Events and conventions average over $657 per attendee, quickly costing businesses tens of thousands. If your business invests in your event but then does not have the attendance to bring in the expected revenue, you can experience tremendous financial loss.
However, today’s digital atmosphere has become increasingly crowded and noisy. For your event to get the attention it deserves to attract the attendees you need, a marketing strategy to cut through the chaos is necessary.
This blog post will provide fourteen creative event marketing ideas to boost your event’s visibility and drive the registrations and attendance your event needs to maximize your return on investment. These strategies will touch upon a variety of different channels, including digital, social media, experiential, and public relations so you can build excitement around your event as you move forward.
Digital Marketing Strategies
Mastering the Digital Landscape: Strategies for Online Success
Let’s start by first going over the digital marketing event promotion ideas.
Email Marketing Mastery
There are roughly 240 million emails exchanged globally every minute. People turn to their email to connect with family, friends, work, and businesses, making it a reliable, effective way to engage with our target audience. With over 90% of Americans owning a smartphone, which delivers emails right to people’s pockets, this form of communication is effective and fast.
Success here comes from properly segmenting your audience so you send highly relevant emails.
You can segment your emails based on a variety of different criteria. Some common strategies include:
- Audience demographics
- Interests
- Past engagement
When you have segmented email lists, you can write emails that align with that specific group, increasing open and engagement rates. You can then couple your messages with A/B testing, where you can look at the success of different subject lines, email layouts, and other design factors to optimize your email performance.
Emails help you nurture leads throughout their decision-making process. You can use automation to send applicable, helpful reminders to encourage people to register and then ensure they do not miss any portion of the event.
Write email subject lines that clearly communicate your value without sounding spammy. Some great examples might be:
- The wait is over! Registration for [event] is now open!
- Only 3 more days to take advantage of our steep early bird discount!
- Take a look at who else is attending [event]!
You then couple this with effective CTAs that encourage immediate action such as:
- Here is your special code to register now with a 10% discount
- Click here to secure your spot for [event] (We only have 100 spots left!)
Website Optimization for Conversions
Your landing page should also be thoroughly optimized for your event, using SEO best practices and outstanding copy that boosts your conversions. This means incorporating keywords related to your event, industry, and the target customer needs you will address. Use content that is easy to read and appreciate, such as lists and bullet points.
Incorporate compelling visuals into the page design. Videos and photos can be particularly enticing elements. For example, you might include photos from your past event along with quoted testimonials or videos of previous participants as a preview of the event.
Alongside your images, include a streamlined registration process. This includes:
- Only asking for necessary information
- Auto-filling any information possible
- Not offering too many options
- Making customer support readily accessible
- Not making the form too cluttered
Look at the features of your page to make sure everyone can access it easily, even on a mobile device. Similarly, enact accessibility features that make the page usable by those with disabilities.
You can see a great example of this with the Tribeca Film Festival landing page. The festival incorporates clear text, ample visuals to accompany the text and capture the ‘feel’ of the event, and encourages people to get their tickets.
Google I/O also offers a chance to see a great landing page. It uses a sleek, on-brand design that brings together simple text and engaging images to encourage people to learn more about the opportunity.
Unleashing the Power of Paid Advertising
To complement your landing page and emails, you also want to incorporate paid advertising options. Paying for ads opens a variety of avenues for you. You might consider:
- PPC ads that appear on SERPs. These ads align with particular search terms.
- Retargeting ads. These ads get shown to people who previously visited your site or even considered purchasing a ticket but didn’t finish checking out.
- Social media ads. With these ads, you target people based on particular demographics or interests, instead of what they are searching for, as you do with Google PPC.
For your ad to reach the right audience, you have to pay close attention to who you want to target and why they might be interested in your event. Different social platforms will fit better for various demographics. LinkedIn leans towards a more professional crowd, for example, while TikTok works for younger generations and calls for short videos and highly visual promotions. Facebook has a slightly older audience compared to Instagram or TikTok, but also has a further reach across demographics.
Once you know who you want to target, design an ad that speaks to their unique pain point. Employing strategies like social listening to see what people discuss related to your brand and industry can help you design highly relevant promotions.
Take all this information and create ads that are short and to the point. This includes active verbs, appealing images, and clear CTAs. Track all the incoming data about your campaigns so you can see what works and what needs improvement.
The New England Christmas Festival did a great job of capturing what you can create through Facebook Reel promotions. The ads transports you to the festival, encouraging people to immediately register to attend.
Content Marketing: Generating Buzz Before, During, and After the Event
Content today can take countless different forms, including traditional blog posts and articles but also podcasts, infographics, and videos.
Use the content to discuss your event theme and the value it will offer. Optimize everything you publish to attract the attention of the search engines and to drive organic traffic. For example, since algorithms cannot watch videos, you have to tell them about the video content through an inviting title and thorough description that contains the applicable keywords.
Cross promote all your different types of content to deepen your engagement with people and boost your interaction rates, which will also help on the SERP.
Social Media Engagement & Influencer Marketing
Amplifying Your Event’s Reach Through Strategic Social Media
Social media connects people around the world, and tapping into this network can amplify your event in a variety of ways. Here are some of our favorite strategies.
Crafting Engaging Social Media Content
When it comes to promoting your event, go beyond simple posts and announcements. Create interactive posts such as:
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Q&As
- Behind-the-scenes videos and glimpses
- User-generated content
These types of content hold significantly more interest than a paragraph of text, and can lay the foundation of a relationship with a prospect before they visit your landing page.
Incorporate a few different types of content. For example, you might employ videos, carousels, live streams, and images to increase your reach and boost engagement. People respond better to visuals naturally, so you can tap into this preference with well-designed posts.
You can see a great example of engaging social media campaigns with the AccountEx Summit.
Posts like this created buzz over the attendance while the visuals enticed people to click.
Webex also did this well when they hosted a contest for people to draw flags that might get flown during their Webex One Event in Austin.
Leveraging the Power of Social Media Stories
On both Instagram and Facebook, you have the option to create Stories. With Stories, you can create content that builds anticipation for your upcoming event and helps to build a sense of community. Use the stories to share exciting updates throughout the planning stage, let people know the latest news, and give people a peak at your planning processes and experiential event ideas.
To create highly effective stories, use some of the interactive elements such as polls and quizzes. You can even create question stickies that encourage people to respond to prompts.
The Art of Influencer Marketing
People naturally feel suspicious when they encounter advertisements – of course you are going to say that your events are fantastic. Collaborating with relevant influencers, however, can help you overcome this hesitation and get your message across. When you find a relevant influencer, someone who overlaps with you in your target audience, it can amplify your message.
To make this marketing strategy successful, build on a foundation of authentic partnerships. This will make their messaging about your event much more valuable.
To find suitable influencers, research those who work in your industry. You might also consider working with those who will speak at your event. Reach out to your target influencers and let them know what you are thinking about in terms of a relationship and what you can offer in return. For example, you might offer them registration tickets or VIP passes to the event.
Once you set up these partnerships, track their success each step of the way. See how many registrations as well as how much traffic comes from these influencers.
You can see a great example of influencer promotion by looking at Kohler. To help them achieve success during Milan Design Week, the company flew influencers out to participate and shoot videos and content to promote the brand during the event. The influencers helped to propel Kohler into a leadership position on the world stage.
Experiential Marketing And Public Relations
Creating Unforgettable Experience and Generating Positive PR
Create unforgettable experiences for excellent event promotion ideas. When people discuss your event, it will send people to your registration page.
Pre-Event Buzz Creation: Teasers and Pop-Ups
Consider the intrigue that popup shops or interactive installations trigger. Giving people little teasers about what they can expect will get people talking about your brand and start building excitement.
To keep the pre-event buzz going, you can also offer early bird discounts and deals. Not only will this help get your ticket sales rolling, but it will encourage people to buy immediately instead of putting it off and potentially forgetting.
Strategic Partnerships & Cross- Promotion
You might also consider working with another professional or business hosting an event to cross-promote your activities. This works best when you find someone with whom you have significant audience overlap, without being direct competitors.
During these cross-promotional opportunities, look for ways to each to add value for the audience. Consider a fitness gym and a nutrition company who might promote each other’s upcoming events. They both attract the same audience: those interested in health and fitness. If you are hosting a music event, might also cross-collaborate with a local brewery or restaurant that caters to the same crowd.
On a larger scale, you can see a great example of this with Coachella and Sonic. Sonic made special square drinks that people at Coachella could order and have them delivered special for festival-goers.
Gamification and Interactive Elements
Gamification has taken on a life of its own and now appears in nearly every sector of life, from fast food restaurants to schools. For event promotions, however, it can be particularly successful as you draw in users and encourage them to interact with your brand.
You have endless possibilities for creating games and interactive elements for leads and potential attendees. You can give the winners special passes for your event or other means of coaxing attendees to register. Consider:
- Online contests
- Scavenger hunts
- Interactive photo booths
- Social media challenges to inspire online conversations
Secure Positive Media Coverage
The media can greatly increase the number of people learning about your event, but you want that coverage to be positive and encourage interest and participation. Fortunately, you have a few event marketing ideas to cultivate this positive coverage.
- Write an outstanding press release. A quality press release that has been written with an attention-grabbing headline, active and intriguing verbs, and a strong value proposition can attract event coverage and interest.
- Pitching stories to journalists. A celebrity guest or a famous keynote speaker can make excellent pitches for journalists.
- Build relationships. You know the importance of cultivating strong relationships with vendors, but do not overlook the importance of networking with journalists. Positive interactions can give you a great contact point when you want to get media coverage for an important moment.
Remember that when the media comes in to cover portions of your event, you do not get to actively participate in the article writing. Tracking how your business is portrayed in the media and reputation management is critical. To properly address criticisms, you have to be on top of potentially negative stories.
Measurement, Analysis, and Optimization
Data-Driven Decisions: Tracking, Analyzing, and Optimizing Your Event Marketing
As you implement your event marketing strategies, data and tracking lets you gauge your performance and know when and how to make adjustments to maximize your registration and participation numbers.
Defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Your event marketing strategy should be carefully paired with KPIs that will let you see how well your various strategies bring in new attendees.
To use KPIs effectively, go beyond the basics of tracking traffic or clicks from social media to your content. Instead, look for opportunities to drill down more deeply into your content’s performance and people’s interactions. We recommend looking at statistics such as:
- New users compared to repeat users
- The ranking of your page for different significant keywords
- People’s behavior after engaging with your content – ie clicking to read more, registering to attend, or clicking off.
- Social conversations surrounding your event, tracking hashtags and key terms.
To collect this valuable information, you can put a few different types of dashboards to work. Google Analytics is a great place to get started, as it can help you drill down into your site performance and the sources of traffic for your pages. Platforms like Hootsuite can then help you collect information on your different social media platforms in one place, including hashtag tracking.
Leveraging Data for Informed Decisions
Data should be a cornerstone in your campaign development. Tracking how people respond to your different components allows you to better understand your audience and allocate budget effectively.
Track how people respond to your content and what they do after they read it. Tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics platforms, and event registration software can help you understand behavior. You can then see what type of content they respond to best and what drives them to register for your event. As you calculate your ROI from different campaign components, you can also allocate budget effectively and know which areas deserve the most resources for building an effective event audience and buzz.
A/B Testing and Continuous Improvement
Data also now exists to help you eliminate the guessing of ad design. Through A/B testing, you can see exactly what people respond to and modify your campaigns to capitalize on these trends.
Conduct a variety of different types of A/B testing on your promotion materials and landing page designs. Some types of tests you will want to run include:
- CTA phrasing
- The placement and design of the CTA
- Text layout
- Visual selections
Using data and A/B testing in your campaign design should take an iterative approach. Test your content and ads as you design them, analyze your results, and modify your creations accordingly. Continue to run various tests throughout your campaign so you experience increased refinement and continuous improvement.
Conclusion
To get people talking about your upcoming event, you want to bring together these ten different ideas to create a multifaceted campaign that engages people across platforms. When you put your website, social media, paid advertising, and media engagement together into a unified strategy, you can activate a cumulative effect in your event promotion: the event generates more attention and chatter, which in turn builds further attention.
To make this to all work for you, a well-defined target audience and a data-driven approach must be central.
If you are ready to start promoting your event, consider how you can experiment with these different strategies. Share your experiences and ask any questions you may have in the comment section below!
