You’ve secured world-class speakers, best in the industry. The agenda is packed with variety and depth. The logistics are planned almost flawlessly. All set for the big day, yet the registration desk isn’t nearly as excited, sparse participation has dampened the mood.
Even the most well-intentioned conferences sometimes struggle to attract attendees in today’s oversaturated event market. The good news is that there are proven methods to turn your conference from a ghost town into the must-attend event of the year. In this blog, we list actionable methods as backed by facts and features from Dryfta, an industry-leading event management platform.
Start Building Your Community Before You Even Announce
Here’s what most organizers get wrong: they wait until three months before their conference to start marketing. The smart ones begin building their audience a full year ahead. They use last year’s data to reconnect with past participants.
Personalized communications, with the attendee’s name, relevant sessions and reminders, always outperform generic mass invites. Dryfta’s email segmentation tools make this personal approach manageable, even for large conferences.
Maximize Event Listing Visibility
Personal outreach targets your existing network but event listings are what will help you in reaching new people who’ve probably never heard of your conference. The obvious way to do this is by posting your event on several different event listing platforms and directories by hand.
A handful of well-placed public postings substantially add to your event’s public reach. Unless you have plenty of time and manual effort in supply, event listings can be backbreaking.
If you are short on time or want to take the shorter, smarter path to attracting more attendees to sing up for your event, Dryfta is here for the rescue. The segmentation software automates this task, submitting your conference to over a hundred listing sites and calendars at once, instantly putting your conference in front of thousands of new potential attendees.
Design Schedules That Sell Themselves
A boring, static schedule kills interest faster than you might think. Modern attendees expect interactive, customizable agendas that help them plan their conference experience. They want to see which sessions speak to their interests and which speakers they absolutely cannot miss.
Dryfta’s schedule features help create an interface that lets attendees sort sessions by topic, speaker or track. When someone can visualize exactly how they’ll spend their time and what they’ll gain, registration becomes an easy decision.
Facilitate Social Sharing and Community Building
Make it as simple as possible for attendees to talk about your event. Embed social sharing buttons in your emails, the conference website, and the Dryfta-powered mobile app to allow participants to post updates or invite peers with the click of a button.
Build Community with The Attendees Before, During and After
Conferences that create lasting communities see higher repeat attendance and stronger word-of-mouth marketing.
â—Ź Pre-conference networking opportunities get people excited about attending.
â—Ź During the conference, features like attendee directories, private messaging systems and interest-based discussion groups help people find their tribe.
â—Ź Post-conference engagement keeps the conversation alive and builds excitement for future events. Send thank-you messages, share recorded sessions, and invite them to future events.
Incentivize Participation with Contests and Rewards For Attendees
Gamification is a proven way to drive excitement and engagement. Make it worth your attendees’ while. Here’s what you can do to get more attendees to show interest in your event:
1. Host some contests: It doesn’t necessarily have to be earth-shattering in ideation. Sometimes, the simplest ideas generate the most curiosity. Host activities like the best session photo, most insightful tweet, creative use of event swag either before or during the conference.
2. Offer prizes: Offer gifts and perks for participants such as free future registrations, exclusive access or practical goodies tied to your conference partners. Even small giveaways can prompt widespread sharing and serve as conversation starters, enhancing the overall attendee experience and motivating late registrations by showcasing the engaging activities on offer.
3. Scavenger hunts: These work particularly well for networking goals. Challenge attendees to meet five new people from different industries, attend sessions in three different tracks and collect a set number of business cards from speakers.
These activities spark conversations, encourage networking, and make the event more memorable for everyone.
Personalization at Scale
Mass communication feels impersonal but truly personalized outreach is time-intensive. The solution lies in smart segmentation and automation that creates personalized experiences without requiring individual attention to every communication. From the moment someone lands on your website, receives an invite, or opens the app, personalization makes each interaction meaningful. Dryfta’s data segmentation capabilities make this level of personalization achievable for conferences of any size.
Communication That Builds Trust
Confusion kills conversion. When potential attendees can’t find basic information, struggle with registration or feel uncertain about what they’re purchasing, they simply walk away.
Centralized information management ensures consistency across all touchpoints. Real-time updates are especially critical as the conference date approaches. Session changes, speaker substitutions, venue modifications or weather-related adjustments need to reach all registered attendees immediately through multiple channels. Dryfta works around this idea by offering real-time notifications, updates, and changes pushed instantly to all registrants via app and email.
Build Content That Establishes Authority
Content marketing for conferences goes far beyond promotional posts. Educational blog articles, industry research reports and expert interviews position your conference as an authoritative voice in your field. When people see you consistently producing valuable content, they trust that your conference will deliver similar value. Video content resonates particularly well in professional contexts. Short documentary features can be used to show previous conference successes, behind-the-scenes preparation footage, or exclusive interviews with upcoming speakers. These give potential attendees a taste of what they can expect.
The Bottom Line
Platforms like Dryfta empower organizers with administrative competence and an ecosystem that puts marketing, personalization, interactivity and analytics at the heart of the event. Your next conference can be the one that people eagerly anticipate, actively promote and remember long after it ends. The strategies exist, the tools are available and the audience is waiting.