting about upcoming programs on your online community platform. Create a dedicated subgroup to update members about your event and increase excitement about speakers, event sessions, and your event location.
As members register for your event, sort the attendees into a group to allow them to meet and network before the conference. After the event ends, encourage the event attendees to keep the conversation flowing and maintain the network they’ve formed by posting images or content from the event.
3. Incentivize your volunteers and ambassadors. Encourage your member volunteers and ambassadors to share about your upcoming event in their social and professional networks by offering coupon codes. Providing incentives like discount fees is a great way to say thank you to your event volunteers and ambassadors.
4. Provide discount codes to non-members. Discounts are an easy way to generate buzz for your upcoming events. When you offer coupon codes to non-members who register early, you’ll develop further interest in your events.
Try providing member ambassadors with codes to give to professional colleagues. As ambassadors distribute codes to non-members, they will increase interest in your upcoming events.
5. Leverage social media. Use your social media platforms to spread the word about your upcoming events. Post updates about your sessions, information about speakers, and the event location to get your members excited. Encourage your event volunteers and ambassadors to post about your conference as it approaches to increase engagement across different member groups.
6. Offer giveaways. Promote your next in-person event and connect with your members by offering creative giveaways. Consider sending half of a gift, like one glove or one sock, and encouraging your members to come to the event to collect the missing half, driving further engagement.
Discover even more ways to drive member engagement at association events when you download our whitepaper: 40 tips to boost member engagement at your association in 2023.
