Tag Archives: event marketing

This is a guest post from Maggie Greene at Pathable Inc.

The modern marketing landscape is focused on building experiences for customers, prospects, and associates—and this applies to events as well.

Increasingly, successful businesses consider events to be part of their overall organizational marketing strategy. In light of this year’s pandemic, however, we’ve seen many in-person events pivot to virtual events.

See how other companies have used email in the wake of changing business plans.

That necessitates taking a more holistic approach to driving engagement among attendees.

Read on to explore key strategies for marketing your next virtual event, helping you zero in on your audience and create engagement before, during, and after.

 

1. Set your stage early.

The most memorable experiences are those that truly engage your attendees. Establish and incorporate an overarching theme inspired by the event, the time of year, or the latest trends in your industry.

Lean into details like color, design, and sound to articulate the “setting” of your event, which is ultimately the environment you’re seeking to create for your event communities.

Culture

As the event marketer, you know your audience better than anyone. You understand what motivates and inspires attendees and what keeps them coming to your events.

When it comes to your event culture, consider the relationships and conversations your audience will respond to most. Is the event culture one of sales (buyers and sellers, like you might see in trade shows and expos)? Is the culture more about thought leadership and education? Or maybe your event is something more niche—specifically catered to a less-represented group.

No matter your event’s unique culture, keep it top of mind in every marketing message you create. This will ensure the expectations you set before the event are carried through to the online experience.

Check out our 7 email marketing best practices for event promotion.

Environment

We all know the physical space and surrounding an area can be a major draw for in-person events, but how does that apply to a digital experience? And how does it affect your virtual event marketing?

Because you can’t entice attendees based on location or venue, you’ll have to get creative. Consider using emotional triggers to create a desirable virtual environment: one that offers networking opportunities, giveaways, and a supportive atmosphere.

You might do this by opening up Q&As, setting ground rules that both protect and encourage dialogue. Most webinar software offers a live chat option, so try utilizing this to make attendees feel included.

Content

Every event features cornerstone content that speaks to the culture, environment, and overall experience you’re trying to build as a planner. Remember to weave in the key themes you established early in the planning process into your content.

Be sure that all speakers, demo leaders, activators, and staff understand how important it is to align around the event theme. Lean on them to reinforce your marketing messaging where appropriate in their presentations.

Take everything you know about the culture and environment of your event, and seize opportunities to augment content with those details. This will help attendees remember the experience. They’ll feel more confident that your event was time well spent, because it’ll be easier for them to bring value back to their businesses.

Context

We all understand the importance of content, but context deserves the same amont of care and attention. Each message should be thoughtfully produced and considered as a piece of the broader portfolio of communications associated with your event.

Each marketing channel (e.g. email, social media, banner ads, etc.) for your company and event should reflect consistency in brand and tone. Consistency in language, color, texture, frequency of content production—all the things that make a brand’s presence unique—will help you contextualize your messaging for attendees.

The better they’re able to remember and understand, through their own contextual lenses, the more they’ll feel naturally inclined to engage with your event, even before it takes place.

Value

Of all the products and services out there, no commodity is more precious than time. Whether evaluating time spent or time saved, people who attend events make an investment and, as such, they’ll expect a return on that investment.

Marketers are taught to lead with benefits in their communications. For events, consider the ways in which value is perceived by the various communities impacted by your event.

Sponsors and exhibitors, for example, find value in business development. Depending on the culture of your virtual event your attendees will find value in both business development and network-building.

2. Pull back the curtain.

The biggest, most successful events may seem to unfold like magic, but there are actually multiple teams at work behind the scenes. As part of the attendee experience, let them in on that action.

Give them a sneak peek at what you’re building for them. Giving away some of those perceived secrets will help your attendees see themselves in the event long before they attend.

Highlight your speakers, panels, and keynotes. Let them know what they’ll be learning. And if you’re doing a giveaway, tease your attendees with the promise of a free gift.

Diversity

Events—whether physical or virtual—draw in a number of professionals. Lock in a diverse group of speakers and panelists from a number of organizations to provide a sense of inclusivity and representation for your audience.

Your attendees will likely not want to see a group of speakers who have similar titles, work for similar companies, and have similar experiences. In fact, 67% of job seekers consider workplace diversity an important factor when considering employment opportunities.

This means your event could be a driving force for change.

Humanity

As modern marketing is focused on building great experiences, it’s important to recognize the most powerful brands are no longer nameless, faceless corporate entities with no personality. The professionals who work there are as human as the people they serve.

Opening the proverbial curtain to reveal what’s behind-the-scenes at your event makes attendees feel like they’re part of your plans.

If you want to drive greater engagement, especially pre-event, lead by example across all your available channels. Show them you’re human and genuinely excited about the event. Give them a taste of what they’ll experience.

3. Tell them a story.

The human brain is wired for stories. Narrative arcs help us retain information and activate senses that ultimately control decision making, actions, and taking risks.

Every good story has a hero and conflict with moments of change, then (hopefully) concludes with a positive ending or valuable lesson.

Your event is the hero, perhaps, and not attending would be a tragedy. Tell them why they matter, build up their connection to the experience before it happens, and explore what they’ll gain by attending.

Give them a part to play.

Invite attendees to lean in with you at every touchpoint of your event:

  • “What sessions are on your can’t-miss list?”
  • “If you could ask one question of the keynote speaker, what would it be?”
  • “If you’re a first-time attendee, what are you most anxious about?”

These are all examples of open questions you and your teams might pose (in open or closed social media groups) to attendees before the event takes place.

Be sure you’ve planned to continue the conversation because, if you’ve cultivated the right culture and environment in your marketing messaging, they’ll be eager to open up and engage.

Personalize communications.

Consumer expectations have evolved such that personalization is requisite rather than recommended for effective marketing. Personalization is often as simple as leveraging existing data to tailor a broader message.

This data can come from any number of sources: your CRM, registration solution, or a combination of both.

Attendees need you to help them along their journey through your event experience. Personalizing communications is one way to assure them you’re paying attention to who they are and what matters to them.

Set them up for success

Recordings of previous years’ event content and highlight reel videos are great for giving attendees a peek at what they can expect to experience.

Proactively inform them how they can plan ahead by sending them emails to excite them for the event, as well as reminders and countdowns.

Additionally, mobile event apps and conference microsites are great examples of technology built for attendees.

Wrap up

While your on-site event marketing may have turned into a virtual event marketing strategy, there are still plenty of ways you can curate a unique experience attendees enjoy.

Consider the culture event attendees crave, the environment they want, as well as the content, context, and diversity they need to feel empowered. By doing this work on the backend, you’ll create an event attendees will be sure to remember.

And for a deeper dive into getting attendees to engage with your emails, check out Campaign Monitor’s Comprehensive Guide to Elevate Your Email Engagement.


Equal parts voracious reader and passionate writer, Maggie Greene is an expert in communication. As Marketing Manager for Pathable Inc, she’s customer-obsessed, results-oriented, and dedicated to celebrating the value of highly customizable event apps and web solutions.

Article first published September 2017, updated November 2019

When it’s time to host an event, marketers need strategies for promoting the event and encouraging registration. One channel they turn to? Email.

Email marketing can be instrumental in driving subscribers to sign up and attend, which drives the ROI of your event.

According to research done for our Event Marketing 2018: Benchmarks and Trends report, most event organizers believe that email marketing is the most effective marketing channel for promoting events.

But how can you build email marketing strategies that help you reach these goals? While there may be no silver bullet, there are many strategies that have been proven to work as you promote an event.

Read on to discover 9 outstanding email marketing strategies paired with some favorite examples. You can also use these tips with our free email event templates to announce your biggest event yet!

6 types of professional events worth considering

Before you can focus on driving event registration, you have to choose which type of event will suit your brand’s needs the best. There are hundreds of different event types out there that can help increase engagement between your brand and your target audience, so we’ve gone ahead and narrowed down your choices to these top 6.

1. Webinars

With more and more people turning to the internet to solve their pain points, a webinar could be an excellent choice for your next event. Webinars can be both prerecorded or live and are great when it comes to new customer acquisition.

Webinar topics can range quite a bit but tend to focus on some introductory content that your audience is searching for to help them with an issue they’re having.

Webinar email invite example

Source: Really Good Emails

2. Product launches

Product launches are another great example of an event that your brand can host to help you better engage with your current audience, all while still drawing in new prospective customers. Product launches are excellent because—like webinars—they can be held both online or in person.

These events focus on updating your audience on a specific launch or product update. That means that the topics of discussion are very specific to whatever you’re launching, making them more suitable for existing clientele.

Product launch email invite example

Source: Really Good Emails

3. Conferences

Conferences are great events to help bring together industry experts and a specific audience. These events typically revolve around a given niche but cover a wide variety of learning topics that professionals can benefit from.

An excellent example of a conference is the Content Marketing Institute’s yearly Content Marketing World Summit event.

 Content Marketing World event information

Source: Content Marketing World

4. Networking events

Networking events tend to take on a similar tone as conferences; however, they focus on bringing together industry experts and those in the industry looking to get to know one another and share information amongst each other.

While these events may have some learning seminars worth checking out, many of the event highlights focus on networking 1×1 with like-minded individuals.

 Networking event email invite example

Source: Really Good Emails

5. VIP events

VIP events allow your brand to really get to know those who share your beliefs and passions. These events are often created to celebrate those who are considered VIPs within your brand. These can be special dinners to honor your VIPs or special promo events that allow your VIP segment to experience something that your standard subscribers may not get access to.

6. Trade shows

Trade shows are exhibitions where companies can present their latest products, but also get to know their customers on a more personal level. These shows allow consumers to come to you, ask questions, get demonstrations, and leave you with valuable feedback that can help you develop new products or content to share later on.

9 email marketing strategies that will help you drive event registrations

Once you’ve decided on what type of event you’re hosting, you’ll want to utilize email marketing to help you drive event registration. Not sure where to start? Consider these 9 email marketing strategies to help you get started.

1. Be deliberate with your announcement.

Your event is a big deal, so make sure prospective attendees know it. Sending out an announcement email is a fundamental way to drive registrations.

The key to this email strategy is packaging your message as breaking news. Help your subscribers feel like they’re the first to hear about your awesome event and get the enthusiasm flowing.

For example, C100, host of 48Hrs in the Valley, does an excellent job of announcing their event and the companies that’ll be at the center of it:

Notice how they offer congratulations, as though this is the first these 21 companies have heard about the selection. It’s a small copywriting decision that creates intrigue and excitement.

2. Include a video.

A study by EyeView video found that having a video on a page increased conversions by 80%. In another study by Vidyard, 70% of marketers reported that video is more effective than other content in driving conversions.

Including a “sizzler” video from previous events is a great way to immerse subscribers in your event. This video can showcase speakers and explain what attendees can expect.

Influitive, a customer success software company, tackled this brilliantly for their Advocamp event series with a fun and educational video featuring Head Counselor Buck.

3. Share testimonials.

Along the lines of the video approach, show your subscribers that your event is going to be awesome with the assistance of previous attendees.

The ClientSuccess team does a great job of this for their CS100 event series. The event speaks for itself through people like Elizabeth Doherty, its biggest champion.

If you haven’t hosted the event before, you can include testimonials from speakers or future attendees that share their excitement. If you’re hosting a retail store opening or a one-off event, you can showcase testimonials that share how much people love your brand or products.

For example, check out how Amy Porterfield, an independent coach for entrepreneurs, uses a testimonial pulled from Facebook to promote a webinar:

4. Showcase your speakers.

Dedicating an email to the outstanding speakers at your event is another great way of grabbing subscribers’ attention and getting them to click “RSVP.”

For many events, it’s the speakers who provide the majority of content, so it’s only natural for them to be a big factor as a subscriber decides whether they want to attend.

There are a few ways that you can draw attention to your speaker line-up. You can take some inspiration from Wistia, a video hosting company, and highlight a handful of your top speakers:

Or, if your event is boasting some well-known celebrities, you can feature them front-and-center as Collision, a tech conference, did in the below email:

Another tactic is to list your speakers to showcase how much value is coming to the event. For example, check out this lineup from 48hrs:

5. Give the gift of opportunity.

It’s one thing to tell people that they’ll have a lot to take away from an event. It’s another thing to tell people that they have a lot to bring.

Whether you’re hosting a conference, an in-store event, or a webinar, try giving people an opportunity to contribute to the event. Your event is nothing without participants, so make sure your prospective attendees realize how special they are.

For example, Vanguard, an investment company, recently announced a new CEO and CIO. To help their clients feel comfortable with the transition, the team hosted a webinar where participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the board and the new CEO.

In a similar vein, Gainsight wants their email recipients to know that attending their event is much more than attending an event—it’s taking part in a movement.

6. Offer early bird discounts.

When it comes to creating compelling CTAs, the early bird discount is an established staple. Sending your contacts discounts in advance of your event is an effective way of driving registrations. However, that discount has to end sometime, and having a clear deadline is key for driving action.

Notice how Unbounce creates a sense of urgency for their Call to Action Conference by mentioning how many tickets are left.

Dreamforce makes things seem even more urgent. Whereas most event planners hope that their events will sell out, with Dreamforce, that’s pretty much a guarantee. That’s not something marketers are hiding.

7. Promote registration at another event.

One of the best times to drive registrations for an event is while subscribers are in attendance. Capitalize on your attendee’s elation and let them know about special offers for future events.

This works especially well for annual events. Give your attendees an unbelievable offer now that commits them to an event in the future.

CoinDesk executes this brilliantly with their Consensus event series:

8. Send out content that gives subscribers a taste of what they’ll get.

Once you’ve sent subscribers your best content about early bird offers, speakers, and testimonials, it’s time to move on to other approaches.

Going back to the fundamentals of inbound marketing, think about how you can provide a fun, engaging, and educational spin to your event promotion emails.

One example that we particularly love is these fun facts from SaaStr, a community for SaaS entrepreneurs. These facts are a fun and creative way to get prospective attendees interested in the event, but they also put the spotlight on the people who’ll attend.

9. Send a direct message from a company leader or influencer.

Another email marketing strategy is the direct message. Have your CEO, your CMO, or Head of Events personally address your contacts.

Among all of the visual-heavy images that can flood someone’s inbox on any given Monday, a person-to-person email might be the approach you need to break through the noise.

Here’s a snippet from an email from Social Media Examiner’s CEO Mike Stelzner promoting Social Media Marketing World, their flagship event:

Alternatively, you could send a message from an influencer. If you’re having a retail store opening, for example, you could show a celebrity wearing the clothing to promote the product.

Wrap up

These email marketing strategies are, by no means, mutually exclusive. See how you can combine them for winning combinations. At the same time, certain strategies may see more success in driving registrations than others. That’s why you should experiment, measure, and optimize.

Looking for event ideas? Consider one of these different event types:

  • Webinars
  • Product launches
  • Conferences
  • Networking events
  • VIP events
  • Trade shows

Ready to see how Campaign Monitor can help you send outstanding emails for your next event? Then schedule your live demo today.

This is a guest post by Allen Yesilevich from MC².

You may recall the phrase, “If you build it, they will come,” from Field of Dreams. While that’s a great sentiment for a feel-good movie, professionals know you can’t simply build something and hope people will show. And marketers know that in the world of event marketing, this approach is a prescription for disaster.

Read on for event marketing tips you can use to engage audience members before your event even begins.

Why you need event marketing

Marketing investments, such as trade show exhibits, festivals, consumer events, conferences, and a variety of other events require substantial effort to strategize, create, build, and set up, so it’s important that they’re well attended. Event marketing is a great way to get prospects to come to your events.

Trade shows generally attract large audiences, but attendees choose which brands’ exhibits to visit. In some cases, thousands of brands are vying for attendees’ attention.

Trade shows offer the unique feature of allowing face-to-face interaction between the lead or prospect and a brand’s sales personnel, executives, and product teams.

What’s more, live events provide an opportunity to connect with people on an emotional level, and as every salesperson knows, emotions often play a large role in a person’s decision to choose one product or service over another.

Since 69% of the people who attend trade shows are shopping for products and services, event marketing is imperative. However, before you can engage, you must motivate your targeted prospects and clients to attend your exhibit or event, which is where event marketing tips come into play.

Event marketing tips: what works and what doesn’t

Before you engage, you must attract.

Today’s information-saturated world requires marketers to work harder and smarter to attract the attention of potential event attendees. Promoters have access to numerous media, but which they choose depends on the event’s type and budget.

Making personal calls to invite your contacts to an event can be quite effective, but this isn’t practical for larger events like trade shows and consumer events (except when inviting VIPs).

Print ads remain viable for targeting certain industries or consumers, but the timing of magazines and newspapers can present problems. Some publications suspend issues during the summer; others reduce the number of issues and subscriptions.

Print ad materials must also be submitted well before the publishing date. Cost is another problem: Print ad rates have skyrocketed—not because they’re more effective, but because fewer brands now use print media.

Post office mail (aka snail mail) can be effective because the volume of mail individuals receive has diminished due to the rise of digital media. However, cost can be a deterrent for a large mailing list, especially for multiple mailings.

Using digital media is the fastest, most cost-effective way to invite your contacts to visit your exhibit.

Social media posts, whether organic or paid, allow you to act quickly. This approach is reasonably priced, and posts can be viewed on stationary and mobile devices.

However, social media posts are subject to fans’ viewing habits. Not everyone accesses social media sites daily—much less hourly. Because of the high volume of social media posts, skipping a day or even an hour can relegate a marketer’s post to the bottom of people’s timelines.

Text messages eliminate the issue of access, since just about everyone carries their phones with them wherever they go. You can be fairly sure your message will be delivered.

But even if you have a person’s approval to send texts, many people are annoyed by repetitive messages, and there’s a limit to how much a person can absorb from a single text message.

Other media, such as billboards, TV and radio commercials, and mobile ads (car wraps and bus ads), may be effective for large consumer events, but cost and effectiveness make them less practical for business-to-business events.

That being said, email may be the best medium for attracting people to events.

Want to improve your event emails? Learn how by watching this short video.

Although it was among the first digital communication tools, email remains a popular medium for event promotion. Even online events like webinars are a perfect time to send event marketing communications:

Webinars are a great example of a highly effective, highly valuable lead magnet for organic list growth.

Source

Here are a few reasons why marketers still love email:

  1. Email is cost-effective, especially when sending multiple (drip) emails. It can also be automated, which saves effort and money.
  2. Email is easy and quick to implement and send, and most providers offer templates if you can’t design your own emails.
  3. Email is omnipresent; it’s available on all digital message devices.
  4. Email is an effective medium, and it generates higher read and click rates than other digital media.
  5. Email is socially acceptable (as long as it’s permission based).
  6. Email allows an image-rich message experience.
  7. Email is a more personal form of communication than social media. It’s directed at a specific person, and personalization can be enhanced with unique content.

Creating an event promotion program

Email should be the backbone of your event promotion strategy: However, a multimedia approach is best for reaching large numbers of people. Here’s how I suggest using various media to promote an event.

Email:

Create a drip email campaign in advance of the event to inform potential attendees, create interest, send reminders, and distribute pre-show surveys. You can also ask email recipients about their expectations for the event. Surveys can be informal, or you can take a crowdsourcing approach to help you generate ideas.

This approach does require you to have a targeted email list. If you don’t have an existing email list, you may be able to find what you need through a list broker.

During the event, send emails to inform visitors of special activities, such as product demonstrations, speeches, or cocktail parties.

After the event, send follow-up emails to remind visitors of the important points that were covered. These emails should include a call to action, such as having a salesperson contact them or requesting more information, to help them along their journey to becoming a client.

Copy, messages, graphics, videos, and other content created for the event and event emails should be utilized on your site. Want a real-life example? Click here to see the Campaign Monitor Marketing & Mixology event infographic.

You can also use these resources for social media to create a holistic communication matrix. Landing pages for emails can be duplicated and used for social media posts as well.

Social media:

Prior to the event, use organic and promoted posts to stimulate interest and help spread the word.

During the event, live posts, videos, and messaging can assist you in expanding your reach to those who couldn’t attend or haven’t yet visited your exhibit.

After the event, posts can be used to recap important information. These posts also help you extend your event’s reach by allowing those who couldn’t attend to experience your brand’s message.

Text messages:

Use texts during the event as alerts and reminders of activities or special offers.

Personal calls:

VIP clients and prospects should receive personal calls or emails, inviting them to your event. It’s a great opportunity for the sales staff to connect with VIPs.

Direct mail:

In some cases, important clients and prospects should receive printed invitations to create a sense of exclusivity.

A word about attention span

There’s a popular notion that people’s attention spans are getting shorter, caused by the sheer volume of information they receive.

Consider instead that people’s attention spans are getting more advanced. For instance, our original Gen Z research found that Gen Z customers want relevant information above all else. Rather than having a short attention span, they have a sophisticated filter.

People are pickier about what they’re willing to invest time in reading. A study by Prezi, The State of Attention, supports this premise. Prezi found that people stay with a message longer if it features engaging content, a compelling narrative, and stimulating visuals and dialogue.

The study points to the phenomenon of TV binge-watching as proof that people will invest time in a message that engages them. Most marketers don’t have entertainment industry budgets, but we do have the ability to communicate with our prospects using relevant, emotional, and interesting information.

With emails, the subject line is generally the first message the recipient sees. The more enticing the subject line, the better the chances the recipient will open and read your email. However, the message must follow up with information that fulfills the promise made in the subject.

Readers’ interests can also be piqued by including visuals and links to more detailed information. This approach also applies to social media posts.

Wrap up

Event marketing tips are great, but your tips and marketing tools will work much better if you take the time to see your offering through your customers’ eyes.

The better you understand your attendees’ needs and wants, the more you’ll be able to create effective messages that engage your prospects—and, if you engage them, they will come.


Allen leads marketing, growth and business development strategy efforts at MC² , an award-winning globally-recognized brand experience solutions agency. He has over 15 years of brand, marketing and advisory experience.

It doesn’t matter how large—or small—your business’ reach is, chances are you have an upcoming event you can leverage for your marketing efforts. Maybe you are speaking at a conference or you want to announce a new product or a service roll-out.

Events can even focus on minor celebrations, like getting 10,000 followers on Instagram.

No matter what its purpose, you can tailor any event for viral greatness using the power of digital marketing.

Let’s dive straight into some event marketing strategies that can put your next event in the spotlight.

4 event marketing tactics that can take your next event viral

It’s important not to underestimate the importance of event marketing. Event promotion is critical for sales, lead generation, and brand awareness.

Beyond that, events can allow you to network with peers and customers in a more personal way. That insider knowledge means your marketing team can gather intelligence to help you get—and stay—ahead of your competition.

Events are a fun addition to traditional marketing. They’re exciting, fast-paced, and allow marketers the greatest creativity. Some common types of event marketing include:

  • Marketing conferences
  • Trade shows
  • Sales events
  • Seminars/webinars
  • Festivals
  • Workshops
  • Experiential events (like this Redbull airdrop)

Of course, the possibilities are nearly endless, limited only by your imagination. So, once you’ve got a noteworthy opportunity on your calendar, how do you promote an event?

When designing your event marketing plan, it’s smart to set a goal of getting the most exposure possible. You want the maximum number of people talking about your event to encourage registration, participation, and shares.

Most marketers agree that there’s no better way to get your event seen than by having it go viral. Let’s explore common techniques companies have used to increase event attendance and attention.

1. Using the power of your customers’ voices

Never underestimate the impact social sharing has on your marketing. As an example, sock company Ace & Everett learned how to parlay customers’ social media channels to make their event shine.

Their 100 Man March, a parade of men in Ace & Everett socks, blazers, button-downs, and no pants, is a solid part of the company’s marketing calendar.

event marketing photo examples from the hustle

Source: The Hustle

However, the event didn’t go viral until its third year, when Ace & Everett learned the magic word: share. After the event, they gave each of their marchers an event photo and asked them to post it to their favorite social channel.

Then, Ace & Everett posted a video of the march to their own channels and watched the viral magic happen.

If you’ve got a creative, shareable event planned, make sure you share the evidence. Send emails with embedded (and shareable!) videos or photos and ask for social shares.

Your event is already poised to generate curiosity but forgetting to ask for the share is a mistake. So is having too many channels to choose from. Instead, pare down your social channels to your favorite two and give your customers a gentle nudge to pass the word along.

Let’s explore another way to use the combined power of social media and email marketing to help your next event campaign go viral.

Harnessing the ubiquity of email

With 73% of millennials preferring email as their primary way to connect with brands, email marketing for viral reach makes sense.

When you add the 2.56 billion social media users across the globe into the mix, combining the two platforms becomes imperative.

The fact is, this partnership helps promote events nearly effortlessly. To start, you can add a hashtag and highlight social share options on emails. Then, encourage recipients to pass on your event information with an offer/share incentive.

Alternately, you can create website tags on some social media sites, like Twitter so that potential customers can find you. Take them to an event landing page, grab their email, and off you go!

Here’s an example to illustrate how easy it is to encourage social sharing in your event marketing emails.

event marketing and event email examples

Source: Delivra

This email promotes a special New Year’s Eve event in intriguing monotone colors. The only pops of color are the logo, the box around the buy button and, unsurprisingly, the social media buttons.

This judicious use of color draws the audience’s eye right where this marketing team wants it: the buy and the share.

Some companies place their social sharing icons at the very top of an email in a bright block of type. Try this and see if it works for you.

Additionally, provide an offer where subscribers can invite three friends to an event for a 60% discount. Use a prominent “invite friends” button with simple instructions.

2. Narrow your audience

It’s true—size does matter. When it comes to marketing for current events with the expectation they’ll go viral, it’s critical.

If you’re marketing an event via email, you want to reach for the greatest number of forwards possible. Personalization triggered messages, and segmentation is all ways to accomplish this.

In fact, personalized or triggered emails generate a forward for every 21 opens. That’s opposed to non-personalized content, which gets only one forward for every 370 opens.

Need more proof? Viral emails are 2.9 times more likely to be based on triggered events, 4.3 times more likely to use segmentation, and 4.5 times more likely to be personalized.

The bottom line: segment, personalize, and use triggers for best results.

3. Get outrageous

Sometimes, it pays to get crazy with your email marketing. Let’s look at this quirky email campaign from Frontier Airlines that went viral.

Outrageous event email examples - Frontier deez nuts offer "deez deals are nuts"

Source: DMN

The cost-cutting airline leveraged the popularity of the interweb sensation “Deez Nuts,” a 15-year-old boy from Iowa, to boost their email campaign success.

Deez Nuts was already an irreverent online celebrity when he came to Frontier’s attention. When Deez Nuts submitted himself as a presidential candidate, Frontier pounced.

Offering a whopping half off of flights with the cute and timely promo code, this campaign saw lots of press.

You don’t have to wait for another internet celebrity to come forward, however. Your email marketing plan can capitalize on social media trends, current events, or anything else that strikes a chord with your audience.

4. Your biggest event: A launch

One of a company’s most prominent events will always be the launch of the business itself. Later down the line, launches include new products, new designs, new services, or even subsidiary companies.

Whenever you’re launching something big, something new, something exciting, you want as much press as possible.

It should be big. Really big. Viral, if possible.

That’s what Harry’s did with the launch of their website. Harry’s is a site that focuses on men’s grooming. In just one week after their premier launch, they’d gotten almost 100,000 email addresses in their list using a website, shareable links, and email.

Within the launch, Harry’s showed visitors how they could earn free products by referring friends to the site.

events marketing email example from harry's

Source: FHWW

The rest is history.

Since their launch, Harry’s has continued to dominate through shareable email marketing. Take a look at how they combine gratitude for current customers with outreach in this brilliant email:

Events marketing how-to: here's an events email template example from harry's

Souce: Really Good Emails

First, they thank current subscribers for being part of the Harry’s family. Then, they gift them two free razors to share with friends.

This clever tactic gets rid of the need to forward the email by allowing customers to choose recipients directly from the body of the email.

Harry’s continues to market launches and events through email marketing with great success.

Wrap up

There are an endless number of events you can promote through email marketing. The trick is to get your marketing efforts seen by as many potential leads as possible.

Doing this is simpler when you combine one or more of the actionable steps we’ve reviewed. Choose an outrageous way to promote, segment your audience, and don’t forget to leverage social media to power up your marketing mix.

So, whether you’re promoting your first launch, launching a new product or service, or focusing on brand awareness, your next email campaign could very well be the one that takes you viral.

Want more great ideas to use in your next event email? Campaign Monitor has corralled some of the best event emails to get you off to a great start.

Updated April 2019

Do you run events for your business?

Regardless of whether it’s a launch event, conference, or a networking event, the effectiveness of your event is directly related to the number of attendees you get through the door.

How to Market for Your Upcoming Event: 6 Tips to Running an Effective Event Invitation Email Campaign

There’s no better way to reach an audience and increase attendees than through email marketing.

Read on to learn the 6 key elements of creating an effective event invitation email, as well as see some examples from our customer email gallery of event invitation campaigns that got it right. Then we’ll talk about what to do after you’ve hit “send.”

What is an event invitation email?

An event invitation email is a campaign designed to increase awareness of your event and encourage people to attend.

Invitations have been used in society since before Roman History time periods. Event invitation emails are simply the digital-modern version of traditional handwritten scribe invites.

In fact, according to Eventbrite and Emma, 40% of event creators say that event invitation emails are the most effective event marketing materials.

Following are a few examples of event invitation emails:

Following are a few examples of event invitation emails:

Source: Campaign Monitor

Following are a few examples of event invitation emails:

Source: Campaign Monitor

Following are a few examples of event invitation emails:

Source: Campaign Monitor

How do I create an email event?

The first step to sending out your email invitations is to plan the event that you need to invite people to.

Once you have all the details figured out, then comes the fun part: creating the event invitation emails.

To create your email event, you will customize a personalized event invitation email template to send to subscribers.

Are event invitation email templates important?

Yes. Event invitation email templates are important because they cut down time, provide consistency, and allow you to connect branding with your emails. Templates allow your emails to have quality design features that do not need to be hand coded, so event invitation email creators need to do less work but receive more return.

Also, customized event invitation email templates allow you to choose a combination of text and images to convey event details (again, without any hand coding).

Here are a few examples of our event invitation email templates:

Here are a few examples of our event invitation email templates:

Source: Campaign Monitor

The 6 key elements of an effective event invitation email

In order to get the maximum amount of awareness and attendees from your event invitation email, try including these 6 different elements in your campaign.

1. A targeted list

Depending on how you built your email list, it might be made up of people from all over the world.

However, if your event is being held in downtown San Francisco, then chances are people from Australia aren’t going to be able to attend (unless it’s a big event worth traveling for.)

So, to keep your open, click-through, and response rates high, it’s better to segment your list and send your campaign only to those nearby.

A great example of this is our campaign for our recent Future of Email Marketing event in London, UK.

image

Source: Campaign Monitor

Before we sent this campaign, we used the Geolocation Segments feature to create a segment of our newsletter list containing subscribers who lived within 50km of London, UK, and then sent the campaign only to those people.

By doing so, we ensured that only those who had the ability to attend the event received the campaign, and those outside the area didn’t receive irrelevant information about an event they couldn’t attend.

So, next time you’re creating an event invitation campaign, try segmenting your lists using features like geolocation segments and only send the campaign to subscribers who are able to attend. This way, you’ll receive fewer unsubscribes and higher open, click-through, and response rates as a result.

2. Value Proposition

In an event invitation email, the value proposition should be a short statement that concisely explains why the recipient should attend the event.

As an example, take a look at the value proposition in this campaign from Fairline Boats:

Fairline event email

Source: Campaign Monitor

The email contains a prominent value proposition that reads “Fairline’s new 48 range.”

This value proposition succeeds because it doesn’t just inform people that there’s an event, but instead focuses on conveying the benefits of attending: a hull design so clever, it has turned itself into three remarkable boats.

This lets readers know what’s in it for them and increases their motivation to attend the event.

So, when creating your company event invitation email, make sure to include a value proposition that clearly outlines what the event is and the benefits of attending, as this will increase people’s motivation and compel them to click-through and purchase tickets or RSVP.

3. Detailed description of the event

Now that you’ve caught your subscriber’s attention with the value proposition, it’s

Now that you’ve caught your subscriber’s attention with the value proposition, it’s time to back it up with a detailed description of the event that outlines exactly what attendees can expect to see and do at the event and what they will get from attending.

An example of a great event description comes from this company event invitation email campaign from Hudson Ranch and Vineyards:

Hudson event email

Source: Campaign Monitor

This email contains a detailed event description that outlines what attendees will enjoy during the event.

So, when creating your next event invitation email, make sure to include a detailed description of the event. You should aim to answer questions potential attendees might have, like what will happen at the event, what they will learn, who they will see or hear from, etc. By answering these questions in your description, you’ll increase people’s motivation to attend and compel them to click-through and purchase tickets or RSVP.

4. Time, location & other event details

Despite your best efforts to choose a central location and appropriate time, not everybody on your list is going to be able to make it.

By including the details of the event, such as time and location, in your invite email, you help people quickly identify whether this event is something they are going to be able to attend and increase the chances of them clicking through to your site to RSVP or purchase tickets.

British fashion label Fred Perry does this well in their event invite email for their popup store.

Fred Perry event email

Source: Campaign Monitor

This email very clearly shows the location of the event as well as the different times it will be open, making it easy for people to identify whether this is something they can attend and start making plans to be there.

So, in your next event invitation email, make sure you include any relevant details about the event that people might need to know. If it’s a physical event, this could include time, location, dress code, parking details, transport information, etc. Alternatively, if it’s a virtual event like a demo or webinar then make sure to include the relevant URLs, dial-in numbers, access codes, login details, etc.

As an added extra, it can also help to include a link to a calendar event that automatically adds itself to your subscribers’ preferred calendar (Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook, etc.) when clicked. This helps remind people when your event is taking place and increases the chances they’ll attend.

5. Social Proof

Even if your event is free, people are paying with their time and may have some natural hesitation and anxiety about attending.

This can be caused by any number of things, including:

  • Concern that your event isn’t worth their time and/or money,
  • Worry that your event isn’t relevant to them,
  • Doubt that your event will deliver the value you claim it will.

So, in order to help get people to click-through from your email, purchase tickets, and attend your event, you need to take steps to reduce that anxiety.

A great way to do this is by including social proof elements, such as testimonials or expert reviews of your event, in your campaigns.

When you are creating your next event invitation email, try to include elements of social proof like testimonials from previous attendees, expert reviews, or even attendee numbers from your last event to reduce anxiety and reassure readers it’ll be worth their time and money.

6. A prominent call to action button

Now that you’ve provided all the information recipients need about your event, it’s time to include a prominent call to action to get them to take the next step.

While you might be tempted to simply tell people about your event and hope they turn up, there’s actually a much higher chance they’ll attend if you get them to commit to it via a registration or ticketing process, even if registration or tickets are free and the process is largely arbitrary.

This is because, according to renowned psychologist Robert Cialdini, when human beings commit to doing something (like attending an event), they are much more likely to go through with it even when the consequences of not doing so are minor.

SXSW understand this and used it to their advantage in their event emails:

SXSW event email

Source: Campaign Monitor

By including a prominent call-to-action button encouraging people to RSVP for the event, they are able to get people to commit to attending.

Next time you’re creating an event invitation campaign, make sure to include a prominent call-to-action button that links to some sort of registration or ticketing process. Tools like Eventbrite make it easy to do this, and, even if the registration and ticketing process is arbitrary, it will help increase the chances that people will show up at your event.

What to send after the original invite

After you’ve created your event invitation emails, then you’re all ready to send it out to your potential attendees.

To optimize your event invitation email campaign, keep track of how many days you have until your event. From the time you hit send to the time you will be going to your event, how many days of preparing do you have in between?

According to the Event Industry’s 2019 Email Benchmarking Report, 53% of companies begin promoting their events one to three months in advance, but it all depends on what works best for your audience.

(If you’re looking for straight-up Email Marketing Benchmarks, read our latest email benchmarks report here.)

The number of follow-up emails you should send to your potential attendees will depend on how much time you have until your event. You want to take advantage of follow-up event emails, especially the week of your event because, usually, half the amount of your ticket sales will happen in the final week before your event.

Keep in mind also that 54% of recipients unsubscribe to emails if they are receiving them too frequently, so it’s important to simply remind and not bombard.

Here are a few examples of follow-up event invitation emails:

Here are a few examples of follow-up event invitation emails:

Source: Campaign Monitor

Here are a few examples of follow-up event invitation emails:

Source: AppSumo

Here are a few examples of follow-up event invitation emails:

Source: BuzzFeed

Wrap up

The event invitation email is one of the most important email campaigns you can send to increase the effectiveness of your events.

So, next time you are creating one, ensure it has the 6 key elements:

  1. A targeted list to send to
  2. A benefit-focused value proposition
  3. Compelling event information that outlines what attendees can expect at the event
  4. Event details such as time, location, dress code, etc.
  5. Elements of social proof to reduce anxiety around the value of your event
  6. A prominent call to action to get the recipient to commit

By including these 6 elements, you ensure that you get the best results possible from your event invitation campaign and drive large numbers of attendees who will make your event a success.

After you’re positive your event invitation email campaign utilizes these six elements and has been sent to subscribers, follow it up with a reminder email, but not too many.

Did you use these elements in your recent event invitation email campaign? If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out these creative event email examples.

Many companies host various events, such as Meetups, webinars, and networking events. Not only are these events an opportunity to connect, but they can be an important way to improve brand awareness and earn revenue.

As a professional, marketing events are crucial for brand awareness. With the right event, your brand can be a leader in the industry.

So, are you ready for this year’s marketing events? Better yet, what’s your email strategy for your next webinar or conference?

Hi, I’m Shane Phair, Chief Marketing Officer here at Campaign Monitor, and this is The Email Minute.

Today, we’ll be discussing:

3 steps you can take to improve your event emails

First: incorporate a hook to attract your audience, and make sure it sounds interesting.

A subject line like A Live Q&A with Drinks loses the value proposition, while something like Questions, Answers, & Craft Beers is more attractive.

Plus, 44% of email users are checking their inbox for a deal from a familiar company.

Once you’ve got your users hooked, it’s time for step 2: outlining the details.

Give potential attendees the following information:

  • The purpose behind the event
  • The location of the event
  • And of course, the date

By sending this information early and succinctly, readers can gauge their availability and level of interest.

Finally, improve your event by making emails actionable.

This means putting a CTA button right in your email (or multiple places in the email), giving readers several chances to sign up for the event.

This way, users are hooked by the value prop, they know all the details, and they can instantly sign up.

And trust us, you want people to sign up.

In fact, in-person events are the most effective form of content marketing for B2B marketers, bringing in billions of dollars worth of industry revenue every single year.

So, go ahead and make your next event campaign—well, eventful.

On the next Email Minute, we’ll discuss some email design trends for 2019.

Have a question you’d like covered on The Email Minute? Tweet at me @ShanePhair, or post a comment on our blog.