Following our blog post about “How to advertise School Events”, where we covered the event’s promotion, in this post, we would like to go a bit further and explain how you can make it successful by having high attendance.
We spend so much time and money in our marketing efforts trying to get people to register. That’s why it is so important that we do everything we can to increase attendance on the day.
We have a little formula we follow for open events and the communication leading up to the event:
1. Expectations
We always expect registration for the event. This helps with planning and checking in with how marketing is working leading up to the event.
2. Registrations
Once people register for the school open event, send them a confirmation email and SMS to make sure they know that they are registered.
3. Planification
One week before the event, send out another email reminding them about the event details with a picture of the Principal and details about what to expect on the day.
Two days before the event, send out another reminder. Try to work out your SMS reminder to be the day before the weekend leading up to the event. Say your event is on a Tuesday, send it out on the Friday before. This gives people the time and space to plan their attendance with their family.
Even with all the reminders, people may still not turn up on the day and this could be good marketing dollars gone to waste if not dealt with properly. What I do in these cases is mark people in SchoolCampaign with a ‘didn’t attend’ tag that will send them an immediate SMS inviting them to book a personal school tour.
Often people reply saying they are so sorry they missed the event and that they are still interested in the college. I find that offering them an option for a school tour at a time that suits them, works well to still get them into the school.
I hope this article on how to advertise school events will help you with your planning and promotions, and also help you increase your open event attendance on the day.
Questions regarding this article? Please email me at mara@robertsdigital.com.au
