Increase the impact of your meetings from 2 days to 365 | MCI The Netherlands | EN

A relevant and well-remembered event is not only addressed to the people attending, but should also aim towards your extended community.

Making sure that you target your focus on both the attendees and potential ones, you can maximise the impact of your event from two days to a full year.

This article is meant to give an in-depth overview of the importance of digital marketing in engaging delegates and extending your meetings’ life-cycle. Regardless of the tactic you employ to enhance your target audience’s interest, divide your focus into three attendee-categories: those who are certainly attending, those who have expressed a desire to participate but might be unable to do so, and, last but not least, those who could potentially be interested. And this applies to all communication strategies prior and after your meetings.

The ‘before’ phase

Creating pre-event buzz in order to build up anticipation and excitement is a process that can start long before the actual day itself. Spreading information across all communication channels and sparking interest through teasers, social media and online campaigns is a tactic that can stimulate curiosity and encourage people to engage with your event.

Gradually revealing small pieces of information to trigger the target audience eventually culminates in a big push of strong reminders and calls to action, highlighting the event’s main selling points. It is important to have a strong digital marketing campaign prior to the event, as it has high return on investment.

Social Media is your ally

Consider social media platforms your friends when it comes to grasping the audience’s early attention. During this phase, it is important to use all available channels to reach as many of the target audience as possible, monitor mentions, connect and interact with potential attendees.

In other words: Be seen. Be active. Activating social media teaser campaigns is a good example of preparing the ground and increasing your target audience’s appetite.

Elluria Breytenbach, MCI’s Global PCO Marketing Director, emphasises “It costs less than 3% of overall registration fee, but can result in a 5-10% increase in attendees.”

Email campaigns for quick wins

It might be the oldest trick in the book, but it is still truly effective. Adding information about your upcoming conference or incentive to your email campaigns is a fast and yet successful way to remind delegates of the big day and the value of attending. There are numerous instances where you can implement this type of strategy, such as incorporating a specific segment into your newsletters, providing Key Opinion Leaders with special VIP invites, even mentioning the event in the signatures of speakers, exhibitors and sponsors.

This is a proven method of raising credibility and strengthening people’s interest in attending your conference. Moreover, as results show from MCI’s previous work, it has generated between 20-180% increase in registrations within the first year of implementation.

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The ‘after’ phase

The time of your event has passed and it now comes down to making it last another 364 days. Based on key learnings from MCI’s 30-year experience in the industry, by prioritising your post-event marketing strategies you ensure that the investment of the event is leveraged to its fullest.

Truly win them over with content

In order to forge strong relationships with key delegates and retain their interest in your brand and future events, there is one central point to focus on; content. Determining the type of content and finding the most suitable channels to disseminate it, are the two first steps to build the foundation for greater impact and engagement.

Again, the emphasis should be placed on your target audience depending on their final decision on attendance. Generally, people who participate in congresses - and especially younger, tech savvy audiences - crave for educational opportunities. As they are beginning to question the traditional one-way communication format, adding an element of interactive learning with insightful information they would like to remember is a catalyst for an everlasting impact. Through the implementation of interactive educational programmes with quality content from congresses, MCI has successfully helped associations to expand to new key markets.

Webinars, session snippets, testimonials and strong social proof of your event’s success can be effective tools to engage with those who ultimately couldn’t make it. The post-event phase is your opportunity to keep them warm and interested in your next endeavours and promote your content as evidence of value to them.

At this stage, it is paramount to lay additional focus on those, who might not have considered yet but certainly should attend next time. The best practice to achieve that is by providing them with carefully selected and highly visual content. Bogdan Manta, Director Marketing & Sales of the Carwash Show Europe, says that triggering videos and images have played an integral part for boosting the attendance of the second European show with over 20%, compared to the launch year. Also, light pieces of information and thought-provoking statistics are an effective way to go in order to increase your chances of motivating them to participate.

Voice of Customer

Spoiling your target audience with quality content is a critical strategy to increase impact and engagement, but you also need to concentrate your efforts on another important aspect. Keeping up the momentum is a challenge, especially since it requires strategically structured follow-ups with attendees. Here, the value of listening to customers, strategically cannot be ignored. Utilising the power of the voice of your delegates can help build stronger relationships with them, as well as new relationships with potential attendees.

Working with long-term clients on various projects, MCI sees that offering attendees a platform to openly provide feedback, shows them that their opinion matters and you extend the conversation. As a result, it increases satisfaction as well as turns them into advocates of the upcoming editions. Another way is to encourage bilateral conversations and peer-2-peer engagement on your community platform, may it be on an app or an educational portal. This way you can leverage the power of word-of-mouth within a set forum.

There is always room for improvement in the holistic event experience. By customising high-quality content and tailoring the interactivity to the three attendee-categories throughout the entire life-cycle, you instantly boost attendee engagement and further extend your meeting’s impact.

And that is, after all, one of the most sought-after goals of associations.