A well-planned marketing strategy is crucial for a successful event. With the event date set, and the venue booked, you need to figure out how to market an event. There is a saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The same goes for event marketing.

Failure to market your event means you won’t reach your anticipated attendees because no one has an idea the event is happening. Thus, event marketing is a valuable strategy, and not only does it benefit the event sponsors and hosts, but it also enriches the attendees’ lives. Events entertain, intrigue, teach, inspire, and bring people together differently.

That’s why we created a guide that helps you leverage event marketing for your brand. Keep reading for more tips on the event marketing strategy to market your event effectively.

But first,

What is Event Marketing?

Event marketing is a promotional event marketing strategy between a brand and its customers for events like seminars, trade shows, and conferences. Every event is unique, and it has a different culture, content, and target audience. Thus, it deserves a unique marketing strategy to succeed. Furthermore, every event marketer must stay on top of their marketing game.

The Importance of Event Marketing

According to a report, 95% of marketers confess that live events offer attendees valuable opportunities to form person-to-person connections. Other statistics in the report show that:

31% of marketers believe that event promotion is the single most effective marketing strategy.
87% of C-Suite executives trust live events to bring more attendees and wish to invest more in them in the future.
84% of the attendees of an event develop a positive attitude towards a service, product, brand, or company an event organizer promotes once the event is over.

Ultimately, the difference between a good and a great experience depends on your knowledge of what is happening. This guide shows you the significant shifts that event organizing professionals should be aware of to market an event efficiently.

How Can You Market an Event?

You don’t need celebrity endorsements or a big advertising budget to market your event. Just use the list below for event marketing tips.

1. The Event Page or Website

The event website or page is the cornerstone of all your promotional efforts. This could be a website or page explicitly created for the event. However you choose to have it, here are the elements you should include:

A compelling event description
Pre-event content curation
Photos and bios of the speakers
Event images
Event-related videos
A conspicuous “register now” button

2. Pre-Event Emails

Email marketing is a sure bet for reaching a broad audience base if you already have an email list. If not, ask friends, speakers, or partners to mention the event in their emails. Here are some email marketing guidelines to keep in mind:

Have a subject line that inspires anxiety, anger, or awe because it leads to higher opening rates.
Send the email during weekends since most companies send their emails on weekdays. Open, and clickthrough rates could be higher.
Include video thumbnails of the event in the email because it improves clickthrough rates.
Add positive feedback from previous events as social proof.
Send the event marketing email several times because it ensures you reach as many people as possible.

3. Pre-Event Social Activities

Because events are social activities, incorporate the use of social media into your event marketing. Here’s how to ensure you promote the event on blog posts and social media:

Pick an event hashtag to post on social media that’s unique to your event; use the event hashtag every time you tweet or post.
Use social media links to send the audience back to the event page.
Twitter Advanced Search will help you find those interested in your event and live close by. Mention them in the tweets about the event.
Tweet about the event early and often.
Follow the people interested in the event to get their attention towards finding more about it.
Post the event on LinkedIn and Facebook.
On your thank you page, allow attendees to share the event on social media.
Create a registration auto-response email and use the opportunity to suggest to the attendees to follow you on Twitter.
Cross the streams and move the conversation around on different social media platforms. For instance, if someone shares about the event on Facebook, appreciate them on Twitter.

4. Pre-Event Blog Posting

Pre-event blog posts entail the following:

Create a pre-event blog post
Invite the event speakers to write a guest post

5. Have Partners

Some of the partners that ensure event success include:

Photo and video partners.
Standardize your presentations and share with each speaker.
Create unique codes for your affiliate partners to promote the event.
Have pre-written tweets.
Serve dinner and drinks to members of the press, influencers, sponsors, and speakers before the actual event.

6. Submit Event Details to Media and Industry Websites

Submit event information to the following media outlets:

Local media outlets
Industry associations

7. SEO Optimize Your Event Page

Follow the following basic guidelines to optimize your event webpage:

Use a target keyword
Have headers and title tags
Create a search-friendly description
Use internal links for ranking on search engines

8. During the Event

Fill your live tweeting with exciting content such as:

Share photos
Tweet quotes
Hold a contest to create more fun

9. Post-Event Blog Post

Post after event blog posts as a fun way to recap the success achieved after the event. The blog posts should include all relevant event details as follows:

A summary of the presentations
Speaker presentations
Event photo gallery
A list with the “top event tweets”
The list of attendees, sponsors, and speakers

10. A Post-Event Email

Send an email follow-up to the attendees to say thank you. Also, share some event links to keep the buzz going.

Link to a survey to collect testimonials
Invite the attendees to follow you on social media platforms
Link to the post-event blog post
Notify attendees of the next event

11. Post-Event Social Activities

Some of the social media activities to engage in include:

Appreciation tweets
Share post-event photos
Keep sharing the event activities

Conclusion – Ready for Some Event Marketing?

We hope that with this guide, you’ve learned some new event marketing best practices. The list might seem overwhelming but ensure to use what is relevant to your event. So, go ahead and begin marketing that event.

Need help marketing your event? Set up a quick consultation if you wish to get more traffic to your site with consistent and quality content or wish to rent event equipment.

How to Market an Event in 2023?