EVENT MARKETING

Are your event marketing efforts creating enough visual impact? As event professionals, we are constantly trying to create a more meaningful experience for attendees. We hear that an event must be memorable to make an impact on its guests. Your ability to make an impression extends further than the time they are physically at the event. It starts as soon as that initial communication is sent. Learn how these three keys to effective event branding can build trust with your attendees and create a seamless user experience.

Where is that initial communication coming from and what does it look like?

No doubt your first bit of messaging about your upcoming event is sent via email and includes an event logo, a strong message, and a link to the event website. The event site needs to promote trust and gain a personal connection right from the start. You’ll want to engage attendees and ensure a positive experience as they move through the event website, registration, and finally housing. Ensure this process is as seamless as possible and that you’re building trust with every step.

What are the key elements to build trust and create visual impact with event software?
Three key elements to focus on when using event software are colour, images, and messaging. These elements need to be cohesive to create a seamless experience for your attendees.

Colour

Colour is very important in our daily lives. Everything we see is in colour and different nuances can trigger different emotions and feelings. When choosing colours for your event software consider the following:

Choose colours that appeal to your target audience so you can make a memorable connection (subconsciously). See the image below from Event Manager Blog which shows the different emotions of colours.
Select a colour that represents the event logo or complementary colour that pops against that logo. Let’s call this your dominant colour.
Use the dominant colour in a limited number of places. Focus that colour in areas where you want your website visitors to pay attention to, or where you want your visitors to take certain actions.

Images

Images evoke strong emotions. Invest time in selecting your event images as they can improve your credibility and boost your attendee’s experience.

Consider your audience’s generation, profession, and reasons for attending. Ensure that the images you select speak to these. If your event is tailored to medical professionals, then you obviously won’t be using images of a relaxed couple on a beach.
Consider if your attendees will relate more to a photographic image, an iconic representation, a graphic vector style (like a cartoon or drawing), or something conceptual which inadvertently refers to the main topic. Overused and bad stock photos look staged, cheesy, and give a feeling of inauthenticity. Choose images that are authentic to your event’s brand.
Select images will high resolution. Pixelated and blurred images create distrust and look unprofessional. When searching the internet for the perfect image type your requirements in your search ie. ‘high-resolution photo of a coloured plastic balls png’. Google bots are very clever and will help filter out the images that you don’t want.
Use the same images on your various event software sites. If the main website, registration, and housing are branded similarly, attendees will feel secure knowing that they are booking for the correct event.

Unconvention registration site on the Aventri Event Management platform as seen by the attendee.

Unconvention-Registration-site

Unconvention reservation booking site on Meetingmax Room Block Management platform as seen by the attendee.

Unconvention-housing-site

Message

Finally, we will tie all that visual information, which is seen first, to the messages that are read. Communicating your message isn’t always as easy as it sounds. It’s a common mistake to believe your visitors see your website the way you do and already know what they are meant to be doing on your site. They don’t! Educating them is dependent upon your website messaging.

Consider the following:

Short, sweet and to the point! Capture their attention right from the first couple of seconds that they start reading and guide them quickly to the actions you want them to take.
Know who you are speaking to! Use a language style that captures your audience’s attention. Ie, formal, informal, comical, juvenile, highly knowledgeable, advanced etc, Use keywords and jargon that are relatable to the expected audience!

A clear, cohesive, and well thought out design gets people to trust you and to stick around. It gets them to take the actions you desire them to take. Poor, hurried design creates mistrust and makes people leave!

Meetingmax is considered a specialized event management platform with the ability to integrate with other event management solutions. The Aventri and Meetingmax partnership offer a fully integrated solution that helps event planners save time, increase revenue and provides the attendee with a seamless experience!
Find out more about the Meetingmax and Aventri partnership and what it means for your events.