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? Let me know in the comments!
Get in touch if you’ve got an event, virtual or in-person, coming up that I can help you run email comms for. My calendar is open (after the imminent holiday) to talk all about it: https://calendly.com/maria-malaniia/30min
I will be away on a lovely break over the next few weeks, so will emails about emails. If you’ve got ideas of something you’d like me to cover, let me know!
Happy summer ☀️
Maria Malaniia