Does this ever happen to you: you put in all this time, money, and effort to create an experiential marketing event to remember. And then, no one shows up! So, what can you do? 

Higher attendance at events means more brand visibility, engagement, and more attendees converted to consumers. But none of that matters if you can’t get people through the door. In this blog, we’ll go through how to boost your brand experience attendance and the best practices to help you bring in a healthy crowd. 

Know Your Audience

Knowing your target audience's preferences and interests is the first step to boosting your experience attendance. What do they like? What are their interests and values? How do you meet them where they’re at, like activating at larger events or areas?

When you try to make an experience for everyone, you often miss out on the benefits that specificity brings to the table. Getting specific about who you’re making the event for will greatly increase who attends and engages. Use the data and insights you already have to tailor your experiences to your ideal consumer’s demographics and psychographics. 

Some interesting data to keep in mind: we found that 21-30-year-olds are the most likely to travel over 400 miles to attend an event, but 31-40-year-olds are more likely to purchase your product after a positive experience. Think about your goal and determine which age group is best for your needs. For more data to help you make specific choices on your event, take a look at our 5 data trends we noticed in 2023. 

Create Compelling Event Messaging

Part of encouraging increased event attendance is crafting attention-grabbing and persuasive event messaging. Think about how you’re portraying your event on social media or to consumers through digital ads or email. Are you letting them know that it’s happening, or are you generating buzz with unique storytelling? 

Think about what kind of emotions you’re trying to evoke. Use some of the below best practices for a favored storytelling technique to create anticipation and excitement and drive event attendance. 

AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action)

AIDA is a storytelling framework in marketing that’s been used since the early days of newspaper advertising. There’s a reason it’s been around for so long: it works. AIDA uses four techniques in order to create interest and drive demand: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. 

To gain someone’s Attention, you want to make them stop what they’re doing and listen. That can look like a big exciting claim, a colorful graphic, or even a confession. Whatever it takes to get that tiny sliver of attention. 

Then, you want to generate Interest. You got their attention; now you have to hold it. What makes your event different or interesting? Sometimes, that can be activating FOMO or Fear of Missing Out, which shows how much fun other people have had at your event. 

Now, onto Desire. What are you offering your attendees? This is often where a value exchange can come into play. Giveaways, exclusive swag, games, or raffles are great incentives that, combined with FOMO, can drive a need to participate. 

Finally, Action. Make sure it’s easy to click a button and get all the information an attendee needs. If they need to sign up for an event, have the link go straight to an online booking site. If there’s no signup, try having a calendar widget to help them add the time and date to their calendar for alerts. Make it easy to take action. 

Leverage Multi-Channel Marketing

How are you inviting your consumers and letting others know about the event? Using a mix of online and offline promotional channels will be in your best interest. Use the above framework with a healthy dash of FOMO to create engaging and persuasive promotions. 

Leveraging social media, email marketing, influencers, and other channels can help you maximize your reach. Think about your target audience; who are they listening to, and where are they going for their information? That data can help you decide what channels to focus on or invest your budget to better influence attendance. 

Offer Exclusive Incentives

Creating a sense of exclusivity can help drive attendance. When you offer special perks, early access, or exclusive swag, you incentivize participation. CPG brands often do product giveaways or sampling, while retail brands offer discounts on future purchases or create exclusive experiences like concerts or fashion shows that have limited seating. 

Lean into the exclusivity; what does your brand have to offer during your experiences that they can’t get anywhere else?

Implement Targeted Promotions

One-size-fits-all marketing is starting to become a thing of the past. When it comes to encouraging attendance, you need to tailor promotional efforts based on your audience segments. Have a few different promotions circulating with different marketing messaging for each, aimed at different demographics to increase your relevance. 

This can be different posts for multiple social platforms, an assortment of mailers, or specific digital ads based on cookies and demographic profiles. 

Carefully Choose Event Timing

If you’re having trouble, it could be because you’re accidentally competing with other events that target the same demographic you do. Choosing the right date and time is vital for the best attendance. So do a little research; what are the local events happening around you that you might be in competition with? 

You might also accidentally be on a holiday (although that could work in your favor if you play it right), or your demographic travels during the date you landed on.

Streamline Registration Process

If you have a registration process, or are asking your attendees to RSVP, reducing sign-up friction can lead to a greater amount of registrations. Often, people have to jump through hoops to register for an event, putting their information into a random sign-up landing page that has nothing to do with the brand hosting the event. So many consumers are more wary than ever about how they share their information; anything less than a seamless registration experience can raise red flags and cause them to click away.

Implementing user-friendly online registration platforms that you own can minimize the barriers to entry. Even better, an experiential marketing platform like AnyRoad lets you have a branded, seamless booking experience for guests while collecting vital data and trends on the backend. One dashboard can show you who’s signed up for what, how familiar attendees are with your brand, and more, depending on your registration questions. 

Foster Community Engagement

Events aren’t meant to be just a personal experience. They often bring together like-minded people from the same target audience around community-oriented values. For example, Subaru’s WinterFest brings together skiers, snowboarders, and other outdoor enthusiasts for a music and lifestyle festival. People are more likely to attend when you build a sense of community around an event since we are naturally communal. 

Building on that, encouraging user-generated content and social sharing with your event builds an online network of fans who all feel connected to each other through your brand. Create a hashtag for your event that others can use and follow, or create a Reddit forum all about your event or your brand where consumers can sign up and chat with others or ask questions you can answer.

Post-Event Engagement Strategies

The journey doesn’t end at a successful brand activation or event; it transforms into a unique opportunity for sustained engagement. Post-event engagement strategies play a pivotal role in solidifying the connection you made with your consumer during the experience. 

You need to actively collect valuable feedback from attendees, gauging their sentiments and understanding what resonated most with them. Even better, you can collect all that feedback in the experiential platform you used for registration, and if you’re using AnyRoad, our AI-powered Pinpoint finds the most common trends and associated sentiment to see the biggest things you did right and what you need to improve most urgently. 

Sharing event highlights through various channels, like social media, newsletters, and dedicated event recap content, keeps the memories fresh and encourages broader participation. By nurturing this post-event engagement, brands can keep the positive impact of the experience going, fostering a community that remains satisfied attendees and eager participants in the brand's journey.

Final Thoughts on Experience Attendance

From understanding audience intricacies to crafting compelling messaging, leveraging multi-channel marketing, and offering exclusive incentives, these best practices provide a roadmap for boosting event attendance.

 By implementing targeted promotions, optimizing event timing, streamlining the registration process, and fostering post-event engagement, brands can draw larger crowds and establish lasting connections. The outlined strategies serve as a dynamic toolkit for creating impactful experiences that not only captivate attendees in the moment but also leave a lasting impression, generating sustained brand loyalty and advocacy for years to come.