Have you ever tried to promote a debate or motivated people to join an activity or event? Well, promoting an event can be considered one of the challenging tasks in overall event planning. For once think in a different way, what if you try to promote an event with less audience and awkward silence? The answer to this question is very simple, obviously, you don’t want to drag the audience into an event with no engagement in it. 

Know that, an event engagement plays an important role in an event’s initial insights. Also, it carries the success plan for potential upcoming events. However, event management is the only major metric which involves every aspect of the event and one of them is event engagement.

In this blog, we are going to discuss the strategies between the two stages of the event i.e., pre-event and post-event. Consider the following strategies to boost your event engagement throughout the entire process.

Strategies for Managing Pre-Event Engagement

Engaging with audiences regularly before an event is an important aspect of increasing event attendance and developing interest. Offering audiences a platform to socialise and learn before the event may result in a better-attended event and an on-site experience that attendees spend more time in. Here are the pre-event engagement tips to boost event management.

Maximize Interaction in the Event

Consider making it easy for attendees & potential participants to interact with each other along with the event management team. Always try to respond to the queries asked by attendees on your social media handles. Also, send email reminders to attendees and try to make it simpler for your attendees to easily sign up for event updates.  However, more than 70% of attendees are all open to receiving notifications through texts update. Therefore try sending text notifications for better response.

Event Registration Preparation

No event is complete with the preparation of its ticketing & registration. Consider outlining the process of event ticketing in detail. Therefore, event planners need to plan pre-event strategies and they should know the answers to the following:

• How long is event registration open?
• How many tickets are available?
• Ending date and time of event ticketing?
• Time limit for early birds?
• Offers/Discount for the early entries?
• Will there be any other registration promotion strategies?

Make Use Of Social Media

70% of event planners feel that social media is the most effective marketing tool at their command. Make a Facebook event page, invite your target audience, tag companies with relevant material, and promote interesting, interactive content on the event page. Share high-resolution visuals on Instagram reels & stories to give event updates or exclusive behind-the-scenes stuff. Make it simple for your audience members to sign up directly from your social media profiles.

A Countdown Before the Event 

Create an amazing social media countdown timer or email campaign to run as the event registration deadline approaches on social media handles. You must hear the word ‘FOMO’ or the fear of missing out, which is a potent motivation for consumers. Create marketing content that highlights the event's amazing benefits for attendees.

Listen To The Participants 

Look for dialogues on your Facebook event page, mobile event apps, or other areas where audience members may start a conversation. What are they discussing? Are they inquiring about the event's theme or specifics?  Pay attention to their remarks to gain a better knowledge of your target demographic and generate more informed event marketing. 

Strategies for Managing Post-Event Engagement

Confused about why follow-up after the event? Well, in order to succeed in the long run consider keeping the communication loops open for following up with potential audiences. No doubt in the fact if you put in some effort after the event, then surely you’ll be successful in the next event. There are many ways of staying in touch with your audience.

• After the event, send thank you notes to all guests. A simple email or thank-you message from event team members may make participants feel valued and appreciated, leaving a lasting impression. 
• A follow-up survey should be requested. Keep it brief and to the point, yet ask insightful inquiries. Ask the attendees about their favourite and least favourite aspects of the event, as well as what they would want to see featured in future such events. Make use of their post-event survey comments to demonstrate your commitment to continuous development and to making future events even better. 

• Begin a marketing effort to draw attention to the upcoming event. Send a special discount code for your next event to just recent guests. Show your thanks for their involvement while also building brand loyalty, awareness and creating buzz for future events.

• Send your attendees a highlight clip of the event's finest moments. Allow a member of the event crew to film and photograph event highlights. Consider developing an online picture album or a Facebook Group, or Instagram Page for attendees to discuss and share their experiences. Also, create a hashtag for your event. This will enable all your guests to easily post images and videos using event hashtags.

• Request your guests to share their experiences on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram and Snapchat. Encourage participants to comment and share event content and images. Make a post-event hashtag for event participants to use so you can quickly observe and track their interaction after the event. This will create hype about upcoming events in the public, and that too in advance.

The Final Thoughts

By the end of this blog, you know about the two major things about event management. Undoubtedly pre and post-event strategies play a crucial role in the management of engagement in the event. Without enough reach and engagement, consider the event not up to the mark. Therefore, in order to make your event stand out from the crowd, consider the above-mentioned strategies. Moreover, consider social media integration for more reach and engagement. Always plan your overall event effectively and efficiently. Hope you learned something about pre and post-event management. Thank you for reading!