Whether you’re putting together simple vinyl banners promoting your event, or you’re setting up a WordPress blog or Facebook event listing, one of the keys to creating successful promotional material is to have a strong, prominent call to action. A call to action is simply a set of words or a phrase designed to invoke the response you desire from your visitor, whether that response is to register for your event, purchase a product, or sign up for a newsletter.
While incorporating a call to action in your ad may seem like common sense, novice marketers often focus their energies on finding the right graphics or creating a catchy headline, forgetting to actually ask the customer to take action. While it’s certainly crucial to have an attention grabbing headline and some great copy selling the benefits of your event, it won’t do much good if your potential customer doesn’t know how to sign up. This might be ok if you’re a massive brand simply looking to get blanket exposure, but for most event organizers, failing to include a clear call to action in your advertising means that your ad might as well be invisible.
If you’ve been neglecting your call to action, here are 4 simple steps you can take to increase attendance to your event simply by improving your call to action.
Include A Prominent Call To Action
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The simplest improvement an event organizer can make to their promotional materials – whether it’s a website, vinyl banner, or a simple leaflet – is to increase the prominence of the call to action. Taking your call to action from a little line of text buried in the corner of your banner to a big, colorful button or bolded statement right in the middle of your banner is one of the easiest ways to instantly increase your event attendance.
Keep It Simple
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In trying to increase conversions and improve event attendance, it’s possible to go overboard with our marketing efforts. If you demand that your customer subscribe to your email list, join your Facebook group, follow you on Twitter, watch your promotional Youtube video, and register for your conference – all at the same time – you actually make it likely that your overwhelmed customer won’t do any of it.
If you’re putting up a simple banner or other form of display advertising, stick to a single, simple call to action. The simplest calls to action are often the most effective.
Offer Incentives & Increase Urgency
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While a potential attendee might be tempted by your clear, prominently displayed call to action, indecision or plain laziness can sometimes stop an interested party from actually following through with registration. You can help entice potential attendees by offering an incentive for completing the call to action. You can make it even more compelling by fueling a sense of urgency. “Register By June 15 To Get 20% Off” or “Only 10 Spots Remaining, Register Now” is a lot stronger than “Register Now”. While keeping your call to action simple is important, don’t be afraid to get a little creative and when it comes to stirring up motivation and urgency.
Make The Action Easy To Perform
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The easier you make it for viewers to do what you want them to do, the greater the likelihood that they’ll actually do it. If you want them to “like” your Facebook group, the “like” button should be right next to your call to action. If you want them to subscribe to your email newsletter, there should be a box where they can type in their email address. And if you want attendees for your conference or other event, you’ll want to make sure they can easily register and access event information.
While this may be easier to do for online advertisers – where visitors are always just 1 mouse click away from any action – you can still benefit from this principle if you’re putting up vinyl banners or handing out leaflets. Adding a prominently displayed website address to your promotional material – or even a QR code that can be easily scanned by a smartphone – will make it that much easier for your potential attendee to secure their place at your event.
Despite the value a conference or other event can offer to an attendee, spreading awareness and interest for an event isn’t always easy. Whether you’re putting up banners, handing out leaflets, buying web ads, setting up a Facebook group, or even if you’re buying up radio or TV ads, increase the effectiveness of your marketing by including a strong call to action.