big or small
One of the best, and most difficult, parts of email marketing is that, when done right, it’s essentially common sense. But as we all know, common sense is not that common.
I have been thinking about events a lot lately and how it would be cool to work on email marketing for a large-ish in-person event, and how challenging and fulfilling it would be to make it right.
But I don’t yet have that opportunity, so let’s resort to the next best thing, listing the emails that you should send to your event attendees to make sure they have the information they need and are super excited to come!
Bare minimum event emails to send
- Sign up confirmation
- Expectations of further comms and information
- Agenda announcement
- Request for information
- Logistics info & FAQ
- See you tomorrow
These are the mandatory info emails that you need to send to keep the attendees informed of the bare minimum info about the event. But in reality, you need to do a lot more.
The other emails you can send to engage the event ticket holders will depend on the nature of your event and what you’d like to focus on.
Engagement emails for your attendees
- Speakers announcements
- Invitation to additional events before or after
- Reminder about the keynote speakers and their topics
- A poll or questionnaire to learn more about them
- Request to register for the workshops, networking sessions, or additional events
- Virtual event tips & joining instructions
- Preferences and personal info confirmation
- Snippets from previous events to set expectations and build hype
- A story from the CEO or the team about the event
- Updates & changes to the agenda or activities
The purpose of the engagement emails is to build excitement and increase attendance. Which emails to send, when, and how will depend on your unique strategy for the event.
Just because someone bought a ticket, doesn’t mean they guarantee to come. But if you keep them excited and engaged about the event, they will come with the right expectations and may even recruit more attendees!
But communication doesn’t end when the conference ends. After the event, you will need to send follow-up communication to the attendees as well.
Follow-up emails to send after an event
- Thank you note from the organisers
- Testimonials from the attendees
- Share photos from the event
- Speaker’s slides and/or video recordings
- What future follow-ups to expect (if things will take time)
Make sure you don’t abandon your event attendees after the event and ghost them. Keep in touch by adding them to a nurture email sequence and occasionally sending them valuable and interesting information.
It’s a great opportunity to make sure they want to come back again next year and recommend it to others.
Additional email communication for speakers
The invited speakers to your event will need to receive all of the attendee information as well as unique information relevant to them only.
Email communication to send to your speakers:
- Speaker-only invitation to pre or post events
- When and how they should test their AV
- What time to arrive, if different from the attendees
- Which room their talk will be delivered in
- Accommodation details
- Other relevant information that’s unique to your event
Note on virtual events
Running one webinar still requires you to send communication and information, including the actual calendar invite with all instructions and details. That’s the least you can do if you want people to actually join.
If you are running a more complex virtual event, such as a 1-3 (or more) day conference online, using zoom or metaverse type platform, you will need to include specific details about the logistics. Things such as:
- Is registration to a new platform needed to attend?
- Where can I find the correct joining link to the workshops?
- Do I need to register for individual workshops, or do I just join any?
What is your biggest pet-peeve about event communication? Too many emails, not enough, or something else?