You have a brilliant idea - you chose the perfect day and venue - you created a dreamy line-up - and now it's time to start hunting for attendees. Selling tickets could be a little bit stressful, especially when you have a high target. But it doesn't have to be! You just need to find out what works well for your target audience and use that as your superpower. Inspire your next event marketing strategy with these 15 creative ideas on how to promote your event and improve the registration numbers!
1. Event Promotional Video
Every detail matters, especially in the event promotion. Create an edgy and unique trailer where you explain the reason for attending the event and invite people to join. If you add creative ideas, it could become a hit and the people who have already bought the tickets will spread it so it will have a higher reach. Make it awesome - think carefully about the target audience and create content and message exactly for them. Who are they? What kind of content do they usually consume? For example, Hillsong Worship & Creative Conference 2018 targeting creatives (dancers, painters, etc.) made the trailer exactly for them: added dancers, catchy claims, awesome music, and effects, and thanks to that, reached thousands of views. The trailer is just awesome, check it out!
Source: YouTube channel of Hillsong Worship & Creative Conference
2. Work with Influencers
If you know your target audience well, you can probably identify who is an influencer of this group of people and approach him/her with an offer for cooperation. They can spread the good word online, offer free tickets and make a competition, or personally show up at the event. Use platforms like Upfluance or Lafluence (CZ) and find the right one for you!
3. Surprise the (previous) Attendees!
One of the most effective ways to promote your event is to involve the people who have already bought the tickets this or the previous years. Use the information which you have about them and make really personalized campaign. Surprise them and they will spread the word instead of you! Marketing Festival 2019 did this year cool personalized video campaign which helped them to reach the highest traffic in the 6-years existence. Let's inspire!
Source: YouTube channel of Motionlab
4. Create Interactive Posts on RELEVANT Channels
Interactive posts spread awareness among the social media pages. However, it's important to think carefully about your target audience - and according to that, choose the right channel and style of language. For example, if you target salespeople, smarter will be promoting your event on LinkedIn with a kind of professional language. On the opposite, if you target for example just millennials, then you can invest more in Instagram. You can let people guess who is the next speaker, where is the venue, etc., and compete for free tickets. Competitions work well! If you add a little bit of a “Fear of Missing Out” in the posts, you are a winner!
5. Do Facebook and Instagram Livestreams
Another great way how to use social media for event promotion is to take advantage of live streams. People love live streams because of their authenticity. You can make live streams from your team meeting, from the preparation of the venue, or make interviews with speakers so that watching people can ask questions. They will feel more connected to your event and will be more likely to buy tickets. Live streams have a high reach and if you add creativity, you will be visible.
6. Have a Creative Landing Page
There is no better way to support selling tickets than having a creative landing page with a clear call to action. You can add designed elements so your event page will not be just ordinary. However, you don't need to have websites with ten tubs and thousands of words. It is totally okay to have just the necessary information which your attendees need. Make sure you don't miss any of these elements:
- Comprehensive description: Date, time, place, topic, goals for attendees, and who should attend;
- Content: Content motivates people to join you. Lecture by lecture and a short description of what to expect;
- Speakers: The most effective magnet for attendees are the speakers. Add pictures, bios, contact information;
- Photos/Videos from the last event: To showcase what to expect;
- Button with call-to-action: Register! Join us! Add the button in more than just one place;
- F&Q: If you know there are repeating questions from your attendees, add them to the landing page. It will save your time and the time of your attendees;
- Links to social media: Don't forget to add links to your social media and contact information so that you can stay in touch with your attendees!
7. Make a Competition for Free Tickets
If you have the capacity to “sacrifice” some tickets to competition, do that. People love competitions and you will get more engagement on your posts on social media and reach without bigger effort. You can set the LISA rules as a condition to participate in the competition: Like, Invite, Share, Attend; and your event will be easily spread among people.
8. Use the Opportunity of Podcasts
Podcasts became a hit. So why don't you become a Podcast Superstar? You can ask sponsors or speakers for help and talk about interesting topics regarding your event. You can make interviews with influencers in your industry or with famous people who could be an inspiration for your target audience. People love meaningful podcasts, they will share that and you will get the reach!
9. Attend Similar Events
Similar events have a similar target audience. That is a great opportunity for you because you have your potential customers just in one place! Find similar events (but not your direct competitors!) and network, spread the word and business cards with the info about an upcoming event.
10. Be a Partner with Another Event
Why not cooperate with other events and join your efforts in order to promote your events to potential attendees? If you have a similar target audience and you are not really direct competitors, you can, for example, offer a double pack of tickets with discounts or give the people who have already bought a ticket to your event discount for the partner's event, and he could do the same. You can also help each other with promotions and do interviews with each other, etc. Many hands make light work!
11. Have Chatbots
Take care of the frequently asked questions of your potential attendees and prepare chatbots to answer them. Make it funny and add personalized answers. You can place the chatbots on websites or social media pages. Set the rules that chatbots will be reminding themselves (for example on Facebook) and stay in touch with all the people interested in your event.
12. Write a Valuable Content
Interesting content brings new potential attendees. Feature your speakers or inspirational people and make interviews, case studies and write blog posts with topics related to the theme of your event. Share the articles on your social media and allow your attendees to share! Don't forget to put in each individual article info about your upcoming event with a clear call-to-action Buy the ticket!
13. Create Your Own Community
When you have a community of your attendees, the new potential ones will see the value of your event and would be more interested to join you. And if you manage to create the community even before the event, you have a Holy Grail. The attendees will support each other in enthusiasm and spread the good words and their excitement about your upcoming event! You can connect all of them on social media pages through Facebook or Linkedin groups, or you can use an event mobile app and let them network even before the event. Eventee offers an awesome networking tool where the attendees can connect and chat and arrange meetings beforehand. Check it out!
14. Have Humans of “Your Event”
People love real stories! And especially the ones where they can see a little bit of themselves. Use that in your promotion! Showcase the people who attended previous years and present their stories: What they learned, why they attended and why they would recommend the event to others. Share it in the style of “Humans of New York” on your social media. People will get the feeling that they know the people and they will get the motivation to attend with the goal to achieve the same. And that is what you want. 😊
15. Use Event Discovery Sites
A lot of people look for events around them through event discovery apps and sites. Place your event to as many of them as possible and reach even more people. Use websites like Goldstar, Goout, Eventbrite or Facebook events and attract new potential attendees who are searching for events like yours!
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