Tag: attendee engament

How to Map Out the Event Attendee Journey: 5 Key Steps

  • Event Management
  • EventUp Planner Contributor
  • August 20, 2024

Creating an amazing attendee experience is the key to a memorable event. But how can you ensure every single touchpoint meets and exceeds expectations?

The answer lies in mapping out the complete event attendee journey.

An attendee journey map is a visual representation of all the interactions and experiences your attendees will have before, during, and after your event. It allows you to get inside the minds of your attendees and proactively identify potential friction points to ensure a seamless experience.

In this post, we’ll explore 5 steps for creating a magnetic event attendee journey map. By the end, you’ll be equipped to design an outstanding event experience that runs smoothly from start to finish.

What Is an Event Attendee Journey Map, and Why Do I Need One?

An event attendee journey map outlines every interaction and touchpoint your attendees will experience, from the moment they first hear about your event until after it ends. It charts the full process of how attendees discover, register, prepare for, travel to, participate in, and follow up after your event.

Why do you need one? Because knowing your attendees’ thoughts and feelings at each stage is the key to creating an ah-mazing journey they won’t soon forget.

Think about it — a corporate executive searching for an industry conference has totally different needs than a music lover looking for the hottest local concert. The executive may prioritize networking opportunities and educational sessions, while the concertgoer cares most about the lineup, venue experience, and merch.

No matter if your event is in-person, virtual or hybrid, an attendee journey map ensures you design experiences that resonate with your specific audience:

  • Virtual and hybrid events require mapping digital touchpoints like email communications, online event registration and ticketing, and virtual event platforms.
  • In-person events need to account for logistical details like venues, travel, accommodations, and the on-site experience.

The format may change, but comprehensively mapping the full event attendee journey is what lets you level-up the attendee experience!

What Are the Benefits of Mapping Out the Event Attendee Journey?

Mapping out the event attendee journey pays major dividends — both for your team and for attendees. Here are some key benefits:

Benefits for you and your team:

Benefits for your attendees:

  • Ensures attendees interact with your event in their preferred channels and formats
  • Delivers personalized journeys that resonate with their wants and needs
  • Builds excitement and anticipation at every stage
  • Reduces frustrations and potential negative experiences
  • Cultivates long-lasting engagement that extends beyond the main event

The biggest benefit? An attendee journey map enables a truly attendee-centric strategy vs. a company- or profit-centric approach.

Too often, events are designed primarily around a company’s needs or goals with the attendee as an afterthought. But putting attendees at the center from start to finish leads to outstanding experiences that keep them coming back. 

Moreover, an event management platform with attendee journey mapping baked in allows you to visualize the experience through their eyes. In turn, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions on the right:

  • Messages to send (and when)
  • Platforms and channels to utilize
  • Offerings, activities, and engagement opportunities to provide

The result is a thoughtfully crafted journey that exceeds expectations at every turn.

5 Steps to Mapping out a Thoughtful Event Attendee Journey

Crafting an exceptional attendee journey involves understanding and optimizing for 5 key stages. Here’s how to apply them to your next event:

1. Awareness

This is where potential attendees first learn about your event. Your goals are generating buzz and educating them on what to expect.

For large conferences or roadshows, some common awareness activities include:

  • Social media promotion and influencer collabs
  • Paid digital advertising
  • Direct mail campaigns
  • PR/earned media efforts

For smaller virtual events like webinars or trainings:

No matter the format, think top-of-funnel brand awareness strategies that pique curiosity.

2. Consideration

Now that your target audience is aware, it’s time to nurture them with more detailed information so they can evaluate if your event is a good fit. Again, consideration activities vary by event type:

For in-person conferences and seminars:

For virtual events:

  • Downloadable event guides or agenda overviews
  • Sneak preview videos
  • Messaging that highlights interactivity and accessibility

But don’t just promote willy-nilly! Target your nurturing based on observed interests and behavior using your event management software.

3. Decision

You’ve raised awareness and nurtured leads. Now’s the time to motivate commitment and conversion using your event registration tool:

  • Limited-time offers or early bird pricing
  • Seamless, frictionless registration paths
  • Prominent calls-to-action and social proof
  • The ability to purchase passes and add-ons

Remove any barriers to registration, whether technical challenges, convoluted flows, or lack of payment options. Your event registration platform is your best friend here.

4. Retention

So they’ve registered — awesome! But nurturing the event attendee journey doesn’t stop here. Now you need to retain their interest and excitement. Here’s how:

At this stage, it’s important to stay top-of-mind and keep building anticipation right up until showtime. 

5. Loyalty

Even once your event wraps, look for opportunities to foster long-term loyalty and engagement:

The goal? Keeping your event burned in their memory as an outstanding, irreplaceable experience.

FAQs about Mapping a Thoughtful Event Attendee Journey

Does the event format (in-person, virtual, or hybrid) significantly change the attendee journey map?

The core stages of the attendee journey remain the same regardless of your event’s format. However, virtual and hybrid events require mapping different touch-points and channels vs. traditional in-person events. 

For example, digital channels like email, virtual event software, and online registration become critical for nurturing virtual attendees. 

For in-person events, you’ll build more logistical details and info about the on-site experience into your map. 

How should the journey map differ for big events like large annual conferences versus smaller, more internal events?

With bigger events like conferences, the awareness and consideration phases are more extensive as you’re marketing to a wider audience. More touchpoints are required for activities like social promotion, email nurturing, webinars, etc. 

For internal meetings, your colleagues are already aware, so nurturing can be more lightweight through channels like the company intranet, team messaging platforms, and calendar invites. 

Regardless of scale, each segment of your map carries different priorities.

What data should I collect and analyze for event attendee journey mapping?

Every interaction is an opportunity for data collection.

Website engagement, email open/click rates, social sentiment, session ratings, in-app survey responses — they all provide insightful attendee behavioral data. 

Leverage your event management software to pull together and make sense of this dispersed but valuable info, and ensure that you’re hitting your key performance indicators (KPIs).

How frequently should I update the attendee journey map for my events?

Treat your journey map as a living document that’s regularly revisited and optimized based on attendee data and feedback. 

At minimum, do a full analysis post-event to document successes and areas for improvement. Then tweak the map for better alignment with attendee needs for your next event cycle.

What’s the ideal balance between attendee experience and logistical/operational needs?

While you certainly need to account for logistics, the attendee’s wants, needs and journey should take priority when there are conflicts or tradeoffs to make. An exceptional experience that surprises and delights is what keeps attendees coming back year after year. Leverage your event planning software to improve operational efficiencies behind-the-scenes.

Create a Better Attendee Experience with Leading Event Management Software

Delivering an exceptional attendee experience means mapping out every interaction from initial awareness to post-event follow-up. But juggling all these touch points across formats is no easy feat.

This is where event management software like EventUp Planner by Tripleseat really shines. 

With EventUp Planner, you get all the tools to seamlessly visualize and optimize the complete attendee journey — whether your event is in-person, virtual, or hybrid. 

From marketing automations and seamless registration, to agenda management and robust post-event analytics, EventUp Planner keeps engagement high while streamlining your process behind-the-scenes. 

Don’t just “wing it” with your events — level up your attendee experience with comprehensive journey mapping powered by EventUp Planner.

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Continuing the Conversation: Keeping Attendees Engaged After a Virtual Event

  • Event Management
  • April 11, 2024
Continuing the Conversation: Keeping Attendees Engaged After a Virtual Event

The virtual event has come to an end; the last of the breakout rooms have closed, and attendees are logging off. But while the virtual conference may be over, the conversations and post-event reporting shouldn’t have to stop there. Luckily, there are many opportunities to continue building relationships with other attendees and expand your professional network long after the virtual event has concluded.

Why is Retention Important Post-Event?

Whether it’s clients, customers, or potential candidates for vacancies, retaining audiences from your virtual events is a critical component of success. It sustains your event’s impact and helps you build a loyal community of interested participants. It also saves time for future events since you already have a list of interested attendees who are likely to join you again.

Fostering long-term relationships with your attendees provides endless networking opportunities and future collaboration opportunities. Retained attendees are likely to act as brand advocates for your company and your events, which can help increase attendees and boost revenue through registrations and sponsorships.

Provide a Post-Event Landing Page

It’s common for individuals to juggle a multitude of tasks simultaneously—whether it’s managing a dozen tabs on a web browser, navigating through a plethora of smartphone apps, or sifting through a backlog of emails and messages.

To captivate the attention of modern audiences, it’s vital you offer them a virtual destination to go to. By establishing a digital hub where attendees can autonomously explore content tailored to their interests, you can maintain their engagement throughout and beyond the event. Utilizing virtual assistants to manage these hubs gives attendees a chance to ask questions or communicate with your brand, sustaining their involvement throughout and following the event without compromising your productivity.

Leverage Social Media Hashtags

One effective way to continue conversations after a virtual event is to leverage social media and networking platforms to stay in touch with connections made. During the event, be sure to share your social media handles and profiles, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, to allow fellow attendees to connect with you on those channels afterward. Creating event-specific hashtags will also help attendees find others from the event and keep in touch within one digital space.

Many virtual event spaces also have networking features built into the platform itself. Be sure to use tools like direct messaging, chat functions, and the ability to schedule meetings to reach out to and set up future conversations with your new contacts.

Maintaining an active presence on social media channels gives you an easy way to stay top of mind for fellow attendees and nurture those relationships after the virtual environment dissolves. Utilizing a variety of social networking tools and communities gives you accessible avenues to continue conversations with connections as you build your professional relationships.

Build a Content Strategy Around Virtual Event Content

You’re likely well-acquainted with the concept of repurposing content, a strategy that involves recycling existing event content to generate additional value for your audience. But it can be a powerful way to re-engage your attendees after a virtual event, reminding them of the value provided on the day and encouraging them to return to your site and brand again and again.

One approach is to transcribe the event audio, transforming it into a compelling blog post. Craft an enticing introduction and conclusion, complemented by eye-catching graphics. Don’t overlook the importance of embedding the original video within the post to enrich the reader’s experience.

Another strategy that can be part of your overall marketing campaign involves compiling the event’s content into an eBook once a substantial amount of information on a particular topic has been accumulated. Gathering resources from various webinars allows you to design resources that offer significant value to your audience.

Conduct Virtual Meet-Ups

Conducting small virtual meetups after the event will help nurture relationships and mimic the virtual event itself, albeit on a smaller scale. Consider scheduling short 30-minute video calls as an easy way to continue the conversation with your new contacts one-on-one or gather in a small group setting to chat industry news or discuss topics from the event in more detail.

This virtual version of the classic “coffee chat” provides a low-pressure opportunity to learn more about each other’s businesses, interests, and goals. You can also organize informal virtual meetups like a “happy hour” for fellow attendees to mingle in a more relaxed, conversational setting. Setting up video calls around shared industries or professional roles is another way to network with small groups who have common ground.

These bite-sized, casual virtual interactions allow you to nurture budding relationships in a comfortable environment where connections can develop organically. They require little time commitment but go a long way in cementing new relationships established at the virtual event.

Send Personalized Outreach

One of the most effective ways to continue conversations from a virtual event is through personalized outreach and follow-up with attendees you connected with. Be proactive in emailing, messaging through social media, or tagging attendees with whom you want to stay in touch post-event. Share relevant articles, resources, or information you referenced in your previous conversations, which will serve as a natural reminder of your discussion. Email marketing tailored to the event and the attendees can also be a highly effective way to keep the conversation going.

Personalized outreach shows you were genuinely interested in the conversation and relationship, not just networking for networking’s sake. Follow-up also provides low-pressure avenues to schedule future calls, ask questions, or exchange ideas. A thoughtful email or message goes a long way compared to more passive methods of connection. So be proactive in reaching out with targeted, meaningful follow-up to show fellow attendees the value you found in meeting them.

Virtual events have opened up new opportunities to connect and network with fellow attendees from anywhere. But just because the event has ended doesn’t mean the conversations and relationships have to. With intentional effort, you can leverage digital tools, strategic outreach, and shared event experience to foster meaningful professional relationships beyond the virtual conference.

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