Once the batch of invitations dropped into the mailbox for your summer party, you knew you forgot something.

How many sandwich triangles do you put out when there’s no way for your guests to RSVP, and no way to keep track of the guest count?

Promoting your next fundraising event through email marketing helps to keep everything in order, by attracting the right guests, letting attendees respond via Constant Contact’s RSVP action block, and keeping a count on your total guest list.

Join us for a free webinar, Create and Send Your Nonprofit’s Email Campaign in 15 Minutes or Less.

Invite the right audience to your next event

Attracting people to an event is easy if your only goal is audience size, but since your goal is fundraising, you’ll want the right, qualified guests to attend. Carefully segment your audience to select the people that have previously volunteered, previously donated, or just recently joined your mailing list, and send them a special invite.

Keeping your invite list targeted to only the most engaged people will help your promotional emails be more effective, and your event more successful. If your audience is full of the most likely donors, it will also help you find other event sponsors, as they’ll want access to those same high-quality leads.

Let your guests easily RSVP and easily attend

Your goal with each invitation is to make it as easy as possible for people to respond, but also to attend. Letting your audience RSVP with a simple button click will help you add names to your guest list, but also makes it more likely that people will have a good experience, which lets them expect a good experience once they arrive at your event.

After replying yes to your invite through Constant Contact’s RSVP action block, your audience will be able to add the details of your fundraiser to their calendar with just a few clicks. With a reminder on their calendar your list of potential attendees will turn into actual attendees ready to donate to your cause.

Build your guest list to build on your success

As your guest list grows and more people add their names, you start building another asset that you can use later to build on your past success: your email list. Place an event signup form on your website and add a section that lets people subscribe to your email list.

While you’re main audience is likely previous donors and volunteers that are already on your email list, targeting new emails will help you succeed later. You can then segment these new emails into a separate list and target them with specific campaigns designed to nurture them as future donors or volunteers.

A headcount makes it easier to pull of your event

While you could throw your fundraising event without keeping track of the guest list, you run the risk of underestimating your success. If you’re only expecting 100 people to attend, but 1,000 show up, your going to quickly run out of food, beverages, and likely, venue space.

Keeping track of your headcount will also make sure you’re covered and your organization remains safe. While you may not need a permit or a police detail for a small gathering, taking over the local park with thousands of guests will quickly turn ugly without the right support. Plus, it helps to know the number of attendees when speaking and planning with other vendors or sponsors.

Smart promotion helps make your fundraising event a success

Next time you throw a your summer party, make sure to include a way for your guests to respond to the invitations, or better yet, use email marketing to invite them and save paper. When attracting an audience for your next fundraising event, make sure you’re inviting the right people, keeping track of their responses, and setting up for the right amount of people.

Make your next fundraising event a success using Constant Contact’s RSVP action block to keep track of your guest list, automatically.

Join us for a free webinar, Create and Send Your Nonprofit’s Email Campaign in 15 Minutes or Less.

The post How to Attract and Keep Track of Visitors to Your Next Event appeared first on Constant Contact Blogs.