Staying in touch with delegates at your event may not seem important. After all every event is unique and has a different target audience, right? Wrong! Each event is unique but the attendees may overlap. Most of us spend time and money trying to attract new customers rather than retaining existing ones; forgetting the idiom that, 'It is far easier to retain an existing customer than it is to obtain a new one'. There is an excellent chance that the IT delegate may be interested in tickets to the rock show you are organizing next month. So, let your previous customers become your most precious resource.
One of the best ways to retain customers or attendees is by staying in touch with them long after your event has reached its finale. The payoff may not be immediate, in fact, it may be years but it will happen. And, today, thanks to the internet, keeping in touch with attendees is much easier, less time consuming and less expensive than ever before thanks to the internet. Here are some ideas that will help you keep the communication lines open between you and your attendee and build a long and lasting relationship:
Birthday Greetings: This is a simple yet overlooked method. Send your attendee a birthday greeting. You do not have to spend money purchasing a card; an e-card (online card) will suffice. All you need to do is spend a few minutes to send out the birthday wishes. This gesture will remind the attendee of your presence and will help you build a long-term relationship with him.
Festival Greetings: Another simple method of staying in touch is Festival Greeting cards. There are number of festivals throughout the year - Christmas, New Year, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Holi, Diwali and many many more. Again as mentioned above, you do not have to spend a large sum of money purchasing and couriering cards. You can simply mass mail the greeting card to your attendees. Sending an e-card will save not only money but also time.
Email: If you want to adopt a more personal form of communication, you can opt to send your attendees emails. Do not flood the attendees email account with multiple emails containing junk data instead send out weekly, month or quarterly emails that are informative. If you are informing the attendee about an upcoming event, make sure to include a Book Now link that allows the attendee to register and pay for your event easily. One of the main benefits of sending emails is that it is one of the most inexpensive and fastest modes of communication. Sending an email costs the same regardless of distance and the number of people. You also save on the cost of postage, printing and packaging.
Newsletter: Newsletters are another great way to stay in touch with customers. Newsletters are an excellent way to keep your attendees informed about your business from new tie-ups to latest events. This is slight less personal than the email method but it can enhance your company's reputation and increases lead generation. Newsletters should be sent on a weekly or monthly basis and include information such as current event happenings and links to facilitate instant bookings. Newsletters are an effective, trackable and low-cost method for staying in touch with your customers.
Always keep in mind that finding new customers is a time-consuming and expensive proposition, so, even small efforts on your part such as sending a greeting card or newsy email or newsletter can help you build a long and prosperous relationship with your attendees.