Coordinating an event is hard work. You’re responsible for everything to run smoothly. You need a plan to
- Put together a team
- Plan a budget
- Set up the venue
- Coordinate RSVPs, and
- Communicate with your audience while keeping them happy and engaged.
If you find yourself responsible for organizing events frequently, an event text messaging service can be highly valuable to you.
An event text messaging service allows teams to handle large numbers of messages sent and received from native texting applications. Messages have a high open-rate and fast response rate. So, using an event text messaging service is ideal for all types of communication while conducting large-scale events, where timing is highly critical.
90% of event marketers believe that technology can have a tremendous positive impact on the success of their events. This is true of correspondence and communications too.
When done right, using an event text messaging service can help you make the most of your database.
Here’s how you can improve your event marketing by adding an event text messaging service into the mix.
Text messaging for events and conferences
Text messaging for events keeps people in the loop. Individuals can register themselves, ask for help, and do much more via an event text messaging service.
What can you do with an event text messaging service?
Conducting a successful event is all about proper communication. An event text messaging service is an effective way to achieve that.
But before you use an event text messaging service, you need your audience’s consent. Directing them to select a key on a dialer or text a keyword is two effective ways to get that. Here’s how:
- With CallHub’s press-1 campaign dialer, you give your message to the audience via a robocall and let them press a key between 0 and 9 to give their consent.
- With our SMS Opt-in tool, you set up a keyword for people to text you in, indicating their consent, and promote that keyword along with your number. Those who send the keyword via SMS will be added to a new or existing contact list, making it easier for you to promote your event to these individuals.
Now, what are other ways to use an event text messaging service?
There are many opportunities to use text messaging to make your event one of the best. Let’s explore some.
Running promotions
A text marketing software helps you fill your event seats. Promote your event by sending a message that sparks their interest along with directions to register.
Collecting registrations
Text-to-register is one of the simplest ways to get people to register for your event. CallHub’s SMS Opt-in tool allows you to do this with smart automation.
This is how the process goes:
Step 1: Create a free account on CallHub.
Step 2: Set up a keyword of your choice and rent a number.
Step 3: Create follow-up prompts for data collection. The first prompt goes out when an individual texts in the keyword. You can also set up additional prompts to collect further data.
Step 4: Publish and promote your keyword and the number.
Now, when people text you the keyword, they’re automatically added to your contact list along with the data you collect further down the conversation.
Alternatively, you can direct the audience to your event landing page when they text in the keyword by sending a link to the page.
For instance, if you’re looking at one-time registrations and only need the basic details, sending a registration link would be ideal. Because then, you would only need their data to register them for the event.
However, if your event is a part of your marketing strategy to reach potential clients, a friendly conversation would help seal the deal in the future.
Sharing event details
Your attendees can opt-in to receive event details such as floorplans, session schedules, and more. Sending all the required information over time, like in the image below, ensures your attendees don’t miss out on anything.
For instance, although the audience will visit your event landing page, not everybody will go through every detail. Short and on-point messages will help them consume the information quickly.
Conducting polls
How do you keep your events highly relevant to your audience? What’s a way to gauge your audience’s interests in different topics?
Conducting polls through an event text messaging service can lead you to the answers. A text poll allows you to collect information from your contacts through a series of text messages.
There are two ways to use text polls:
- Using SMS Opt-in: The audience sends a unique, predefined keyword, and the survey is conducted through automated follow-ups.
- Using peer-to-peer texts: Your agents send questions to contacts, and the responses get synced with your CRM.
Providing directions
Your attendees will definitely appreciate an extra touch of help. Providing directions to the event venue, or helping them log in if it’s a virtual event, will elevate their experience.
This can be through a text broadcast or peer-to-peer texting. Here’s an example for each:
| Mass texting | Peer-to-peer texting |
| Hi {first_name}, this is {agent_name} from {organization_name}. Here’s a Google Maps link to tomorrow’s event venue: {link} | Agent: Hi {first_name}, this is {agent_name} from {organization_name}. Do you need any help with the directions to tomorrow’s event venue? Contact: Hey, yes. Agent: Great, here’s a link: {link}. Let me know if you need anything specific. |
| Hi {first_name}, this is {agent_name} from {organization_name}. Please join the virtual event through this link: {link} | Agent: Hi {first_name}, this is {agent_name} from {organization_name}. Do you know how you can log in to the event tomorrow? Contact: Hey, no. Send me a link. Agent: Great, here it is: {link}. Let me know if you need anything specific. |
Solving queries
Before the audience registers for your event, they possibly have queries to decide if your event is helpful to them. Unlike emails, an event text messaging service allows your volunteers to resolve multiple queries quickly.
It’s also a good idea to set up a text help center during the event. Basically, this is a help center through text messaging. Your attendees can simply leave a text message to get an answer to their questions.
For instance, if you’re launching a large-scale event, people, at times, may feel lost. A personal assistant who is a text away is nice to have at times like these.
Note: Announce the details required to reach you before you start with the event.
Confirming Registrations
Regardless of the channel your audience registers through, a confirmation message brings a sigh of relief. You can pre-draft a personalized confirmation message, which your volunteers can send out to the registered audience.
Collecting RSVPs
Gathering RSVPs is as important as any other effort that goes into making your event a success. With an event text messaging service, collecting RSVPs is as simple as requesting your attendees to send in a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ when prompted.
You can do so using the text broadcast tool. Send a text blast informing existing contacts of the upcoming event along with a compelling pitch on why they should attend. End with a call-to-action that says, “Reply YES to confirm.” The “Yes” indicates a positive RSVP, and you can target these individuals to send further event details.
Sending event and session reminders
Help your attendees with event and session reminders so they don’t miss out on anything. Send these reminders well in advance. For example, you can send an event reminder two days before your event and session reminders about 30 minutes before each session.
Here’s an event reminder sample:
This is an effective way to increase attendance at your events.
Pro tip: Include the session venue or session link, so your attendees don’t have to search through the agenda.
Giving offers and discounts
As a part of your event marketing, send out early-bird discounts to the audience. If they seem interested, immediately share the link to your event registration page.
To execute this smoothly, assign a keyword for people to send if they’d like to avail the discount and register. Once they send in the keyword, an automated message will be sent to them along with the registration link.
Sending last-minute updates
Blanket rule: If you’re an event organizer, always prepare for surprises, good or bad.
A quick message in the time of emergency is highly crucial during an event. It’s essential to notify last-minute updates like a change in the agenda.
Sometimes, you may even have mid-session contests. In that case, a text message is the fastest way to get the word out, and a mass texting tool is an ideal way to do so.
Your attendees are more likely to take action while they’re at the event because then, they’d be dedicating their entire time and attention to you.
Showing appreciation
Text your participants a “thank you” for attending the event. You can also share a “Highlight of the event” in the form of an image or a video using MMS marketing.
Collecting feedback
Your participants’ feedback is the foundation of your next event.
An event text messaging service helps teams to quickly collect attendee feedback and analyze them. All the answers get automatically synced with the respective profiles.
Nurturing your event attendees after the event can also open a potentially valuable revenue stream. Regardless of your industry, an interested prospect is always a potential customer or supporter with a lifetime value.
Like collecting registrations, you can either send a link to a survey or conduct them on the texting platform.
Here’s a detailed guide on using text surveys for different industries with different methods.
Requesting for reviews
Using an event text messaging service also extends to requesting your attendees to share a review of your organization. 32% of consumers visit a business’s website after reading a positive review. The image below tells us the importance of reviews.
Recruiting volunteers
For all this communication to take place smoothly, you need a bunch of people who can work with you. One way to gather them is by sending a request to all your past volunteers and current supporters. Brief them on the crucial details and lead them to sign up as a volunteer.
CallHub provides a volunteer sign-up form. This is how the form looks:
Also, here are some ideas to recruit volunteers.
These are some of the most common use cases of an event text messaging service. You can see how texting saves time and improves your event marketing communications. Now, let’s learn a little bit more about an online text messaging service.
Online text messaging service
CallHub offers an event text messaging service that’s super easy to set up and use. You don’t need to be a techie to use our platform.
Here are some important benefits of using CallHub in addition to executing all the instances you saw above:
- CallHub allows you to schedule a text for any time you want. Craft the messages, assign volunteers and schedule it. Here’s a guide on how to get started with automated text messaging.
- With our two-way texting mechanism, you can have personalized conversations at scale.
- MMS marketing is another special feature CallHub has. An MMS makes your text much more interesting and encourages the audience to engage and sign up. Send multimedia content such as images, gifs, videos, pdfs, and audio clips with up to 1600 characters to use.
You don’t need complicated text messaging services to run events. CallHub has all the tools you need to keep track of all your communication. If you have any trouble getting started with our event text messaging service, talk to an expert from our team.
With CallHub’s event text messaging service, you only pay for what you use. Such a model is highly beneficial to you because events may not be a day-to-day activity. Even if it is, we have a wide range of plans for you to choose from depending on your requirements.
If you’re ready to give it a try, we recommend signing up with us for free. When you sign up, you get credits worth $3, which you can use to send up to 88 texts. Also, you don’t have to share your credit card information. 😌
Featured image: Startup Stock Photos
