Stop Ghosting Your Attendees: A Guide To A Continuous Event Content Strategy

We recently hosted a live conversation with Emilie Lewis, SVP, Marketing, Audience, and Content Strategy at Emerald diving into how event teams should be leveraging event content to engage audiences all year long.

Event content serves as a high-impact accelerator to engage the audience during an event, and across marketing channels long after the event has ended.

Many organizers fall into a cycle of focusing solely on the event itself, only to leave their attendees hanging once it’s over. "Ghosting” attendees doesn’t just impact attendee engagement; it also hinders the development of long-term relationships that drive attendee retention and loyalty.

This is a call for a paradigm shift: a continuous event content strategy that keeps the conversation alive 365 days a year. Interested in watching the conversation?

Watch on-demand here:

Here’s how to implement a strategy that keeps your attendees engaged, informed, and invested—long after the event has ended.

1. Building Relationships Through Consistent Engagement

Just as we wouldn’t abruptly cut off communication in our personal relationships, event organizers can’t afford to "ghost" their attendees once the event concludes. Attendees today expect more than just isolated interactions; they crave ongoing value and connection.

"A lack of continuous engagement is like ghosting your audience."

To create this continuity, start by integrating audience engagement into your year-round strategy. By maintaining regular touchpoints—whether through social media, email newsletters, or community forums—you keep attendees involved, informed, and connected.

This not only strengthens relationships but also encourages attendees to see your events as an integral part of their professional lives rather than a one-time obligation.

2. Avoiding Silos: Creating a Unified Content Strategy Across Teams

A successful event content strategy requires the alignment of multiple departments, from marketing and sales to operations and customer success. However, silos within these departments often lead to disjointed messaging, which diminishes the attendee experience.

"Breaking down departmental silos allows for a seamless conversation across all touch points."

Event organizers can improve their content strategy by involving key stakeholders early in the planning stages and establishing a shared vision for attendee engagement. This ensures that everyone—from sales reps to customer service teams—understands how to contribute to a unified narrative that speaks to attendees’ needs, interests, and challenges year-round.

3. Knowing Your Audience: The Power of Listening

At the core of impactful event content strategy is the practice of truly listening to your attendees. Emilie encourages event organizers to go beyond surveys and dive into direct engagement through methods like:

• Focus groups
• Interviews
• One-on-one conversations

Listening to audience needs through conversations reveals nuances that data alone can miss. Empowering attendees to share their insights makes them feel valued and invested.

For instance, Emilie recounted how one focus group session provided a game-changing insight that wouldn’t have surfaced in survey data alone. Direct engagement not only helps uncover these valuable insights but also shows your attendees that their opinions are valued.

4. Delivering Value Beyond the Event: Creating Meaningful Experiences

An effective content strategy is about more than just the information you deliver; it’s about creating memorable experiences that add real value. Table stakes is the importance of balancing educational content with engaging experiences that provide attendees with a holistic journey.

Activations and experiences during events that ramp up the immersive, interactive elements include:

• Q&A sessions
• Breakout discussions
• Virtual meet-and-greets with industry experts

These components allow attendees to engage more deeply with the event content, making them feel like active participants rather than passive viewers. By combining knowledge-sharing with experience-driven elements, you create a well-rounded event that resonates and sticks with your audience.

5. A Continuous Content Strategy: Moving Beyond Pre- and Post-Event Phases

Many event organizers follow a segmented approach to content—pre-event, during the event, and post-event. But Emilie challenges this model. There is no pre-and-post event.

"Stop thinking in segmented phases; consider all content as part of an ongoing conversation with the audience."

Instead of creating isolated bursts of engagement, view your content as a continuous narrative that evolves over time. For example, rather than sending a single post-event email recap, consider setting up a series of follow-up communications that build upon the themes covered during the event.

These could include:

• In-depth blog posts
• Webinar recaps
• Feature exclusive insights from speakers.

By weaving these pieces into a larger, continuous storyline, you keep the audience engaged and encourage them to see your brand as a trusted source of industry knowledge.

6. Syndicating Content to Sustain Engagement All Year

To maintain engagement beyond the event itself, Emilie suggests repurposing and syndicating event content in creative ways that keep the conversation going. From video highlights and thought leadership articles to social media snippets and podcast episodes, repurposed content can extend the life of your event and make your brand a constant presence in attendees’ lives.

“This type of content keeps audiences engaged and thinking of you as a thought leader, not just a brand that’s there to sell them something."

Some ideas for post-event syndication include:

• LinkedIn Live Events: Host live discussions or Q&A sessions with speakers to dive deeper into topics covered at the event.
• Webinars: Offer attendees a chance to revisit popular sessions or learn about newly emerging topics.
• Email Series: Create a drip campaign with highlights, key takeaways, or follow-up tips based on event sessions.

This type of content syndication keeps attendees connected to your brand and reinforces their association with your event as a valuable resource year-round.

7. Balancing Data and Human Insights for a Winning Strategy

While data is essential to any content strategy, event organizers shouldn’t rely on data alone to understand their audiences. What the data tells you and what you can learn in a focus group can juxtapose each other.

“Sometimes, you have to go back to your customer and get their perspective even when the data says something else."

To balance quantitative data with qualitative insights, try implementing simple, real-time feedback tools during the event:

• One-question surveys
• Instant polls
• Session evaluations

These elements can capture real-time attendee sentiment, helping you gauge reactions and make on-the-fly adjustments if necessary.

Additionally, personal conversations—whether through phone calls or in-person interactions—can offer valuable insights that data simply can’t capture.

8. Experimenting and Embracing Failure

Innovation requires experimentation, and not every tactic will succeed. Event teams should work to set aside a portion of their budget for testing new ideas, acknowledging that some may fail.

"Don’t be afraid to fail. Small experiments can reveal big insights.

For instance, you could test sending physical mailers, even if they’ve had limited success in the past, as evolving consumer preferences and trends may yield different results today. With new technology like AI and QR codes, you can also experiment with more personalized or interactive content options.

Testing these ideas on a small scale before scaling up allows for calculated risks that could lead to surprising rewards.

Conclusion

Creating a continuous event content strategy requires a shift in mindset from short-term campaigns to year-round relationship-building. By focusing on consistent engagement, breaking down silos, listening to attendee needs, and syndicating content creatively, you can build a robust strategy that keeps your attendees engaged long after the event has ended. Emilie Lewis’s approach reminds us that successful event marketing isn’t about quick wins—it’s about meaningful, ongoing conversations that make attendees feel valued and connected.

With a thoughtful, continuous event content strategy, you can turn your one-time audience into a year-round community and stop ghosting your attendees.

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