You’ve put on an impressive meeting or conference with stellar printed materials, a luxurious venue, delectable cuisine and informative, on-target speakers. But what happens after your attendees go home?

Before a conference, attendees are excited. They’re about to visit a new place, meet new people and glean exciting information that can help them advance professionally. They take the time to look at the printed materials you send out and to review your website. Some even read email marketing messages they receive from vendors. They make lists of booths to visit and people to meet.

But once the conference is over — and sometimes, long before it’s over — thoughts return to the reports to be written, calls to be returned and colleagues needing a million things back at the office. Your window for engaging your attendees on an ongoing basis dissipates quickly.

Myriad reasons for staying connected

Why would you want to stay connected to your attendees once the conference is over and the next conference is a year away? With the constant deluge of prospective events — other conferences, meetings, training sessions, retreats and more — it’s no longer a given that an individual will continue to attend your conference in the future simply because they attended once.

In the old days, luring back your conference attendees year after year often was as simple as sending them a “save the date” postcard and a program with a registration form a few months later. But in today’s world, attention spans and funding run short. Attendees must pick and choose the events they attend, and they must justify to superiors why your conference is worth the money and lost work time. To maximize ROI for your event and to maintain or grow your attendance, keep your attendees engaged with the following tips.

Communicate via email

Before your event, create a schedule of email blasts to be sent at pre-selected times once the conference ends. You want to email enough to stay connected but not so much that your communications begin to look like spam. About Tech advises that emailing less than every other month will cause your recipients to forget you, while doing so more than once a week likely will annoy them.

Ideally, schedule a thank-you email to go out late afternoon on the last day of the conference. Include a call to action that doesn’t take too much effort; for instance, invite attendees to bookmark your site, where you’ll post presentations along with other valuable news and information. You also can ask people to join a “VIP mailing list” to receive special updates throughout the year and early information about the next year’s conference. This is also a great time to ask attendees to complete a brief survey on the conference experience. Provide an incentive such as a 10-percent off coupon for next year.

Throughout the year, plan to send blasts every two to four weeks with more information about your topics, speakers and upcoming events.

Continue the conversation with social media

In the business world, email continues to reign as the dominant communication method, with 75 percent of adults preferring it over social media for work-related information. However, social media is experiencing phenomenal growth, and savvy businesses are using it to maximize engagement. Encourage conference attendees to connect on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and ensure that you’re updating your feeds frequently with value-added content like blog posts, guest posts and white papers.

Maintain a great conference site

If your conference or meeting is an annual event, it needs a permanent, engaging, easy-to-navigate home on the web, including its own memorable URL — organization.com/conference is a format that’s easy for most people to remember. Your site should be well-organized, including an archive area with content for each year’s conference, along with current content that’s updated regularly.

Depending on your target audience, the size of your conference and other factors, you may want to consider developing an app. However, in today’s landscape, mobile websites typically are easier to use and more economical in most instances, notes Adobe. To simplify your life and to keep things easy and familiar for your audience, work with a web designer who understands responsive design principles to develop a site that looks great on the desktop and on a variety of mobile devices.

At your event, let attendees know to expect all presentations to be posted to the site within a specific time frame, then ensure that it happens. Post presentations in a universal format such as PDF, and optimize files to shrink images for easy download. Clearly label files with a consistent naming convention that includes an abbreviation of the conference name, the year, the presenter and the subject matter.

On a regular basis, add informative content to your site, and promote it through your various communications channels to keep your attendees tuned in to your message.

Lay the groundwork for next time

In all communications with your conference attendees, your goal should be to keep them engaged and, ultimately, returning to your conference year after year. In today’s environment, your audience likely has numerous choices of professional events to attend and a limited budget with which to do so. Keep your event top of mind and your ROI strong by following up with consistent communication via email and social media, a top-notch website and informative, valuable content.

Source

http://email.about.com/cs/marketingtips/qt/et021803.htm,
https://www.adobe.com/inspire/2012/02/mobile-websites-vs-mobile-apps.html,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-rampton/business-mobile-responsive-design_b_5267077.html, https://www.marketingtechblog.com/email-vs-social/