Do you ever wonder how successful event organizers are able to sell out events, and even have potential people backlogged on an event waitlist – sometimes in just a few weeks?
The short answer is that they analyze data from previous events and set up a strong foundation for event marketing from the get-go. This involves conducting market research, setting up an event website, and promoting your event on social media.
In this article, we’ll cover some practical tips and strategies that you can execute to make sure you sell out your event. We’ll talk about:
- Conducting research and using data to understand your target audience.
- Optimizing your website for SEO.
- Promoting your event on social media networks.
- Using the right event registration and ticketing tool.
Let’s get started.
#1: Understand Your Target Audience
Successful event organizers collect data about prospective attendees and use it to better understand their target audience and sell out events. This includes everyone who expresses interest in their event – not just the attendees.
If you’ve hosted similar events in the past, you can use the data you collected to get information about your event’s marketing such as:
- Which digital promotional channels generated the most leads?
- Which social media platforms got the most interactions?
- How did prospective attendees find your event website?
- Which ticket type was the most popular among ticket buyers?
The information you can use largely depends on the data you collect from event attendees at the time of event registration, your site’s analytics, and the marketing strategies you use. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have an event website that lets you collect this data from attendees for each event your organize and process it to get key information.
If, however, this is your first time hosting an event, you’ll have to rely on other market research methods to better understand your target audience. For instance, you might consider researching your competition, reading industry reports, white papers, case studies, and conducting surveys.
#2: Make It Easy for People to Find Your Event
As an event organizer, you’ll need to make sure prospective attendees are able to find your event through various digital channels. For example, you can optimize your event website or landing page for SEO which will help increase your event’s visibility in search engine results pages.
The first thing you need to do is set up your event website. One of the benefits of creating an event website is that you can use a domain name [that’s the address of the website] that matches, or is closely related to your event name; which is going to help your SEO. For example, the website for the popular Developer Week conference is developerweek.com. It’s easy for people to remember, it resonates with the overall brand, and it’s good for SEO.
Next, you’ll need to do some keyword research to pick out the right keywords to optimize your content for. We recommend using tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush to find relevant keywords and validate search volume.
Once you have a few keywords in mind to build your content strategy around, you can begin creating pages and blog posts. Keep in mind that the words and phrases you use should match what prospective attendees might search for. For example, if you are a photographer looking to organize a workshop in Brooklyn, you might use phrases like photography workshop in Brooklyn in your landing page copy.
When you’re ready to take things to the next level, check out this article on Search Engine Marketing for Events for tips on how to get started with search engine marketing.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure prospective attendees are able to find all of the information they need once they land on your event website. Here’s a quick list of event-related content you’d want to add to your event site’s homepage and/or landing page:
- Event name
- Event description
- Venue
- Date and time
- Event agenda
- Speakers
- Contact information
In addition to this, you might also consider adding high-quality content to your event website to give it authority and boost its search engine ranking. Having a blog section on your website gives you the opportunity to rank for the keywords you picked out.
#3: Promote Your Event to Your Target Audience
Making it easy for prospective attendees to find your event when they search for it is one thing but making your event discoverable is another. If you haven’t been hosting annual events regularly for a couple of years, a huge chunk of your target audience probably doesn’t know about your event.
You can make your event discoverable by promoting it on social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you’re organizing a business conference or seminar, you might consider promoting your event on LinkedIn, as well.
Another effective event promotion strategy is to reach out to past attendees and ask them to share your event’s details with their social media following. You can offer them exclusive discounts on tickets in exchange for a mention.
Similarly, if you have keynote speakers or presenters at your event, you can ask them to blog about your event (either on their personal website or popular industry magazines) ahead of the event. In addition to this, you can encourage them to share details about your event on their social media channels.
Pro tip: Create an event hashtag [example: #myeventname] and ask influencers and speakers to use it when sharing your event’s details with their social media following.
#4: Use a Professional Event Registration and Ticketing Tool
One of the simplest ways to make sure you’re able to sell out your event is by having a professional-grade event registration and ticketing tool in place to help you plan and execute your event.
You’ll want to go with a solution that offers:
- A seamless and intuitive online registration process.
- Multiple payment gateways so it’s easy for attendees to purchase tickets.
- Gives you complete control and ownership of the data you collect.
- Comes with built-in marketing tools to help you promote your event.
- Has an automated event attendance system that lets you check-in attendees.
- An option to easily sync your registration contacts to your email marketing lists
With the right event registration and ticketing tool, you’ll be able to deliver a better user experience to prospective attendees. The easier you make it for them to use your website, the more likely they will be to register for your event and purchase tickets.
With Event Smart, you can create an online event registration and ticketing website of your own. The platform lets you organize an unlimited number of events and sell paid tickets without paying any per ticket fees.
Check out this article on Event Smart: A Better (More Affordable) Alternative to Eventbrite for more information about how Event Smart is the best online event registration and ticketing solution in the market.
Conclusion
Developing a clear understanding of your target audience, optimizing your website for SEO, and promoting your event on social media will set you in the right direction to sell out your event. And with the right event registration and ticketing tool, you’ll be able to deliver a good user experience to attendees while you’re at it.
What are some of the marketing and promotion strategies you use to promote your event to your target audience? Let us know in the comments section below.
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