An event planning company is hosting an industry conference aimed at helping technology companies launch new products and build industry connections. Despite being relatively new, the conference has faced challenges such as low awareness, poor attendance, competition from other events, and difficulties in attracting sponsors and partnerships in previous years.
However, the conference experience has been improving over time, and the organizer now aims to enhance it further by increasing attendance, attracting more vendors, and securing additional sponsors. To achieve these goals, the organizer recognizes the importance of utilizing advertisement of event and promotion to boost awareness and draw in more attendees and companies.
The story shows how marketing your event is critical, it requires careful planning and coordination. It demands a strategic and well-executed plan to ensure maximum attendance and engagement. One essential event marketing plan is an advertisement for an event.
According to statistics, marketing campaigns for live events boosted the sales of products or services for 85% of brands, and more than 40% of marketers considered event marketing as the most effective way to generate new leads.
However, it’s important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to event marketing. Different events require different strategies, depending on the type, size, scope, and objectives of your event.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of event advertising, and its significance and delve into 18 effective event marketing strategies to help you effectively promote your event.
What Is an Advertisement for an Event? And why is that relevant?
The practice of event promotion to a target audience using a variety of platforms and channels is known as event advertisement, and it is crucial for the following reasons:
- Raise awareness and interest in the event.
- Attract and engage potential attendees.
- Generate leads and conversions.
- Build brand recognition and reputation.
- Create a memorable and positive experience.
19 Event Marketing Strategies to Effectively Advertise Your Event
Start Early
One of the most important factors for a successful event advertisement is timing. The earlier you start your event promotion, the more time you have to build awareness, generate buzz, and create anticipation.
Ideally, you should start your event promotion at least six months before the event date, or even earlier if your event is larger or more complex.
Identify Your Target Audience
Before creating and distributing your event materials, understanding your target audience is crucial. Know your ideal attendees, their pain points, and interests for an effective event marketing strategy.
Employ various methods, like conducting market research and surveys, analyzing existing customer data, and gathering feedback. Additionally, create buyer personas and segment your audience based on demographics, psychographics, behavior, and location.
Utilize Multiple Channels
To maximize your exposure and reach, you need to utilize multiple marketing channels or platforms for your event promotion as part of your event marketing strategy. Depending on your target audience, your event goals, and your budget, you can choose from a variety of online and offline channels, such as:
- Social media (Facebook group, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
- Email marketing
- Website and blog
- Content marketing strategy
- Landing page and registration form
- Networking events such as fundraising events or local events
- Online communities and forums
- Press releases and media relations
- Flyers, posters, banners, and brochures
- Radio and TV ads
- Billboards and outdoor advertising
- Online ads and paid promotion
For example, if your goal is to generate awareness, you can use channels that have a wide reach and low cost, such as social media and email. If your goal is to generate registrations, you can use channels that have a high conversion rate and high value, such as webinars and live streams.
Create a Compelling Event Branding
Creating a compelling event brand is another event marketing strategy that can help you stand out from the crowd and attract more event attendees. Your event brand is the identity and personality of your event. It includes elements such as:
- The name and logo of your event
- The theme and tagline
- Colors and fonts associated with the event
- Visuals and graphics
- The voice and tone used in communication
Your event brand should reflect what your event offers, why it exists, and what it aims to achieve. Make sure it connects with your intended audience, clearly highlighting the advantages and distinctive features of your event. Keep the branding consistent in all your event promotions to leave a lasting and positive impact, fostering trust and loyalty from your event attendees.
Leverage Social Media
Using social media to promote your event is a great idea. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram can help you reach lots of people, get them involved, and make your event more popular.
As event organizers, it’s important to have a clear plan for using social media. This plan should not only help with promoting the current event but also set the stage for future events. Engage with your audience regularly and consider running fun contests on social media. Additionally, think about using platforms like Facebook groups to build a community around your events.
Whether your event is an in-person or virtual event, having a straightforward event advertising campaign is key. From creating interesting posts on Facebook to getting people excited and involved, smart use of social media is crucial for successful event planning.
Utilize Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective examples of event marketing. It can help you deliver targeted and customized messages to your audience, generate leads and conversions, and build lasting impressions for your event attendees.
According to Wishpond, a significant 78% of event hosts affirm that email marketing stands as their most impactful marketing approach.
You can use email marketing to:
- Invite your potential existing customers to your event.
- Send reminders and confirmations to your registered attendees.
- Provide valuable information and tips to your attendees before, during, and after your event.
- Solicit feedback and testimonials from your attendees after your event.
- Promote your future events and offers to your attendees.
For effective email marketing, build a well-organized email list. Create engaging and personalized subject lines and email content. Test and enhance your email design, layout, and timing. Additionally, monitor your email metrics and performance for better outcomes.
Implement Experiential Marketing
Adding experiential marketing to your event promotion strategy is a powerful approach to making your event venue stand out from the crowd. This method goes beyond traditional marketing by creating unique and memorable experiences for your audience, sparking excitement, and fostering brand loyalty.
To successfully execute experiential marketing, it’s essential to think creatively and outside the box. Consider incorporating a distinctive theme that aligns with your event’s purpose and values. Introduce engaging and fun activities that resonate with your target audience, ensuring a memorable and enjoyable experience.
Enhance the overall event atmosphere by incorporating innovative elements such as virtual reality or collaborating with influencers who align with your brand. Encourage attendees to actively participate and share their experiences on social media platforms, amplifying the event’s reach and impact.
The success of experiential activation relies on having a reliable and dedicated team, as well as strong partnerships with external contributors. These elements ensure seamless execution, surpassing audience expectations while leaving a lasting impression and strengthening your brand presence.
Collaborate with Influencers
Collaborating with influencers broadens the audience for your event by drawing more attention to it. This collaboration not only increases the credibility of your upcoming events but also increases the enthusiasm of potential customers. Influencers can also assist in increasing the number of prospective attendees who sign up on your registration page.
Find industry influencers who align with your event and present an alluring offer to them to ensure this goes well. Talk things over, come to a decision on what to do, provide them with all the information they require, and monitor the progress. Influencers can be located using resources like Upfluence or BuzzSumo, and their effectiveness can be monitored and measured using technologies like Traackr or Klear.
Offer Early Bird Discounts
Boost your event registrations and sales by giving early bird discounts. These are special deals for attendees who sign up before a specific deadline, creating urgency and exclusivity. It encourages attendees to act quickly, which improves your cash flow. You can offer these early bird prices by:
- Set a good discount rate and the deadline for your event.
- Share the early bird offer everywhere on your marketing platform.
- Put a countdown timer on your event website, social media, and emails.
- Send reminders to potential attendees before the deadline.
For a successful early bird discount, have a clear pricing plan, target your potential audience through social media channels by understanding their preferences, and refine your offer based on feedback and results.
Build a Dedicated Event Website
Create a dedicated event website to effectively promote and boost conversions for your event promotion. This site is the central hub for your event information: name, theme, tagline, date, time, and location. Provide your agenda, speaker, and sponsor details, registration options, and contact information on the site.
Ensure your event website is user-friendly and captivating, designed to offer a great experience for visitors. Use clear and compelling calls to action, guiding visitors to register. Employ analytics and tracking tools to measure and enhance your website’s performance and conversions.
Utilize Paid Advertising
Make the most of paid advertising to enhance the success of your event promotion and maximize return on investment. Effectively feature your event on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and others to amplify free event advertising. This enables you to connect with a specific audience, boosting visibility, driving traffic, and generating valuable leads and conversions.
These strategic event marketing examples play a pivotal role in optimizing your event’s branding and creating a solid foundation for the success of your upcoming events. By strategically utilizing paid ads, you set the stage for increased engagement, wider reach, and enhanced overall impact.
Engage with Local Media
Get your event the attention it deserves by connecting with local media—think newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV stations in your event’s location. They’re your go-to for reaching a wide local audience, building trust, and driving more people to join in on the excitement.
Here’s how to engage with local media effectively:
- Identify relevant and reputable local media outlets in your industry.
- Send a press release and media kit pitching your event story.
- Offer exclusive interviews or coverage, and invite them to your event.
- Follow up, build relationships, and express gratitude for their support.
- Monitor and measure the impact of your event’s media coverage.
Encourage User-Generated Content
Boost your event’s excitement by encouraging attendees to create and share content—photos, videos, reviews, and testimonials. This user-generated content highlights your event’s value, builds trust, and sparks referrals.
Start with a catchy event hashtag and incentives like a social media contest. Provide fun photo and video spots at your event and showcase the best content on your website and social media. Interact with contributors and express gratitude. Have a clear strategy, employ creative ways, and ensure ethical content usage for a lively and engaging event atmosphere with a focus on search engine optimization.
Create a Countdown
Build excitement and anticipation for your event promotion with a countdown. This timer, displaying the time remaining until your event starts, creates urgency, invokes FOMO (fear of missing out), and prompts action from your attendees. Choose a suitable countdown tool or app, like Countdown Timer or Event Countdown.
Showcase it on your website, social media, and email, accompanied by a clear call to action—maybe “Register Now” or “Claim Your Spot.” Keep the countdown updated as the event date approaches, switching from days to hours or minutes.
Additionally, improve communication by sending countdown emails and notifications to boost ticket sales and overall event advertising for your next event in the events industry.
Implement Gamification
Most event organizers use gamification in advertising an event to enhance attendee engagement and participation. By incorporating game elements such as points, badges, levels, and rewards, organizers create an interactive and enjoyable experience for attendees. This approach not only motivates participants but also increases satisfaction and loyalty.
Gamification encourages attendees to actively interact with the event content, fostering a sense of competition and camaraderie. As a result, organizers can effectively boost event visibility, attract a wider audience, and collect valuable data on attendees’ preferences and behaviors.
Utilize Retargeting Strategies
Boost your conversions and maintain audience engagement by strategically incorporating retargeting into your event promotion ideas. This means showing ads on event advertising examples, such as online platforms, to people who have interacted with your event or visited your social media pages before. The goal is to remind and encourage them to take specific actions, such as registering, attending, or making a purchase.
For effective retargeting:
- Pick the right platforms, like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, or LinkedIn Ads, according to your event and audience.
- Create and start retargeting campaigns, setting goals, budgets, and bidding options.
- Design and test engaging ad copy, images, and videos for your audience and platform, adjusting as necessary.
- Divide and aim at your audience based on their behavior and stage in the customer journey, like website visitors, cart abandoners, or event attendees.
- Keep an eye on retargeting metrics and performance, refining your campaigns for the best results.
Retargeting proves to be a valuable tool in engaging both potential customers and existing attendees, urging them to actively participate in your next event.
Host Pre-Event Activities to Build Anticipation
Get people excited about your event by hosting activities or giving them a sneak peek before the main event. This way, attendees get a taste of what’s coming and can look forward to it. It’s like a teaser that builds anticipation and keeps things interesting.
For example, conduct a short video interview with the keynote speaker, discussing their expectations for the event and sharing a few key points they’ll cover. Tease this content on social media to generate buzz.
These activities could include behind-the-scenes content, fun online challenges, or casual meet-ups to share some highlights of the event. Keep these activities interactive, shareable, and aligned with the overall theme of your event to maximize their impact.
Measure and Analyze Performance
Keep an eye on how well your marketing strategies are doing and make adjustments based on the data and insights, including key performance indicators (KPIs), you gather. Consistently track performance by looking at things like attendance, engagement, and participant feedback.
If something’s working, focus on that; if not, be flexible and change your approach to boost attendance. Use the information you gather, along with feedback from your target market, to refine your marketing plan and keep it in line with what your audience wants.
This approach is essential for getting buy-in from board members and ensuring the success of your event.
Advertisement of Event Examples
To inspire and guide you further, here are some real-life examples of successful event advertisement campaigns from different events and industries:
Oracle Code One
The Oracle Code One, an annual developer conference organized by Oracle, utilizes a comprehensive marketing approach to promote its event. Through a dedicated website and blog, Oracle Code One offers essential details such as an agenda, speakers, sponsors, and registration information.
Oracle Code One used a combination of online and offline channels and platforms to advertise its event, such as
- Website and blog
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Video marketing
- Press releases, and media relations.
Audible Beach at SDCC
Audible Beach, an experiential marketing campaign by Audible, an online audiobook and podcast platform, took place at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), an annual pop culture convention. The goal was to promote its exclusive audiobook, Stan Lee’s Alliances: A Trick of Light, through an immersive and interactive experience for the target audience.
The campaign successfully created an immersive and interactive experience, generating significant buzz and interest for the audiobook. Audible Beach attracted thousands of visitors and received positive feedback from the audience, media, and industry, making it a triumph in experiential marketing.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact used an email marketing strategy to share information about their webinars on topics like email and social media. They sent direct and personal messages, reminders, and thank-you emails. They kept in touch through follow-up emails and surveys, encouraging people to return with rewards.
Constant Contact was a successful email marketing campaign, as it generated a lot of interest and registrations for its webinar series and attracted thousands of attendees and customers. The campaign also received positive feedback and reviews from the audience, the media, and the industry.
Dove (Influencer Marketing)
Dove, a brand with products like soap and shampoo, used influencer marketing to talk about its Real Beauty campaign. This campaign is all about changing ideas about beauty and celebrating how different and real women are.
Dove worked with influencers from different areas like beauty, fashion, and fitness to reach more people. They also wanted to make people trust them more, so they partnered with influencers who shared their own stories and experiences with Dove.
To get everyone excited about the campaign, they used things like hashtags, images, videos, and live streams. They also wanted people to visit their website, so they used links and calls to action. By doing all this, Dove got people talking about and sharing the Real Beauty campaign, making it more popular.
Logitech (Social Media Campaign)
Logitech, a tech company known for products like keyboards and speakers, used social media to promote its #WorkFromAnywhere campaign. This contest invited people to share their work-from-home setups for a chance to win Logitech products and gift cards.
Logitech increased visibility on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, using hashtags, images, videos, stories, and live streams to promote their campaign. They engaged their audience through contests, challenges, quizzes, and polls, encouraging interaction. Social sharing and word-of-mouth were fostered through features like reposts, shoutouts, and prizes.
Conclusion
In the dynamic landscape of event marketing, it’s crucial to recognize that the advertisement of events alone cannot guarantee the success of your events. To transform awareness into actual attendance, a reliable ticketing platform is essential, and that’s where Event Smart comes in.
Event Smart is the best event management and ticket sales software. We’ve got all your event ticketing needs covered! With Event Smart, you can effortlessly provide electronic tickets to your attendees. Plus, our user-friendly mobile apps allow you to seamlessly validate tickets or keep track of attendance.
Elevate your events with Event Smart, because it’s not just about getting the word out; it’s about bringing the audience in. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to enhance your event experience. Start your free trial now and discover how Event Smart can take your next event to new heights!
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