Have an event coming up and want to make sure it’s packed with attendees?
The key to achieving this is your event marketing ideas.
Strong marketing urges the target audience to notice the events.
And not just notice, you need to make them take action by purchasing tickets.
So, keep reading and discover the best ways to market your events!
A. What is a marketing strategy for an event?
Event marketing is the tactic and techniques used by event organizers to promote their events.
These are designed to create buzz around the event.
With the right message, event marketing ideas also attract the right audience.
B. Do I need a marketing strategy for my event?
The short answer is, yes!
The long answer includes all the reasons why event marketing ideas can transform your event:
1. More people will attend the event
Of course, the primary motive behind event marketing is to attract engagement.
Effective event marketing ideas help to reach a good amount of audience.
It drives high attendance rates and ensures that your event is attended by the target people.
2. 2x your revenue
Think beyond ticket sales, event marketing also attracts other important people to your event.
These people include sponsors and vendors.
A great marketing strategy gets more eyes on your event.
Ultimately, this leads to more revenue sources than just ticket sales.
3. Build your brand
Event marketing automatically leads to brand marketing.
A well-marketed event helps people connect with your brand and strengthens the brand identity.
4. Communicate with your audience
Event marketing allows you to get in touch with your audience even before the event starts.
Through marketing campaigns, you can start conversations and attract people to your events.
This leads to repetitive attendance and lasting relationships with the audience.
C. Event marketing ideas to publicize an event
1. Never underestimate the power of influencer marketing
Get influencers to talk about your event. Influencer marketing will increase your event visibility. Their content helps to drive attendance and generate excitement.
Pro Tip: Don’t hesitate to incentivize influence to market your event. You can even give them a simple gift voucher.
2. Make your event phygital
Your event should be available wherever your audience is – at home, traveling, or even at a lounge.
People want the flexibility to join an event online.
More than 9 in 10 event marketers believe their virtual and hybrid events have been successful [source: Exploding Topics]
3. Have a communication channel
It can be an Instagram page or even a WhatsApp group.
Have a dedicated space for people to chat and message before, during, and after an event.
This not only increases event engagement but also helps build long-lasting relationships.
4. Different mailing lists
In your email marketing campaigns, you may want to segregate mailing lists.
You can segregate on the basis of different ages, genders, work histories, occupations, etc.
They all have different online behaviors which elicit different responses.
Break up your segments to align with your target audiences and carefully write relatable messages.
5. Don’t ditch traditional advertising techniques
If you’ve got the money, spend it on the OG methods of marketing.
You can put up billboards, mailers, flyers, etc of your events.
You can even provide people with T-shirts printed with your event details. Simply wearing these T-shirts in public can help a lot in marketing your events.
6. Can never go wrong with a giveaway
This is one of the fastest event marketing ideas that you can never go wrong with.
You can have giveaways for tickets, VIP experiences, and 1:1 interaction with influencers.
You can plan giveaways that allow some selective people to attend your event for free.
This is also part of some of the low-cost event marketing ideas.
7. Utilize social media stories
Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat all have the stories feature in common.
Include storytelling in your event marketing ideas with this feature.
Offer an insider perspective of your event. This will help you to draw a lot of attention without much investment.
8. Donate tickets to organizations
Give free tickets to organizations you want to partner with.
This can include colleges, companies, or event influencer agencies.
People who receive the donated tickets will also help spread the buzz.
People are often influenced to attend such events if someone thet know is also attending.
The people who receive the donated tickets are likely to feel a sense of loyalty to your company.
9. Paid marketing channels
Don’t be afraid to use paid marketing channels like Meta Ads, Instagram Boost, or even Google Ads.
These are all means to achieve the goal.
While there’s a learning curve to it, you can always hire marketing agencies to spped up this process.
You might also want to invest in pop-up ads on websites that receive the attention of your target audience.
10. Early bird discount
Early-bird discounts are known for boosting ticket sales before the actual event.
Everyone loves discounts.
Offer early bird discounts but for a limited time only.
Ensure that your target audience is aware of the offer. They must take advantage of it before the offer expires.
11. Market merchandise
Don’t just publicize your events, you should also publicize the perks of attending.
Another cool event marketing idea is to market the event by giving out freebies.
This can even be done before the event.
Everyone loves free stuff!
As a result, it’ll make more people sign up for every event that you organize.
12. Create a challenge out of it
To give you an example, you can hide your event tickets in various locations around your city.
You can provide clues to the participants using various riddles on your social media.
This is a very interactive activity that generates excitement among the participants.
13. Personalized invites
With AI, personalization doesn’t require as much manual effort anymore.
In your email invites or even video invites, refer to the specific person, state, and area.
This immediately grabs attention.
Pro Tip: People pay the most attention to their own names. Starting your event marketing campaigns will guarantee results.
14. Gamify social media marketing
Encourage attendees to earn points or badges for participating in social media activities.
15. Don’t forget newcomers
Have an idea bank for event marketing ideas for those people who are new to your event.
This is specifically to help first-time attendees understand what your event is all about.
You can live stream a Q&A session or host a webinar.
16. Find your way into popular podcasts
Event marketing ideas rarely find their way to apps such as Spotify and Amazon Music.
But, your target audience probably uses such platforms.
Pin-point the podcasts your target audience may be interested in.
Then, reach out to the podcasters to talk about your event briefly.
Pro Tip: Get people from your own team to talk in the podcasts to provide greater details.
17. Give the stage to influencers
Identify influencers who have a talent that can be showcased on the event stage.
While you pay them to perform, you can also ask them for marketing.
They can talk about their upcoming show at your event. This will urge their followers to buy tickets to your event.
Lately, we’ve seen a lot of influencers who make relatable reels find their way to the event stage.
Even if it’s for a few minutes, it’s a big deal for them. They naturally tend to market their few minutes of fame on their social media.
18. Unusual pop-ups
With brands going digital and restaurants becoming cloud kitchens, you get many event marketing ideas.
You can partner up with such brands that only have a digital presence.
Give them a chance to have a temporary physical pop-up at your event.
This will surprise your event attendees and give you unique event marketing opportunities.
19. Stand out with insane rules
Negative marketing is also marketing.
Find the most insane thing and turn it into event marketing ideas.
For example, have a no-boots dress code and don’t explain further.
Such weird marketing tactics get the crowd talking
20. Everything is a competition
Turn the little things into a competition.
For example, the first person to arrive gets a free drink.
Another quirky example could be, the first person to arrive in a pink hat gets a freebie.
Market these friendly competitions as humans love to win!
21. User-generated content
Incentivize clicking photos and recording videos at your event.
This works especially well for multi-day events.
Sharing of media from Day 1 of your event can attract more attendees on the other days.
D. FAQ
1. What is the benefit of event marketing?
With event marketing, you don’t just increase ticket sales.
You also invest in the long-term branding of your event.
The right event ideas will put your event in the attendees’ minds.
This will help you have more successful future editions of your event.
2. How much budget do I need for event marketing?
You should spend at least 15% of your total budget on event marketing [source: FedEx].
However, you can bring this number down if you have a strong social media presence and track record.
By relying more on social media marketing, you can get faster results from organic engagement.
E. Did this help?
Do you know any other genius event marketing ideas from your experience?
We’d love to know in the comments below.
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