February 9, 2012

By Mary Crogan

Guest blog post by Kashi Sehgal, co-founder of Gigabark, a Constant Contact partner.

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You’re planning an incredible event and are excited when you get to the venue. But you realize that parking is in a different lot than what you sent out in the invitations. Oh no! What do you do?

First, don’t panic.

You could send an email to your attendees, but what if people don’t check that before the event? And what if not everyone can check their email on their phone?

And then you remember that you didn’t just collect email addresses from attendees, you collected phone numbers too. Score!

You can send text messages …

With this extra information, you can send a text message that will reach people no matter where they are and no matter what type of phone they use.

Event planners (and promoters) use mobile services like texting in a variety of ways. Texting is a great way to send a quick announcement, a tip about the event, or a link to a webpage (also a great way to collect donations).

… Or you can have attendees send you text messages

You can also have event attendees text-in for contests and giveaways, or to join your email list if they’re not already on it.

Text-in capabilities allow you to collect mobile numbers and use them for future event promotion (by phone call or text message) or to survey your attendees after the event.

Going beyond the text

There are easy to use tools out there that give you the ability to also send a fun or informative phone call to your attendees. Have an important guest or celebrity coming to the event? Ask the person to record a message you can send out to help promote the event. Phone calls are also a great way to send more detailed information than what you can send in a text.

Online surveys are another great option and a way to keep guests engaged through the entire lifecycle of an event. Use surveys before the event for RSVPs or after the event to find out what attendees thought of the event so that you know what worked well.

Rather than a cell phone being a distraction for your guests, you can incorporate mobile tools and marketing techniques to keep attendees informed and engaged. These are just a few examples of how you can do that.