How to Increase Event Attendance: A Guide to Maximize Potential

Empty seats are an event planner’s worst nightmare, but they don’t have to be.   

The perfect recipe to increase event attendance is a combination of thoughtful, relevant insights, a mix of influential speakers, and a dash of entertainment and engaging networking.  

Elevating your event execution drives immediate results: higher retention, increased revenue, and a growing donor base.  

Here are proven strategies to maximize turnout and overcome the challenge of increasing event attendance.   

Why Is My Event Attendance Low?   

Figuring out the core problems behind low event attendance is key to solving them. Here are some of the most common reasons events have low attendance rates:   

Lack of Awareness  

How many times have you heard about an amazing event AFTER the event occurred? Lack of awareness is due to poor marketing and lackluster promotion. Events are only as good as the marketing campaign behind them. 

Solution: Promote Your Event 

Utilize all marketing strategies when it comes to event promotion. Event information and registration should be shared in the following ways: 

• Your website 
• Newsletters 
• Email blasts 
• Social media – Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. 
• Direct mail 
• Word of mouth marketing 

Beyond these methods, don’t be afraid to explore paid event promotion to reach a larger audience. 

High Costs to Attend  

With tightening budgets, potential attendees have to pick and choose what to support. Determine the cost of your event, including event benefits, and identify where you could make cuts to allow more attendees to attend. 

Solution: Provide Payment Flexibility 

If you’re outpricing attendees, offer payment flexibility. Consider buy now, pay later models as a payment option to let attendees pay in installments. 

Similarly, consider offering ticket levels like standard, premium, and VIP. As the ticket cost scales, so do attendee benefits.  

Content or Speakers Don’t Resonate  

 If your content or the speakers aren’t providing relevant and interesting content, attendees won’t attend. No one wants buyer’s remorse from an event. 

Solution: Survey Your Target Audience 

While you likely have an idea of topics your attendees are looking for, a pre-event survey as you begin planning the event ensures you’re providing the most relevant content and speakers to your base.  

Incorporate these surveys into the entire event process, sending them after the event concludes to hear what attendees liked most and what content resonated.  

Inconvenient Date, Time, or Location   

If your event venue is difficult to reach or outside your organization’s location, you may need to consider different options. Centralize your event where your audience is located, or hold it in an area that is easy for attendees to reach.   

Solution: Make Events Accessible 

Make sure the location you pick aligns with the majority of your attendees’ demographics. If the potential attendees are all over the map, select a venue in the middle to maximize attendance. It’s also important to choose a venue with parking and public transportation, so attendees have an optimal experience. 

Competing Events   

If your event is scheduled alongside a major industry conference, a local holiday, or a rival organization’s flagship gathering, your audience will be forced to pick which event to attend.  

Solution: Own Your Date, Show Your Value 

Audit a calendar of industry events to identify and avoid potential scheduling conflicts. If an overlap is completely unavoidable, shift your strategy to focus on what makes your experience unique. Highlight exclusive networking opportunities, specific localized insights, or unique session formats that competing events simply cannot replicate.   

What’s a Good Event Attendance Rate? Benchmarks to Know  

While metrics vary by industry, a standard attendance benchmark for an in-person nonprofit event is 65% and 75% of registered guests. For virtual events, that attendance target typically sits between 35% and 45% due to lower digital friction and competing day-of priorities. 

While rates will vary for your event, it’s safe to use these industry benchmarks to estimate attendance.   

How to Increase Event Attendance: 15 Proven Strategies  

Apply these tips and best practices to increase your event attendance:  

1. Know Your Audience’s Pain Points and Motivations   

As supporters of your organization or members of your association, your audience has several motivations and pain points for attending an event.   

Ask your team:  

What were the results of your last event? How did it compare to events of the past? Do you consistently have high event registration with low attendance? Did your attendees stay the whole time or leave early?  

Pull this data before planning your upcoming event:  

• Conversion rates on event promotion 
• How many individuals registered for your event 
• How many individuals attended your event 
• Attendance rate 
• Attendee engagement rate 
• Event ROI (return on investment) 
• Attendee satisfaction 

As you analyze this data, themes will begin to emerge, allowing you to tailor communication and personalize outreach.   

2. Segment Your List and Personalize Outreach    

Segmenting and personalizing outreach is key to increasing attendance. For example, you wouldn’t send out multiple messages and invitations for a fundraiser focused on children’s education to child-free individuals. Not personalizing communications to your audience could alienate them and cause them to unsubscribe from your messages or stop supporting your organization entirely.  

These are some things to look at when making segmented and personalized email lists for event marketing purposes: 

• Age 
• Gender 
• Location 
• Interest groups and hobbies 
• Length of time as a member 

Consider A/B testing personalized emails to your audience, and create audience lists that group members with similar interests. When a communication feels personalized, your members will recognize that.   

3. Promote Early Across Every Channel   

Create a page on your website specifically for your event with more information, photos from past events, a real-time social activity feed, your agenda, and a link to your registration page. This is your hub. It’ll be what emails direct to, what social posts promote, and how you reach the most people.  

Use the social media channels your organization uses, and consider having team members promote the event on their personal pages.   

Additionally, consider these methods as well:   

• Include event and registration details in your regular newsletters 
• Adding your event to Google Event Listings so it shows up in searches 
• Creating a Facebook event that attendees can share 
• Writing a blog post about your event 
• Asking industry publications if they’ll cover your event or accept a guest post discussing it 
• Adding social sharing buttons to event pages so people can easily share them 

Promote early and often to build interest and increase attendance numbers. Your members will need to plan for it, so don’t just spring your event on them at the last minute and expect a great turnout. 

4. Offer Varied Sessions 

Making your event as diverse as possible is essential to appeal to a wider variety of people. This will help increase association and membership event attendance. Some of the session types you can try include: 

Networking sessions: Allow your members to build valuable relationships with others in their industry. 

Demos and training sessions: Does your industry rely on new technologies or soft skills? Offer in-depth sessions on specific skills or tools to give your members a cutting edge in their work. 

Fun activities: These can be informal educational activities, such as fireside chats, or you can organize something utterly different from the rest of your event, like a city tour, scavenger hunt, or evening entertainment.  

Job fairs: Many members join associations to advance their careers, so your event is the perfect place to provide information on industry job openings. Set up an online job board and a booth for job seekers.  

An engaging agenda ensures attendees find value in the way they want, making your event indispensable.   

Read the Event Planning Checklist Used by Top Event Planners

5. Offer In-Person, Virtual, and Hybrid Options  

Expanding event options is an easy way to increase event attendance. If a potential attendee faces a tight travel budget, strict corporate travel policies, or a conflicting schedule, forcing them to attend in person will likely result in them opting out. Providing multiple ways to consume your content ensures you meet your audience exactly where they are. 

When mapping out your event structure, consider these formats: 

• Live virtual streaming: Broadcast your keynote sessions and panel discussions in real time to a remote audience.   
• Hybrid networking hubs: Create digital chat rooms or structured virtual networking blocks so remote attendees can interact with on-site participants. 
• On-demand content playback: Record your sessions and make them available post-event so busy professionals can engage with the material on their own schedule. 

By offering multiple paths to participation, you expand your geographical footprint and capture a wider audience than a rigid, single-format event would otherwise lose. 

6. Invite Warm Contacts from Your CRM  

While format flexibility removes physical barriers, tapping into your CRM solves relational ones. Warm prospects already know your organization, and an event is the perfect way to show them or reintroduce them to the value your organization provides.  

Focus on past attendees who understand your event value, highly engaged clients who regularly consume your content, and lapsed participants who are ready to rejoin your community. Tailoring your message to these established relationships transforms a standard promotional blast into an exclusive, valued invitation. 

7. Offer Early-Bird and Tiered Pricing   

Early-bird discounts can increase attendance at your next event. These discounts create a sense of urgency and concern that discounted tickets could run out, leading more individuals to buy tickets to capitalize on the discount.   

An early-bird discount also gives your event organizers a good idea of how many people to expect, allowing for strategic planning around catering needs. When attendees have a good experience at an event, it increases the likelihood that they will attend future events. 

8. Run Pre-Event Engagement (Contests and Countdowns)  

Building anticipation before the big day prevents registrant drop-off and keeps your event top of mind. Driving active participation early creates a sense of community momentum before the big event arrives.  

To boost excitement, launch targeted pre-event campaigns. Host a social media contest offering ticket upgrades or exclusive merchandise to attendees who share your event page. Combine this with a strategic digital countdown across your email and social channels, highlighting speaker reveals or sneak peeks of upcoming sessions.  

Creating this engagement transforms passive registrants into enthusiastic participants.  

9. Send a Smart Email Reminder Sequence  

A high registration rate does not guarantee a full room if your communication stops at the initial confirmation email. Busy professionals balance packed schedules, meaning your event can easily be overlooked without structured follow-ups. A well-timed, automated reminder sequence is essential to convert registrations into actual attendance. 

Keep your reminders purposeful by providing valuable content in every message. Send a logistics update one week out with calendar links, followed by a preview of high-value sessions three days before the event.  

Deliver your final notification on the morning of the event, complete with direct check-in details or virtual links for frictionless entry. Keeping your communications brief and highly practical ensures your event stays on their schedule and attendees stay informed the entire time. 

10. Streamline Registration and Check-In   

 The attendee experience heavily influences an event’s attendance rate. If registration is a hassle, it may impact their desire to attend. Especially if your event is a multi-day affair, you need to have a streamlined registration and check-in process. If check-in was a mess on day one, people may not want to come back the next day. 

Consider how registration and check-in were at previous events. A quick and easy process will have your attendees leaving rave reviews and likely coming back for your next event.  

11. Leverage Event Technology and a Mobile App   

Event technology not only streamlines day-of-event logistics but also supports pre-event registration. Using event management software will transform registration and check-in with features like: 

• Custom online registration forms 
• Badge printing 
• QR code check-in 
• On-site registration 
• Mobile app check-in

On the big day, your event app is indispensable. From helping attendees check in to providing event logistics wherever they go, your event app transforms from a helpful tool to the MVP of your event.    

Read more about the best nonprofit event software. 

12. Connect Speakers with Attendees   

Use your speakers as a key selling point for your event, but to really provide value, go a step further and connect attendees with the speakers.   

You can do that with initiatives such as:  

• Organizing separate Q&A sessions with speakers  
• Connecting speakers and attendees in an online community or group chat  
• Allowing speakers to run live polls to get in-session ideas and feedback  

Giving your attendees access to your speakers can help them look forward to an exciting experience they can’t get anywhere else and have the chance to ask questions and share ideas. Your speakers also gain more information from your audience, which allows them to tailor their talks to your members and create a more engaging event. 

13. Enable Networking and Matchmaking  

Networking is one of the primary reasons clients invest their time and resources into attending an event. Creating dedicated spaces for meaningful professional connections creates an unmissable industry gathering. 

To maximize value, integrate deliberate matchmaking opportunities into your event. Schedule structured networking blocks, host interactive roundtable discussions, and leverage event technology that lets attendees view participant profiles and schedule peer-to-peer meetings in advance. Facilitating these valuable, targeted connections ensures your clients walk away with both critical insights and a stronger professional network. 

14. Use Social Proof   

Attendees are far more likely to register when they see that their peers and industry leaders are already doing so. People naturally seek validation from others’ choices, so a lack of visible endorsement can make your event seem less credible. Leveraging the enthusiasm of your community is a simple way to build trust and improve event registration:   

Display the value of your experience by featuring:  

• Past attendee testimonials: Share quotes or short video clips of previous participants discussing their key takeaways and how the event benefited them.  
• Prominent organization logos: Display the logos of well-known companies or community partners who have already registered to boost the event’s authority.  
• Speaker and sponsor advocacy: Encourage your keynote speakers and sponsors to share their excitement on social media, expanding your reach to their audiences. 

Demonstrating that your experience is highly valued by the community turns social validation into a strong driver for increased attendance. 

15. Keep Attendees on Their Toes   

While your event will have major elements that stay the same year after year, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t shake things up from time to time. Keeping attendees on their toes is a great way to get your members excited and increase event attendance. 

Try some of these ideas:   

• Announce a mystery speaker in the run-up to your event  
• Give out association swag at the door  
• Raffle off a bonus training session or lunch with a speaker  
• Enter all attendees into an exclusive competition  
• Organize a surprise member activity  
• Recognize long-time members with anniversary announcements  
• Implement a new event theme  

Use the element of surprise to get people talking about your events, having fun, and looking forward to your next event. 

How to Track Attendance and Measure ROI   

Attendance tracking is a vital part of your event management technology and will make a huge difference in future event attendance. Tracking which sessions have high engagement and participation will tell you which kinds of content resonate with your audience. This allows you to provide better opportunities for future events and gives you exact numbers on who attended your event without manually updating a spreadsheet. 

Attendee data will provide you with valuable insights into your events. You can effectively measure return on investment (ROI), engagement, CE credits, participation, and preferences. Analyzing this information will improve future events by tailoring the attendee experience and selecting the right partners and sponsors. 

Show Appreciation: Thank-You Email Template  

Just as your outreach was important before the event, it’s equally important to thank everyone who attends. Be sure to include a post-event survey to get feedback on their experience and collect valuable data points to shape future events.  

Event participants will want to come back next year and will rave to their friends about their experience, increasing the likelihood of attending future events. 

Curious about how to write a thank-you email for attending an event? 

Event Thank You Email Template 

Subject: Thank you for attending!  

Hi [first name],  

Thank you for coming to [title of event] on [date]! We appreciate that you took the time to attend and support [organization name]. Hopefully, you had a fantastic time and made great memories! 

We’d love your feedback on how we did. This will help us continue to execute great events and provide you with the best experience. Please complete our survey here [link to survey] and include any questions or recommendations for our next event. 

Again, thank you so much for being a part of [event title]. We can’t wait to see you at our next [meeting/fundraiser/conference/etc.]! 

Best wishes,  

[Your name] 

[Name of Organization] 

Boost Event Attendance with Event Management Tools 

Your annual events are among the best ways to reach out to and connect with your members. Take advantage of this opportunity to get to know your people a little better and remind them why they want to be a part of your organization. 

Make your next event your best event with WildApricot’s event management software.  

WildApricot, by Momentive Software allows you to easily build registration forms and pages, automate your promotional strategy, track and analyze attendee data, and streamline your follow-up process. 

Level up your next event and increase attendance with these features: 

• A website builder with a built-in payment processor 
• Online registration tools 
• A fully searchable contact database 
• Mobile event registration through the mobile app 
• An emailing system with professionally designed email and newsletter templates 

Try a 60-day free trial of WildApricot today!