Follow-up is a sequence of post-event communication that maintains the relationship and gathers feedback. It typically contains a thank-you e-mail within 24 hours, a feedback survey within a week, optionally event materials (slides, photos, recordings), and an invitation to a future event. In Happenee, follow-up runs through E-mail campaigns with attendance-based targeting — one message for those who attended, another for those who did not show. You can prepare campaigns before the event, then just trigger them.
Decide what to send and to whom after the event: at minimum a thank-you e-mail (attendees) and a survey (attendees). Optional: event materials, invitation to a follow-up event, an apology / motivational e-mail for no-shows.
Prepare campaign templates in advance — ideally before the event, so it does not land on a tired team at the last minute.
Agree with the team who processes the survey results and by when. Without follow-through, a survey is just volume.
Most events get by with this sequence:
T+24 h (the day after) — a short thank-you e-mail. Just the thanks, no sales CTA.
T+3 to 5 days — a feedback survey. Short, 5–10 questions, max. 3 minutes.
T+1 to 2 weeks — event materials (slides, photos, session recordings) if they were promised.
T+4 to 6 weeks — a soft invitation to the next event or to follow-up content (newsletter, blog).
Treat this as orientation, not dogma. Smaller events get by with 1–2 e-mails; large conferences with extensive programs may split follow-up across more waves.
The first e-mail after the event. One purpose: closing the experience. Short text (3–5 sentences), thanks for attending, mention of a concrete moment from the event (the keynote topic, an audience photo, the headcount), and a heads-up that a survey or materials are on the way.
In Happenee you send it through an E-mail campaign with targeting on the Attending status, or alternatively the Checked-in check-in status (if you want strictly those who physically arrived).
The day after the event has the highest attention — open rates on thank-you e-mails are usually well above other campaigns. You do not put a sales pitch in it, but you can include a link to the materials or the survey arriving in the next wave.
The post-event survey is the most valuable input for planning the next iteration. Two approaches:
External form (Typeform, Google Forms) — link inserted into an E-mail campaign. More design options, easier response segmentation.
The Survey engagement feature in the attendee app — if the app is still active after the event, the survey reaches those who open the app. Those who do not use the app will not see it — combine the two.
Key rules for a post-event survey:
Short — 5 to 10 questions, max. 3 minutes. Longer surveys have a steeply dropping completion rate.
A mix of scales and open answers — NPS / 1–10 ratings + 1–2 open questions ("What would you change next time?").
Target attendees only — campaign goes to Attending or Checked-in. Do not send the survey to non-registered or no-show contacts.
If you promised attendees slides, photos, recordings, or handouts, an E-mail campaign with links is the standard route. Prepare:
A central link (a Google Drive folder, a dedicated landing page, or a section on the microsite).
A short description of what is and is not available (often a recording from one speaker who did not consent is missing — better to say so up front).
A link to the survey, in case it has not been answered yet or the response rate is low.
Targeting: same as the thank-you e-mail (attendees). Materials usually do not go to no-shows — if you want them to receive the materials, that is a separate decision (often "no, those people only saw an invitation from me").
If it makes sense to invite attendees to a follow-up event, send it after you have processed the survey — you know who was happy and what format resonated. This wave often runs in parallel with the kickoff campaign for the new event and has its own logic — see Creating and sending an E-mail campaign.
Happenee can target campaigns by registration status as well as by check-in status. Mapping:
Registration status Attending — everyone who registered and confirmed. Target for the thank-you e-mail and the survey.
Check-in status Checked-in — physically arrived, were checked in. A stricter segment; fits the survey when you only want those who actually experienced the event.
Check-in status No-show — registered, did not show up. Optionally an apology / motivational e-mail ("Sorry you could not make it — here is at least the recording").
Unregistered — invited, did not register. After the event, typically leave them alone; if you want to follow up, wait for the next event campaign.
If new contacts are added after the campaign was sent (for example someone signs up late for follow-up materials), an E-mail campaign supports resending to newly assigned contacts — a feature in the campaign view after the original send. It saves you from creating a duplicate campaign with the same content.
Send the thank-you e-mail within 24 hours of the event ending, ideally the same evening or the next morning. After the weekend the attendee's priority shifts to work and the thank-you message gets lost.
Target the survey campaign on Attending or Checked-in, not on All. Otherwise you collect confused answers from people who rate the event blindly and skew the analysis.
If the thank-you e-mail says "materials coming next week", deliver. If you do not know when they will be ready, do not commit to a date — "materials coming once we have collected them" is more honest. A missed promise is harder to recover from than no commitment.
Prepare every template before the event. After the event a short final tweak is enough (a concrete moment, the headcount, links to materials). The team is in low gear in the days after the event and copywriting suffers.
Leave at least 4 weeks between the current follow-up and the invitation to the next event. The attendee needs a pause; otherwise you come across as pushy.
