The 5×5 Event Email Framework That Creates Memorable Experiences
When you’re organising an event, sales feel like the biggest hurdle to overcome. You need to sell the tickets to your event in order to run it after all!
But I’d argue that it’s just the first step and that focusing 100% of your effort on sales is costing you income and reputation down the line.
By putting all your efforts into getting the sale, you forget about what happens after your audience buys. And so they end up with a subpar experience once they’ve bought a ticket and are left wondering if they made a mistake.
What happens after they buy a ticket?
Once someone buys in, THAT should be the point where they start getting 100% of your effort and experience! You don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver.
Now I am speaking generally about events, 1 hour long, full day, one day, multi-day, virtual, or in-person. Whether it’s a conference, an awards ceremony, a sports event, a workshop, training, or a social gathering.
No matter the size or type of your event, you need to create a memorable experience.
And this is where I want to draw your attention today.
While you’re focusing on selling tickets and looking for sponsors, ideally, before you begin the selling process, I want you to take a moment, sit down and think properly about the experience your attendees are going to have once they get a ticket.
Today, I do email marketing for events, but my background is in hospitality, and it’s an occupational hazard to put myself in the shoes of my guests and think about their whole journey.
You need to map out the experience you want your attendees to have from the moment they purchase a ticket, through the event itself, and afterwards.
The 5×5 event email framework
I’ve adapted the following framework from my work in hospitality, curating guest experiences in luxury hotels. This is the framework I use when mapping out the attendee experience of any event:
5×5: 5 experience stages, 5 communication categories
5 Event experience stages
- Immediately after purchase
- The wait leading up to the event
- Shortly before the event
- On the event day/s
- After the event
In the midst of the crazy that is hosting an event, a lot of things go haywire, and it’s easy to get too busy putting out fires and forgetting other “less urgent” things.
Don’t let that be you.
And if you’ve sold tickets to your event a year ahead… don’t leave your most valuable audience hanging by forgetting to engage them!
The science tells us that dopamine peaks in anticipation of an event, not during, and drops afterwards (Scientific American & Nature Neuroscience).
What this means for your event is that pre-event engagement emails are essential. They’re creating the highest dopamine moment your attendees will have, so arguably, they are more important than the event itself in creating a memorable experience.
So when you’re planning your next event, whether it’s a short workshop, a full-day conference, or an evening awards ceremony, do this:
- Map out the whole buyer journey for each segment of your event attendees.
- Identify key touchpoints and messages.
- Draft the messages and have them ready before you start selling.
So when it comes to it, you just need to update the information and press send.
5 Event communication categories
When working with clients, I first work out the list of things that they want and need to send to their attendees across the following five categories and across each of their attendee segments (that’s up next).
▢ Logistics
▢ Attendee prep
▢ Agenda/timings
▢ Troubleshooting & FAQ
▢ Fun & engaging comms
Once we understand the scope, we look at the timings and plan the number of emails that are needed to cover that.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach for this, your event, your capacity, and your brand are unique, so it needs to be figured out specifically for you. You can cover it all in as few as 4-5 emails or in 10 or more.
And if you’ve pre-sold your tickets a year in advance, make sure to keep those attendees as engaged as those who bought tickets a few months or weeks before.
If you’re a visual person like me, imagine it as a 5×5 matrix:
Each event experience stage has its own communication needs. This is not a bingo game of hitting all boxes, but rather planning where each communication is relevant for each experience stage.
In order to create a memorable experience for your attendees, using your emails, there are two things you absolutely must do:
- Segment your audience in your email communication.
- Don’t forget about the follow-up!
Let’s dive into each:
How to segment your event attendees for email communication
You’re separating your event ticket holders and attendees from the rest of your subscribers, right?!
Please do remember to do this, the last thing you want is to promote your event to those who already have a ticket. (Unfortunately, not enough people do this!)
Now you need to create a bespoke experience for each audience group.
But Maria, what’s there to segment when all I am communicating are event logistics and agenda? Surely everyone wants to know that?
Well, a lot actually.
You probably have many of these audiences attending your event:
- Ticket holders
- VIP ticket holders
- Sponsors
- Speakers
- PR
- Award finalists
- Judges
- Presenters
So from the get-go, you have several audience groups to keep in mind, not to mention that there are going to be subgroups that you may want to consider.
For example your subgroups could be:
- First-time speakers at your event will likely be nervous and might want to come in early to test the tech.
- Some of your sponsors will need specific information about their booths/tables set ups, while others will not.
You need to adjust your comms for all your segments. Thinking of all of that on the fly as the event is approaching is going to leave you prone to mistakes, generalisation of information, and risk of forgetting key details and touchpoints.
Sending the same email with catch-all updates to your speakers and your sponsors shows them that you didn’t think about their specific needs. That erodes the trust you’ve worked so hard to build.
And sadly, most event organisers are taking the easy way out. Eventbrite sees “less than half of event organisers use segmentation”.
If you want repeat business from your audience, if you want them to promote on your behalf, and if you want repeat sponsorships, you need to do better.
Make the post-event follow-up email count
The research is clear that we remember experiences based on two key moments: the peak and the way that it ends. It’s called the peak-end rule. (Nielsen Norman Group)
Add to that the fact that dopamine drops after the end of the experience. This means that the way that the experience ends will have as much weight on the attendees’ memory of it as the highest peak.
Already lowered dopamine + poor ending = bad memory
Already lowered dopamine + great ending = great memory
How you end your event is how it’ll be remembered.
No matter how great your stay was in the luxury hotel, if it ends with a poor check-out & follow-up experience, it will ruin the whole experience and be remembered as such.
It’s not just about the actual event wrap-up or after-party.
It’s about the follow-up.
By delaying your event follow-up or ignoring it completely, you are letting chance control how someone remembers your event. The stats are clear on this:
- “For every day you don’t follow up after an event, you’ll see about a 20% drop off in engagement.” (Splash)
- “The first follow-up email has a 40% higher reply rate than later follow-ups.” (Stripo)
Your job is to take control of the last touchpoint your attendees have with you and your event. Don’t waste your opportunity.
Plan for a post-event follow-up before the event takes place. Get that drafted so you’ll only need to update a few bits from the event, like pictures from the day, before you hit send.
Make that last message count.
Plan your event email strategy before you sell the ticket
Your attendees, sponsors, speakers, or anyone else who’s invested in you should never wonder if they made a mistake.
From the moment they buy a ticket or decide to support your event in any way, they should feel that it only gets better from here.
For that, you need to prioritise planned, thoughtful, personalised email communication.
For more content like this, sign up for my twice-weekly emails about email marketing for event organisers.
Maria Malaniia,
Email Marketing Concierge