3 Strategies to Maximize Event Attendee Engagement

Planning an experiential marketing event to showcase your brand requires a spirit of innovation and creativity because the most successful events are those that surprise and delight their audiences. So how do you bring that surprise and delight to life? A big part of it comes with the event staff you hire. They bring the energy, excitement, and, most importantly, the 1:1 engagement with your target customers. But first, your staff needs the right tools and strategies to make the customer engagement memorable, so the brand impression and earned loyalty last longer. Read on for three key event planning strategies that maximize event attendee engagement.

HOW TO MAXIMIZE ATTENDEE ENGAGEMENT AT YOUR NEXT EVENT

Photo: Event Marketer

1. Localize

Event marketers that plan activations across the U.S. have more success when they consider the unique characteristics and culture of the individual cities. Audiences often have enormous local pride, and leveraging those attitudes creates a deeper connection between the customer and the brand. And hiring local event staff means you have a better advantage in tapping into the nuances of the neighborhood. They’ll have a faster time relating to and connecting with the target, so it’s easier to deliver the brand message. Local event staff can also give valuable insight into the audience ahead of the event, so there are fewer unexpected surprises.

2. Personalize

Events localized to the hosting city see better engagement with the demographic as a whole, but the individual connection ultimately moves the needle toward a goal. To achieve this outcome, events offering personalized experiences generate more time spent engaging with the brand. For example, consider events where customers are invited a customize a promotional item such as a t-shirt, tote bag, or other brand swag. The time it takes to make choices, apply selections, and deliver the final product is additional time for the event staff or brand ambassadors to have genuine conversations that leave a favorable impression of the brand.

3. Incentivize

It’s a Marketing 101 tactic, but with a twist. Audience incentives at events such as giveaways or contests count as passive engagement – especially if you are only after their first-party data and not much else. But when the giveaway transforms into an interactive activity, the brand engagement becomes much more tangible and notable. Gamification is a powerful marketing tool, so surprise and delight your audience by engaging them in a friendly competition against the event staff. The opportunities for connection, conversation, and easy banter are sure to last as long as there are no losers!

Event marketing strategies are prime opportunities for robust audience engagement. Leveraging experiential marketing staff to foster that engagement extends the possibilities even further because they create the buzz and excitement people seek from experiences. So when planning your organization’s next event, think about how you want the audience to experience your brand. Then think through how your event team can bring that experience to life. Positive brand impressions are often a product of a single human interaction.

ATN Event Staffing delivers top-tier talent to generate brand engagement among your target customers. Our expertise makes the hiring process of event teams and brand ambassadors a seamless part of your planning process. Our partners look to us for local, regional, and national events, where we’ve provided experiential professionals for nearly two decades.

Contact us to learn more about our experiential event staffing services and how we can help bring your brand to life!