Promoting and distributing your event app

Once you have decided to invest in a mobile app for your event, how do you ensure that your attendees are utilizing it to its full potential? Creating and publishing your event in the app stores is just the first step. Promoting and helping attendees to download and use the app is essential in getting the most out of your investment. In this item, we outline some tips for what you can do before and during an event to achieve optimal download results for your event app.

Before the event

Ideally, attendees should download the app ahead of time to browse the program and make use of scheduling functionalities to plan their visits. Downloading ahead of time also lessens the load on the venue wifi and offers you a personal communication channel to the user in anticipation of the event.

App store search optimization
When people want to install an app, they typically search the app store. It is important to make sure that people can easily find your app by using the right keywords in the stores and/or by providing direct links to the app download pages.

Advertise on your website
Your website is in most cases the primary if not only, a place to find the conference program, together with information about your event, speakers, and registration. It is the ideal place to promote your app and to communicate how to download it. Since the event app is an important tool for attendees, it deserves to be highlighted in a prominent location.

Social media channels
If your organization is active on social media platforms, it takes a small effort to communicate the existence of the app. Social media platforms are the perfect channels to make quick announcements reaching many users.

An announcement in newsletters or emails
Newsletters targeting your potential attendees are also a good way of promoting your conference app. You can provide a more detailed description of features or simply links to the designated app stores. This can be done in your own newsletter but also through an external party targeting your audience, promoting not only your app but also your event or organization.

Videos and how-tos
Many users will only be persuaded to download and use the app if they are convinced of its utility. Providing an overview of the key features or a how-to-use app in an interesting and interactive way, allows users to preview the app before downloading and can also be used as promotional material during the event.

 

During the event

Many attendees will be downloading the app for the first time at the venue. That means that promoting the app during the event is critical to boosting awareness. Certain site considerations should also be taken into account to make sure that downloading goes smoothly.

Wifi
An event app can have a lot of data and images. The bigger your event, the more data you will need. This data adds up to the total file size of your app and can affect the download time. For this reason, it is important that you provide a stable and fast wifi connection during your event and, in the case of downtime, a backup connection.

Banners and posters
We have found that a very effective way to advertise the app at the event is with printed banners and posters. Displayed near the Registration desk, for instance, these banners should communicate essential information such as how to download the app and the wifi name and password.

Help desk
Your attendees will differ in terms of demographics and tech-savviness. People could encounter problems installing the event or even need help getting a wifi connection. Once the app is downloaded, they may have questions on how to use it. It is very helpful to offer a support desk for all app and wifi-related questions run by well-informed hostesses.  

Onsite support & promotion services
Many organizers don’t have the time or resources to organize a support desk or promote the app. In those cases, they can hire Conference Compass to make this happen. Conference Compass can advise and or implement an app promotion strategy including providing onsite support for your attendees.

These are just a few of the ways that you can promote and advertise your event app. By making the app an integral part of the event, both attendees and organizers benefit from increased engagement and connectivity.