A well planned event deserves great marketing
Professionally produced aftermovies in TV commercials are something that easily come to mind when thinking about event marketing. The great atmosphere of the event can and should be shown in the marketing – but what to do if you are creating a marketing plan for a smaller event? You might not have a budget of tens of thousands and the event might be a business event where the ambiance is not as crazy as in summer festivals.
No worries! Event marketing can be done in many ways. In this article, I have gathered five tips that help you build the base for excellent event marketing. These tips can be executed within your own events budget. But be aware – I do not recommend you to start your campaign without any investments at all. Without successful marketing, there can not be a successful event. So make sure that the time you spend planning and implementing the event won’t be wasted and grab these five tips for creating an event marketing plan!
1. Email marketing as the core
Email is a great tool, when you quite clearly know who you want to invite to your event. But of course your email marketing list does not have to consist only of people that you know! You can gather a marketing list by a job title or seek for people who work in certain companies. Do not forget to personalize your emails with variables like the first name of the person you would like to invite. Well before the event you should have a clear plan about how and when the emails will be sent. Yes – emailS. A single mail gets easily lost in one’s inbox, so do send the invitations multiple times per person. But do make sure that you don’t send the invitation again to those who have already registered for your event.
2. Support your campaign in social media
Even if you get most of the registrations or ticket purchases for your event by your email marketing campaign, do not forget to talk about your event in social media. Some of your posts can focus on getting more registrations, but most of the content should focus on what’s really interesting about your event. Introduce the speakers, show behind the scenes material from the process of making your event happen and let everyone know how excited you are about the event. That gets others excited too!
3. Remember AB testing
Before an email marketing campaign, you can never be sure about how well it will succeed. That is why it is always important to run two, slightly different campaigns at the same time. The data about your tasting might not help you with this event, but in the future you will be able to tell what kind of content really works for your audience. Remember to keep the two emails only slightly different, so you don’t end up guessing what was the difference that made the other work better. Small steps are important when developing marketing!
4. Be bold with selling phrases
It might feel a bit weird to use superlatives and widely known selling phrases in your campaign, but many times it really pays off. Phrases such as “register now, offer ends tomorrow or only a few seats left” are proven to work. These and other boldly selling words and phrases can convince the reluctant registrant but they won’t force anyone to participate against their will.
5. Don’t be too strict with targeting
Wait what? Shouldn’t I target my campaign precisely for those who I would like to register? Yes, but do not forget those who already did! Lift the mood and make them really look forward to your event, or in a more substantive event, simply remind the registrants of the upcoming event. Remember to keep in touch even after the event – thank you messages, asking for feedback and returning to the atmosphere of the event both by email and in social media will help a lot when it’s time to start marketing your next event.
Although five clear tips were given here, there is not just one right way and strategy to promote events. The most important thing is to take action and always learn from the previous events. Wishing great events and successful event marketing campaigns to everyone!
