There would be no events if there was no community. However, cultivating a loyal, consistent group of people who return to your events time and again takes effort. Do you intend to hold recurring events? Creating a devoted event community is essential for consistently selling out. However, if you’re just getting started, the prospect of building an enthusiastic following for your events from scratch is likely to be intimidating.
Sure, it’s intimidating. Impossible? No way. It’s all about making meaningful connections with the people who care about your events and letting them know how much you value them.
Welkin Events, a leading event management company in Dubai, has a proven track record and a presence in the UAE market, with a name synonymous with Style, Creativity, and Quality in the Event Management Business. Our professional team has over ten years of experience in events ranging from award ceremonies to road shows. Welkin event, a Dubai event management company, is more than just a facilitator of your ideas; we are your event partners. Working together, our primary goal is to deliver the meeting or event that you expect, more brilliantly than you could have imagined, on time and on budget.
How to Increase Attendance at Your Events by Creating a Loyal Community
A healthy relationship between your event and the community is similar to a healthy relationship between two people in many ways. Respect and empathy are basic tenets of community appreciation, and a positive, long-lasting, and mutually beneficial relationship should be celebrated whenever possible.
Here are some pointers for creating an event community that is loyal, enthusiastic, and always looking for your Next Big Thing. Let’s get this party started.
Consider Beginning With Free Events
Getting people to come to your event when you haven’t made a name for yourself can feel like a catch-22. To attract attendees to your event, you must have a good reputation. Offering free admission may pay off in the long run. This is because it lowers the perceived ‘risk’ level for attendees – if they get free admission, they have nothing to lose by attending your event. It’s also worth noting that there are numerous ways to monetize your events without charging admission. You can provide premium experiences, for example, where attendees can pay for extras if they wish.
Even if you only break even, hosting a few free events in the early stages of your business is an excellent way to begin building that all-important following. If completely free events aren’t feasible for you, consider offering a few free early bird tickets instead. This can help to create a buzz around your event, which may increase ticket sales.
Find Out What People Truly Desire
You don’t have to be intimidated by market research. You don’t need to conduct large surveys or invest in expensive marketing tools to figure out what resonates with your target audience. A quick poll on social media, for example, can give you a great idea of what people want from an event like yours. As a starting point for ten, ask if they’d like to see a specific performer or prefer a specific location for your event.
Inquiring about what matters to potential attendees is a great way to not only make your event more appealing but also to begin fostering that sense of community. By conversing with your attendees, you encourage them to naturally engage with your brand. You’re also sending a clear message that you want them to be active participants in your event.
Ensure That Every Experience Is Unique
If we continue to provide the same, we will continue to receive the same – pretty straightforward, right?!
Music, food, and family activities are common success factors for event management companies and festivals, and they tend to repeat year after year. However, when event managers and committees take the time each year to add creative flair and vibrancy, they begin to create a culture of repeat visitation.
Keep attendees wanting more, keep them curious about what new things or highlights will be next year, and they will have a reason to return.
Develop an Incentive-Based Loyalty Program
This is more likely to occur with accommodations, airlines, and even attractions than with events. However, there is no reason why events cannot provide something similar!
Create a loyalty program that rewards attendees for returning to your event and bringing family and friends. Consider providing incentives such as:
- Admission and ticketing for VIPs
- Backstage experiences
- Free products
We also recommend that you consider implementing a local rewards system to encourage locals to become loyal advocates, as well as publicizing your event to encourage out-of-town family and friends to visit during your event. For example, you could offer a discount on tickets to locals if they also purchase tickets for family members.
Make Your Event Attendees Feel Special
We all enjoy a good surprise, don’t we?
- Always have something unexpected planned for the event; don’t give everything away in your marketing.
- Make attendees feel like they got something extra or a bonus – this could be another musician not mentioned in the program.
- A behind-the-scenes experience for a large number of people, a child performer, a book signing by some of the talent, and so on.
Event management companies like welkin will help you create an event and to give attendees something to brag about and make them want to return to see what the surprise for next year will be. Just make sure the surprises aren’t too big, because you’ll have to match them every year.
Maintain Consistent Communication
Building your event is all about developing long-term relationships with your attendees. That means keeping yourself in the forefront of their minds on a regular basis so they don’t forget about you! In addition to creating feel-good moments every time they interact with you.
Sending out regular emails with updates, news, and even fun, inspirational content can help. We’ve all seen major music festivals slowly reveal their lineups. There’s a reason for this. It generates excitement and anticipation, as well as an engaged audience that is riveted by each announcement.
Be a Good Listener
Listen closely. We’ve all probably heard this advice at some point in our lives. Seek to understand first, then to be understood. Great relationships are built on the concept of giving and then possibly receiving. Invest in your community by listening to and comprehending its needs.
Put Yourself In The Shoes Of Your Audience
It is critical not to undervalue how much the small details of your event can make or break an attendee’s experience.
With this in mind, putting yourself in the shoes of your attendees is a worthwhile exercise in cultivating a happy, loyal event community. Consider what would irritate you about attending certain events and strive to address these issues head-on when planning your own. It’s all about going above and beyond to ensure that your attendees leave your events feeling like they had a truly worthwhile experience.
Be Social Media Responsive
If you notice that people are engaging with your social media posts, you have a fantastic opportunity to bring them into your event community. Responding to comments, likes, and shares ensures that your followers feel heard. Ignoring them, on the other hand, gives the impression that the relationship is unbalanced.
Of course, you won’t be able to respond to every comment, but keeping an eye on things and responding as frequently as possible will help to foster a sense of community around your brand.
Create a Creat Community
Create a sense of community by hosting your event with an event management company as an annual reunion and gathering place for visitors. You can accomplish this by.
- Utilizing a targeted marketing strategy to attract a like-minded group
- Allowing camping on-site
- Including activities that bring people together and help them connect in your event’s programming.
Get It Started Today
The true power of events stems from their ability to bring people together at the same time and in the same place — and we now know that the ‘place’ can also be a virtual event platform. A devoted community, on the other hand, cannot compensate for those occurrences. It simply allows you to connect them so that you can build on that first shared experience to create a true sense of community. As a result, whenever your next in-person event occurs, you will have a loyal following waiting for you. You now have more opportunities to engage attendees throughout the year. In short, an event management company such as Welkin will assist you in putting the ‘unity’ in ‘community.’
Conclusion
Welkin Events is constantly evolving in event management in order to provide customers with the most simple and effective event solutions. Our goal for any Event is to keep the client’s communication strategy in mind and carry this through into the set design, as well as the overall design, from Virtual & Hybrid Events and a comprehensive range of customer support and virtual event production service. We are proud to have a team of event professionals with many years of experience. welkin events a leading event management company will lead the market by going the extra mile with strong determination and a dedicated team of professionals, delivering the same quality results every time.