email – Fedra Meetings & Events

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How LinkedIn Helps You Event Plan

Posted on 27 Gennaio 201718 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

While there certainly are ways to use LinkedIn for events, it has a less viral nature than Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. And it takes a much more intentional focus to make it work for you. That being said, LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool and I think you will see there is a lot that can be done – when you know how to work it.

Speakers

Ever wanted to contact a really great speaker and you just couldn’t find the contact information? LinkedIn is the perfect solution to that.

You can look it up, see if you have any connections or groups in common and reach out directly. It’s perfectly acceptable to send a connection request with a detailed message about the fact that you would like to hire them as a speaker.

And, best of all, since LinkedIn is used more sparingly than email, you will often get a response faster than if you were to directly email them.

Of course, it’s a huge benefit if you can name a person you both know or a group you are both a part of. It really helps make a great connection and gets you in the door much earlier.

Groups

When you are publicizing an event, LinkedIn groups are a great way to do it.

Just reach out directly to the group moderators and let them know about the event. Ask their permission to share and perhaps even give their audience a discount.

This is a great way to make a relationship with the group owner and share the word without spamming people.

Direct Connections

Finally, there’s nothing like a personal invitation to an event.

Make a list of all the people who would directly benefit from the event and then I reach out one-by-one to personally invite them to attend. I customize each letter so they know it isn’t a mass mail.

It is time-consuming, but none of the good stuff in life comes for free.

5 Items Your Email Sign-Up Form Needs

Posted on 28 Settembre 201618 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

Why do people unsubscribe from your email? While there are a number of possible reasons, many can likely be traced to unmet expectations.

The content doesn’t interest me. They send too much email. The experience was not personalized.

So, how can you align subscriber expectations with your actual email program? Start with your email sign-up form. Set the right expectations here and you’ll avoid complaints and misunderstandings later on. You’ll also lay the groundwork for a relationship with your subscribers based on honesty and respect.

Here are 5 important items to include on your email sign-up form:

1) Email Descriptions

Include brief descriptions of your emails, focusing on what’s in it for subscribers. Do you announce major breakthroughs or new volunteer opportunities via email? Mention it here, along with how often emails are sent.

2) Samples of Past Emails

Allow people to “preview” your messages before subscribing by including links to past emails. This gets the relationship off to a good start by being very transparent about the type of content you send. Diabetes Research Institute’s email sign-up page below is a good example of including both descriptions and links to samples.

3) Links to Email Archives

Links to an email archives section offers potential subscribers access to news they missed. As a bonus, it adds new, search engine-friendly content to your website on a regular basis. Creating web-based versions of your emails doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s often as simple as pasting your email HTML into a web page.

4) Privacy Information

Include how your organization respects the privacy of its email subscribers and the fact that they can opt out at any time.

5) Incentives

If possible, offer an incentive with every email sign-up. Be creative here. For example, perhaps a corporate sponsor could provide a product discount or make a donation up to a certain amount for each email sign-up. Or, you could offer subscribers early-bird registration to a popular event.

While it’s a good place to start, setting expectations doesn’t end at the email sign-up form. Reinforce important information in your subscription confirmation email, offline communications and actual emails.

What tips do you have to reduce opt outs?

Event reminders: how many is too many?

Posted on 1 Giugno 201618 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

Our audience is being bombarded by email marketing and email reminders. So how much is too much? And what email campaigns really capture attention? Here are a few tips.

Engaging content

It’s no secret that the key to our audience’s heart is content that engages.

Think about the value that your email marketing brings to them. Not only are you pushing an event, but what can you give to them in addition?

Perhaps a recap of helpful articles from your website that they may have missed, a summary of trends that will be interesting to them, or other ways of providing value so that your audience clicks and engages.

Engaging subject line

You can have great content, but if no one opened your email, you only get so far.

The art of subject lines is more complicated than ever, but definitely an art worth learning.

You can try personalizing the subject line so that your attendees first name is in that prominent location.

Segment

It’s very important to email people who register for your event frequently. The key is segmenting and specializing.

Don’t send the same confirmation email over and over to the same attendee.

Take them through a pipeline – ask them to download your app, highlight some of your speakers, introduce them to other people will be attending. And, segment your list so that the content they receive is customized for them.

Perhaps you have one email confirmation going to speakers, a different one for sponsors, one for longtime supporters, another for people who are coming to your event for the first time.

This, of course, is a lot more work on the writing side, but it allows your emails to be much more personalized and will help your attendees find the value in repeat communications.