This article was originally written byJordan McArthur and has been updated for relevancy.

Picture this event communication nightmare. You’re hosting a large regional event. People from all over are driving in to attend and they are pumped about the content you’re offering. It turns out, though, that the major highway most of your attendees will be traveling on has major closures and detours, inciting rage among them – and it’s all directed at you. Attendees are showing up late and grumpy, a significant portion of them just turned around and went home, and now a hashtag celebrating your failure is trending among your followers. It’s okay. Take a breath. You’re in a safe place. You’re only breaking out in a cold sweat because you know very well what it’s like to be on the receiving end of attendee wrath. The last thing any of us wants is to be in a position where we overlooked some important piece of the communication puzzle pre-event. A solid marketing communication strategy will help avoid this problem, but how can you ensure nothing gets left out?

When and Where

Don’t take it for granted that your attendees know exactly where you’re holding your event and how to get there. You’ll want to be explicit when it comes to location. Leave nothing up to the imagination. Don’t be in a situation where folks are wandering around your event venue and wondering which door to enter or where to park. Generally, people need detailed location information. It also helps to have a way to communicate in the case that anything changes last minute. Your emergency communication plan should include your email list and a way to send push notifications via your event’s mobile app. This will help you avoid that nightmare traffic situation that sent you into cold sweats.

Why

Perhaps one of the finer elements of any piece of event communication before your event is the case for why people should attend. Think about building your case as you would any persuasive argument. Start with a thesis, and then back it up with proof. Once you’ve identified the proof, it becomes your marketing campaign. Every reason why someone should attend your event can be a separate blog post, email or mailer. And “why” isn’t just for potential attendees. It’s important to include those already planning to attend in your argument as well. Driving event engagement starts before attendees ever step into the event venue. If they feel from the beginning that they have a great reason for being there, they’re sure to have a great time (and tell everyone else about it).

---

How can Guidebook help field communication nightmares?

Interact

Interact is an internal lively, curated feed on Guidebook’s platform that acts as a one-stop home screen for your event. It automatically organizes content from every corner of your app into one centralized location. Saving your attendees time searching through your app means more time spent enjoying it! Sessions, photos, user and admin posts, check-ins and more can all be found here in one beautiful feed. Interact itself is powered by an algorithm that combines highly-ranking content in your guide with posts from your attendees, resulting in an awesome blend of content that users love.

The Schedule

Your event’s schedule is actually a huge selling point for your attendees – especially if you’re hosting a conference or meeting. You can even think of releasing your schedule as an event in and of itself. Major keynote speakers and exciting sessions can make for their own press releases and build buzz among industry news sources. A slow reveal will keep attendees engaged from the beginning of your event communication plan right up until the start of the event. Use your event’s mobile app as a tool to fuel excitement about the schedule. Whenever you push out an update, use that as an excuse to contact your list again to let them know of the new information. They can begin crafting their personal schedules and to do lists beforehand – then you have a legion of already-engaged attendees at your event ready to take full advantage of what you have to offer.

Messaging

Creating and updating your content is great, but it’s not worth much if you can’t communicate changes to your attendees. Whether you need to announce a schedule change, you would like to send a reminder, or you have included notifications in your sponsorship packages, the Notifications tool provides a quick and easy way to communicate with everyone who has downloaded your guide. Need to message just a specific group of people? You can do that, too. Use targeted push notifications to send relevant updates to specific users in your guide.

On-the-Go Updates

Have a last-minute update and don’t have access to your computer? No worries. You can update your attendees anytime, anywhere. Take guide management to the next level with Guidebook's Mobile Admin feature. You can send push notifications and make edits to your schedule, interactive maps, and speaker lists directly from your mobile phone.

---

Getting Event Communication Across

When it comes to event communication leading up to the big day, it’s all about social, email and mobile. If you are offering the right event communication to your attendees in the places they’re looking for it – their inboxes, on social media and through your mobile event app – you can be sure you won’t be stuck in a situation where people feel misinformed. And taking care of your attendees is an important investment in your future events. Looking for a better way to engage your attendees through mobile? Click below to request a demo.