An Overlooked Statistic that Event Planners Often Miss
Numbers don’t lie. And that’s why when it comes to trusting information, statistics are an incredibly valuable source of knowledge and feedback that you can use to improve on future events.
But while most of us have heard of (and may already be tracking) key statistics like return on investment, attendance figures and feedback results – what’s the one biggest statistics that many event planners are unknowingly (but commonly) missing out?
Electronic Direct Mail (eDM) Open Rate
For many event marketers, this is where it all starts. While many of us chase the numbers later down this chain, we have to remember that if many of our potential event participants don’t even open our invitation/marketing emails in the first place, they’ll never have the chance to learn about the amazing event we have planned, or RSVP.
Now the questions are… what could the problems be, and how can we solve them?
Is your subject title clear? How attractive and to-the-point is your email subject title? It’s important not to be overly witty or lengthy here. Distil your event into one line and say it here.
Are you using repetitive subject titles? This may sound obvious, but you may be surprised at how many event planners make this mistake – if you’re using the same the same generic subject title for every email (i.e. “Latest news!” or “Our personal message, especially for you”), please stop. Repetitive subject titles trivialise the content of your emails.
How valuable are your emails? Email marketing is all about the value you provide to recipients. Are your emails primarily for self-promotion? Or are you giving recipients valuable information, offers, and content that they enjoy? If your email marketing is largely self-centred, don’t be surprised when recipients ignore your emails and event invitations.
Are you being spam filtered? Today’s email systems are getting stricter and sending more mail into spam filters – even the genuine ones. This can happen if recipients continually receive your emails, but don’t open them. You can prevent this from happening by either providing more valuable content (that people will naturally open and read), and by asking recipients to reply to your email – automatically adding your email address to their address book, thus bypassing automated spam filters.
Are you emailing the right crowd? If you’ve been blasting eDMs to every email address you know, stop. Instead, get to know your audience more. Understand what individuals in your email list are interested in, then group them into categories. Only send emails and event promotions to audiences who are likely to be interested in the content – your email recipients will thank you for it.
Keep these tips in mind to make sure that your emails/eDMs make it past their very first (and most important) obstacle – being opened and read. Then see the difference when your open rates go up!
