According to research by the Harvard Business Review, attracting a new visitor or exhibitor to your show can prove to be anywhere between five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. 

Adding to this, a study by Frederick Reichheld (the inventor of the net promoter - you have him to blame or thank!) found that increasing your customer retention rate by a mere five percent can see an uplift in profits between 25 to 95 percent. 

With those compelling numbers in mind, clearly a high retention rate is the bedrock of any successful show. But how do you keep visitors engaged in your show and exhibitors coming back for more? 

The answer is to improve your CX. Why? Because good CX will encourage your audience to trust and remain loyal to your show. 

Although the showfloor is the pinnacle of an event experience, the key to a show greatly improving their CX throughout the year is the show’s year-round shop window - the event website. Improving event website customer experience is key to revenue retention.

Here are five ways you can improve the CX of your event website. 

Create Compelling Content Allow your audience to personalise their experience of your show online, you can then use their preferences to create compelling content both on and off the show floor. 

Improve Your Tech Stack Make sure you only integrate with trusted event tech specialists who won’t slow your website down or even make it break! 

Intuitive Navigation Make sure your audience knows what they are looking for. You can do this by: creating short drop-down menus, using accurate navigation titles, include a search feature that works and make sure you implement accessibility tools on your website. 

Make It Speedy How do you make your website go whippet quick? Compress and optimise your images, Reduce your redirects, Cache your web pages & enable browser caching, Minify your JavaScript, HTML and CSS and get rid of unnecessary plugins. 

And Finally…Be Open to Feedback! Allowing feedback on your event website and acting quickly on it is at the heart of good customer experience of your brand.  

The net result of this positive customer experience?

Loyalty. And loyalty leads to revenue retention.