Ever want to get more bums on seats?
Over the years we’ve worked with clients who run a variety of different events, from:
- Small live one off events with less than 10 people
- Business coaches who run sales webinars with 100’s of registrants
- High profile speakers who run multi-city events with 1000’s of registrants
One thing is certain. Getting more bums on seats is critical to the success of ANY event. Whether you run an online webinar or an in person event.
In our Event Planning Guide we outline all the elements you need to consider when planning an event, including what the purpose of the event is (free download here if you need help planning)
The common reasons why businesses run events include:
- Generate new leads
- Convert sales
- Add value/deliver for existing contacts
With all your events, it’s not only important to have a purpose, but also have a specific goal. For example to generate 50 new leads or to sell 5 mastermind programs at $5000 each at your preview event.
Whatever your goal is, can you imagine if you generated another 10% attendance at your next event?
What would that mean to the overall performance of your event?
What does that mean to the bottom line of your business?
I had the privilege of speaking at the Digital Marketer Down Under event in August 2018 about “How To Get More Bums On Seats At Your Next Event”.
It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that you need more registrations. Run more ads and you’ll get more people to show up. When in actual fact, businesses can spend a LOT of money getting more registrants, in some cases spend tens of thousands of dollars filling a room….
However the cheaper and easier thing to do is:
Get your existing registrants to SHOW UP!
Like other speakers/event businesses, we too have spent money on Facebook ads filling our events. With Facebook and other platforms becoming more competitive,
the cost to acquire a lead has increased. That’s why we recommend businesses like yours focus on something that you can control and will cost a lot less.
In our Event Attendance Booster guide, we focus on two key points in the event timeline. Firstly, the point in which someone registers until the actual time that they show up. The time in between can be minutes, hours, days, weeks or months depending on the nature of the event.
The important question to ask here is, what are you currently doing between those two milestones to ensure your registrants are ENGAGED, EXCITED and COMMITTED to attending?
What’s working?
What else can you do to boost attendance?
It’s no surprise over the event timeline, people can and do drop off as you can see in the image below. For event organisers, maximising two key periods during the event journey will help ensure boost your event show up rates. Firstly, the exact moment after someone completes their registration and goes to the thank you page and the next 48 hours. Secondly, it’s in the hours or days before the event when life and/or excuses can easily get in the way impacting your show up rates.
What can you do during those critical times and throughout the lead up of your event to ensure that you get as many people to show up as possible?
One of the strategies mentioned in our Event Attendance Booster guide, saw a 30% boost in attendance of a recent business. All of our clients who run live events utilize this strategy and it’s so simple to implement (check out #10 in the guide).
We love events and love businesses who value leverage to utilise events to help grow their businesses.
Be sure to review and redesign your experience if needed to boost your show up rates and generate more results on the backend of your business.
(NOTE: Want to get more bums on seats at your next event? Learn the top 10 ways are clients are using to boost attendance that you can implement today. Learn more now!)
