13 Marketing Ideas for Events: Event Marketing Done Right
“Effective marketing ideas for events have adapted in recent years to suit the digital age. Event planners need to be educated and up to date on how to actually drive people to events”, Michael Branner, Eventbrite.
Here are 13 creative marketing ideas for events that event planners can use. You can use the links to jump to the section you’d like to read:
1. Encourage check-ins on Bloc
2. Appoint a decent team
3. Thunderclap on social media
4. Stay active online
5. Have a face for the event
6. Create picture-perfect highlights
7. Build a community around your event
8. Make the registration process seamless
9. Offer premium quality services and distinct features
10. Have an email promotion strategy
11. Use the press and your website to reveal your value proposition
12. Create desirable behaviour
13. Let the world meet your team
If we were to ask you how you measure the success of an event, what would be the first thing that comes to mind?
Would it be the number of people who attended? The positivity of the experience? Or would it be the amount of revenue generated from the event?
It doesn’t matter which one came to your mind, all three depend on one factor in relation to success. That one thing is, you guessed it, is how well the event was marketed.
If you want to reach out to a larger audience, what are the best platforms that you should target? Also, if you plan to feature the highlights of your event, what is the type of audience-image you have in mind?
These crucial questions come handy when you are looking for fresh strategies. Any amateur can think of the basics. Yet. how you mould those basics to produce thrilling ideas is what helps you create the most successful events
Here, we have the thirteen marketing ideas for events that are sure to successfully get you more registrations:
1. Encourage check-ins on Bloc
Bloc is a social app where people can check-in to events to see who else is attending. The app allows people to connect and chat inside the app before and during the event.
Bloc can help create pre-event anticipation and connects like-minded people that can help spread word of mouth.
Bloc’s users are incentivised financially to check-in to events on the app, so the more popular an event is on the app, the more people will want to check-in there.
Users collect stars within the app if they attend events and can then exchange them for real money.
Event organisers can take advantage of Bloc by making sure their event has check-ins on the app. Then the app organically reaches more people for more event registrations.
2. Appoint a decent team
Simply put, do you have a team to bank upon to take care of how the event is hosted? If you plan to do an event without dividing teams, it is going to turn into a mess in the last couple of weeks when the most registrations happen.
So before implementing a detailed marketing strategy, get yourself a team that can handle an event which is going to be successful.
Divide your entire group into departments such as logistics, outreach, social media marketing, and public relations.
Such compartmentalization immediately gives one team the power and responsibility to independently create incentives and be fixed on one task until the end. Get people who can incentivize and create more reach for more ticket sales.
3. Thunderclap on social media
When you use social media for the promotion of events, you are going to develop a buzz around it.
If you want to attract international customers, social media can give you the ability to stretch beyond topographical and geographical regions.
According to Statista, 50% of the world population uses social media. You need to master four platforms before you host your event. These four platforms are:
– Instagram
– Facebook
– LinkedIn
– Twitter
Most of your audience is concentrated on these public domains. So, months before the event’s date comes around, you should get more outreach and followers through these platforms.
The goal of social media is to inform people that something huge is coming up and they can’t miss it.
4. Stay active online
We want to remind you that your social media accounts follow an algorithm. If you plan to have an online presence that surely creates a buzz, you need to be active on your official handles months before you finally hold your event.
You need to be present to fit into the online chart of popularity. The smart option would be to start the conversation about your event a year before, especially if you are aiming for a grand event, held on a large scale.
If it is limited to a rather small audience, you can take a minimum of 6 months to let the world know you event is coming up. The correct social media marketing method is one of the most crucial marketing ideas for events.
5. Have a face for the event
Who does the audience connect to? If you get one or two popular faces to collaborate with you, the number of registrations is going to increase.
Featuring an artist, singer or an influencer can create an interpersonal bond between you and your audience. They would connect with you and your event more because a person whom they admire is part of your endeavour.
When influencers promote or highlight the features of your events, there is a greater chance that people will trust the scale and intensity of your event. If you are new to social media platforms, start with someone who has already reached a higher position than you.
Call them a special attendee or guest of honour.
6. Create picture-perfect highlights
If your event marketing has to create a mark, you need pictures, posters, graphics, and other visual aids to amplify its features.
Use pictures from the previous year or create new videos of the set-up. You can also make graphics that convert your imagined picture for the event into a real-time artwork. You can then use these artworks as pictures that foretell the level that your event is going to achieve.
According to Consumer Acquisition, when your Facebook ads contain pictures, they turn out to be 75%-90% more effective. People often feel uninspired to go through long content unless it concerns them personally.
You should use graphics and pictures to make your ads, websites, and social media so that your platforms and messages are more interactive. Events are mostly associated with a recreational mode of participation.
That is why they might come off as unimportant to some. We do not want or agree with that. What we want is to create FOMO (fear of missing out) and develop that urgency in people to attend the event. Photographs are the way to evoke a feeling of belongingness and longing to be a part of something huge.
7. Build a community around your event
The community that you will build through your event is valuable. Hence, you want to start with a foundation of mutual trust.
Put details of your event out for the public. If you do not share what is going behind the scenes, people are not going to take interest in what happens at the front.
The way to build a community is by organizing contests and competitions before the final event finally arrives. It gives your audience the chance to communicate among themselves and build a friendship that culminates through your event.
You can also increase the audience-interaction by conducting small and fun contests, polls and competitions on Instagram or Telegram for example, which means you can find out what people expect from your event.
It will help in having a general picture of expectations in mind, as well as an increased possibility of publicity through the winners of these competitions.
8. Make the registration process seamless
If your customers are ready to pay for the ticket, you have to grab the opportunity immediately. Not having an easy registration can turn out to be so fatal that you may lose use of at least 1/3rd of your potential registrations.
The online method of registering is now easy. The web is flowing with tools that can make event registrations convenient. Use your time testing these software programs and finding out how well the interface will suit your purpose. No one is concerned about your logistical problems and they do not want to wait.
Only you are the one who has to try everything taking extreme conditions into account. If your event receives a surge, will your registration process accommodate the traffic? For stronger marketing, the show must go on. One glitch and all your marketing ideas will collapse in a heap of logistical malfunction.
9. Offer premium quality services and distinct features
Does your event have a signature brand or product or icon that can be passed through word of mouth? If no, then you must reconsider your motive behind the event.
Most professionals in business and other dimensions hold large-scale events because they want to leave a brand-image in the mind of their attendees. You must ensure that you feature something new that is unique to your event. It distinguishes you from others and carves out a clear message you want to send.
At the same time, do not compromise on the quality of your services in the event. If you create a hype, stand up to that and let your event have the most gripping ambiance, the classic food, the finest wine, and captivating performances, talks, etc.
You will go live to remind your online audience that not coming to your event was not the best decision. The event will pass, but we are sure that you want to keep the community built through this event intact for post-event benefits.
10. Have an email promotion strategy
If sending out emails to your audience sounds like a feasible alternative, do not refrain from keeping your audience updated through emails by passing on lists of guests, topics you cover, and other prior details that you think your customers might be interested in.
Even if you want to target a smaller group through your emails, do not wait and analyse if it will be a good practice. We assure you that emailing gives you potential attendees. To incentivize them, you can give price breaks, discounts, coupons of bringing their +1.
Emailing is also a good way to maintain healthy relations with special attendees because once the event is over, you can send them the “Thank you mails”. You can also request feedback that will come handy the next time. Completing a full cycle with your attendees is always a good way to turn them into permanent customers of your business.
11. Use the press and your website to reveal your value proposition
Unless you can answer the question of why your attendees should spend money on your event, you shouldn’t be hosting it in the first place.
Give your attendees a clear understanding of what they will learn or receive and through what medium.
Your website can have a separate column where you state a powerful vision of your event. Along with that, you should list out the opening remarks of your speakers and guests.
Events are an influential way of publishing content without creating it. You just have to channelize your information and put it out. It is also a rewarding exercise to submit your content to the press and publish it in newspapers, magazines, etc.
12. Create desirable behaviour
A customer would want to be a part of your event only if it can help them achieve one of following prospects:
1. Give them an opportunity to grow through your event by learning something.
2. Help them connect to a larger group through your event.
If you can analyse which of the above two does your customer want the most, you would have an attendee-image in mind.
This image will remain the standard whenever you plan contests, competitions, etc. in the pre-event cycle. An attendee-image is helpful for you when you are looking for partners or collaborators. You will probably find someone who your attendee feels are the right group for that event.
To state an example, if you are holding a ‘Literary Festival’ and you know that your attendees are going to be literature academicians, your choice of partners will differ. You will probably invite scholars and publishing houses as partners.
However, if you know that you will get more customers across different fields, you will want to keep that event more open, inviting spoken word artists, debaters and stand-up comedians.
When working on such marketing ideas for events, make sure you consider small details.
13. Let the world meet your team
Introducing the team is one of our favourite marketing ideas for events. When you are revealing the identity of who hosts the event, you build a first-hand relationship with your attendees.
We find it a good exercise to introduce the team because the possibility of people associating with one person’s work is always high.
They will bond with at least one member of your department and that is all you need. It builds a personal relationship between that face behind the curtains.
Ninety percent of attendees agree that they want a personalized experience in any event. Probably, you can use this opportunity to pick attendees to whom you promise to give special treatment.
Another good way is to invite local artists or regional food shop owners for example, to your event if your event can afford a cultural side to it. The social initiative of giving space to the local people within large spaces always attracts people.
It creates a cult where everyone wants to be “one among the many”. Reveal the stories of these artists, do a tour of their shops before the events, and get your audience ready to meet them in person.
Final thoughts
To conclude with our marketing ideas for events, we will look at a few key points:
– Create contests within events and give out prizes and incentives.
– Encourage the setting up of booths of local artists, sellers, businesspeople to give your event a social edge.
– Rule over all your social media accounts and flood them with images, pictures, etc. Don’t forget to create and grow your website for better reach.
– Hire a team, invite influencers, and give them the independence and agency to market your event widely.
–
Most importantly, organize and do not forget to remain patient, because we know you will manage to gain maximum registrations in the last few weeks. If you face any trouble, do not panic, because there are millions of PR groups on the internet ready to increase your connectivity anytime.
Good luck with your event!
