You’re putting together the perfect event; you have the best venue, reputable guest speakers, incredible performances, and top-notch vendors ready to offer their services. Now, you just need to figure out how to promote your event to make it a success. Email marketing is one of the marketing channels with the highest rate of return and marketing your event via email can make a great difference in the number of attendees you get. What’s more, by adopting some email marketing practices for event promotion, you can create an effective email campaign to increase event registration.
Consequently, your email campaigns will see higher open rates, an increase in click rates, and a boost in your conversion rates. On top of that, with a few tips and tricks, you can encourage your subscribers to spread the word about your event.
Why do you need to focus on email marketing for event promotion?
- Event-related emails generally see a 28% open rate, but increasing the sense of urgency in the subject line or using the recipient’s name can significantly increase that number.
- You will earn higher open and click rates, and boost conversion rates
- Over 75% of event creators pick email marketing as their most effective strategy, with 45% of event ticket sales coming from emails.
You can use email marketing to spark interest long before tickets go on sale, then follow up with campaigns that encourage your subscribers to act fast before tickets sell out or become unavailable.
Here are email marketing practices that will help you promote your events;
1.
One effective practice for event marketing via email is to create and send a series of emails before the official launch. The goal is to create a cohesive, memorable message with your entire email marketing series. You can and should start this entire series off with a special pre-launch series designed to spark interest and get potential attendees excited about what the event has in store. Here are some of the emails to include in your event marketing later;
The Announcement Email
Your announcement email should be straightforward.
The First Teaser Email
Sending teasers is a great way to generate some excitement about your event. Be sure to include teasers that are going to inspire FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) or urgency in your subscribers.
The Second Teaser Email
If you decide to send more than one teaser, it’s a nice touch to share images and testimonials from previous events.
2. Invite people to your event with exclusive offers
If you had a successful pre-launch and want to capitalize on your email list, use exclusive offers to encourage people to sign up for your event. You can stick with something small, like free promotional merchandise, or you can include a discount code with an expiration date to increase the sense of urgency for your subscribers. Moreover, if you’re planning on using an exclusive offer, make the offer available for a limited time. Remember, you don’t need to use countdown timers or anything, just let people know that the discount isn’t going to be available forever.
3. Use Social Proof
Social proof i.e reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content can have a big impact. The idea behind social proof is that people will do something because other people are doing it. It’s peer pressure for marketing. You can use social proof to give potential event attendees the push they need to register for your event.
4. Encourage Invitees To Invite Others
As humans, we tend to get together with others who like the same things we do. So, why not encourage your subscribers to invite others to attend your event with them? Consider offering a group discount on the cost of tickets or even running an online contest to encourage sharing of your event.
5. Inform People About Important Details As The Event Approaches
There are two types of emails you can send regarding details: The first is an email to people who purchased tickets and need specific details about the event, and the second is an email to people who haven’t bought tickets yet and need details like price and registration information.
6. Send Reminder Emails
As the event date approaches, you want to get as many people signed up as possible. This means you need to send reminder emails that include a sense of urgency and a bold CTA (Call To Action) that points to registration. For big events, this might mean sending a dozen emails the week of an event. Additionally, it’s also a good idea to remind people who are attending that the event is happening soon.
7. Thank People For Attending Your Event In A Follow-Up Email
The last on our list of effective practices for marketing your event via email deals with what happens after the event is over: thank your attendees. While event organizers put in a lot of effort to make sure an event is enjoyable and well-attended, an event without attendees isn’t an event. That’s why it’s so important to thank your attendees to encourage them to come again next time!
Final Thoughts
When it comes to effective email marketing practices for event promotion, it’s important to employ all of the techniques. The more effort you put into your event campaign, the better your email performance will be.
Important Tips to remember;
- Email marketing tools can boost engagement: To spread the word about your event, marketing automation has built-in best practices.
- Informational emails help increase registration: The more people know about your event, the more likely they are to commit to it.
- Pre-launch emails build hype for your event: Send them to let people know when to expect details about the venue and registration.
Wondering how you can get those event emails automated? Contact Charleson today!
