How to Leverage Blast Messaging to Keep Attendees Engaged

It’s no secret that keeping attendees engaged is one of the most crucial components to hosting a successful event. There’s nothing worse than meeting your attendance goals but experiencing a lukewarm response from your guests and watching your goals fall short.

One of the most common reasons that events fall short of their objective is because organizers focus all of their energy and strategy on engagement during the event and don’t put enough focus on engagement pre and post-event. 

The problem is that building excitement leading up to the event and staying connected once the event is over can be difficult, if not impossible, without the right tools. The go-to for many organizers is to run email campaigns, but those emails are often ignored or overlooked. Besides let’s be honest - who doesn’t have 500 unread emails sitting in their inbox already?

So how do you create fanatics as your event approaches and keep them engaged after?

With Event.Gives, we have an amazing feature called Blast Messaging that helps you do just that. Let’s take a look at how you can leverage the Blast Messaging tool to keep those attendees fanatical, from start to finish. 

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Pre-Event Engagement

If properly planned, organizers have ample opportunity to engage and generate excitement well before an event ever occurs. The more enthusiasm and anticipation you can build prior to the event, the more successful the event will be.

While emails have been the standard form of communication for some time, most people only periodically check their inbox. More importantly, virtually every single product, service, and company your audience interacts with is likely also sending them regular email correspondence. This typically results in otherwise important emails getting lost in the mix.

With our Blast Messaging feature, though, you’re able to directly communicate with your attendees through text messaging. The instantaneous nature and psychological importance of text messaging makes this a much more successful medium to engage with your audience, as they are far more likely to check their texts. In fact, according to Forbes, 90% of people read their text messages within the first thirty minutes of receiving them. 

Using the Blast Messaging feature through our platform is a great way to build anticipation and welcome your attendees.  You’re able to share important updates, keep them updated on current fundraising goals, encourage them to invite others to the event, and even tease them with previews of auction items to generate excitement before the event even starts.

In addition to getting attendees fanatical pre-event and looking forward to bidding on auction items, you can also use our Ticket Link Blast Messaging feature to share their digital tickets one hour prior to your event! This automated feature helps to ensure your attendees are prepared with their ticket “in-hand” and makes check-in a breeze.  

Engagement during your event

There are also a number of ways to keep your attendees engaged during the event with Blast Messaging.

As previously mentioned, our Ticket Link feature allows you to send out digital tickets one hour before the event starts. Once those attendees arrive, all they have to do is pull out their phone, click the link that was sent to them, and your event helpers can easily check them in through our easy-to-use check-in tools. This eliminates the need for mailing out paper tickets and gives both the attendees and the event team a faster, more reliable experience. 

Once your event gets truly underway, you can also schedule unique messages to be sent throughout your event. This keeps your attendees informed in real-time about the timing of an auction openings, closings, and raffle drawings. You can even use it as a tool for paddle raises! Each tool is focused on keeping attendees engaged and focused while maximizing your fundraising efforts.

Another helpful tool to use during your event is the 'Donation Link' blast message feature, which will direct your attendees to your event's unique URL donation page. By utilizing this feature and simplifying the process for your attendees, we’ve found that donations can increase by as much as XX%.

Finally, at the close of your event, take advantage of the “Payment Link” blast message, ensuring all attendees with outstanding balances can checkout with ease! 

Post-Event Engagement

Different from pre-event attendee interaction which allows you plenty of time to establish communication, the post-event follow up should take place within a day or two following your event. Using our Blast Messaging, you’re able to quickly communicate with your attendees and thank them for helping make your event a success.

It’s important to keep your messages short and simple, as guests are more willing to respond because they do not feel bombarded or overwhelmed with information. Good practice is to lead with a sincere thank you, share the results of the event, and end by teasing the next event. Attendees typically love to hear how their efforts helped you achieve the organization’s goals, and communicating upcoming events will help build excitement and anticipation for the next one!

Interested in learning more about our Blast Messaging feature and all of the other awesome tools Event.Gives provides? Click here to set up a time to chat with one of our Event Success Coaches!