We’ve all been there – organizing and hosting an event is hard work, but the payoff begins when you optimize your list of event contacts. No more checking off printed lists, or scribbling on name tags – Contact Boss can help you make the most of your events, and show your guests just how professional your company is with sophisticated customer tracking tools
As much as we find it convenient and efficient to live our lives and do business online, it is hard to beat traditional, face-to-face communication for certain situations. Real estate agents depend on personal contacts made at Open House events for example, or some organizations offer workshops and training sessions, both of which benefit greatly from that in-person connection. At a meet-up, networking event or workshop, you can read your guest’s body language, show off your own shining personality, and tell your story and explain your product in natural language, gauging reaction as you go.
Contact Boss can help you manage your event from the first concept through to follow-up afterward.
Build an event page that is linked to your contact database
Let’s start with your existing client contact database – Contact Boss’s search function is highly effective, allowing you to select invitees by interest, job function, geographical location, prior interaction and so on. The contact database also ensures that duplicates are flagged and resolved, avoiding the embarrassment of sending more than one copy of the invite to potential guests. Once your concept is finalized and your list created, it’s time to build your event form, right at your own website using provided templates, or generating a custom version. You can capture registrations at your event page, add images and even include an embedded map of your event’s location!
Once you have sorted and created the all-important invitation list you can easily download the CSV spreadsheet and export it to any of the standard email tools you use including Outlook, Gmail, MailChimp or Constant Contact or directly transfer into the to list of Gmail, Outlook (Default Mail) or Yahoo Mail. Registration and RSVPs are handled simply at the Contact Boss event page, and your new guests (while the old contacts automatically get their profile updated with a note of the event they have registered for) will become part of your contact database, identified according to the event and any other parameters you wish to apply to the records. Or if any part of the event should change, such as location, time or date, you can use the client address database related to the specific event and contact your guests who registered with any reminders and updates, ensuring a good attendance rate.
Your guests will find it very convenient to use your Contact Boss event page to RSVP, find out the details of the event and check with you on any other particulars. The embedded map is perfect for guests who are unfamiliar with your location! By the time your guests arrive at your check-in desk, they will feel recognized and welcomed with all the necessary information at their fingertips. Contact Boss eliminates the need for third-party event registration tools, bringing it all home in one convenient place.
Create new event contacts on the fly
Sometimes guests will bring along a friend, or perhaps you will host an open invitation event. A recent real-life art gallery opening missed a real opportunity when many of the guests had not pre-registered, but there was no on-site option to provide contact information. With the Contact Boss Quick Create option, the hosts could have easily and unobtrusively registered the additional guests, adding valuable new records to the client address database.
Any successful professional event will benefit when guests are welcomed with a smooth, streamlined sign-in process and the guests will be ready and eager to go out and network up a storm. They will appreciate your company’s efficiency in knowing their name, and possibly you even made use of notes in the client database to ask a few questions relevant to their personal situation!
Using your contact database for event follow-up
Once the event has ended, the banners folded and the hors d’oeuvres trays stored away, it is time to evaluate the success, especially in terms of which invitees from your contact database attended, and who are your most likely new prospects. The good news: you have an accurate, up-to-date record of who was there, and are perfectly primed to send out a thank-you, follow-up questions, invitations to one-on-one meetings, links to useful and relevant information – the sky’s the limit! Many event organizers make the mistake of wrapping the event, breathing a sigh of relief and considering that their work is done. Far from it; there are many benefits to be realized from effective use of your contact address database.
Check out the features at Contact Boss to find out how we have streamlined event management systems making it easy to set up and handle efficiently your event contacts.
