As an event planner, learning how to attract attendees to your event is a key skill to have. An events management business relies heavily on the ability to have participants at your events.

If you are to think about it, an event cannot be considered successful without attendees. Therefore, attracting attendees to your event is at the heart of your event planning activities.

As you embark on a journey of organizing or hosting events, you should have a strategy on how to get people to attend.

My experience in hosting corporate events, golf events, award ceremonies and gala dinners provide me with a wealth of experience on attracting event participants.

There is nothing as bad as hosting an event where people fail to turn up. It is demoralizing and can also lead to financial losses.

People attend events such as conferences for various reasons.

In this article, I will share with you ideas, tips and strategies you can use to attract attendees to your event.

This is your guide on steps you should take to ensure your event has the targeted participants in attendance.

How to Attract Event Attendees

If you are organizing or hosting an event, the first task is attracting event participants or delegates.

This is what you should do if you want to attract attendees to your event;

1. Event website or landing page
2. Use social media
3. Virtual solutions
4. Complimentary invites
5. Leverage smart phones
6. Email marketing
7. Blogging
8. Align with a social cause
9. Get top notch speakers
10. Secure sponsors or partners
11. Create unique experiences
12. Advertise your event
13. Invest in professional photography
14. Use event software tools
15. Hire an event planner
16. Get social media influencers
17. Network at similar events
18. Smooth ticketing process
19. Word of mouth marketing
20. Leverage videos
21. Media interviews

There are many benefits of organizing or hosting events. You can be able to promote your products, increase visibility of your brand and even make money from events.

It is important for you to learn how to attract and increase attendance to your event.

You should use these time-tested strategies, ideas and tips to ensure your event has many participants

21 Unique Ways to Attract Event Attendees

There are good and bad ways to attract event participants.

You should be aware that the tips, ideas or strategies shared here apply to both in-person as well as virtual events..

In this section, I will provide and explain unique ways on how to attract event attendees.

You should ensure that you do or have the following;

1. Event website or landing page

In today’s world, it is a no-brainer that you should create an events website or landing page.

Most people will first search about your event. it would be wrong for them to find no traces of your event on the internet.

You should create a website or landing page.

2. Use social media

To create and build event awareness, you should leverage the power of social media channels.

You can be able to reach more people who are using social media.

This means creating accounts and engaging on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Linkedin among others.

3. Virtual solutions

There has been an increase in work from home or remote working situations in the world.

Events industry has also taken note and shifted into virtual events.

To attract event attendees to your event, you should consider hosting a virtual event.

It is the best way to get more participants.

4. Complimentary invites

As part of your efforts to get more delegates to your event, you should set aside some complimentary access tickets or invites.

You can use these when negotiating with potential event sponsors or exhibitors.

5. Leverage smart phones

Based on your research, you will have a profile of your ideal customers.

It is important to leverage the power of smart phones when attracting event participants

6. Email marketing

While there are many ways to attract event attendees, email marketing remains one of the best ways to invite people to your event.

You can personalize your email messages, and touch your invite’s heart.

7. Blogging

Content marketing is powerful in sharing your messages, creating awareness and generating sales.

Blogging can be a powerful tool in attracting attendees to your event.

However, you should plan and start creating blog content months in advance of your event.

You will also need to learn skills such as keyword research and search engine optimization to achieve success with this strategy.

When done well, this can be engine to drive traffic or potential event participants to your event landing page.

8. Align with a social cause

Another way to attract attendees to your event is to align your event to a social cause.

People like helping or being involved in events that focus on issues or problems facing the society.

It could be a charity golf event or an event aligned to an environmental cause among other things.

Aligning your event to a bigger social issue can help you attract more participants.

9. Get top notch speakers

The type and calibre of the speakers who will be at your event can determine how people perceive you.

You should invite top notch speakers to your event and promote them aggressively.

This will signal to potential participants that your event is not to be missed by anyone.

You can attract more event attendees by using this strategy.

10. Secure sponsors or partners

Sponsors and partners are important to your event.

They help you generate additional income and increase the money you make from the event.

Having sponsors increases your event credibility. This is one of the ways to attract and increase attendees to your event.

11. Create unique experiences

Another idea you can implement to attract more attendees to your event is by creating unique experiences.

This involves developing your event concept to include enjoyable and fun things your audience will experience.

It is also added into the entire process of being part of your event.

That means you should create an event that leaves a lasting impression on the attendees.

12. Advertise your event

One of the easiest ways to attract attendees to your event is through advertising.

This requires you set aside money in your event budget, to buy advertising space in print and social media.

Advertising can help you to increase event participants. However, this is going to increase the cost of hosting your event.

13. Invest in professional photography.

Some of the images you use to promote or advertise your event are very important.

You need quality images that demonstrate the seriousness and professionalism of your event.

To achieve that, you should invest in professional photography.

14. Use event software tools

In today’s world of event marketing, there are tools that have been created to make event management easier.

To attract attendees to your event, you should leverage available event software tools and platforms.

You can use them to promote your event, register participants, sell event tickets and process event payments.

They are also powerful in providing event attendees a virtual tour of the event

15. Hire an event planner

While it might seem easy to organize and host an event, it be quite an undertaking.

To avoid feeling overwhelmed by the work, you should consider hiring a professional event planner.

He or she will ensure your event runs smoothly, and on budget.

More importantly, they can guide you on how to attract more event attendees given it is their line of business.

16. Get social media influencers

Internet is and should be a big part of your event marketing strategy.

One tactic you can use to attract attendees to your event is by leveraging the reach and audience of social media influencers.

These are popular people who have huge or niche audience.

You can work with them to promote your event to their audiences.

For example, use a social media influencer to run a promotion on their Instagram account.

Also, you can have ‘take-over’ the Twitter account for a day or a few hours of a key influencer in your industry.

17. Network at similar events

Your networking skills are very important if you are in the event planning business.

It is possible to leverage other events to attract attendees to your event.

This is because participants you meet might be interested in the kinds of the event you are organizing.

18. Smooth ticketing process

Your event ticketing process can have a huge impact on whether you will attract attendees or not.

It should be your plan to create a smooth ticketing experience.

Make it easy for a potential participant to register, make payment and get confirmation of his or her ticket.

You can achieve this by creating an event app to manage this process.

With most people using smart phones today, ability to get your event tickets on mobile is very important.

19. Word of mouth marketing

While there are many new ways, platforms and channels to market events, word of mouth still remains a big thing.

You should promote and market your event through word of mouth.

Tell a friend, to tell a friend about your event.

20. Leverage videos

Video marketing is on the rise and it is an important aspect of your event promotion plan.

You should find ways to create and share videos about your event across various platforms.

Create videos and upload on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter among others.

The idea is to ensure you are distributing your video content across platforms where your target audience might be at.

Reaching more people increasing your potential to attract attendees to your event.

21. Media interviews

You should find ways to have strategic media interviews.

It is possible to get interviewed by your local business newspaper, TV station and even radio stations.

While you should provide value and information about your industry, you can use those opportunities to mention your upcoming event.

This is a smart way to inform the public about your event, and that can attract some people to attend.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ability to attract attendees to your event cannot be ignored.

As an event planner, your goal is to ensure that people attend the event.

Whether the event is for social or business purposes, having participants is a measure of event success.

Therefore, you should invest in learning how to attract attendees to your event.

If you are selling tickets to your event, having participants will have a direct impact on your event business profits.

This guide was created to provide you with ways in which you can use to attract event delegates.

I hope that you have found it to be useful and of value to you.