The Ultimate Guide To The Best Event Marketing Strategies

Humans are social animals who love to party, gather together, learn new things, and meet new people. Using this social aspect is a great way for businesses to promote their products and services by organizing events.

But organizing an event does have to do with simply bringing people together. There are a lot of aspects to it, one of the most important being how well you market your event to turn up ROI.

Event marketing does not only bring people to your event but establishes long-lasting connections with the attendees and guests through careful planning and execution.

If you know how to do it correctly, it can help your brand make a solid impression that can ultimately turn up leads and conversions. 

Read on as we explore the different types of event marketing and give you super helpful actionable tips for event marketing best practices.

What is Event Marketing?

Event marketing is the strategy used by companies to promote online and offline events through various channels. These events are held to typically promote products, services, or brands either through hosting or attending in-person or virtual events. Each event involves a different target audience, content, and culture, which makes marketing for each one unique.

What Factors Influence Event Marketing?

Multiple factors influence how you choose an event marketing strategy, such as-

1. Finances

Event management is all about proper financial management. Whether large or small, for you to come up with a successful event, you must formulate an accurate and comprehensive budget. 

Make sure to take into consideration all the income and expenses including hidden costs and in-kind support from sponsors associated with the event’s activities. Be careful to not overspend and ensure your staff adopts safe cash handling practices.

2. Goals and objectives

The objectives of the event must be defined so that you can plan all your activities around them. It will serve as the foundation for what kind of procedures you are going to involve in handling the event. This may also give insight into where and how to advertise or what type of incentives to offer.

3. Resource availability

The more promotional resources you can gather, the more positively it may affect your event marketing strategy. These resources include access to creative materials, virtual channels, or potential customers and clients and may help you decide which strategies best fit within your marketing plan.

4. Publicity

Publicity is the theme activity designed to attract the attention of the public and encourage a fun and vibrant ground for community connectivity. Publicity approaches are typically influenced by mediums such as television, print, radio, and online, consequently raising awareness and exposure of the event.

5. Timing and Location

The venue must be booked at least 6 months in advance to meet the date of the event accordingly. Moreover, the availability of facilities, and accommodation of the attendees according to the room capacity of the venue must also be considered. 

If you are expecting guests from other places, consider hiring a venue near an airport or a hotel. 

What Are The Different Types of Event Marketing?

There are endless ideas when it comes to the different types of event marketing. To create a more holistic event marketing program, try to include both offline and online events to reach as many potential customers as possible.

1. Events for building awareness and loyalty

Organizing events can help companies establish connections and awareness with prospective customers and loyalty to existing customers.

For example, if you are a music company launching a new album, you can host listening parties for your audience. Think about partnering with influencers or popular artists to come as a star attraction.

You can also host a lunch or dinner event to show gratitude to your customers, clients, or supporters. An end-of-year event could be a great option to reflect on the year’s learnings and give customers a chance to feel involved in your story.

2. Educational seminars and workshops

Educational events are a great way to deliver informational content and advise your audience while building loyalty and bringing in new clients. It could be in the form of a class, workshop, lunch and learn, or webinar that people can attend virtually.

For example, if you offer marketing services, you could run your event to educate your audience on a specific tool or strategy, say PPC. Or if you are in the B2B sector, you could host a training or webinar on your area of expertise.

If you are an artist, you could host a ‘sip and paint’ session where you teach attendees your skill while sipping tea or coffee. There are endless ways in which you can conduct your workshops and bring innovation.

3. Conference and corporate events 

The corporate conference is a primary type of event in the business world. It is usually a large gathering in a venue that focuses on a central, theme, product, or service. 

The event can include exhibitions, displays, speakers, performances, round tables, networking opportunities, catering, and other recreational opportunities. 

Trade shows are also a great way to showcase your products alongside your business values. These shows are typically organized around a specific industry or a type of product. Trade shows can help you get in touch with qualified buyers or other companies who can help you sell your products.

4. Nonprofit events

Nonprofit events are the ultimate way to fundraise. These events could be in the form of auctions or raffles, a fundraising concert, a 5k run or walk, a gala with special performances, or even a competition.

You could also organize a digital fundraiser to raise funds on any budget. A good way to do this is by creating a sense of urgency by limiting contributions to a single 24-hour window.

Non-profit events are also a great way to support your cause by educating people about the issues surrounding your cause and the importance of your work.

5. Pop-up shop events

The ultimate goal of any business is to sell its products and services to generate more revenue. Pop-up show events help you do just that. They help you get out in front of more people. With a pop-up shop, you can sell your items in a public space allowing people to hold and see your products in person. But before setting up the shop, make sure to let customers know about your event and promote it as much as possible.

Best Event Marketing Strategies

Once you have your goals in place, you get into the creative process of planning an event to make it exciting and attractive for attendees. Let’s see how you can do this-

1. Pre-event checklist

Pre-event planning and marketing probably consume the most amount of time, work, and creativity. A lot of major things depend on pre-event marketing like the budget, how many guests will turn up, venue, sponsors, etc.

A. Set realistic and targeted goals 

How many people are you expecting to turn up? What is the expected return on investment (ROI)? What is the expected percentage of leads and conversions?

Make sure to set realistic goals taking into account all the important factors like the date and time of the event, location of the event, the buzz of the event, finances, etc. to paint an accurate picture of your goals. 

The goals should not be limited to only registration and attendance models. It will also impact your sales pipeline and revenue.

B. Socialize

Socialization matters a lot if you want your event to create a buzz among the audience. Here are some of the effective ways to socialize in the right way-

• Connect with influencers

Partnering with influencers can be a powerful way for your event to reach wider and more highly engaged audiences. If you partner and market correctly, it can make a huge impact and even bring new followers to your business. 

But remember to analyze your audience profiles and personas before you reach out to any influencer. What are their interests and activities? Which influencers are they likely to follow? Whose endorsements they are likely to pay attention to? 

To find the right influencers, consider their reach, content, and resonance with your target attendees. Then compile a list of potential partners to reach out to.

• Live stream 

Live streaming will allow you to have a direct interaction with your target audience and invite them in. This is a great opportunity to give your audience a peek into what lies ahead and build curiosity. Focus on making a compelling pitch on why attending the event is important and something they don’t want to miss.

• Partner outreach

Apart from influencers, consider collaborating with brands and sponsors who fit with the goals, mood, and style of your event - they can be local news portals or a brand whose values fit in with your event.

Brands are more likely to partner with you on your event if your values align with theirs. This way their networks will be far more likely to attend. Try to get in touch with potential partners as early as possible to start spreading the word from the very beginning.

C. Create a landing page or dedicate pop-ups

Creating a landing page or dedicating a pop-up form to your website will make it easy for visitors to sign up and get more information about your event. 

Don’t forget to craft a compelling call to action (CTA) that grabs the attention of the audience making them want to attend your event. Don’t overcrowd the landing with unnecessary details. Make it clear, concise, and attractive so that visitors are sure of what action to take.

D. Leverage email marketing 

You can start by creating an email drip campaign by announcing the events to capture the interest of potential attendees and directing them to your registration page. 

Follow up by sending important trivia and fun facts about the event to generate excitement in your audience segment who has signed up for the event. 

And for those who are yet to sign up, spark FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

E. Create FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) of millennials experience FOMO, the most of any age group. People are more interested in your event if they think they will lose out on something interesting or valuable.

Use the concept of ‘Fear of Missout Out’ among your audience to spark interest. You can make use of content like video or imagery to show them what they will be missing if they do not attend the event.

One of the most effective and simplest ways to send out an email with the subject line “You do not want to miss this”, post it on social media or blog posts to generate curiosity about your event.

F. Press coverage

Leveraging press coverage can help you amplify your event beyond your network and accelerate ticket sales. It can also contribute to building your future brand strategy, increase links to your website and boost traffic for future events.

Here are some great tips on writing a good press release-

• List the basic details of your event including date, time, location, and special guests.
• Include the link to your event page.
• Keep things simple and minimal to help the journalist find key information easily.
• Increase the chance of gaining coverage and add value to your press release by offering free tickets such as VIP or press passes.
• Offer an interview with yourself, event partners, or other organizers.

2. On the day of the event checklist

Once attendees, speakers, and guests turn on and things are going in full swing, make sure to do these things-

• Start documenting your event for social media as well as other marketing materials, such as an email newsletter. Take pictures and videos to post on your page, you can even make a reel out of relevant hashtags.
• Asks guests to sign a guest when they make their way into the event or as they leave. Have a system in place where guests can leave their comments and emails to subscribe to your email marketing.
• You can also consider live streaming part or all of your event through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media platform. Doing so will create hype for your next event.

3. Post-event checklist 

This stage is all about communicating, looking back, and analyzing. This will give you an idea about how successful you were, any new opportunities spotted, and what improvements you can make.

A. Post-event communication

Once the event is done, ensure to keep up with your guests and speakers. A positive public perception can boost your brand image, so don’t miss out on it.

Arrange quick collaboration sessions between the speakers and the guests. These sessions will allow the visitors to meet their favorite people and spread the word about the event.

You can also arrange small interaction booths or gossip corners in your event venue if it is possible. Or you can even utilize the stage space and allow the audience to interact with the speakers once the crowd subsides.

B. Opportunities for improvement

Ask your attendees and guests specifically about their ideas for the improvement of future events. You can use a survey or suggestion to gather feedback or even send online feedback forms. Remember to keep your survey short to encourage more people to complete it.

C. Evaluate attendance and engagement rate

It is not surprising to know that not everyone who registers for your event will attend. But it is important to calculate the attendance rate. It is also important to note the percentage of people buying specific types of tickets, packages, or experiences offered for your event. This will give you an idea of the popularity of specific ticket types.

💡Pro Tip- Using event management software like Ticket Generator can help you improve your events and plan better. It offers analytics to help you analyze how your event performed and spot areas of improvement. The analytical data includes-

• Total attendance
• Attendance by time
• Count of invalid, and duplicate tickets
• Number of ticket validations by co-ordinator

D. Social media engagements

Encouraging your event attendees to share their experiences on their social media accounts is a great way to gain exposure for your business. Ask them to post pictures, tag your business, share the venue/business location, and use the hashtag you’ve set up for your event.

Wrapping up

We have tried to be as extensive as possible to ensure you learn well. All the event marketing strategies and ideas we have shared are not the only ones available, but they are among the most effective ones for sure.

Event planning and marketing take a lot of time and work, and we are fully aware of that. That is why to make your work simpler, we have Ticket Generator for you.

Ticket Generator is an event registration and ticketing software that will make your job a lot easier by allowing event organizers to easily design, generate, and distribute event tickets in minutes.

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