Attendee Acquisition Strategy
Planned approach to attracting and registering target audiences for events.
Definition
Attendee acquisition strategy is a comprehensive plan for attracting, converting, and registering the target audience for an event. This includes defining ideal attendee personas, identifying acquisition channels, creating compelling messaging, setting promotional timeline, and optimizing the registration experience.
Effective acquisition strategies consider the entire funnel from awareness through registration completion, applying marketing principles to drive event attendance. This often includes early bird pricing, referral programs, partner promotion, content marketing, and paid advertising.
Why It Matters
Even exceptional events fail without attendees. A strategic approach to acquisition ensures you reach the right audience and hit attendance goals rather than hoping people will show up.
For event professionals, acquisition strategy connects event planning to marketing principles, improving fill rates and attendee quality.
Examples in Practice
An acquisition strategy identifies past attendees, industry associations, and LinkedIn as primary channels, with distinct messaging for each.
A B2B event launches an early bird campaign with tiered pricing that creates urgency and rewards early commitment.
A conference implements a referral program offering ticket discounts, turning current attendees into acquisition channels.