Whether you're attending a fireside, organizing a panel or workshop, or hosting a meetup, events provide a unique opportunity to connect with potential customers and collect valuable email addresses from engaged attendees.

It’s crucial to nurture an email list to maintain contact with these leads through follow-ups. In this guide, we’ll explore strategies and tactics to teach you how to collect emails at an event and enhance your email marketing endeavors.

How to Collect Emails at an Event

‍

Preparing for the Event

It’s important to think about how to collect emails at an event as you’re preparing for it. But before you collect emails at an event, you need to set your goals for your email list. Determine what you want to do with the emails you collect so you can utilize them in the best way possible.

You’ll also want to incentivize your email signups by offering attendees access to newsletters, valuable content, special discounts, or resources related to the event. Additionally, you can offer giveaways or grants that encourage attendees to provide you with their emails. Try adding a limited-time offer to email signups to create a sense of urgency.

Take advantage of social media to publicize your event. Promote your newsletter sign-up link in your link in bio and use hashtags and strong calls to action in your social media posts to grab email addresses before the event even begins.

Learn more about preparing for a successful event here.

Leveraging Technology

Thanks to event marketing platforms, it’s now easier than ever to collect email addresses at an event. These platforms allow you to send pre-marketing materials and event reminders as well as post-event follow-ups. They also preserve all your collected contact information.

Use QR codes and mobile apps to scan attendee badges and business cards. Pick a system and software that streamlines this process and makes it convenient for attendees to provide their email addresses when they enter the event.

Choose apps and software that work both online and offline. This ensures that they’ll work even if you lose your internet connection so you don’t miss a single email address.

Norby is an all-in-one marketing platform that focuses on setting up an event from beginning to end. With Norby, you can collect event registrations to get signups, build a page, and market your event. You can even do event monetization while efficiently managing attendee data. Try it here.

Engaging Attendees

As you're thinking about how to collect emails at an event, you’ll want to come up with ways to engage your attendees and audience.

Focus on the design and placement of your setup so you can grab attention, making people more likely to stop by and share their emails. Direct your staff to be friendly and engaging. This way, you’re more likely to establish meaningful connections and foster enduring business relationships.

If you want to captivate attendees and collect emails at an event, consider these tactics:

• Get to know your audience and their interests.
• Follow the latest industry trends, like offering complimentary massages, to help encourage exciting discussions and please crowds.
• Offer complimentary food and drinks, along with a designated seating area, to create a relaxed conversation.
• Provide free games, like carnival or video games, to keep attendees entertained.
• Pick a theme for your team to craft a fun and unique experience around that creates a buzz about your booth.
• Offer a photo booth at your event. Not only is this fun for attendees, but it also allows you to collect contact information so you can send the photos via text or email. You can use this information to connect with your audience after the event is over.
• Schedule networking sessions to naturally encourage the exchange of contact information between attendees.

Crafting a Compelling Elevator Pitch

Before your event, create a compelling pitch that convinces attendees to join your email list. Train your staff on this pitch so they can effectively communicate the benefits of becoming part of your email community. You can also offer several examples of pitches that your staff can adapt based on their personal communication style.

To collect data effectively, include many questions on your form. This can help you get to know your audience better and determine who your best potential buyers are. It can also help you refine your strategy for the next event.

Crafting a compelling pitch is part of engaging attendees. Craft your pitch to cater to your audience so you’re guaranteed to lock in their email.

Data Privacy and Compliance

When you’re planning how to collect emails at an event, data privacy and compliance should be a top concern.

Building trust with your audience is important, so you need to prioritize compliant opt-ins when you collect emails at an event. Nothing is more frustrating than an inbox full of emails you don’t want!

It should be standard procedure to obtain consent from event attendees for any email communications. This fosters trust and transparency with your audience, which in turn leads to more engaged and satisfied subscribers.

All this requires is a check box that attendees can tick if they want to opt in to emails. This way, no one ends up with emails they don’t want.

Follow Up After the Event

In addition to knowing how to collect emails at an event, you need to remember to follow up afterward. Immediately after the event, send a thank-you email as a gesture of appreciation for participants’ attendance and interest. Follow up as soon as possible — before your competitor does!

Consider post-event campaigns that provide content and special offers specifically for your email subscribers. This proactive approach not only strengthens your relationship with your subscribers but also increases the chances of converting them into loyal customers.

Check out Norby’s guide to email marketing best practices here to learn more.

Analyzing and Improving Your Strategy

To improve your chances of collecting emails at an event, it’s important to measure your success using performance indicators or KPIs. These include the number of emails collected and your conversion rates.

Use these insights to refine your strategy for events, ensuring that each endeavor builds on the last one. The aim is to make each new event more effective at building your email list than the last. This ultimately leads to better engagement and more successful email marketing campaigns.

Check out Norby’s free event marketing checklist here. It contains the KPIs and event planning tactics you need to create an alluring event.

In Conclusion

Collecting emails at events is a valuable way to grow your email marketing list and foster meaningful conversations with potential customers. By planning your approach, engaging with attendees, and following best practices, you can use events to grow your email community. With this guide in hand, you're well-informed on how to collect emails at an event and strengthen your overall marketing campaigns.

Stay tuned for insights on event marketing and digital engagement in our upcoming blog posts.

‍