| Contacting Trading Post members and keeping track of their replies was a time consuming process for DLRCEB. "We had tried using a commercially available e-mail marketing package," they say, "but found that although we could quickly and easily send e-mails to our customers, we couldn't track their responses. Not being able to track the responses meant that we had to fall back on our old fashioned and time consuming methods of trying to keep track of who would attend the meetings.
The DLRCEB implemented Eventznet Version 1 in April of 2003, with the creation of a dedicated Trading Post microsite. The microsite provides personalised invitation, reminder and feedback pages for each Trading Post member, as well as a registration form for new members.
Since implementing Eventznet, DLRCEB has seen a large increase in attendance at the Trading Post meetings. A significant proportion of this increase is attributed to their Eventznet implementation, as promoting the events is now a matter of clicking on a button, and new potential attendees can be instantly added to the invitation list.
The Trading Post microsite is accessed either through a link on the DLRCEB web site, or through a link in the e-mails sent to current Trading Post members through the DLRCEB Eventznet account.
Two weeks prior to each meeting, DLRCEB checks through the guest list for the event in their Eventznet account. Any edits that need to be made, such as correcting e-mail addresses or individual's names can be easily made. New guests can be added quickly and easily to the existing list. Once they are happy with the guest list, they click on a button to send the e-mails.
The e-mails are personalised for each recipient, branded with both the DLRCEB and the Trading Post branding, and contain sufficient information for potential attendees to understand quickly what the e-mail is about. To respond, the e-mail recipient clicks on a link in the e-mail, and is brought to their personalised invitation on the Trading Post microsite.
The guest then clicks on a button to either accept or decline the invitation. There is also an option for a guest to choose to be reminded at a later point of the meeting. Once the guest clicks the button, their response is recorded in the DLRCEB's Eventznet account.
The DLRCEB can see in an instant how many guests have viewed their invitation, accepted the invitation to the event, or requested a reminder. However, the most powerful aspect of Eventznet, according to DLRCEB is the combination of e-mail marketing with an event response system.
"We attribute a significant percentage of the superb increase in attendance at the Trading Post meetings to Eventznet." say DLRCEB, "During the months of May and June of 2003 more people registered to join the Trading Post through the microsite than actually attended our February meeting. We would have had to do a lot of work to reach that many people without Eventznet. We are hoping to use Eventznet for organising many of our other events and activities."
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