Elevating B2B conferences with before-event automation

Your before-event stage is crucial in setting the tone for your conference and generating excitement among potential attendees. Automation can help event marketers manage several key tasks during this stage, including:?

Social media promotion to educate and build urgency: You’ll already know that automated posts can be scheduled on various social media platforms to build interest and awareness in the conference.?Take this one step further by creating a workflow to send out social posts when specific numbers of spots have been booked or tickets sold. For example, in the instance that 80% of spots for the conference have been blocked, a social post indicating the same can help create a sense of urgency/FOMO and prompt last-minute holdouts to sign up or book.

Registration confirmation emails to nurture interest: Automated emails can be sent to registrants immediately after they sign up for the conference. These emails can include information about the conference, instructions for accessing the conference platform, and a schedule of events.?Based on the information you collect from your registration forms (for instance, the track the attendee is most interested in), your emails can be personalized to an attendee's interests (the header image featuring critical speakers in that track). It's a small step that can make your attendees feel seen, heard, and understood. Without automation, you would have to input email addresses manually, segment them into specific lists and send out email blasts on different days and times.

Calendar blocks to improve turnout: Triggering an automated Google Calendar block when someone registers for your conference is one of the best ways to keep the conversion rate from registration to attendance high. It’s a simple heads-up and reminder to a registrant to show up.

Reminder emails to also improve turnout: 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day, so automated emails are a no-brainer. Send automated emails to remind attendees that the conference is one week away, three days away, one day away, and then 1 hour away to keep the event on their radar.? Plan in a drip of content updates such as ‘Here’s a new speaker we added,’ ‘Here is some new information on what we’re doing,’ or ‘Here are some other folks you can expect to see there.' On the event day, reshare important information such as details about the venue (transport, parking, accessibility) or virtual forum (login links). This will help to increase turnout.

And automate WhatsApp messaging as well. Sending updates to registrants’ WhatsApp accounts is an incredibly efficient way to reach them where they are.

Chatbots can do much talking for you: Setting up a chatbot on your landing page can help interested conference-goers get quick responses to questions. This can help reduce the burden on you and your team and provide attendees with fast and accurate information. The chatbot can go as far as sharing personalized session recommendations based on answers provided by the attendees about their interests and goals - i.e., ‘Here are the [sessions] that we think can provide you with value’ or ‘Here are the people you should meet with because we know they’re also going to be there.’