1. Well-organised event
Never think your attendees won’t notice anything. If you are organizing an event – take good care, be attentive, consider the smallest details and hire professionals to
make it a perfect event and unforgettable experience for your clients.
Positive feedback is the best tool to promote your event and attract more exhibitors and visitors. Similar to social networking negative comments in the world of Internet turns out to be a disaster for your event. Keep in mind Jeff Bezos’ words
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends”.
2. User friendly event web site
Make sure that your event web site is not only stylish and modern, but also
informative and has a
user friendly interface. Potential clients are to find necessary information quick enough to make a decision about participating in your event. Make certain that they don’t get lost in your web site – make it
simple, functional and clear.
3. Respect your visitor and save his time – he’ll be grateful
Do you have a lot of spare time? Why do you think event attendees have more?
First of all, don’t hesitate to implement
online registration and e-ticketing service on your event web site. It will provide your participants with a
time-saving opportunity to buy a ticket online and
avoid queuing at the entrance. Note that your time will be saved as well, in addition to
contracting your expenses. Due to automation of registration, billing and check-in processes you will have your costs on hiring additional staff cut.
4. Provide attendees with additional benefits
Do as much as you can to provide your event attendee with
all the information he needs to plan his trip right on your web site. Place a link to air/train tickets finder, car rental website, online hotel booking system. In addition to saving your visitors time
you can also get commission from service companies and additionally monetize your visitors flow. (e.g.
Google Flight Search,
HotelsForEvent etc.)
One shouldn`t forget about the
matchmaking solutions offering your attendees the opportunity to plan meetings with exhibitors in advance.
5. Hosted buyer program
If you are about to organise a trade show or exhibition spend some money to
attract professional visitors. Scale geography of your event, gain participants and attendees loyalty – provide them with guaranteed business meetings using
matchmaking services to make profitable deals.
6. Invite your past event attendees to join next event and encourage them with discounts
If you use online registration system, then your past attendee’s data base is ready to be put in work. E-mail your past visitors to
invite them to the next edition or
inform about a new event launch. The interest may rise if you
offer a discount by sending a
promo-code. Give attendees special offers and increase their loyalty!
7. Don’t spam
You may lose your visitors if you go too far trying to get in touch with them. People nowadays receive a pile of emails every day and if you go on spamming them don’t wait for a positive feedback. Stay
positive and unobtrusive.
8. Attract your audience by informing
Give
maximum information about your event on your web site, in corporate blog – everywhere. Firstly, it will prevent you from answering unnecessary questions and save your precious time. Secondly, the more information you distribute, the more people you are likely to engage.
Describe all aspects of your event and don`t forget to write from the point of view of each visitor group (exhibitors, attendees, press etc.), they require information to be put in a different way.
9. Don’t ignore the power of social networking
Creating pages for your event in social media is a good way to address your target audience in person and analyse public opinion. Don’t be too formal, but
avoid familiarity. Post
something familiar to visitors and exhibitors – for example photos/videos from the event, news from the participants etc. It’s important to
find balance in combining business-style communication and informal style of social networks.
10. Leave your promotion to professionals
To increase your event awareness use popular
event calendars – some of them are free of charge and offer additional pre-paid promotion. The sum to pay for such
promotions on b2b web sites is often reasonable, but
you’ll save yourself a lot of time for core organization process. For example
ExpoPromoter.com targets your advertising on b2b web sites from your event industry.