You booked that last speaker, wrapped your sponsor agreements, and finalized the exhibitor list. But as event day nears, that momentum isn’t translating into the sign-ups you expected, and your event has little social buzz. What happened?

There’s a strong chance your event reminder emails and texts didn’t support all the work you put in.

Why Event Reminder Emails & Texts Are Critical to Pre-Event Strategy

As an event professional, you’re no stranger to working from 5AM to midnight in the days leading up to the event. Now add that to the months of work you put in before. That’s way too much time for you not to invest a in strong event reminder email, text, and social strategy.

But it’s not just your time to think about. If you use online event registration, your attendees may have signed up months ago. If you consistently engage them with pre-event messaging that adds value, you’ll increase the odds of excited, engaged attendees showing up at your event.

That’s why event reminder emails and text messages are critical for engaging attendees pre-event. But not just any event reminder will do. Your attendees, after all, face daily bombardment from emails, texts, and calls.

The challenge, then, is making your event reminder emails and text messages stand out from the noise. Here are three ways to personalize your event reminders and give your pre-event messaging an edge.

3 Personalization Tactics for Your Event Reminder Email & Texts

1. Include Attendees’ Names in Event Reminders

If you walk down a noisy street and someone shouts, “Wait up,” you probably won’t pay much attention. But if they also say your name, you’re much more likely to notice.

The same applies to event attendees. Using attendees’ names in your event reminders is an easy way to make your message more relevant to them.

Of course, for a name to make an impact, it has to be correct. Misspelling or mispronouncing a name could backfire and lead your attendees to lose interest or tune out future reminders altogether.

Thankfully, including a name in an event reminder email or text is easy. Programs that facilitate mass text messages or emails make it easy to upload large batches of attendee names at once.

2. Get Specific Details Into Your Event Reminders

Always make sure the event reminder message is informative and applicable to your attendees. The more messaging resonates with attendees, the more likely they’ll be to read future reminders instead of deleting them.

An event reminder can cover a variety of different topics, so long as it offers value. Was there a change in speakers? Do attendees need parking info? Is there a password to access the venue’s WiFi? Are strollers and water bottles permitted onsite? Should attendees use a specific event hashtag? When you answer questions like these, you do more than send attendees a friendly event reminder email. You give them valuable information that they 1) can take action on, and 2) sets them up for a great event experience.

You can customize your event reminders further based on attendee demographics. Many online communication platforms allow you to divide contacts into groups in advance so you can match the best messaging with each attendee.

attendees at a conference

3. Match the Look & Tone of Your Event

When personalizing your event reminders, you also want to make sure your messaging and imagery match the look and tone of the event. Your attendees are already interested in your event, so work branding and theme into event reminder. It’ll not only help you stand out, but also give attendees more reason to post about your event and generate buzz.

It might seem obvious, but you don’t want to include unicorn emojis or a comic sans font if you’re planning a financial investment conference for CFOs. You know your event better than anybody else, so use your best judgement. If you get stuck, you can always search for event reminder examples or templates online.

One tip is to write event reminders as though you’re giving a speech or announcement to be read at the event. Read it aloud to yourself. Does it sound on-brand? Would it look out of place if it were displayed on a screen at your event?

Combine Personalization Strategies for High-Impact Event Reminders

The ideal event reminder—one that keeps your audience engaged, informed, and excited⁠—makes use of all three methods of personalization. It also sets you up to pivot your pre-event messaging to at-event messaging. Event apps make that easy.

Bonus Tip: Personalize Your At-Event Messaging to Support an Amazing Attendee Experience

It’s easy to develop tunnel vision on event day. But from the attendee perspective, the event experience includes everything that happened before, during, and after. Your pre-event messaging, for example, shapes their expectations. Your post-event activities, such as sending a follow-up survey, impact how they remember the event.

So now that you’ve learned how to personalize your event reminder emails and text messages, it’s time to think about how you carry that messaging through the entire event cycle. That’s especially true if you’ve invested in an event app, which makes communication with attendees much more personal and immediate.

1. Keep Attendees in the Know With Real-Time Updates & Well-Timed Reminders

Use your event app’s push notifications to communicate with attendees in real time. Did a room change? A push notification acts like a text message, smoothly alerting all attendees of the change. Or do you want to nudge everyone to a keynote led by your biggest sponsor? Pre-schedule a push notification as a friendly reminder. You can even customize your messaging for different attendee groups, or even individual attendees, so you have full control over the message.

2. Weave Your Partners Into Your At-Event Messaging to Drive Engagement

Give your sponsors in-app visibility with branded banner ads, splash screens, and profiles. Branded push notifications are an option, too.

Banner Ads event app layout

All of these at-event messaging tactics help drive visibility and engagement to your sponsors in a more organic way than static event signage can.

3. Amplify Your Messaging With Other At-Event Technology

In addition to your app, consider using other technology to take your event to the next level. Need to display a sponsor’ logo on the big screen, amplify a social wall, or spark healthy competition through gamification? Use event technology to engage your attendees with dynamic digital displays that publish to every venue screen at once.