Splash : Events 101

Read now.


Product
Text goes here
X
Services
Text goes here
X
Blog
Text goes here
X
Resources
Text goes here
X
Customers
Text goes here
X
Support
Text goes here
X
About
Text goes here
X
Product
Services
Blog
Resources
Customers
Company
Login
Request Demo
Support
Request Demo
Text goes here
X
Try for Free
Text goes here
X
Sign In
Text goes here
X

The Universe of Events

Chapter 002

← Ch. 1 : Your Event Strategy
Text goes here
X
Ch. 3 : Managing Your Team →
Text goes here
X

The Guest List

How do you make sure the right people are in the room?

When it comes down to it, the success of your event is directly tied to the people in the room.


In this chapter, we focus on:

1. How to Determine Your Target Audience

2. How to Manage and Organize Your Guest List

3. VIP Strategies

Does data matter if it doesn’t go anywhere?

Don’t forget to integrate your guest data to your “system of record,” so you can sync and update statuses in real-time. This could be your CRM (Customer Relationship Management), MAP (Marketing Automation Platform), and/or POS (Point of Sales).

how to determine target audience at event

How to Determine Your Target Audience

Depending on your business, industry, and event goal (we told you it’d be important!), you might be looking to target a certain type of guest, company, account, partner, etc. to invite to your event. If you’re struggling to figure out who your target audience is, we recommend you start by thinking about your goal.


For example:

•

If you’re looking to increase customer engagement, target your customers (segment by seniority, VIP, or location).

•

If you’re looking to drive net-new leads or brand awareness, cast a wider net but still target your ideal customer profile (this is a great time to sponsor a like-minded brand's event or a trade show booth).

•

If you’re looking to close opportunities, target your in-pipe or late-stage prospects (invite loyal customers as real-life case studies!), or your high-value accounts (looking at you B2B or account-based marketers).

Remember: while events are expensive, they are also very effective. Don't waste an invite — take the time to figure out who you should have on your list.

Need a great guest list? Partner with your sales team

When you're a B2B company (or you're a B2C company with a sales team), ensuring you’re getting the right people in the room and driving them through the funnel requires the help of your sales and customer teams. They’re the ones with the insights you need to plan a successful event: what types of events will resonate with their contacts, where and when to host these events, and who we can expect to actually show up.


After all, while you’re the event expert, you’re not the “sales” expert. Get the sales team to close those deals and reach out to their contacts for you.


Need some tips? Our CEO Ben talks with B2B expert, Craig Rosenberg, Founder of TOPO, on how to get sales involved in your events. See the video below or get more in-depth in the blogpost.

how to manage event guest list

How to Manage Your Guest List

As an event organizer, very often you have one system or technology that houses your guest list (if you don’t have an event technology for this, bless your heart). But like anything, in order to make the most of it, it needs to be well-organized — especially if you have a bigger event program.


The most important thing to remember is that organizing and growing your audience lists takes time. It might take a few events before you even have some of this data to segment around, and you should always be maintaining your lists to keep them accurate and up-to-date.

Part 1

9 Ways to Segment Your Guest List

There are a lot of ways to segment your guest list. We've laid out the 9 different ways we've seen it done effectively:

Persona

This is typically a person’s relation to your business (VIP, top accounts, top customers, customer loyalists, press)


Participant Classification

Someone's relationship to the event (ticket tier, sponsor, speaker, exhibitor).


Title

These lists will be organized by job title. So you might have a CMOs list, a VPs of Marketing list, or an engineers list.


 Geography

This one is pretty self-explanatory — lists based off of guests’ location. When you throw an event, you can also tag guests who attend with the city where the event is taking place. That way, you’ll automatically have segmented lists by location set up.


Superlatives

This list is a little less straightforward. These are lists based off people who are “the most” of something — the most socially engaged, most likely to purchase, etc.


Behaviors

You can segment your audience based on their past behaviors, like people who have attended three or more events, or people who often open emails.


Event Lists

This is usually lists categorized by annual tentpole events, for example people from CES or Dreamforce. This can also be organized by event types (i.e. people who have gone to a lot of educational events).


Partner Lists

(See below for more information about partners): If you have a partner for an event and give them a unique tracking link to invite people with, you can begin building audience segments around that, and oftentimes gain a lot of net-new names to your database.


Interests

These lists are based off of what people like — everything from sports, to coding, to a specific artist. You can learn a lot about guests’ interests from the sessions they attend at your events, or the information you collect during registration through custom questions.


Did you know Guest List is our Client Education Director, Zach’s favorite Splash feature? See how Splash can help you organize (and integrate) your guest list like a pro.

They're an elite group of event marketers who are continually iterating, experimenting, and testing their events to maximize the most event ROI. See what six attributes they share.

Part 2

3 Types of VIPs to Consider

Another way to think about organizing your guest list is with VIPs. If you’re throwing a major event (hint: it costs a lot of money!), you’ll want to make sure you’re focusing your attention on the right people and that your team is aligned on who these people are (i.e. a top clients or even a celebrity).


Make sure you label your VIPs in your guest list (do this in Splash easily) and that your team who’s running the door knows who your VIPs are.

⭐ VIP Passes as Currency

Check out our VIP playbook for using VIP passes and leveraging an exclusive event to book more meetings leading up to your next trade show. 

Types of event VIPs top prospects and customers

1. Top Prospects and Customers

The most important type of guest is one of your current prospects, best customers, or customer loyalists (if you’re a retailer).

Types of event VIPs celebrities, influences, speakers

2. Celebrities, Influencers, and Speakers

YouTube sensations, authors, inventors, TED talkers, food critics, CEOs, bloggers, fashionistas, entrepreneurs, and more.


Types of event VIPs PR and media

3. PR/Media

Invite writers from a variety of media outlets to your event, including newspapers, magazines, TV stations, blogs, and online publications. Be sure to look into: the size of their reach and the characteristics of their audience.


Pro Tip:

When it comes to PR, remember to prepare materials for the media to go home with — a product sample, a press release, and a packet of some sort that’ll help them as they craft their glowing praise of your event.

How do you manage VIP lines when you’re running the door? See our expert door tips (or jump to Chapter 7 for more on-site best practices).

⭐ VIP Passes as Currency

See our VIP playbook for leveraging VIP wristbands for an exclusive event to book more meetings leading up to your next trade show. 

Does data matter if it doesn’t go anywhere?

Don’t forget to integrate your guest data to your “system of record,” so you can sync and update statuses in real-time. This could be your CRM (Customer Relationship Management), MAP (Marketing Automation Platform), and/or POS (Point of Sales).

Pro Tip:

When it comes to PR, remember to prepare materials for the media to go home with — a product sample, a press release, and a packet of some sort that’ll help them as they craft their glowing praise of your event.

event promotional materials

Did you know Guest List is our Client Education Director, Zach’s favorite Splash feature? See how Splash can help you organize (and integrate) your guest list like a pro.

At Splash, we believe events are a team sport. In the next chapter, we talk building your event team and collaboration techniques.

next →
Text goes here
X
← previous
Text goes here
X
Jump to another chapter:
Text goes here
X
01 : Your Event Strategy
Text goes here
X
02 : The Guest List
Text goes here
X
03 : Managing Your Team
Text goes here
X
04 : Event Production
Text goes here
X
05 : Building the Event Page
Text goes here
X
06 : Promoting Your Event
Text goes here
X
07 : On-Site Best Practices
Text goes here
X
08 : The Post-Event Strategy
Text goes here
X
09 : Data and Technology
Text goes here
X
10 : Measurement and ROI
Text goes here
X

Easily manage, segment, and integrate your guest list with Splash.

Talk to us
Text goes here
X

Home

For Marketing
Text goes here
X
For Sales
Text goes here
X
For Recruiting
Text goes here
X
For Ticketing
Text goes here
X

Product

What's New
Text goes here
X
Virtual
Text goes here
X
Overview
Text goes here
X
What's New
Text goes here
X
Virtual
Text goes here
X
Design
Text goes here
X
Marketing
Text goes here
X
Workflow
Text goes here
X
On-Site
Text goes here
X
Integrations
Text goes here
X
Analytics
Text goes here
X
Compliance
Text goes here
X

Services

Overview
Text goes here
X
Onboarding
Text goes here
X
Customer Success
Text goes here
X
Design Network
Text goes here
X

Resources

Blog
Text goes here
X
Resources
Text goes here
X
Release Log
Text goes here
X
Education
Text goes here
X
Webinars
Text goes here
X
Run of Show
Text goes here
X
Hall of Fame
Text goes here
X
Playbooks
Text goes here
X
Webinars
Text goes here
X
Splash Studios
Text goes here
X

Company

About Us
Text goes here
X
Customers
Text goes here
X
Team
Text goes here
X
Offices
Text goes here
X
Events
Text goes here
X
Careers
Text goes here
X
Press
Text goes here
X

Copyright © 2020 Splash

Try It Free
Text goes here
X
Talk to Sales
Text goes here
X
Pricing
Text goes here
X
Terms
Text goes here
X
Privacy
Text goes here
X
Security
Text goes here
X
CONTACT THE ORGANIZER
Google   Outlook   iCal   Yahoo

RSVP

processing image...
Add to my Calendar
  • Google  Outlook  iCal  Yahoo