Using Event Software to Manage High Quality Events
Article 2 (Part 1): Email Marketing
Event software is fast becoming the leading tool event managers are using to improve the efficiency of their event planning. This article looks at the types of event software available, and how they can help modern event managers plan successful, effective events.
Planning events can be a very complicated process. Whether it’s a small seminar for 15 people, a conference for 4000 or a team building day for your colleagues – the same stages of event organisation come into play each time. Event managers are increasingly turning to technology to manage part or all of their event planning. This article examines some of the popular event software in use within the industry and discusses how it can benefit event planners and help manage more cost effective, efficient events.
Once the initial event plan has been created and you know what your event is and where it will be, you need to manage your delegates. In order to get people to attend your event there must be some form of event promotion along with targeted invitations. Once people are aware of your event, they need to be able to register in an easy, fuss free way.
Technology and events are coming together more and more, enabling some of the more time consuming areas, such as invitation management to be automated. Using event software means that event managers can spend more time on value added areas such as speaker management and press relations.
One of the most popular modern event software applications is e-marketing, which is the use of email to promote your events. Email marketing has rapidly developed into a sophisticated event software tool and it is now a valid and respected method of promoting your event and sending out invites. Email marketing has many benefits over traditional, print invites;
- Email invitations save you time and money – There is no cap on the number of people you can send the e-invite to and no charges per invite or contact. Using the ‘Forward to a Friend’ feature means that your invite can reach relevant people who aren’t on your contact lists.
- Email event related updates – Attendees get automatic registration confirmations. You can even send automatic updates, reminders, and post-event follow-ups. Automating the updates and reminders allows you to get on with the more complex parts of managing your event, safe in the knowledge that the email technology is looking after your delegates.
- Integrate your email marketing tool with your CRM or database – Email marketing tools can integrate seamlessly with your office systems and CRM packages. Integration with applications such as Salesforce, Microsoft Office Outlook, Excel, Microsoft Dynamics and ACT means that you don’t have to duplicate data or manage your lists in two places – all your data stays exactly where it is, with the email marketing tool integrating directly with no intervention from you or your IT department.
- Get instant reports – See who opened your email invite, who deleted the invite without opening it, who registered, who has paid and more. View useful event reports or export the data for further analysis, allowing you to constantly enhance your invites and messaging, helping you to improve results with each event.
Email marketing tools are now one of the most cost effective and sophisticated ways of promoting your event. No other software tool allows you to monitor reactions to your invite, send automated updates and update your CRM with relevant information. Taking these jobs off your hands allows you to concentrate on other aspects of event management, meaning that you get a more streamlined and efficient planning process, giving you a higher ROI on the events you manage.
Click here to read Part 2: Using Event Software to Manage High Quality Events
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