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Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

  • 1.  Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    Cvent Staff
    Posted 01-19-2022 11:03
    Edited by Ridhima Krishan 01-19-2022 11:05
    Hey everyone! For this edition of Tip of the Week, we wanted to talk about some of the best practices to promote your flex event. Whether you will be hosting your first flex event, or you've been using it for a while, we are sure these tips will come in handy for all here in the forum. After all, marketing is what keeps up the buzz and engagement amongst your attendees!  

    Before we jump on to sharing some event promotion secrets, you may want to check out our previous post on Flex Design Tips You May Not Know, which can help you visually present your event website better.  

    Read on to discover some useful tips to keep in mind on how you can prepare to promote your event in the new experience –  

    1. Start by importing event contacts: Did you know that Cvent allows you to import up to 50,000 contacts into your Address Book at the same time by pulling their information directly from the records you submit? This not only saves you time but also helps keep your data current. Since their information is pre-populated during registration, your contacts can make any necessary updates themselves.
      • Points to note:
      • It's super important to note that in order for your import to be successful, remove any excess formatting, symbols, and punctuation from your import file. 
      • When updating your Address Book, be mindful of empty fields in your records. They will overwrite stored data with a blank. 
      • Choose how you want the system to match your contacts. Since nearly everyone has an Email Address, this option is the most popular. Source ID is best for organizations that have their own internal means of tracking contacts (such as a membership number). 
    2. Create and design an event email: This feature is all that you need to send a personalized copy to everyone who is on the invitation list like it was written just for them. With Cvent, you can design an email template, drop in data tags, and send it to all at once.  
      • Points to note:  
      • Some additional formatting, like custom fonts and rounded corners on buttons, may not render in the recipient's email. This is dependent on the settings of their email client.
      • Any changes that you make to the theme will affect all email templates. If you want to only update the email you're creating: Click Build -> Select a widget -> Click Customize under Styling Options and make the necessary edits. You'll need to do this for each widget. 
      • Depending on the audience you choose, you may not be able to manually send your email to them. Instead, you'll have to schedule it. Find a list of those audience types here.
      • Sometimes email clients have issues with your code or images. To get around this, you can add a link directing recipients to view the email as a webpage. 
      • To better understand the usage and settings of data tags and how to best leverage them to send a personalized invitation with a unique name, refer to this Knowledge Base article
    3. Insert an add to calendar link: The last thing you want to hear from a no-show: "I forgot!" Boost your registrant's memory by displaying an Add to Calendar link on your website, confirmation page, or in emails. They'll be able to quickly add your event or session to their Outlook, iCal, Google, Yahoo!, or MSN calendar. When adding it to their calendar, the time zone will display as the time zone of their computer, not necessarily the time zone of your event.
      • Points to note: 
      • If your event or session is virtual, and you have added the meeting URL and password, the webcast details will also be added to the calendar.
      • You can add up to 300 characters in a "Custom" description.
      • Registrants will have the option to add the calendar request in the following formats: .ics file, Apple iCal/Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook Web.
      • Because Flex events use the .ics file format, the calendar request will open in the default mailing app that the registrant has set on their computer or device. 
    4. Use the share bar: The best marketing is marketing when you don't have to do it yourself. This feature will allow your invitees to share your event on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn directly from your event's website. Once you have configured the Share Bar settings, we suggest adding tracking to trace how many invitees shared your event by adding a reference ID. Make sure it's one you will remember since it will display in reports.

    Questions for you: 
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you? 
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? 
     
    As always, don't hesitate to share your experiences, tips, and feedback below! #CventTip

    #Flex-Creating/ManagingEvents
    #PromotingYourEvent

    ------------------------------
    Ridhima Krishan
    Sr. Associate, Customer Marketing
    Cvent
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    User Group Member
    Posted 01-20-2022 11:18
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you?  Most of our events are private/invite only so we don't really use the share bar feature but for our guests we only include the calendar link to ensure they have reminders, we try and make the best emails we can with eye catching headers and we proof all our invite lists before importing.
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? We try and add the send an email to say if people would like to invite a colleague to join to let us know and use that build up attendees within the range of acceptable attendees.


    ------------------------------
    Rachel
    NJ
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  • 3.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    User Group Member
    Posted 01-20-2022 15:35
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you?  Insert an add to calendar link that is used on every event we build.
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? Know Before You Go email that captures all the important information that attendees need all together in one email. It has been a lifesavor for attendees.


    ------------------------------
    Mary Ann Hall
    Event Specialist
    Federal Reserve System
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    Posted 01-21-2022 05:20
    Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you? 
    • Add to calendar is key, but we wish that it was more customizable. 
    • We always use event emails and track the clicks as well. 


    ------------------------------
    Olivia Popofski
    Event Coordination Specialist
    The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company("Manulife")
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    User Group Member
    Posted 01-21-2022 10:45
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you? 
      • Since most of our events are internal, we use the add to calendar button to ensure our attendees have it scheduled. Our first "public" webinar with the social media share was very positive, as we doubled our typical attendance. With those metrics, we'll be using that more in the future if we have webinars that are appropriate for a public audience.
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? 
      • We will use email and email reminders to continue to promote our internal events.


    ------------------------------
    Beth Vriesen
    Corp Events Registration Administrator
    Associated Bank Corporation
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    Posted 01-22-2022 17:27
    Hi @Ridhima Krishan, thanks for the information. How do you include an add to calendar on emails where the attendee has the option to select Outlook, iCal, Google, Yahoo!, or MSN? I only see a way to add a data tag for add to calendar for the event level or session and it automatically turns into an .ics file upon clicking. ICS is not so easily compatible with google calendar. I only see that option on the event website with all the calendar types.

    ------------------------------
    Evan Ring
    Senior Operations Manager
    Dow Jones & Co., Inc
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    Posted 01-24-2022 02:46
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you?  I import the contacts from previous registrants, and definitely include the Share bar.  We believe we have a good event, and our past participants are the best PR available.


    ------------------------------
    Jennifer Heald
    Vice President
    THREE EAGLES, INC
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    User Group Member
    Posted 01-24-2022 08:06
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you? 
      • We have many events that are private so we generally use invitation lists to invite a targeted list to our events.  At times we do promote internally using weblinks on our company webpage or education page.
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? 
      • We use automated event reminder and know before you go emails to ensure attendees don't overlook the event.


    ------------------------------
    Amy Lum
    Senior Systems and Tools Specialist
    Boston Scientific Corporation
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    Posted 01-24-2022 09:16
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? 
    While the Add to Calendar for emails is great - when it comes to using it for session data, it seems that you have to do a separate email for each session, as you can only select one session code at a time in the data.  This is very cumbersome for events with many sessions and want to use this feature in the confirmation emails.

    It would be extremely helpful that this functionality worked similar to My Agenda - where the data tag would pull the session data in which the attendee registers for.

    ------------------------------
    Judi Kiess
    Program Manager
    SEIU
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    Community MVP
    Posted 01-31-2022 09:02
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you? 
      • We enjoy making use of email customization and data tags
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? 
      • Verbiage on how to share the event with a colleague


    ------------------------------
    Lori Wildman
    Senior Marketing Manager
    DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    User Group Member
    Posted 02-01-2022 08:11
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you? 
      • Always adding the Add to the calendar in the emails and confirmation page
      • Adding data tags to personalize and reduce the number of changes needed (date, time, links)
      • I do miss the question - would you like to invite a colleague and it would add them to the invitation list and send them an invite automatically. This would be a great feature to add to flex from standard
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? 
      • We send 1-3 Know before you go emails for our virtual events. a 5 minute, 2 hour and 1 day so its easy for registrants to find the links. 


    ------------------------------
    ~
    Jo Anna Chapin
    Meetings & Events Registration Lead
    Accenture
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Tips to promote your flex event in the new experience

    User Group Member
    Posted 02-15-2022 07:53
    Hi, So many great tips. Thank you for sharing. 
    • Which of these event promotion features has worked the best for you? 
      • We always use the add to calendar feature and make sure it includes who to contact for questions. 
    • Do you know of any additional flex event promotion ideas that you would want to share? 
      • Some events may have the option to share but most are private and by invite only. We love the Know before you go/attend emails to send reminders and any other important inforation. 


    ------------------------------
    ~
    Jo Anna Chapin
    Meetings & Events Registration Lead
    Accenture
    ------------------------------