The simplest tools are the most powerful when used correctly, and announcements are no exception. 🏋️ Use the Announcements feature to keep your attendees informed about event activities, cancellations and room changes, key sponsors and features, and networking opportunities! Schedule announcements at specific times or send them right away. Send announcements to everyone, or choose only certain Groups or sessions.
This article shows our top announcement best practices and offers ideas for sending push notifications to attendees before, during, and after your event. 📣
For detailed instructions on sending and managing announcements, read our Feature Guide: Announcements article.
Contents
General recommendations
Notification opt-in - Like all apps, Mobile App users must opt in to push notifications. If they feel the Event App is "spamming" their phone, they may turn notifications off. To avoid spamming, don't send more than 1 announcement per hour and no more than 5 per day. Now let's discuss how to break that rule... 😅
Know your audience - The type and tone of announcements you send need to fit your event and attendees. Think about what's important to your audience. If you're reducing emails by using announcements, your audience may be okay with more announcements. Remember that attendees appreciate critical updates like room changes and reminders about the Event Game and other social features more than sponsored notifications.
Target specific groups - Use Groups to send specific people announcements so people are getting relevant information instead of every single message. For example, you could send push notifications to your Staff group or special messages to your VIP group. Sending Announcements to specific groups ensures that other groups aren't being spammed, and it personalizes the experience.
Link to content - Give attendees a next step by linking the announcement to a feature or item in your Event App or to external web content. Information attendees can act on right away improves engagement.
Focus on value - Start your announcements with a statement that tells attendees why they should care about your message, then end with an action. Which of these would motivate you more?
"Don't forget about the Video Rooms feature." 🥱
"Connect with your fellow attendees in a Video Room. Tap here to join a room and start talking!" 😎
Before the event
Engaging attendees before your event is a great way to build event hype, send pre-event reminders, drive Event App usage, and much more. Here are some examples to inspire your own communications! 🧠
Welcome message/reminder - Share parking reminders, check-in or registration instructions, or directions. Link to more information, like the venue's website.
Profile completion reminder - Networking is important for nearly any event, so make sure attendees know the importance of their "digital business card." A quick prompt with a link to a short instructional video can go a long way. This simple message is all you need: "Don't forget to update your profile in the app. Click here to learn how!"
Feature highlight - Consider what features are most important to your event and tell attendees about them. Be sure to make an attendee resource that highlights and gives a brief tour of these top features.
Activity reminders to encourage excitement - Remind attendees about the next major activity or session and tell them you're excited for everyone to be there.
Updates to the Event App - Let attendees know when you add new features or items. Show them the value of the app early, and they'll keep coming back. 🔁
During the event
Send push notifications "from" sponsors during the event to promote Event App feature engagement, and send agenda updates.
Sponsored notifications - Send an Announcement on behalf of a Sponsor that prompts attendees to go to their booth or website.
Important Agenda reminders - Remind attendees that the keynote presentation starts in 5 minutes, or that snacks are available in the rotunda.
Promote app engagement - Announcements are a great way to promote the Event Game or any other app feature that's important to your event.
Staff updates - Have staff, speakers, captioners, and other event staff join the event as attendees and add them to hidden groups. This lets you quickly send reminders for upcoming duties, sessions, and event meetings exclusively to your stakeholders. 🤫
After the Event
Once your event is over, use announcements to communicate with staff and sponsors, thank attendees, and more. Here are some ideas and tips for post-event notifications:
⭐️ Keep in mind, some attendees might uninstall the app after the event.
Ask attendees to complete an event survey - If you're using a post-event survey, send a reminder after the event to increase the completion rate. Link directly to the survey so that attendees can easily complete it!
Sponsored notifications - Send announcements "from" a sponsor thanking attendees for coming to the event and prompting them to visit the sponsor's website.
"Thanks for attending! Join us again next year" - Thanking everyone for attending goes a long way. Include a link to next year's event RSVP with early-bird pricing and get people excited to come back.
"Join our Community" - If you have a Community related to your event, send an announcement with a link to join your community and keep the conversation going year-round!
Exhibitors and staff reminders - Remind your vendors to clean up their booths or follow up with their leads, and remind staff to complete any final tasks.
You're ready to rock the Announcements feature. 🎸 For a step-by-step guide on creating and managing Announcements, review our Feature Guide: Announcements article. 👍
Questions? Chat Us or Email support@socio.events