Your event app can boost attendance – or kill it. You can have more fun than anyone should have with an event app. You can even make your app a power tool to get more people to participate and have fun. But first, attendees have to use it! Here are some smart ways to change your event app into a powerful attendance builder.

Data Flies, Paper Dies

If you don’t have an event app, you are viewed as old-fashioned and out of touch. It’s the latest and the greatest, right? But let’s get real. It was the hot, new idea about 5-7 years ago. Today it’s accepted and expected. But it’s not exciting anymore.

To boost your app’s power, let’s get a little perspective. There’s a big difference between downloading an application and using it. On the average, only about half of attendees use a mobile event app. Even worse, according to the analytics firm Localytics, nearly 1 in 4 people abandon mobile apps after only one use. Here’s how to fix that.

Transform Your App into a Value Delivery System

Once upon a time, we printed key event information on the back of the name badges. If all your app does is show the schedule, the name of the speakers, a list of workshops and a map … print a flyer.

People today attend events and conferences for the content, the networking and the experience. So let your event app become a part of your value delivery system.

Position your app as the fastest, simplest and best way to experience the event.

Prove They Need The Application

If people don’t instantly get the value of your app, they won’t use it. Yet there’s no practical difference among most mobile applications. According to DigitalTrends, 90 percent of apps are downloaded once and then deleted. Only 16 percent of people try out an app more than twice. That means you have to showcase your value at the first click.

If you can’t demonstrate a “You Gotta Have It” value for your event application, people won’t use it – even if they’ve used it before.

People want to be involved, so promote what the app does and not the app. In the first event marketing you send, talk about how the event app will make the event more valuable, exciting, rewarding and personal. Brand the app experience as an enhancement of each person’s live experience at your event.

Great event apps are social media. They bring people with the same needs and interests together.

Make It Personal

Start by targeting how users will realistically use the app. What are their biggest wants and needs? What will they want to do? How do people want to use the app? Understand how attendees want to experience the conference or event and then design the app to facilitate their goals.

You segment your attendees, right? I know you realize it’s the only way to deliver the best experience. A segment is a group of people who share enough common situations, functions or challenges to cause them to have similar needs. That means they want to focus on the people, programs and content that they care about.

You can check out the article Audience Segmentation is as Easy as Lick, Twist, Dunk! for some tips and ideas. The key take-away is that if you focus on attendee’s key needs and where they overlap, you can tailor the event experience to suit each group. Not everyone likes her/his content served the same way.

SPECIAL SIDEBAR  –  Read At Your Risk

I’m not an application developer but I’ve worked with several. They are, by nature, cautious people who like to talk about innovation but really rely on adaptation. With a few exceptions event applications are built on templates. Yep, they drop in your images, schedules and content and zap it’s done.

Even through they call them applications most event apps are really a mobile website with a touch interface. That means they have more in common with a typical website than a native app. Developer use mobile websites because they’re fast, compatible on most devices and flexible.

This is actually a huge, giant, significant benefit to you because they can be updated instantly. That means you can have dynamic content that keeps pace with the conference. Push a key and everyone has new content and up-to-date schedules.

What This Means To You

You can make your app so valuable the event won’t be the same without it.

Constantly update the content. Use the famous Johnston New, Now, Next Strategy. Once an event, session or activity is over take it off the event app. No one wants yesterday’s agenda or even last hour’s. Focus on what’s New, Now and Next. Give attendees reasons to constantly check their app. And make it easy to use with one hand. Here’s my idea.

A One-Click Experience

Most event apps have 9-12 small icons and mouse type. They are just too hard to use. Trash all those icons that list tedious background details about the event and make your app a one-click experience. All your attendees really want is instant access to the Agenda, Workshops or Breakouts, Exhibit Hall and their Contacts.

Create big buttons so they can hold the smartphone in one hand and click with a thumb. Click one button and see the on-site agenda and their personalized agenda. Click another button and see their contacts and notes. Everything is only one click away. And right at the top is their own name. That way, the app is a simple way to make connections, access relevant content and create a personal experience.

Deliver Relevant Content & Experiences

Provide new content and information throughout the event. Remind them to use the app. Push reminders and updates. Make it an active part of their interactive event.

But be a good friend and not like that annoyingly chatty person in the next seat on the plane. Timing is everything. Send updates and push reminders at appropriate, logical times. Don’t send reminders in the middle of sessions. Updates late at night with loud beeps and bongs are event suicide. Use common sense on when and how often to communicate.

Make Them Want To Use It

Focus on value and tempt your attendees to check back often to see what’s new. Send updates on workshop changes. Post messages, photos and instant videos. Stage a “Pop Up” event on the exhibit floor. Poll attendees about things they want discussed in the next general session. Let people see themselves.

You can’t force people to use your event application, but you can create an experience that makes people want to use your app.

Satisfy people the first time and every time they use your app and they will keep using it. There isn’t time for your attendees to learn to love it. The event or conference only last a few hours.

Keep It Simple & Engaging

Above all, make it fast and simple to do what they want to do.

• Quickly access agendas that are constantly updated

• Find people, content and exhibitors who are “just like me”

• Take notes and record contacts

• Collect information, notes and presentations

Steal This Idea: Create Personalized Agendas

If you can focus on just a single change to your app, allow people to create personalized agendas. This one thing will make a huge difference in attendee experience and attendance. It might seem like a big technical issue, but it isn’t. It’s based on your past event data and your registration data.

• You know who has attended in the past and their interests.

• You know who has registered and their interests.

• You have segmented the attendees based on their common interests.

• You have organized your sessions, workshops and even exhibitors based on the attendees’ needs.

• Have an agenda suggestion option that suggests sessions, workshops and exhibit booths to attend.

Powerful Attendance Builder

The bottom line on boosting attendance? Think of your event app as an experience. Pump up the usability and the cool factor. Understand how your attendees want to experience the conference or event and then design the app to facilitate their goals. Not yours!

Your app becomes a powerful attendance builder when it delivers relevant content and rewards that will keep people coming back.

It’s a form of social media that makes your attendees feel important and included. It gives them a valuable, personalized experience that they will want to share with people with the same needs and interests.

Isn’t that why they come to your event or conference in the first place?

Let’s spend 15 minutes talking about your next project or challenge. Just click on CONTACT US or send an email to andy@ideagroupatlanta.com and get in touch.

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