It hasn’t ended yet…

Take a profound breath first. You succeeded! The challenging (hardest) portion is over.

But the most crucial aspect of your event schedule is (perhaps) the post event engagement. You have the chance to truly nurture your attendees down the funnel by capitalizing on the buzz created by your event. It sounds like fun.

What’s best? You’ll learn who is more interested in you through your follow-ups and who you should provide priority attention to when it comes to taking the next action, such as scheduling a meeting or inviting them to a VIP event.

A friendly reminder: don’t wait until the last minute to plan your post event strategy. Consider whether your designer will need to develop a post event survey management or an additional email as soon as possible. Does your sales staff understand that they will need to contact your prospects again? So that you can start putting your post event engagement plan into action as soon as your event is over.

Post Event Engagement Strategy – Grab Your Visitors Now

Any post event engagement plan will differ from the next (mostly dependent on the objective of your event), but we think there are a few key components that should be present in every effective post-event approach. These can be combined, added to, or supplemented by anything else your business chooses to do following your events.

You can follow up with your visitors in the following post event strategy:

1. Send an email of gratitude

The least you can do is take the time to express your gratitude to your guests for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend your event (it’s also a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with them). After implementing this post event strategy, send a quick follow-up email; you’ll be astonished at how far this little gesture goes.

The answers to the following inquiries will help you with your event management:

• How much did you like the location?
• How kind and welcoming did you find the employees to be?
• How relevant do you think the speaker is?
• They enjoyed the workshops a lot, right?
• Would you suggest others attend this event?

2. To no-shows, send an email saying “sorry we missed you.”

Don’t restrict your follow-ups to merely the attendees of your event. Let those who were supposed to attend but couldn’t make it know you missed them and then show them all they missed. Send them the event’s post-event page and any pertinent materials.

3. Create a post-event survey to gather information from attendees

One of the most crucial factors in determining whether your event was successful is attendee feedback. You should continue contact attendees after a sold-out event to make sure they had a positive experience. Using Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, or another survey platform, you may easily gather information by generating a survey. Do not forget to limit your post event engagement survey to 10 questions maximum. For a high response rate, “short and sweet” is optimal!

Indicate in your email how many questions there are in the survey or how long it takes to complete (for example, “A five-minute survey”). By offering survey participants the potential to win prizes, you may even encourage them to complete it.

4. Establish an event post-page

Create a post-event page that you can easily change and add to the event landing page you have established to allow your visitors to relive the entire event (or see what they missed). Make sure to highlight each component, including the award recipients, the speakers, the refreshments, and the entertainment. You may use the following as examples:

• Recap or sizzle reel video
• A gallery of images or a photo booth
• A music library
• A collection of tweets using the occasion hashtag
• Slideshows or any other event materials
• Interesting event statistics

Promote it on your social media platforms and let everybody who went (or didn’t) know about it.

5. Host pre-event networking to keep the fun rolling

Meeting organizers are aware of the importance of pre-event networking events in energizing guests and preparing them for the activities and sessions that will take place the following day. However, after-event networking events may be as enjoyable. Social events are a terrific way to keep participants engaged and offer them something to look forward to after the main event.

If done properly, post-event activities and other team-building activities may aid attendees in maximizing the benefits of your event (even after it has ended). Additionally, you’ll be able to facilitate meaningful interactions between attendees and sponsors, conclude your event on a high note, and link attendees with sponsors.

6. Fill out post event survey

Send your guests a post-event survey to get their opinions on the event, including what went well, what didn’t, what they liked most, etc. By doing so, you may improve on your next event.

7. Ask your customer service or sales employees to personally follow-up

Get your sales or customer teams to personally contact attendees (via phone or email) after the event if the purpose of the gathering was to increase sales or customer involvement, whether it be with a pertinent piece of information or a “what did you think of the event?” question.

Remind salespeople that it is always preferable to offer useful, non-sales information, depending on how far along the prospect is in the buyer’s journey, even if it may feel extremely contrary to their nature.

If you hosted a bigger event and needed to decide who to contact first, begin with those who:

• Ahead of time invitation opened
• Came to the occasion
• Apparently appeared to be quite engaged

If you’re following up with leads after a trade show or partner event, be mindful that they may have forgotten they visited your booth (so be sure your staff doesn’t go into the sales pitch right away).

8. Distribute pertinent content

Sending any information that is relevant to the event is a good method to engage your attendees. Even if you don’t already have any material, you should still make plans to generate some before or after the event so that you can utilize it as a lovely touch point later on.

Additionally, your visitors might find it helpful to have any information (decks, films, etc.) that was presented or addressed during the event in their inboxes.

9. Utilize social media

Make sure you share pertinent information on all of your social media channels after the event to keep attendees interested and the memories of the event fresh. You may help guests remember how much fun they had by posting visual images across all social media platforms. Images of speakers and visitors from the event’s day are some excellent post examples for social media after an event. Along with event pictures, you may also share video snippets and highlight reels. If you know who they are, please tag them in the pictures so they can see and spread this material.

It’s crucial to engage with your audience during your event in order to establish a connection with them and demonstrate your appreciation for them. Be proactive by retweeting their comments to your content and answering their tweets.

In order to keep guests interested, you may also hold a contest on social media. It can involve a competition for the best image taken at the event that includes the hashtag. You may award a prize, such as a gift card or a discount on your services, to the participant who receives the most votes or likes. Hosting a contest is a smart move since it encourages user-generated content, where attendees promote your event on your behalf.

10. Invite them to another occasion

Have you got a comparable event to the one they went to coming up? This is a fantastic chance to capitalize on the excitement generated by your most recent event and pique interest in your upcoming one.

It’s up to you and your staff to decide how to continue building relationships with participants after your event is over. You’ll have a better chance of arousing curiosity, starting dialogues, and growing your consumer base if you keep them interested in your brand. Additionally, you’ll pick up important knowledge that you would not have otherwise, including how to improve your events yet further in the future.