You've just delivered a successful live event, but your work is not over yet. How do you wrap up the event with a memorable closing and follow-up message that reinforces your key takeaways, shows appreciation, and encourages further engagement? Here are some tips to help you craft effective event closing and follow-up messages.
The tone of your event closing and follow-up messages should match the tone of your event. If your event was formal and professional, use a similar tone in your messages. If your event was casual and fun, use a more relaxed and friendly tone. The tone should also reflect your brand voice and personality, as well as your relationship with your audience. Avoid being too stiff, boring, or salesy, and instead focus on being authentic, relevant, and helpful.
The tone of the closing event should have presence and assurance similar to the actual event. Reinstating what happened and highlighting critical areas in an upbeat, energized fashion is essential to relate to what has happened to the reader.
Your event closing and follow-up messages should summarize the value that your event provided to your audience. What were the main points, insights, or learnings that they gained from attending your event? How did your event address their pain points, needs, or goals? How can they apply what they learned to their own situations or challenges? Use clear and concise language to highlight the key takeaways and benefits of your event, and remind your audience why they invested their time and attention in your event.
When summarizing the value or concentrating on the event's focal point, it is critical to do it concisely and directly so the reader can maintain focus related to the event's purpose. By creating a direct line to the narrative, a reader will leave your closing statement with a clear understanding and a call to action.
Your event closing and follow-up messages should show gratitude to your audience for participating in your event. Thank them for their interest, attendance, feedback, questions, or contributions, and acknowledge their role in making your event a success. Express your appreciation sincerely and personally, and avoid generic or clichéd phrases. You can also show gratitude to your speakers, sponsors, partners, or team members who helped you create and deliver your event, and give them credit for their expertise, support, or collaboration.
Your event closing and follow-up messages should include a call to action that invites your audience to take the next step in their journey with you. Depending on your event goals and audience needs, your call to action could be to download a resource, sign up for a trial, book a consultation, join a community, register for another event, or share their feedback. Make your call to action clear, specific, and compelling, and provide a link or a button to make it easy for your audience to act.
Your event closing and follow-up messages should add some personality to make them stand out and resonate with your audience. You can use humor, storytelling, emotion, or creativity to make your messages more engaging and memorable. You can also use images, videos, gifs, or emojis to add some visual interest and flair to your messages. However, don't go overboard with these elements, and make sure they are appropriate for your tone, brand, and audience.
It is critical to use its twist and style to add some personality. Adding humor, pictures, and videos within a clear and concise text is the correct pattern to go along with. Using emojis and gifs is less, as it distracts the reader from the focal point of the message and might take away the earlier added elements to the message.
Your event closing and follow-up messages should be sent promptly after your event, while your audience is still interested and excited about your event. Ideally, you should send your event closing message within 24 hours of your event, and your follow-up message within a week of your event. This way, you can capitalize on the momentum and attention that your event generated, and keep your audience engaged and connected with you. You can also use automation tools or platforms to schedule and send your messages in advance, and save yourself time and hassle.
Speed can be a differentiator, but don't sacrifice value for speed. If you simply respond quickly without providing value, you're missing the point. The follow up should be a continuation of the event experience. Align things properly and you'll be set up for success to keep the conversation going between events.
To plan your event communications effectively, I recommend beginning with the end in mind. This typically involves sketching your key takeaways and reinforcing them throughout each stage, from invites to follow-up messages.