Repeat attendance is a key metric used to measure the success of similar-themed events. If guests keep coming back to your events, you know you’re doing something right (or several things right). But many professional event planners struggle to foster the “loyalty” needed to achieve a high rate of repeat attendance. If this sounds familiar, consider the following tips.
Personal Messaging
When communicating with guests, try to use their names. According to an Experian study, for instance, personalized emails deliver 6x more transactions than generic, non-personalized emails. If a guest sees an email addressed to his or her name instead of “Dear sir/madam,” they’ll feel more inclined to open and read it. Therefore, this can help you sell more tickets while also encouraging guests to return for future events.
Make it Entertaining
You can’t expect guests to return unless they actually enjoyed your event. While there are dozens of ways to make your event “fun,” one of the most effective solutions is to hire professional entertainment. Whether it’s a DJ, live band or even a magician, entertainment acts such as these are guaranteed to boost repeat attendance at your events.
Promote Engagement
Audience engagement and loyalty go hand in hand. When guests are engaged, they’ll feel a stronger connection with the event, which increases the chance of them returning to attend other events. The EventManagerBlog claims that live-response tools can boost engagement and subsequently increase attendance by up to 90% in certain situations. So, how can you promote audience engagement at your events? In addition to live-response tools, you can promote engagement by hosting competitions, games, and discussing your event on social media under a common #hashtag.
Brand Your Events
A fourth way to foster guest loyalty is to brand your events. If a guest from past event sees an upcoming event under the same or similar name, he or she may attend (assuming the guest enjoyed the first event). This is why it’s important to focus on establishing strong brand visibility for your events, before, during and even after the event has taken place.
Offer Loyalty Incentives
Of course, you can also encourage guests to attend future events by offering them some type of incentive. For instance, you could use a point system in which guests earn X amount of points for attending an event (or performing other actions). After they’ve collected enough points, guests can redeem them for free products, gift cards, special discounts, VIP membership passes, etc.