A report from Hubspot stated that 76 per cent of businesses use email to market an event – and that email was the most effective tactic over word-of-mouth, information on a website, mailed invitations, telephone calls or social media.
The same report also noted that the biggest challenges in hosting an event were getting people to respond to invites, getting invitees to pay attention to the invites and minimising the number of no-shows or drop outs.
It is important to consider the time scales you need to put in place for your event. Some larger events will need to be promoted far in advance, sometimes up to 12 months before the event date, whereas smaller events may only need a months prior promotion. Things to consider before you start:
Use the right tool for the job – use appropriate email marketing software. Sending through Outlook is bad practice at the best of times and looks unprofessional when promoting an event.
Make life easy for yourself – where possible, schedule your emails in advance to ensure the campaigns go at the right time and are not forgotten.
Simple registration – don’t make registering for the event arduous for your delegates or you will lose people half-way through. Ensure your email contains a piece of code that will auto-populate the registration form with as much of your delegates’ information as possible. This will significantly improve your conversion rate.
Up to six weeks before your event
Now is the time to offer early bird specials. Give your audience an incentive to book in advance, whether it is money off or the best seats in the house – entice them to act sooner rather than later. Develop a list of exciting reasons why they should come to your event (you will need these for follow-up campaigns). Get endorsements and use the feedback and testimonials you have from past events to add kudos to this one. Key influencers’ feedback will go a long way to encouraging new delegates to book. Send an email to your subscribers with your early bird offer, use one of your exciting reasons, and a testimonial to really kick off your marketing.
Up to five weeks prior
Decide if you still need to offer the early bird incentive. If enough delegates have booked after your first email, you may decide not to continue with this offer. Inform potential delegates there are only five short weeks until the event and emphasise the limited number of spaces left. Send an additional email to your subscribers with another one of your exciting reasons to attend and, if you can, another testimonial from a key influencer.
Four weeks prior
Time is ticking and your audience need to know. Send them another email reminding them the time in which they have to book is getting shorter. Email all the people who are yet to respond to your previous campaigns, and send a separate campaign to those who have booked, asking if they would like to refer or bring a colleague. Now is also a great time to promote your event through social media – ask your subscribers to share this invite through their networks to increase your exposure to like-minded people.
Three weeks prior
Keep labouring the point in a new email that time is ticking and use another exciting reason to come to your event. Encourage social sharing wherever possible, ask contacts from your industry to post on their networks and spread the word. Now is also a good time to take stock of delegage numbers, you don’t want to over book.
Two weeks prior
Send out another email to non-engagers with a reason why they should book. Email delegates that have booked to give them exclusive information about the event and let them know that you’re looking forward to seeing there there.
One week prior
Email any non-responders with a ‘last chance’ message, while an email can be sent to booked delegates giving them another snippet of information regarding your event and reminding them again they can bring a colleague.
Three days prior
This is your final chance to pick up any non-engagers. Email your delegates with full information of the event, including location, parking and refreshments. Let your delegates know how much you are looking forward to the event and meeting them, make it personal and spread some excitement.
Event day
Send a quick email with key event details and a short message telling delegates you are looking forward to meeting them.
Day after the event
Follow up to all of your attendees thanking them for coming, providing access to any presentation slides and an update on other events they might be interested in. There is likely to be a proportion of people who couldn’t make the event at the last minute so a ‘Sorry we missed you’ message informing them of your next event is a nice touch. Time to let the non-engagers know what they missed out on – pictures and testimonials are a great way of doing this, as well as letting them know when the next event is so they don’t miss out again.
