9 Genius Techniques for How to Improve Attendance Turnout at Your Next Event
Whether you’re planning a cookout, birthday party, or a bachelorette party, ensuring attendee turnout is rarely easy. However, there are some steps you can take to rev up excitement and engagement for your upcoming affair. Wondering how to get people to come to a party? Wonder no more! Here are nine ways to ensure an excellent event turnout at your next party.
Start Thinking About Attendance in the Planning Phase
Planning an event? Here are a few things to consider before you even set the date!
1. Give Yourself (and Your Guests) Plenty of Time to Plan
You’ll want to ensure you have enough time to work out the major details of your event — such as getting decorations, food, beverages, or entertainment. But, if you’re wondering how to get people to come to your party, it’s also essential your guests have ample time to prepare. Providing a heads up well in advance increases the likelihood that your invitees have clear schedules.
2. Be Considerate of Major Holidays and Events
If you’re throwing a holiday party, try to do so a week or so beforehand rather than the day of. This technique works because many of your guests will likely have longstanding traditional events or family plans for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter.
In addition to holidays, many plan their vacations around bank holidays, national holidays, holiday weekends, or other special events such as “the big game.” If you’re planning on hosting guests for a major event, start early and send out your invitations well in advance — months early if possible — for a great event turnout.
3. Set a Theme
Unless you’re hosting a major event like Friendsgiving, you’ll likely need to do a little bit of thinking in terms of your event’s theme. While theme often does dictate your decorative choices — like color palettes and motifs — it can also help inform your food, beverage, activities, dress code, and more.
For example, if you choose a Glow in the Dark or Blackout theme, you can opt for glow in the dark eats, attire, and activities like glow in the dark painting. Under the glow of blacklights, your attendees are sure to feel like they’ve stepped into a unique event!
Looking for something classy but festive? Step back in time to the roaring twenties and enjoy a Great Gatsby-themed affair — just be sure your guests get the dress code memo! For a relaxed backyard party, you may want to heat up the grill, serve up cookout classics, and enjoy mingling and music.
4. Choose a Crowd Pleaser
Wondering how to build hype for an event? Choose a piece de resistance — which can be a guest speaker, giveaway, raffle, plated meal, mimosa bar, live entertainment, a paint party, or simply the promise of great tunes and better dance moves! Either way, you’ll want to decide what will make your event stand out and later promote it to your invitees.
5. Ensure Your Key Players Can Attend
Before setting your date in stone, reach out to your nearest and dearest to float potential dates. After all, you want to make sure that these VIPs can make it!
6. Create a Rainout Plan, if Applicable
Nothing will cause your attendance to dwindle like hosting an outdoor event in a drizzle. If you’re planning on hosting an outdoor event, create a Rainout Plan just in case storm clouds start rolling in — this will save you a lot of stress in the long run!
Spread the Word
Now that you’ve selected your date, chosen a theme, and checked in with your VIPs, it’s time to learn how to get the word out about an event.
7. Make Invitations
There’s something special about receiving an invitation in the mail or in your inbox. Instead of sending out a mass group text, start by creating invitations — and decide whether you’d like to go digital or paper. Whichever option you choose, consider your theme and personalize your invites. A personalized invitation will help your invitees feel special and appreciated.
Be sure to include the date, location, and time of your event and any other pertinent information, like dress codes, entertainment, food, or if your event will be BYOB.
Pro Tip: There are plenty of pros to choosing E-vites: they’re environmentally friendly, free or low cost, and you won’t have to worry about your invite getting lost in the mail.
8. Find Your Influencers
Once your invitations have gone out, it’s time to call on your closest (and most extroverted) invitees — whether they’re friends, associates, or colleagues. Encourage these close invitees to act as influencers to hype up your event, spread the word, and engage with any social media posts or Facebook events. A little engagement goes a long way!
9. Provide Reminders and Updates
Keep your crew updated with reminders once the date is set and the details start to fall into place. One of the easiest ways to do so is through social media. Create a Facebook Event or use Twitter, Instagram, or your favorite social media platform to spread the word. Be sure to recap the details you included on your invitations (date, location, and time), and use this space to play up the theme and your event.
Need a little help getting the conversation started? Use features designed to drive engagement — like polls or quizzes and provide semi-regular updates and reminders on your page.
If circumstances change — for example, your backyard soiree looks like it could be rained out — create a post to let your guests know that cocktails and conversation will carry on inside!
Make Your Next Event a Hit at Painting With a Twist
Making sure that people turn up to your event can be a lot of work, but planning the event itself doesn’t have to be. Organize your next celebration with a little (or a lot of) help from your local Painting with a Twist.
When you make a reservation at one of our studios, you need to ensure that your guests arrive and that you have the beverages and snacks of your choice. We’ll handle the rest — from the fun and festive atmosphere and supplies to post clean-up. We’ve got you covered!
