Springtime means many things: Snow melting. Birds singing. Flowers blooming.
Here at EverTrue, springtime is also one of our favorite parts of the year, as it’s events season for many of our customers. Reunions, networking events, and in-person meetings to close out the annual fund are abundant this season.
So here’s the great news: Events are an excellent time for promoting your EverTrue app community and using that captive and engaged audience to quickly acquire new users while sharing with them the benefits of EverTrue.
Here are five quick tips to do just that:
1. Make an announcement
It may sound obvious, but a free, easy, and often overlooked promotion is simply telling your audience to download EverTrue at your events. Bonus points if you can ask a fellow alum to make the announcement for you and convey the power they see in your institution’s network.
Over the holidays, I was at an alumni event for my high school, EverTrue customer Brimmer and May School. Our Alumni Board President made a great announcement encouraging alums to embrace the power of the Brimmer network. We were asked to support each other by helping other alums find internships and career opportunities using the great resources—like EverTrue—that our alumni office has made available to us. Sometimes hearing it from a fellow alum or figurehead, like a Headmaster or famous teacher who might also be at the event, can really have a lasting impact. And don’t forget to encourage alumni already using the app to invite their friends!
2. Do a raffle at the event using the app
Since Console makes it easy for you to track new users and suggested updates from those users, a raffle can be a relatively effortless way to increase adoption. Simply announce that any attendee who signs up as a new user at your event will be entered into a raffle (you’ll get even more engagement if you offer fun prizes like an office visit from your school mascot, the winner’s favorite affinity group featured on your Facebook page, throwing the first pitch at a big rivalry sports game, etc). You can also include current users in the raffle by offering entry to new and existing users who suggest an update about themselves or a classmate. Then, sit back and let the updates roll in!
3. Use the app as a drink ticket
At a lot of your events, you probably find yourself running around handing out drink coupons. The EverTrue app can help: Why not use the app as a drink ticket? Attendees merely show the bartender that they’re logged into app on their smartphones and then get their drink! This encourages alums to create an account on the app (if they don’t already have one) and adds yet another benefit to using it. Plus, it frees you up to spend more time hanging out with your alumni.
4. Hang a sign at check in
If you have staff members manning a table with name tags and registration, why not make a cool banner to have at every event table? Investing in a piece of signage will have longterm benefits; you can easily encourage attendees to download the app and gain new users at all of your alumni events throughout the season. Not a fan of banners? Handing out stickers that promote the app at the registration table—and throughout each event—is a great alternative.
5. Put the app up on the big screen
Don’t let your smartphone-wielding alumni have all the EverTrue fun! While we work on making a compatible solution for all devices, an event is a great time to show off your app. Project your amazing networking tool at your event to intrigue new users and spark conversation. You can pick up an adaptor from your nearest Apple store to easily share the app on the big screen. Alumni love physically seeing the power of their network. Who wouldn’t?
Worried that these five techniques won’t resonate with your older alumni? Read this post about Bucknell’s EverTrue app adoption success across its classes from 1951 to 2013.