10 Event Email Marketing Tips to Drive Attendance

10 Event Email Marketing Tips to Drive Attendance

Hosting an event can be a great networking opportunity or an effective strategy to nurture potential customers. But no matter what purpose your event has, you will always encounter a common challenge: inviting people.

You can advertise offline or promote on social media, but this can only attract the wrong audience. You wouldn’t want to invite people random people to your event, right? This makes event email marketing more reliable, as it allows you to invite the right people to your event.

With the power of email marketing automation, it’s so much easier to drive registration and attendance to events today. Here’s a list of event email marketing tips you can do to hit your target attendance at your next event.

1. Send to a targeted list.

First off, your invitations must be delivered to your target attendees. Depending on your event, you can segment your contacts based on age, industry, location or other customer information to build a targeted email list, which results in higher click-through and response rates.

2. Highlight what’s in it for them.

By letting people know what benefits they can gain from your event, you are increasing their motivation to attend. Communicating what’s in it for the attendees is also effective in catching attention as they read your subject line. Is it an exclusive first look of a soon-to-be-launched product? Are they going to learn new business strategies from a webinar from an industry influencer?

3. Provide all the details.

When email recipients become interested in your event email, the next thing they want to know is how to attend it. So, be sure to outline all the necessary event details such as date, time, venue and contact information, among others.

4. Design a crisp and beautiful email.

Words are not enough. Your email design must be as good as your copy. A simple, coherent email design that is consistent with your branding is most recommended. A good placement of your call-to-action is also crucial to increase your chances of getting registrations.

5. Use a compelling call-to-action.

Make recipients promise their attendance with a CTA button that tells them to RSVP. Registering for your event gives them a sense of commitment to your event. It also lets you send them reminders a day or a few hours before your event.

6. Use an engaging video.

Entice your recipients with a creative video showcasing the best things to expect from the event. You can show your list of special guests or speakers or a teaser of the product you are launching. Keep your video short and sweet as to not bore your viewers with too much information.

7. Include social proof or testimonials.

People will be more confident that your event is worthy of their time if they hear what others have to say about it. You can insert positive words from previous attendees or speakers. If it was covered by the media, you can add reviews from publications and journalists. It’s also wise to include photos of last year’s events and attendees to show how successful it was.

8. Offer discounts to early birds.

If your event is not for free, you can incentive potential attendees with an early bird discount. Set a limit to those who can avail the promo or a deadline to create a sense of urgency. Support this with a powerful call-to-action to guarantee conversions.

9. Experiment with interactive emails.

Using interactive emails engage recipients as it brings a unique experience to them. In your event email invite, you can include a walk-through of your venue to help them visualize themselves at the event. This may take time and effort to do, but it’s worth it.  

10. Create an automated email sequence.

With an automated email sequence, you can set up triggers that automatically send targeted emails at a certain time. For instance, you can send a confirmation of registration upon signing up. Then, you can remind potential attendees who registered 24 hours before your event.

Remember, cramming all the above-mentioned elements can be dangerous. Just pick the ones that you think will work for your event and combine them in a single email. Be sure to create an automated email sequence to ease your workflows and maximize email marketing automation. This gives you more time to focus on preparing for your event.  

Read more:

The Ultimate Guide to Holiday Email Marketing

How Email Marketing Can Help Your Seasonal Business Work

Email Marketing Tips for Travel and Hospitality Businesses