14 Tips for Cart Recovery & 10 Emails Deconstructed

Content of recovery emails, using examples from the Internet Retailer 500.

Dell

Image credit: Marketing Sherpa

Dell blends a bit of urgency with a helpful, customer service oriented message. The headline “Your saved cart is about to expire” coupled with the screenshot of the checkout gives the gist of the message without the need to read any text. The copy expresses a “quick and easy” message, promising it won’t take too much time to take care of, and the customer can get “right back to work.”

Dell also links directly to the saved cart, and offers a click to call option which can track the conversion back to the email. My only concern is the click to call button and checkout graphic are more prominent than the white “Retrieve Your Saved Cart” button. Ideally the graphic would also be linked in case the recipient assumes it’s clickable.

Additional links to Subscription Center, Dell Financing, Resource Center and Services & Warranties do not compete with the main calls to action, but are still clearly visible. Links to manage email preferences, unsubscribe option and privacy policy are all easy to spot.

Dell could take it to the next level by personalizing its cart recovery emails with a first name when possible, and testing short and long copy/instructions.

HSN

Image credit: e-tailing group

HSN also creates urgency with the line “our inventory sells out quickly” – but the email has a more company-centric tone than customer-centric. The emphasis is more on “order today” than concern for the customer – something Dell did well.

Points for personalizing the message, making the call to action clear and including a phone number and email link for customer service.

Drugstore.com

Image credit: Get Elastic

Drugstore.com creates urgency that the cart is at risk of being wiped clean, and wins points for signing off the customer service oriented copy with a personal salutation. Showing value propositions for shopping with Drugstore.com is also strong. However, the image choice should be carefully considered. The “d’oh” girl suggests the customer is doing something stupid to forget items in her cart.

This email does not link directly to the cart, there is no call-to-action that relates to the email subject line or body. Rather, there is a banner link to “start shopping.” Also, there’s no indication of how long the items left in the cart will be held. There’s a bit too much going on in this message.

S&S

Image credit: Practical Ecommerce

S&S screams “Courtesy Reminder” in the headline, and stays consistent throughout the body. “We thought this might be important to you” sets the tone. “We have reserved these items for you” makes it sound like a special service. This approach may create a feeling of obligation for the customer – if an item is reserved, it’s not available for anyone else. One might feel guilty if they didn’t respond.

The message is personalized, includes images and prices of items left in cart and is streamlined, without any distracting offers or links. Including the offer code helps S&S track conversions from this program, even for telephone completions. The free shipping offer also addresses the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about shipping charges – one of the top reasons for cart abandonment.

Great job by S&S, I actually have nothing to critique. This program has been very successful for S&S, with a 25% conversion rate and 33% of email revenue coming from cart recovery efforts.

Neiman Marcus

Image credit: DoublePlus Ecommerce Blog

Similar to S&S, Neiman Marcus does a great job with a bold headline that creates urgency, with a customer service focus. It includes images of what’s in the cart. However, the call to action “Place your order soon” does not appear clickable (pink text) and the white rectangular button is hard to spot at the bottom.

There’s also a disconnect between the image of the girl staring straight ahead and the rest of the message. You may recall from previous posts that a model’s eye gaze affects where the customer looks.

Pottery Barn

Image credit: Big Fat Marketing Blog

Pottery Barn smartly includes the address and phone number of the closest retail store, should the customer be researching online to purchase offline.
might know this from email signup information, account info, city/state entered in checkout form or geotargeting from the cart.

CafePress

Image credit: Get Elastic

Cafe Press makes use of pre-header text “We’ve saved the items in your shopping cart” to give the recipient the gist of the email in a preview pane. It also has a customer service tone, personalized with the item in the cart, but it’s missing price information and messaging that creates a sense of urgency.

Cooking.com

Image credit: ProImpact7 Blog

Cooking.com also makes use of pre-header text “Your shopping cart is waiting for you at Cooking.com.” Merits for linking directly to the cart, showing a thumbnail image, and addressing the common reasons why one abandons a cart in the text area: interruptions, checkout trouble or confusion, and using the cart as a “wishlist.”

Cooking.com also does a good job in the post script, describing why the customer is receiving the message with an unsubscribe link. This would be an especially good idea for customers who have not opted in to email, but are receiving the trigger because they provided their email in the checkout process. (Though anyone who’s initiated checkout and provided an email address likely isn’t using the cart just as a wishlist).

I’m not crazy about “Why wait?” – it sounds like marketing fluff. Rather, something that would create a sense of urgency like “your cart is about to expire” or “items in your cart are at risk of selling out” would be more persuasive.

Walgreens

Image credit: Minggie.com

Walgreens gets gold stars for personalization (first and last name), repeated calls to action (both a big shiny red button and a text link) and evoking curiosity with the text “some of the items in your Shopping Cart or Saved Items list are eligible for additional discounts.” Notifying a customer when an item in the cart has decreased in price, is about to sell out or is about to increase in price is a great idea.

My only critique is this email is busy – there are so many links competing for attention. Only about 15% of the page is dedicated to the real purpose of the email – the rest is navigation and secondary calls to action. Walgreens could test a more streamlined version vs this control, or work on pulling the actual cart contents into the email like Neiman Marcus and others do.

Bass Pro Shops

Image credit: Listrak

Offering incentives to complete checkout is territory you should tread carefully. Bass Pro offers a whopping $20 reward for cart abandonment (on orders over $100) – this may condition customers to simply abandon carts to get a discount every time. However, this strategy warrants testing because it may be a more profitable strategy (more incentive, higher average order value) than a reminder without an incentive. The subject line “Come back and save $20″ should also be tested, as it’s not explicit that this is a message regarding an abandoned cart.

Proflowers

Image credit: SeeWhy Blog

Proflowers also plays the discount card, offering 10% off an order. Including “Maybe you didn’t notice weekday shipping costs less” adds additional incentive to click through (ideally such an email would be sent early in the work week). I imagine emails for flowers should be sent as quickly after the abandonment as possible as they are usually ordered very close to the event.

I like how Proflowers merchandises its recovery email. The item that was abandoned includes a large image, full description and price after discount, along with alternative product suggestions.

14 Tips for Cart Recovery Emails

• Craft a subject line that makes it clear the email is about items remaining in the cart.

• Make use of pre-header text. Again, make it clear the email is about items remaining in the cart. (Don’t put shipping offers, generic copy or unsubscribe links up there).

• Don’t be salesy. Keep your copy friendly, customer-centric and customer service oriented. Bonus points for creating a sense of urgency (cart will expire, product is about to sell out, price has dropped, etc).

• Include contact information for phone and email (click to call if you offer it).

8 Tips for Recovering Abandoned Shopping Carts

What is the biggest missed opportunity in ecommerce optimization? Is it A/B testing? Performance testing?

How about cart recovery?

We put a lot of focus on optimizing the cart, getting the customer through to conversion, yet still it’s not uncommon to have abandonment rates of 50% or higher. We know a good chunk of abandonment does not occur because the button wasn’t big enough or green enough or our web forms are too long. Some got distracted, some wanted to hold items for later, some left and couldn’t remember your site URL, some even thought the transaction went through when it did not.

Cart recovery emails enjoy astronomically higher conversion rates and ROI than regular email, and give you a very good chance of saving sales at a relatively low cost.

Click to enlarge image

The Missed Opportunity with Cart Recovery

A study by RedEye and Econsultancy found that 54% of companies surveyed do not target cart abandoners, compared to 26% that do. If we strip out the 20% that report cart recovery is irrelevant to their business, it’s 68% that don’t and 32% that do.

Compare this to the same survey’s findings that 53% of companies use A/B testing, cart recovery is quite possibly the biggest missed opportunity of ecommerce optimization.

But it’s not enough to just do it. There are best practices to get the most bang for your retargeting buck.

Don’t Delay

This isn’t dating, where you take a phone number and have to play it cool for 3 to 5 days to make it look like you’re really busy and important. Your conversion rate will not increase by making the customer sweat by your self control.

According to SeeWhy research, which has analyzed data from over 60,000 abandoned carts, 54% of all carts that are successfully recovered are won back within the first few hours after abandonment. An additional 10% can be recovered within 48 hours, and at the end of 7 days, 82% can be recovered.

Conversion rates for real-time recovery emails are 11% compared to 6% and 3% for 24 hours and 7 days, respectively. Open rates are also higher for real-time triggers – 60% vs. 55% after 24 hours and 50% after 7 days. Revenue per email is $11, $4, and $3, respectively.

Instant emails also reduce the risk that your customer converts before your “batch” of recovery emails are sent out for the day, saving you the embarrassment of an irrelevant email, or angering the customer that they could have received a discount if they had only not completed their purchase.

Shift from Manual to Automated

The RedEye and Econsultancy research highlights a shift from manual recovery methods to automated from 2010 to 2011. Good. Software is smarter, faster and better looking than us, and we should embrace that.

Be a Serial Stalker

Plan a series of 3 triggers, one for real-time, one after 24 hours and one after 7 days. The copy and creative of the email may be slightly different to reflect the lapse of time and to stagger offers (the first email may be just a friendly reminder, subsequent messages with sweeter deals). When possible, segment out recipients who have not opened the first email, opened but not clicked, and opened and clicked and target them accordingly. You may tinker with a series of more than 3 messages, but 3 is a good place to start until you get the feel for customer behavior.

Segment and Test Different Creative

You may want to trigger certain types of messages and offers depending on what’s in the cart. For example, high ticket items can absorb a free shipping offer better than low margin or low price items. Some product categories may naturally have a longer days to purchase or visits to purchase, and reminders rather than discount offers are effective without knicking your profit. And the more exclusive your product, the less you need to woo customers with discounts. Victoria’s Secret, for example, does not sell through other retailers. Vicky’s abandoned carts may simply need a reminder their cart is saved and ready for them to complete their purchase. The customer may be motivated by “your purchase qualifies for a Bonus Gift, click here to claim.”

Treat your emails like landing pages and test them. We know calls-to-action, copy (tone, length, messaging), images and layout all have an influence on persuasion and conversion. Don’t just “set it and forget it.” For some design inspiration and tips for content, see our previous post 14 Tips for Cart Recovery and 10 Emails Deconstructed.

Don’t Reward Abandonment

Discourage customers from abandoning in order to receive the “prize” discount by mixing up your offers. In other words, don’t send a discount the first time, every time. If possible, identify and segment out email accounts that have purchased after receiving an offer code. Alternate with “friendly reminder” emails with real-time triggers.

Plaster Your Value Proposition

Persuade comparison shoppers that your site is the right choice to purchase from, regardless of price. Include your value proposition, and don’t be discreet about it.

Capture the Email Address Early

Most importantly, capture the email address early, because you can’t trigger unless you have an email address. The best way is to ask for it as the first step, not just in the first step.

Follow Abandoners to Facebook

What about cart summary pages, before you can collect an address? If the customer was referred by an email campaign, it’s technically possible you can tie some carts back to the email address. But in most cases, using Google’s new Remarketing program allows you to target the cart-abandoner segment with whatever creative you like, such as a 10% off coupon or “your items are waiting for you at {brand.com}.” Your ad will follow them to Facebook and pretty much any site that shows Google display ads, which may get you more attention than an email series.

In fact, the two can work in tandem. Why not run Remarketing campaigns along with a cart recovery email program?

Original Article

Agencia 365 Marketing Online

Email Marketing: 7 effective Strategies

1) Abandoned Shopping Cart

We'll start with the most common email campaign used to recall customers to your website -- the abandoned shopping cart email. Take a look at how HubSpot customer Shar Music gets in touch with customers who have almost completed a purchase on their website, but abandon their shopping cart at the last minute.

 

 

This is just one in a series of three emails that Shar Music sends to an abandoned shopping cart customer to encourage them to return to the site and complete their purchase. A key takeaway of this abandoned shopping cart email is how easy they've made it for the recipient to understand the purpose of the email, and to act on it. The design isn't fancy; it doesn't need to be. It simply asks, "Can we help you with anything?" in bold letters that stand out from the rest of the email, and provides a large call-to-action button at the end that makes it easy for the recipient to return to their shopping cart and complete their purchase.

If abandoned shopping cart emails aren't part of your email remarketing strategy yet, they're some seriously low-hanging fruit; just make sure to follow up with an abandoned shopping cart customer quickly. An MIT study via SeeWhy showed that 90% of ecommerce leads go cold within one hour, but when remarketed to, spend 55% more!

2) Wishlist Sale

Always a fantastic email remarketer (their campaigns will appear in this post a few times), ModCloth has leveraged its "Wishlist" feature to remarket to their customers. You know the wishlist -- many ecommerce sites let you bookmark items that you really like, but perhaps aren't ready to purchase. It's common for customers to do this when they're researching options from multiple businesses, or when they see something they would like to get, but certainly don't need. Until they get this remarketing email, of course:

 

 

When customers are comparison shopping or unwilling to complete the purchase of something they like, price is often a factor. This remarketing campaign is genius because it addresses that purchase blocker by alerting me that something I wish I could have is now on sale. If I wasn't willing to buy it for its original price, maybe I'd be interested to "Grab It Now" for the sale price. Brilliant!

3) Last Chance to Purchase

Just like ModCloth lets you know when something on your wishlist is on sale, they have a remarketing campaign that alerts you when something on your wishlist is almost out of stock. Sometimes a sale can be enough to incite a customer to purchase; but maybe the urgency of an item selling out is enough for those items that are so popular you don't even need to put them on sale!

 

 

Emails like these are not only great because they encourage a purchase, but they also do so in a way that actually comes off as customer service. You're doing your customers a favor in this email -- getting in touch with them to let them know something they like won't be available soon. Personal service, meet 2012 ecommerce -- we think you two might have a lot in common.

4) Repetitive Behavior

Target people's past buying behaviors to get in touch with them right at (or ideally, a little bit before) the moment they'll need to make a purchase. This is a great email remarketing technique for businesses that deal with monthly, quarterly, or yearly purchases -- like an online contact lens retailer, for example. Since they know when you last bought contacts, in what amount, and how long that amount will last, they can perfectly time an email remarketing campaign to hit at your time of need.

But there are a few other creative applications for this type of remarketing campaign, too. Just take a look at how             1-800-Flowers       targets holidays for which their products are a great fit in their 2012 Mother's Day campaign. Even though I didn't buy flowers from them at Mother's Day last year (calm down, I used another vendor -- I'm not an animal!), I've purchased with them for other holidays. So it's smart of them to recognize Mother's Day as an opportunity for me to buy flowers from them instead of another competitor, since they know I'm likely to buy flowers from them for other holidays.

 

 

You can also do a mash-up of the two concepts we just discussed, like Pottery Barn did below. They took a more subjective look at customer buying behavior, and matched it up with the time of year to come up with this remarketing campaign. Since I purchased items from their outdoor collection last spring, I might be interested in doing so again this year.

 

 

5) Add-On and Related Item Suggestions

You know when you go to Amazon.com and they have a whole list of items they think you might like based on the product page you're viewing? Some of them are add-on items (products that would make the one you're looking at function better); and some are related items (products that other shoppers who purchased an item tend to like).

You might not have an algorithm running like Amazon does to tell you these things (or maybe you do!) but you can still take your product knowledge and apply it to an email remarketing campaign that recommends buyers purchase add-on and related items. Take a look at how Buy.com did it below.

 

(Tip: If you do have an algorithm running, you can use your purchase confirmation email -- an email that typically has a very high open rate -- as an opportunity to include these recommendations.)

6) All Your Friends Love It!

We've already talked about the importance of social proof and user-generated content in your marketing; why not include it in your next email remarketing campaign? Send an email like ModCloth's below (I told you they'd make multiple appearances today) that shows what others are saying about products you might like based on your past purchase history. These testimonials come from the product review section of their website, but you could also pull from customers' tweets and Facebook status updates that praise your product -- I've received an email from these folks that does just that in the past, too!

 

 

7) Back in Stock

Finally, consider sending an email alert for the products your customers wanted, but couldn't quite get their hands on, like you see below. There are two ways to approach this particular email remarketing campaign, both of which hinge on the fact that you keep out-of-stock products on your website.

The first is to add a module to your website for products that are out of stock that lets customers put in their email address, and ask to be alerted when a product's inventory is restocked. The other method, which can be combined with the previous one, is to alert customers who had an item on their wishlist but didn't complete the purchase before an item sold out. In this instance, you know a customer loved an item, but just didn't get to checkout in time; a remarketing campaign that let them know their much-coveted item is available would be another great way to deliver some seriously personal service!

 

Original Article

¿Quienes aplican esta estrategia en Argentina? Agencia 365

#email #marketing #agencia365

Social Media: 3 claves para crear Contenido de valor

Identifica tu audiencia: Aquí tienes que ser muy creativo, tu audiencia no es sólo quien compra el producto/servicio, sino aquellos que te pueden hacer llegar más rápido, y sobre todo mejor, el mensaje a tu consumidor.

Por ejemplo, si tienes un público objetivo que son las madres de más de 50 años, difícilmente será una audiencia que puedas encontrar fácilmente en las redes sociales, pero puedes utilizar una estrategia a través de los hijos. La creatividad aquí es una parte esencial en el desarrollo de la estrategia.

Identifica sus problemas: Ten en cuenta que siempre hablamos de personas con nombres y apellidos y que todos los días viven en el mismo entorno que nosotros, con problemáticas similares. Investiga en cual es su problemática diaria, visita foros sino las conoces, con que se enfrentan día a día, tanto profesionalmente como personalmente.

Soluciona sus problemas: Hazle la vida más fácil, más alegre, aportándole contenido que les haga más feliz la vida, que le aporte soluciones, que se acuerden de ti como el lugar donde pueden obtener soluciones a los problemas que les ocupan y preocupan diariamente. Cualquier formato es válido. Texto, Audio, Video, Fotografía. No dejes de lado ninguno de ellos.

Articulo Original

 Social Media en Argentina Agencia365

#redes #sociales #argentina #agencia #marketing 

Email Marketing: 10 Recomendaciones para Optimizar la Efectividad de una campaña

1. Mima a tu base de datos, la piedra filosofal del emailing. Trabaja para mantenerla siempre actualizada y pon fin a los rebotes. Esfuérzate en segmentar correctamente el listado de destinatarios para que formen parte del público objetivo de la promoción comunicada. Y lo más importante: Hazte con informes de aperturas y clicks para evaluar la efectividad de cada campaña.

2. Medita el Qué, el Cuándo y a Quién sin excusas. Una mala decisión puede suponer la debacle de esa acción. Por ello has de poner todos tus “multisentidos” en cada campaña. Estudia a tus clientes, sus intereses, dónde y cuándo abren sus correos, porque ese conocimiento te despejará todas las dudas guiándote en una segmentación sobresaliente gracias a la que personalizar al máximo tus campañas actuales y próximas. Como lees, cada detalle cuenta.

3. Deja la literatura para otro momento. El Email Marketing es claridad y concisión. El asunto del correo no ha de tener más de 30 caracteres. Ese genio loco llamado Albert Einstein dijo aquello de “la imaginación es más importante que el conocimiento”, así que aplícalo en tu campaña de emailing apostando por la creatividad en el asunto. Evita las mayúsculas o el uso de palabras perfumadas de spam como “sexo”, “regalo” o “gratis”. Recuerda: Es lo primero que leerá tu destinatario. Te la juegas. Pon toda la carne en el asador y verás las buenas ideas que surgen.

4. Identifícate desde el minuto uno. Encabeza el inicio del asunto del correo poniendo el nombre de tu empresa. De este modo, el destinatario sabrá en todo momento quién está tras esa comunicación lo que incrementará el grado de apertura del email. Grábalo en tu mente: Lo oculto es el gran enemigo del Email Marketing.

5. Compra, haz tu reserva, concursa... Usa llamadas a la acción directas y sin rodeos. Aumentan la potencia del mensaje y favorecen la reacción del destinatario al fin de la comunicación.

6. Ofertas sí, pero no para todos. Con el objetivo de ampliar el número de suscriptores a tu lista de envíos, una buena idea es diferenciar las ofertas. Por ejemplo: Puedes idear promociones válidas para los suscriptores de tu newsletter pero no para aquellos que no se han suscrito. Este tipo de incentivos impulsará su reacción disponiendo de más emails donde impactar tus comunicaciones, fidelizar y hacer crecer tus activos.

7. Cambia el chip. Tus correos ya no se ven solo en el ordenador. Según una encuesta realizada a usuarios de internet en febrero de 2012 por la AIMC, el 64% de los accesos a Internet se producen a través de móvil. Entonces, ¿a qué esperas para adaptar tus comunicaciones a los nuevos formatos? El momento, lugar y el contexto de apertura de los emailings ha cambiado completamente. Empieza hoy a crear tus campañas de Email Marketing para que se vean perfectamente en smartphones, tablets y otros formatos asegurándote así la efectividad de cada acción realizada. ¡Renovarse o morir!.

8. La prueba crucial. Antes del envío definitivo de los emails a tus destinatarios, dedica unos minutos a hacer pruebas enviando ese email a diversos gestores de correo. ¿Para qué? Para corroborar que el diseño se observa sin problemas. No obstante, te recomiendo que pongas un enlace que diga algo así. “Si no ves correctamente este mensaje, pulsa aquí”. De este modo, tus clientes y leads podrán ver esa oferta o newsletter vía web sin incidencias de ningún tipo que impidan beneficiarse de los contenidos ofrecidos.

9. ¿Cuál es la hora clave para el envío? Está probado que la efectividad de apertura de las campañas de emailing es mayor si el envío se realiza a primera hora de la tarde y no de la mañana. De igual modo, nunca programes los envíos para el primer o el último día de la semana. El miércoles es el Día Grande del Email Marketing. ¡Celébralo!

10. Sé constante en tus envíos pero sin ser molesto. Del uso al abuso hay un paso así que ofrece información útil sin saturar, siempre en busca del valor añadido y no del valor perdido cercano al SPAM. Una campaña de emailing semanal será un buen inicio.

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Email Marketing para Hoteles por Hotel Marketing Argentina.

#email #marketing #argentina #agencia365 #hotel

25 Little Ways to Make a Huge Impact At Your Next Event

1) Get a map from your venue that identifies all of the outlets and charging stations. Attendees will need to charge their laptops and mobile devices periodically, so if the venue doesn't provide enough outlets naturally, set up designated charging areas for this purpose. If you're selling sponsorships, this is great real estate to sell!

2) Recruit your friendliest, most knowledgeable employees to remain scattered evenly throughout the venue so someone is always available to answer attendee questions -- and make sure they stand out! .Making it easy to find and identify event point persons will thrill attendees and nip frustration in the bud.

3) You know those bags you get at every conference you attend? They usually have a bunch of sheets of paper and brochures that get thrown out, a branded pen, and maybe a mug. Try including something that's actually useful to attendees! Think about mobile chargers, notepads to accompany those pens, or something else that can be used on-site during their time at your event.

4) Designate an area where people can relax, check their email, and make phone calls. Do not let any sponsors in this area. It should be a safe space where people can escape the conference. Doing this will prevent attendees from leaving the event when they need a break ... and then never coming back!

5) Make sure you have a trustworthy wireless connection, and know exactly who to contact if it stops working. It should be free, easy to access, and every conference attendee should be able to find the username and password. And if any attendee asks for the username and password, every person in an orange track suit (or however you choose to make your point persons stand out) should know the answer as well as their social security number.

6) Give different name tags to different people; you should differentiate between partners, sponsors, VIP, and customers. It will make the attendees feel special to be part of a group, recognized for their relationship with your company, and easier to network with others who are part of their group (or better, another group)!

7) Lighting has a huge effect on how your audience feels. It should vary from session to session so you can alter the mood of the room. During the breakout sessions, for example, you want a normal light so people are not distracted and can comfortably take notes. For the parties, you want dim lighting (you know, for the romance). And at a general session, you need to pump up the volume -- use flashing lights in the beginning that get people excited for the conference to begin!

8) Marketers love feedback! Ask attendees what they want to see at your next event, especially those that are already signing up to attend next year's event. Make sure they see that their input from previous years has been taken into account, too.

9) When collecting speaker/session feedback, do so right after the session. If you want until the end of the day or the end of the event, specific details will have escaped attendees' minds, so the feedback will be far less helpful. But right after a session wraps up, peoples' minds are fresh!

10) Leverage mobile. You could create an app for attendees to download that includes the event schedule, a person's individual agenda, a notes section, etc. Or you could simply ensure your event website is mobile optimized so it's easy for attendees to access everything they need right from their smartphones.

11) Provide real-time updates on session changes and schedule updates. Let people sign up to be on a wait-list for sessions they couldn't get into, and if people cancel, alert them of the opening. You can use email for this, or let attendees opt in for SMS alerts.

12) Registration is a thorn in everyone's side -- attendees and conference organizers. So make it quick and easy at your event by assembling plenty of staff to help, and having all of your materials ready to go so people can move through the registration line swiftly. For an extra special touch, include a QR code in your registration confirmation email, and let people pull up their confirmation on their mobile devices, just like checking in at the airport. It's paperless, quick, and makes you look totally futuristic.

13) Don't set up your rooms using long rows. Instead, opt for rounds or short rows so people can easily get up and get out if necessary without being disruptive -- to both the speaker and their fellow attendees.

14) Surprise attendees with special additions to their day! If your event is taking place in the summer, bring in ice cream or sorbet for them to enjoy. If it's winter, surprise everyone with hot chocolate and marshmallows.

15) Don't just use social media, but integrate it completely into the event. Set up an event hashtag and remind attendees of it frequently to encourage conversations on Twitter. Then reference those conversations during the event so more can join in on the fun -- you can even hold contests based on social media interaction. Finally, make sure you set up screens throughout the event space that show real-time event

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