When researching retention rates day over day for multi-day online events, you will find that the industry standard is about a 50% retention rate. This means half of your attendees from the first day will return the second day. Statistics show that even less will return on a subsequent day. Fortunately, with intentional planning, focus on the attendee experience, and attention to detail, when we replaced our in-person conference with a fully online experience, we blew those numbers out of the water. It can be done.
On our second day of programming, 72% of our attendees returned to participate with us again. On our third day of programming, of those who participated on day two, we had 93% stick with us. When calculated over the three days, this was an overall retention rate of 66% from day one to day three. Unbelievable. This said to our stakeholders that not only did our hard work pay off in planning the event, but the attendees were engaged with the content, speakers, chat networking, or virtual trade show enough to keep coming back for more.
This was only achieved with teamwork, creativity, and a partnership with an amazing platform provider. It helped that we had a great designer, we coached our speakers and exhibitors, and set the right expectations for everyone. It took many, many hours and a lot of brain power from everyone. We were thrilled with the outcome, but definitely took a few days off afterwards to recover.
Do you have great retention stats? Share them with us along with why you think you were so successful, or send me an email.
Like this blog, share it with your planner friends, and on your social media!
Schedule a consultation with Tracy at tracybaer.com.
Discover more from Tracy's Tidbits
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.