How to Retarget Existing Attendees for Future CME Events|eMedEvents

 Retargeting is an online marketing strategy that revolves around drawing previous visitors back to your site—and your content. It is one of the best digital tools available for converting your existing visitors into event attendees.

When it comes to CME attendees, they are notorious for taking it slow when it comes to registration, with high rates of last-minute ticket sales for nearly every event. The percentage of first-time site visitors who leave without signing up or registering for an event is at a staggering 97%; this means that it is crucial for you to have other strategies in place to draw them back and keep your CME content at the forefront of their thoughts.

However, not only is retargeting effective at prompting first-time attendees, it can also help you attract previous attendees to your newest events. You’ve already sparked their interest in your content once before; all it takes is a good followup to reel them back in for a second time.

What is Retargeting?

For our purposes, retargeting is an online advertising method that enables you to display and redisplay your marketing offers to previous conference attendees. The concept is that potential customers are tagged when they attend your website, resulting in their browser picking up a cookie. Then, as the user continues to surf the web, relevant advertisements are triggered by your browser cookie. The entire procedure is meant to be seamless and unobtrusive.

Mitigate Registration Abandonment

The majority of potential attendees won't sign up on their first visit, thus leaving the site with their “shopping cart” empty. Cart abandonment campaigns are a tried-and-true way to increase conversions, regardless of your event’s price tag. These potential attendees visited your event landing page, which means you know they are interested in your event. There are a myriad of reasons why people do not complete their registrations  the first time around, which is not necessarily important for your purposes, as long as you can pull them back with a gentle reminder or two.

Through retargeting, you can deliver ads to attendees who visited the registration page but didn’t complete it, gently reminding them of your event. You can also combine this with your event timeline and create distinct advertisements announcing registration openings, speaker reveals, early-bird discounts, or last-chance registrations.

4 Benefits of Retargeting Campaigns

While you can only make a first impression once, it is not necessarily the most important impression you can make. Here are some ways effective retargeting can benefit you and your business overall.

1. Better Brand Recognition

Once healthcare professionals have engaged with your brand and received your cookie, you can begin retargeting them. They'll now begin to notice your content wherever they go online, and that will boost your brand awareness across the board. When the time comes for them to seek out CME events to meet their credit requirements, your brand will spring to mind.

2. Higher Advertisement Engagement

For those who have already expressed interest in your event, your personalized reminder ads will generally see a higher percent of engagement overall, with a potential click through rate up to 10 times higher than the industry average.

3. Significant Increase in ROI

By reminding potential attendees to register for events that they have browsed before, you greatly increase your chances of securing tangible ticket sales. Better brand recognition and higher engagement with ads will inevitably lead to a positive boost in your Return on Investment (or ROI) for both your event and your marketing campaign.