4 Tips to Re-engage Past Attendees

4 tips to re-engage past attendees

Every meeting planner deals with the same question: how do I get those attendees that haven’t been registering to come back again?

If you’ve lost a portion of your audience, it’s time to put together a re-engagement marketing strategy. Here are four tips to help get the conversation started.

Talk to them directly

Forget the days of writing one email message to your entire audience. Rather than throwing in all of the potential benefits of registering, hitting send and hoping it resonates with your recipients, segment those attendees who haven’t shown up on-site in the past few years.

Because they may have a different opinion of what your meeting offers, you’ll be able to better educate them on how your meeting has changed.

Be honest about your mistakes

Was your meeting failing to deliver a top-notch experience a few years ago? If you’ve redesigned your meeting or added new elements, now is the time to let those past attendees know that you’ve changed.

Be sure to review your past survey results to determine what may have been frustrating attendees, and create communications that educate them on what you’ve done to fix potential shortcomings.

Let their colleagues do the talking

Even when you’re willing to admit that your annual meeting wasn’t everything it needed to be, those past attendees don’t just want to hear your marketing department talk. Conduct interviews with attendees who have experienced your meeting in the past year to collect relevant personal testimonials on the real value of participation.

If you have video footage from last year’s meeting, consider putting together a 60-second teaser video that shows the action and excitement of fellow attendees.

Sweeten the deal

While you may be able to pique their interest with a strategic segmented marketing plan, a price incentive can never hurt. Consider offering an exclusive discount to create a more compelling offer for their return. Let them know that you believe in this year’s educational offerings so strongly you’re willing to give them a more affordable price to ensure they can benefit.