Pre-event surveys take many forms. Depending on whether you send them to potential attendees, early birds, or attendees registering not long before the event, they serve a different role and give you different insights.Â
They are useful no matter when you send them, though. Pre-event surveys help you gain heads-ups about the attendees so that you can manage the event successfully.Â
But there's more to that. They also provide useful information for marketing teams, so make sure you pass on the findings to them. To learn more, check out the answers to the questions below.
As we've mentioned, pre-event surveys serve slightly different roles, depending on whether you send them long in advance or just before an event.Â
Let's consider 3 different scenarios and the benefits surveys offer:
If you've just got down to organizing the event, the pre-event survey helps you gauge interest and garner potential attendees' expectations. The research findings can prove helpful while conceptualizing the event. With the survey, you can gain suggestions on speakers, topics, information on the attractions offered at other events, or common pet peeves event attendees have.
You've just opened the registration to your event, and the first attendees are signing up. It's an excellent opportunity to learn about the expectations of the people who will attend the event and see if you've taken everything into account. You already have a plan but most likely there's still room for changes.
Asking the attendees about their motivations is also a good idea at this point. Their answers may provide you with helpful information. Also, remember to ask attendees about health problems or physical limitations. It’ll help you anticipate potential issues and make the event attendees feel safe.
Surveying the early birds is also a perfect opportunity to learn what marketing channels worked best. Social media reports have already given you volumes of data.Â
But, they won't tell you how effective word-of-mouth was.Â
Knowing that people already talk about recommend your events is strong evidence that you've managed to build an established brand. Collecting the data will also help you with sponsorships for future events. ‍
A pre-event survey sent to registered attendees shortly before the event is unlikely to impact this event. Even if there is not enough time for significant changes, it is still worthwhile asking about the attendees' expectations; you'll use the insights when organizing future events.Â
Also with this survey, find out about the participants' motivations and interests - just like you did when surveying early birds. There's very little chance you'll use the knowledge to improve the upcoming event. But, you'll use the insights when organizing future events.Â
The participants' motivations will be of interest also to the event speakers. Knowing them will help the speakers engage with the audience and keep the energy levels high.
Suppose you're organizing an event on behalf of a company. Your audience is likely to be the same as your company's target group. If so, also make sure you pass the survey findings on to your marketing team. They will make valuable insights, enriching marketing personas.
Our pre-event survey template is designed to help you better understand your attendees' expectations, goals, and needs before your event even starts. By asking a series of targeted questions, you can gather valuable insights to help you tailor your event to meet your attendees' needs and expectations.
Here are some of the questions included in our pre-event survey template:
These questions are designed to help you understand how your attendees learned about your event, what they hope to gain from attending, which speakers they are most interested in hearing from, and what questions they hope to have answered. Additionally, by asking about any issues they had accessing event information, you can ensure that your attendees have all the information they need to make the most of your event.
Asking these questions before your event can help you tailor your event to meet your attendees' needs and expectations. For example, if you see that many attendees are interested in a particular speaker, you can ensure that the speaker has a prominent role in your event. If many attendees are seeking information on a specific topic, you can ensure that topic is covered in your event's sessions.
Our pre-event survey template can help you create a better event experience for your attendees by giving you the insights you need to tailor your event to meet their needs and expectations. We hope you find it helpful!
Sure. At Survicate, we understand that every event and every business is unique, which is why all of our survey templates are fully customizable.
With our pre-event survey template, you can modify everything from the CSS and background to the branding and the questions themselves. This means you can create a survey that perfectly aligns with your brand and event, and that asks the specific questions you want to ask.
The advantages of these capabilities are many. For starters, you can ensure that your survey fits seamlessly with your event branding, which can help increase response rates and improve your attendees' overall experience.Â
Additionally, by customizing the questions, you can get the specific insights you need to tailor your event to your attendees' needs and expectations.
Furthermore, customizing the survey can help you build a stronger relationship with your attendees. By asking the right questions and presenting the survey in a way that feels familiar to your brand, you can create a survey that feels more like a conversation than a questionnaire. This can help your attendees feel more engaged and invested in your event, which can ultimately lead to higher attendance rates and more positive reviews.
So, yes, you absolutely can modify Survicate's pre-event survey template to fit your needs. We're here to help you create the perfect survey for your event, and we're always available to offer guidance and support along the way.
There are so many questions you can include in a pre-event survey, depending on your specific event and goals. Here are a few suggestions, along with the benefits of asking them:
This question can help you understand which marketing channels are most effective in promoting your event. This can help you optimize your marketing efforts in the future and focus on the channels that bring in the most attendees.
Asking about social media usage can help you understand which platforms your attendees are most active on. This can help you focus your social media efforts on the platforms that are most likely to reach your target audience.
This open-ended question can provide valuable insights into what your attendees are hoping to get out of your event. By understanding their expectations, you can tailor your event to meet their needs and provide a more satisfying experience.
This question can help you understand the underlying motivations that drive attendees to your event. By understanding what motivates your attendees, you can better target your marketing efforts and create a more compelling event experience.
This multiple-choice question can help you understand which speakers are most popular among your attendees. This can help you schedule your event sessions to ensure the most popular speakers are featured in prime time slots, which can help drive attendance.
Asking about unclear event information can help you identify areas where you need to provide more clarity or detail. This can help ensure that attendees have all the information they need to make the most of your event.
Understanding whether attendees have attended similar events in the past can help you tailor your event to meet their needs and expectations. For example, if many attendees have attended similar events before, you may need to provide more advanced or specialized content to keep them engaged.
This question can help you ensure that you're prepared to provide any necessary medical assistance to attendees who need it. By knowing about any medical conditions in advance, you can make sure you have the appropriate resources and staff on hand to assist attendees in case of an emergency.
This question can help you ensure that your event is accessible to attendees with disabilities or special needs. By knowing about any special needs in advance, you can make sure you have the appropriate accommodations in place to provide a comfortable and welcoming environment for all attendees.
Asking about dietary restrictions can help you ensure that you provide appropriate food and beverage options for all attendees. By knowing about any dietary restrictions in advance, you can make sure that everyone has access to food and drinks that they can safely consume.
Overall, the key to creating a successful pre-event survey is to ask questions that provide you with the information you need to tailor your event to meet your attendees' needs and expectations. By asking the right questions, you can create an event that is more engaging, more satisfying, and more likely to drive attendance and positive reviews. Good luck with your pre-event survey!
Setting up the pre-event survey is pretty straightforward and doesn't take a lot of time.Â
1. When you click the button above the page (next to the template's preview) and sign up with your business email. By doing so, you're signing up for a Flexible account. You can use our tool for free until you collect 100 responses.
2. Once you're done, the system takes you directly to the pre-event survey template. Feel free to use it as is, or edit and customize the survey to your needs.
Change the tone of the survey questions if it isn’t suitable for your audience. Add or delete questions and make them relevant to a given respondent by applying skip-logic. If needed, ad your brand logo. (This is a paid feature, though.)
3. Now, decide which survey distribution channel you will use.
Connect the survey platform with your company CRM if you're inviting your customers. (Survicate integrates with market-leading CRMs - you need no coding skills.)Â
If you're surveying a larger audience, you can either send the survey link in a social media ad or embed the survey code in an email.Â
To email the survey, select your marketing automation tool from the list in the tool. By doing so, you'll also know which survey respondents' identity is helpful if you want to get in touch.Â
Alternatively, trigger the survey as a pop-up on your website.Â
Survicate integrates with communication platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams. If you want to have the responses, flow indirectly to the collaboration tool the team involved in organing the event uses, add the platform while you're configuring the survey.
It'll make feedback collection an integral part of your team's workflow and will help you stay up to date with the survey responses you're getting.Â
4. Once you've finished setting the survey, send it and start analyzing the results. Survicate enables you to access survey responses while a survey is still running. Have them delivered directly to your company's communication app. Or check them in the tool's panel. You'll find the campaign statistics there, the response breakdown, and a word cloud showing the main themes of the responses.
5. Put the feedback to good use.
By now, you should be all set and armed with actionable insights that will help you throw an unforgettable event and ease the organization of future events.Â
‍Be our guest ;) And use the pre-event survey template above. We're sure it'll help you obtain all the heads-ups you need to organize a successful event. Best of luck!