Partner Column
Life is a series of iterative decisions , punctured by failure . This invigorates us to make changes , leading to small improvements . By that definition a wonderful , successful moment can never be a surprise . The outcome is inevitable because you ’ ve done the work . As we know from sports psychology , 1 % marginal gains add up , so why shouldn ’ t we adopt this strategy into our events ?
There is a culture in our industry of prescriptive visitor marketing . A trusted marketing campaign starting on the same date for benchmarking . However , what we see is a higher noshow rate from visitors that register before twelve weeks out and an overall lower rate for visitors that register within the twelve weeks before the event .
So why are we happy to continue to sit with the high failure rate of converting registrations into footfall at the show ?
Logically by reducing the time between the date of registration and the date of the event reduces the possibility of the person
Registering change
Emma Eveleigh , MD at Livebuzz , which was recently acquired by See Tickets , says organisers must re-think their pre-show marketing strategies
Emma Eveleigh
being distracted and them not attending . With all the time a person has between the day of registering and the day of your show something happens in their work life that feels a little fresher and pressing to attend , their resolvnese for your event wa and they don ’ t attend . Endless post event surveys return many answers why
people don ’ t attend but the real answer is much more prosaic : most people did not attend as something else a little more compelling turned up .
On average , those who register more than 12 weeks ahead of the show are only 40 % likely to attend , whereas those who register within 12 weeks are overall 60 % likely to attend .
Translate that into people at a normal trade show that has 6,000 pre-registrations over four months and 1,500 register in the first month . This first launch likely to be to your ‘ hot ’ previous attendees and so quite possible that only 600 of your hot prospect visitors would attend from the 1,500 that registered . The shift to starting the campaign at three months out could yield other 300 people . Another 300 people attending an event that normally has 3,600 is an increase of 8 %. Overall , that ’ s a marginal gain I ’ d take for free .
I would also argue that not many businesspeople need more than three months to organise their diary for a trip to a major exhibition centre for their industry event .
This autumn the registration pattern was artificially shaped by Covid rule changes , most shows had a lack of registrations until 2-4 weeks out . The last week in September was when our visitors sprang back to life . It ’ s a moot point to see what the legacy of 2021 is in terms of registration patterns , but I hope that 2022 sees some new marketing ideas to engage with visitors , which helps organisers win those marginal gains .
“ On average , those who register more than 12 weeks ahead of the show are only 40 % likely to attend .”
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