How to maximize post-event engagement

Once the doors close on an event, things shouldn’t flatline. All the pre-event prep and game day accommodations that went into cultivating the perfect event experience — whether it was in-person, virtual, or hybrid — help to support event goals, such as increasing sponsor ROI, generating leads, or driving engagement.

To achieve these goals, nurture attendees after they start filing out of the venue or logging off from their home offices. Post-event engagement tactics can encourage attendee engagement and raise satisfaction, making it one of the most important parts of the whole event process.

Learn why and how you should maximize post-event engagement for your upcoming event.

The value of post-event engagement

Post-event engagement can enable a lot of prosperity for your organization. In fact, nearly half (49%) of all marketers say that audience engagement is the largest influence on the success of an event, according to Markletic.

According to the same study, 71% and 61% of marketers use polling and video as a way to keep attendees engaged during an event.

But what about after everything is said and done? Post-event engagement is just as valuable. Some benefits that an event planner can expect as part of a holistic and comprehensive post-event engagement strategy include:

• Healthy and maintained connections with attendees
• An increased ability to nurture valuable leads
• Potential to attract more sponsors for your next event
• A boost in ROI by optimizing attendees’ experiences and driving lead generation
• Invaluable data and insight, such as registration numbers and  engagement levels
• An opportunity to solidify any relationships that have been created

These are just a handful of the benefits that a post-event engagement strategy may facilitate for your business.

What is a post-event engagement strategy?

A post-event engagement strategy is a means of encouraging attendees to stay in touch with you — and each other — after an event has concluded. Most often this is accomplished with content marketing pieces that are complementary to the content delivered at the event, but it reaches beyond that, too.

In addition to engaging your audience, post-event communication can also drive further ROI for event sponsors by pushing event attendees to a piece of content on their website or to their social media profiles. Knowing this, here are a few best practices to keep in mind when building out your own follow-up campaign.

Post-event engagement strategy best practices

Use these tips to build an optimal strategy for following up with attendees.

Timelines for post-event follow up

Wondering when is the right (or best) time to reach out to attendees following an event?

Deploying your post-event engagement strategy a couple of days after your event is a good rule of thumb.

Don’t let it go stale

A post-event engagement strategy isn’t a “set it and forget it” type of thing. While a robust event management platform can alleviate a good chunk of the stress that comes with post-event follow-up, it needs to be continually nurtured to provide the most value — just like the leads you’re pursuing.

Put the information you collect to good use

Post-event engagement isn’t just for show and tell. You can collect a lot of valuable data via these strategies, and it can all be put to use to improve your next in-person, virtual, or hybrid event.

Post-event engagement strategy examples

By getting your post-event engagement strategy (or, better yet, strategies) set up and squared away before your event, you’ll be better positioned to facilitate a post-event dialogue with attendees.

Here are a handful of post-event strategies to consider:

1. Post-event content marketing

Both event marketing and content marketing hold a lot of value for organizations. Combine the two in a post-event environment and you’ll start to realize the value in no time.

What does post-event content marketing look like, though?

Well, it’s not too different from what you might do pre-event, or even as part of your business’s regular content marketing strategy. The main thing to remember is to tailor the messaging of your post-event content marketing collateral to the event itself.

Here are a few ideas:

• A blog post that discusses ideas or topics related to the event
• Videos that recap the experience for attendees and other people who may not have had a chance to go
• Social media posts that highlight some key aspects of the event

2. Create a post-event survey or questionnaire

Sending out a post-event survey or questionnaire is a great way to gather feedback and data from attendees — which is why 90% of virtual event organizers already employ this tactic, according to the same Marketlic study we linked earlier. After gathering the information, you can use your event data to gauge the success of the event and inform strategic decisions for future events. Plus, following up lets attendees know that you care, value their feedback, and want to continue to make the event experience even better for them.

Here’s a tip: Use a mix of open-ended, net promoter score (NPS; scale from 0-10) and yes/no questions to gather a well-rounded data set.

Here are some effective questions for a post-event survey:

• How satisfied were you with the event?
• Which planned event activity did you enjoy the most?
• How likely are you to attend a future event?
• Would you recommend this event to a friend or colleague?
• How did you become aware of this event?
• Is there something we missed that you’d like to see next time?

3. Send out a follow-up email

Sending a follow-up email is a great way to show your appreciation to people who attended (or didn’t attend) the event, but also to point them toward other events — or business-related resources — to help nurture those leads.

Start with a simple “Thank you” or, “Sorry we missed you!” message, and see where it goes from there.

P.S. This is also a great way to distribute your post-event survey, too.

4. Roll out an event-related drip marketing campaign

Don’t stop with a simple expression of gratitude. Instead, use it as a jumping-off point for an entire email drip marketing campaign. Repurpose some of your event marketing content and drip-feed it to your contacts to boost engagement.

5. Take advantage of social media

A social media post provides a great way to maximize engagement after everyone has gone home (or closed their laptop).

Sending en masse post-event communications through social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter is a great way to connect with your audience — whether that’s people who attended the event or missed out this time. Unsure about what to share? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Post-event recaps
• A “thank you” message
• Sponsor-specific content
• Photos from the event

And don’t forget to interact with your engagers, too! Reply to and like people’s comments and interact with their profiles to foster that connection even more.

Using event technology to your advantage to maximize engagement

Post-event engagement may seem like a pretty big undertaking or responsibility. 

While developing and implementing effective post-event engagement strategies certainly requires (and deserves) some attention, it doesn’t have to be tedious or far-fetched.

A proper event management platform should offer all the tools you need to support your event professionals in their mission to facilitate that ever-important post-event dialogue with attendees. Webex Events is one such platform that offers end-to-end, full lifecycle management.

Here’s how:

• Event Communities: Build virtual communities to continuously engage attendees year-round with networking, topic-based discussions, and exclusive content.
• Attendee Networking: Give your attendees the tools they need to connect on their terms.
• Data Dashboard: Get actionable, real-time, valuable insight from your events to drive continuous improvement.

Ready to maximize your post-event engagement? Request a demo today.