Pre-Event Survey Template

Pre-event survey template FAQ

What is a pre-event survey?

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.

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.

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.

Why use the pre-event survey?

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.

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Let's consider 3 different scenarios and the benefits surveys offer:

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1. Sending a pre-event survey when you only begin to organize an event

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.

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2. Sending a survey to the early birds

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.

But, they won't tell you how effective word-of-mouth was.

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.

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3. Surveying registrars soon before the event

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.

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.

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.

What questions to ask in a pre-event survey?

Here are examples of pre-event survey questions you may want to ask:

How did you hear about this event?
Which social media platforms do you use?
What do you expect of this event?
What motivates you to take part in this event?
Which speakers are you most excited about?
Has there been any event information that was unclear to you?
Have you attended a similar event before?
Do you have any medical conditions we should be aware of
Do you have any special needs you'd like us to be aware of?
Do you have any dietary restrictions you'd like to tell us about?

For more ideas, check out the pre-event survey template above.

How to use Survicate’s pre-event survey template?

Setting up the pre-event survey is pretty straightforward and doesn't take a lot of time.

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1. When you click the "Send this survey for free" button, you're taken to the sign-up area.

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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.)

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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.)

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.

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.

Alternatively, trigger the survey as a pop-up on your website. ‍

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PRO TIP:‍

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.

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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.

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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. ‍

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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!