4 Ways to Leverage Post-Event Momentum

The first few months post-event might be the most important part of your event program. Your team planned carefully and executed flawlessly, and your experiential marketing event went off without a hitch. What’s next? Keep going.

In addition to analyzing the data collected pre-event and on-site to find out what worked and what didn’t, leverage the momentum created by the event to deepen connections with your target audience.

Whether the event was a pop-up shop, an activation, or a trade show appearance, it has the potential to continue increasing awareness and capturing consumers’ attention for weeks or months. Here 4 ways to keep the energy alive, and build off the buzz of your event.

1. Build followup into the event from the beginning

From the earliest planning stages, create ways to collect both data such as attendance numbers and attendee information such as email addresses and social media handles, which will help you reach out to them later. “Don’t save your post-event strategy for the last minute,” splashthat advises. “Starting thinking about it early on so that after your event, you can jump right into executing that strategy.”

Make sure your social media handles, the unique hashtag created for the event, and your website’s URL are prominently displayed throughout the event; data from social media will be a crucial piece of post-event followup because it’s another way to reach out. Track social media metrics such as the number of people who used the event hashtag, mentions of your brand, and overall social media engagement (likes, comments, shares). Monitor website traffic too, particularly on landing pages related to the activation. Gather this information before, during, and after the activation to create a fuller picture of where, how far, and with whom the event moved the needle.

While attendees’ social media handles (derived from online engagement or requested on-site) are one means of following up post-event, email is a more direct and powerful means of connecting, notes a recent post from braindate.com. Email addresses can be obtained from registration forms or a “guest book,” or incorporated into the event itself — such as by requiring attendees to enter email addresses to enter a contest or use a kiosk or play a game within the pop-up or booth.

2. Survey or interview your team and attendees

Assess how well the event flowed and whether it met your brand’s goals by following up with team members, brand ambassadors, and attendees. Direct, one-on-one followup such as a survey or interview yields a wealth of subjective information that can help guide development of the next event as well as identify themes or elements to mention in followup emails, blog posts, or website content.

Interviewing Staff and Influencers

Talk to or poll staff, street team members, brand ambassadors and any influencers or content creators you collaborate with. Ask them to gauge the mood or vibe of the event, especially any strong positive or negative reactions. Find out from them what made attendees pay attention, laugh, ask questions, or otherwise engage. Note any aspects of the event that attendees seemed to struggle with or not understand, and questions they asked. All of this can help personalize post-event communications to the target audience.

“Ask staff to pay attention to how people are interacting with them and what they’re saying about the brand,” says Zen Media. By talking to team members, you can get a good idea of whether people feel more positive or negative overall about your brand after the activation. By talking to influencers or content creators, you can find out how well the event connected with the target audience.

Surveying Attendees

A survey accomplishes at least two things: (1) it collects valuable information about how the event connected with attendees and (2) it tells attendees that your brand cares.

Using an online survey tool like SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, or Google Forms, create a survey for attendees and share it with them via email or social media, or a link on a landing page or gallery of event-related information. These tools store and analyze data as surveys are completed, saving your team time and hassle in analyzing results.

Timing of the post-event survey is key. A few days up to one to three months post-event is ideal. “Time can erode recall and reduce willingness to participate,” notes an article on portma.com.

Keep the survey short — no more than 5 to 10 questions — and use a mix of yes/no, multiple choice, Likert scale, and open ended questions to keep survey takers engaged and produce both numerical data and subjective impressions. “Open-ended questions do require more thought and effort from attendees,” notes proprofsurvey.com, but often the really good information is in those “essay” responses.

Offer an incentive for completing the survey, thank participants for their time, and be transparent about how you will use the information. Providing contact information such as email or a phone number for participants who have questions or want to discuss their experience both opens a door to future connection and gives attendees a forum for addressing confusion or complaints.

3. Reconnect with attendees

Following up with attendees post-event, says UK-based agency Fizz, shouldn’t be an afterthought: “A brand needs to consider what they can do to continue the relationship with the consumer after they’ve moved on to the rest of their day.” Maintaining the relationship might look different from brand to brand, but often it’s done via email, web, and social media.

A simple thank-you email to attendees is a good start, advises Splashthat.com. Consider sending a “sorry we missed you” email to no-shows — one that fills them in on what they missed and includes a link to event-related content on your website.

When your brand’s next event is on the horizon, an email invitation to both attendees and no-shows can make them feel like VIPs, and let them know they haven’t been forgotten.

Building a post-event page on your website lets attendees relive the experience (or see what they missed). The event landing page created early in the planning process to help interested people find details is a great place to do this — simply transition the content from “here’s what will happen” to “here’s what did happen.”

“Make sure you showcase every part: the speakers, the food and drinks, the entertainment,” interactive elements, and the overall look of the event. Splashthat also recommends including a “sizzle reel” or recap video, photos or a gallery of photo booth images, tweets and posts from the event hashtag, and fun statistics from the event, such total attendees, snacks eaten, or samples handed out.

4. Keep the energy alive through social media

On social media, your brand can continue to build awareness and gain customers by reminding attendees what they loved about the experience and creating a little FOMO among followers.

Sharing behind-the-scenes content produced by your team before and during the event is a great way to keep attendees “in” the event long after it’s ended and help non-attendees feel more connected to the brand.

Don’t forget that attendees have probably taken photos and shot video at the event — especially if your pop-up or activation included photo ops like backdrops and interactive settings — and they’ll be looking for recaps online. Share user-generated content on social media, and encourage attendees to do the same.

Experiential marketing takes time, creativity, and a lot of hard work. Get the most out of that effort and expense, and keep your brand on consumers’ minds, by using post-event strategies that build connection and generate buzz around the brand and its future events. By implementing these strategies, you can maintain some of that live-event energy post-event and leverage it to make future events more successful.

Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing agency based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile Marketing has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Get in touch to discuss your next project.