Let’s be honest, without the use of effective event promotion, your occasion is more likely to have a lower turnout. This is in comparison to if your organization chose to use a more effective form of event promotion.
Whether you are trying to drive registrations, or if you are just trying to heighten brand awareness, event promotional tactics are key in order to have an overall successful event. Event promotion ideas come in an infinite amount of forms, types, and strategies in mind, so we took our 30 best ideas (that worked for us) and went into some detail why it can help you too.
With all the different ways to market an event, event promotion can seem like a lot to tackle if you are trying to do it all at once. It’s especially hard to find an initial starting point that will effectively use the most creative promotional techniques in order to catch the consumers eye. But don’t worry, we got you covered. We’ve researched the best 30 cost-effective event promotion ideas that you need to try.
Invest in an Event Management System
Ok, so as far as event promotion ideas go, this is more of a requirement. Using an event management system is going to make event promotion for your organization easy to handle, customized for every event. It is a set of business solutions that are able to cover all the different aspects of organizing and planning for a future event. From pre to post-event stages, event management systems got you covered.
Glue Up, for instance, has a great event management program that allows your organization to plan events with complete ease. Its features include:
- Customized website builder
- Event invitations
- Onsite check-in & badge printing
- Easy use of the Glue Up mobile app
- Registration and payments
All of these features are included in our singular use system, which is going to be a lot harder to find in other companies. Invest in a great event management platform to maximize the number of attendees and engagement for your future events!
Special Event Promotion Blog Post Series
Blogs continue to be a growing marketing tactic for many companies in the business industry and is used to both generate sales and boost conversion leads. The easy access to people from all over the world makes relaying information to the consumers especially easy and provides a sense of entertainment to the readers. Unlike social media, blog posts are a formal way to provide communication between you and your targeted audience in contrast to manufactured marketing techniques provided through social media.
By creating interesting and unique content for your next event, this propels the amount of sharing opportunities for your intended audience. Blog posts are one of the most cost-effective event promotional techniques with also high return for your organization. The use of viral marketing encourages word of mouth and the sharing of your event.
To enhance the easy ability to share blog posts for your readers, enable social sharing buttons so your followers can share the post on their favorite social media platforms! According to a study done by SEOTribunal, companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website. Not only is this option cost-effective, but it also is a quick way to gain a larger audience!
Know Your SEO
Not only do blog posts create a more personalized vibe to marketing, but it also improves your SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is how often your posts show up on a search engine’s result list. With the use of regularly posted content through blog posts, your organization is generating a plethora of keywords that can put you higher on the result list when there is someone looking for related information.
Not only will knowing your company’s SEO improve your blog’s visibility, but this also generates additional traffic to your event website. Additional traffic means an increase in the awareness of your event and most likely a larger turnout.
Create A Customized Event Email Signature
Unlike a typical ID photo, email signatures contain all the important information of the sender within a simple singular block following the body of every email you send. These professional email signatures make your message personal with the easy visibility of your professional obligation.
But, what most people don’t tend to utilize is adding your organization's event promotion banner onto their personal email signature. This heightens the exposure of your organization's event with every email you send in order to drive registrations to your event.
The addition of these visual elements will attract the eyes of your recipient and act as an additional source of advertisement for whatever event your organization chooses to hold.
Attend Local Networking Events
Attending networking events grows your organization's overall network and connections to other companies/individual people. The growth of both your organization and your network will contribute to the number of people you personally choose to invite to the event.
Not only will attending these events grow your network, but they will also develop your communication skills with other people in the business industry. By learning how to connect with people outside of your initial circle, you’re sure to have more people to attend your organization's event, even if it was just for personal support
Corporate Event Sponsorship
Like we discussed in 8 Types of Event Sponsorships that Attendees Love, having an event sponsor is an easy way to draw additional people to your event. Your organization's increase in variability of marketing techniques increases your credible reputation as an organization that continues to attract more people from your target market.
When event sponsorship is done well, it not only shows support for the event but is an easy way to attract more attendees who might not have known about your event beforehand.
Sponsor an Event Booth
Sponsoring a booth at an event with similar attendees enables your organization to increase their event visibility and your overall brand awareness. By using eye-catching displays at an event booth and professionally produced marketing tactics, your organization can attract more people to your booth.
An easy way to not only get a lot of leads but, also draw people to your booth would be to encourage people to drop off their business card in a bucket for a chance to win a prize. Or you could ask people to follow your organization on social media that would enable you to receive their contact information. Zimmer Radio & Marketing Group has an informational article full of additional ideas to make your next event booth stand out.
Mystery QR Code
With recent technological advances, it is important to give people easy access to seeing a promotion for an event through their mobile devices. This easy access and automatic notification reminders for the event, allow for QR codes to be the easiest way to not only remind someone of an upcoming event but, also draw the attention of additional attendees.
Try also handing out prizes for people that are willing to scan your QR code!
Event Promotional Hashtags
Event promotion begins with increased engagement and attention towards your event. An easy way to do this would be to create a unique event hashtag! People are constantly refreshing their social media pages nowadays and sharing their pictures/videos. Hashtags make finding a post that much easier because when you click on the hashtag, users and businesses can quickly see all of the post associated with this tag.
Prizes can also be handed out to lucky winners who choose to post content using your organization's special tag. Having trouble creating the perfect hashtag for your next big event? ThriveHive has a step-by-step guide on creating the perfect hashtag that will be sure to boost your engagement before, during, and after the event.
Countdown to Event
Countdowns on your organization's social media pages lead to higher engagement when it comes to your ability to promote a future event. The possibilities of the amount of promotion an event can receive using a countdown clock are endless and is a completely free way to incorporate a new marketing technique into your campaign.
Not only does the countdown clock serve as a reminder to your attendees when an event is happening, it gets your viewers excited and ready for the upcoming event. Here’s an article on some of the best countdown applications your organization can easily use!
Re-share Your Attendee's Content
What’s the point of creating a hashtag for an event if your organization is not going to repost your supporters content? Show your followers that other people are also actively participating in this activity by re-sharing content picked out by your social media team that they believe best represents your organization.
Everyone enjoys being in the spotlight at one capacity or another, if their content is re-shared enter them in a drawing to win a prize at the event!
Event Promotion Instagram Highlight Reel
Creating an Instagram highlight reel is a great option to promote both past and future events. Highlight reels can contain both photos and videos, giving your organization the perfect opportunity to convey the energy and excitement of past events, in hopes that they will want to be a part of future events. It is also a great tool to easily re-share member content and positive experiences with your organization.
Ticket Giveaways
We've said it once and we'll say it again, everyone loves free stuff. No matter or not if they actually have a use for the free items, the thrill of receiving it instantly associates a positive connotation with your organization. Ticket giveaways are the perfect prize that will have everyone wanting to enter the competition.
Even try posting the giveaway on your instagram highlight reel, having people post pictures/stories tagging your organization and hashtag for a chance to enter!
Donate a Portion of the Tickets to Charity
Even better than ticket giveaways, opt to donate a portion of the ticket prices to a charity that resonates with your organization. This will not only be a positive outlook for your organization but, people will be more likely to purchase additional tickets if they know a portion of the tickets is going to a good cause.
Switch to Tiered Pricing
Offering a distinct range of differently priced tickets after you have figured out how much people are willing to pay, ensures that people will be able to pay the minimum for your event and those that want to splurge more are able to get certain perks your organization can offer for differently priced tickets.
By offering certain amenities that will only be available to those who are willing to pay a higher ticket price, you will not only be able to positively promote your event but also receive the extra revenue from people that are willing to pay more. Check out Billetto’s article for 19 Ways to Boost Event Ticket Sales to learn more about attracting additional attendees to your event.
Instill Referral Programs
Referral programs continue to be a great way to promote an event. They encourage people already attending, to refer their friend to your organization in exchange for some sort of “prize” or “giveaway” feature. Create a referral program for your next event and have your attendees refer one person to an upcoming event. If that person comes, enter them into a future giveaway with you organization.
Facebook Event Promotions
We’ve talked about Instagram, but another great social media platform that your organization should utilize is Facebook. With over 2.38 billion Facebook users across the world, Facebook continues to be a top platform companies choose to use and be active on when trying to promote an event. Using Facebook competitions can be a great way to promote a future event! Check out a few of these ideas we’ve compiled that will easily market future events
- Ask followers to tag their friends and family members to enter a contest
- Ask followers to share the post publicly on their Facebook page
- Require followers to “like” your page in order to be entered into a contest
- Ask them to upload your organizations cover photo as their own in order to enter the competition
All of these competitions will have a reward for whoever is picked as the winner, check out this article by Wishpond that details 25 additional Facebook competition ideas in order to increase event promotion.
Try Facebook Geomarketing
As stated before, Facebook continues to be a top social media platform when it comes to event promotion. Facebook geomarketing in particular, targets people who may be interested in your event based on lead ads or by targeting existing customers of a business related to your own. This type of marketing shows an advertisement to relevant individuals that, based on their search history, would be interested in the event. Check out this article by AdEspresso to see if Facebook geomarketing would be a good fit for your organization!
Designated Tweeter
Sticking with the theme of social media, Twitter also continues to be a growing platform that organizations are choosing to use to promote their future events. Studies show that 36% of Americans between the ages of 18-29 use Twitter, in addition to the 22% of Americans between the ages of 30-49. This makes Twitter the perfect place where young professionals are continuing to consume and share news on a single platform.
Having a “designated tweeter” will help you stay in the forefront of an upcoming event and continue to draw more attention to your organization. Like we talked about in the beginning of the article with special hashtags, your organization can also use these hashtags on twitter! Re-share the tweets that are tagged in the hashtag in real-time at your own event!
Direct Mail
Direct mail is perfect for event promotion when you want to personalize your marketing events to your potential attendees. Your recipients will think an actual direct mail invitation is special and exciting compared to sending out a generic email.
Aside from the personalization aspect of it, there is a special “fun factor” and multiple creative options you can use when choosing to decorate a direct mail invitation.
Event Promotion Video
According to Forrester Research, a video is 600% more effective than a printed ad. Event promotion videos enable a personal connection between the viewer and the organization and are the next best thing compared to a face-to-face meeting with the group of individuals.
With the use of inexpensive video equipment your organization, big or small, can see the value of recording a promotional video for your upcoming event.
Pre-Event Email Campaigns
Although direct mail is perfect to invite people to an event, pre-event emails are easiest when quickly mentioning the event in their email list. Include your promotional video and a catchy subject line to make sure they open your email! We even show off 10 awesome event email campaigns that converted across the web!
Infographics
Don’t have enough funds for an event promotional video team? We suggest creating an infographic! Visual content is still crucial when creating a sense of engagement across your followers, and it stands out when in comparison to text promotion. Not only are infographics a fun and unique visual to explain an event, but it also provides the audience with key important information that makes it easy to understand.
We suggest beginning with some free online infographic maker options such as Visme, Snappa, and Canva. These websites are extremely user-friendly and are sure to boost your events attendee list!
Local Grafitti
In our technology-driven world, grabbing the attention of individuals is key when wanting to market an event. Partner up with a local street artist and create a mural for your organization itself/upcoming event!
When planning this spontaneous event, timing and location will be key in order to attract the most viewers. Also, the artwork itself should be pleasing to the ordinary eye in hopes locals will take a picture with the mural and even use your event hashtag as a social media post!
You should probably get the right permits to do it though!
Pop-Up Photo Booth
Photo booths act as a unique and decently cost-effective way for extreme event promotion. Technology is taking over the industry now, but people still love the tangible photos you receive from a photo booth.
Put your event cover photo on the bottom of the printed out pictures to inform people of your organization's upcoming event. Have them even post a picture of the photo reel with your event hashtag in order to be entered in a contest to win some freebies!
Henna Stall
Although not the traditional form of event promotion, Henna stalls can be a great way to spread the word of an upcoming event. Try opening up a pop-up Henna stall about a week before an event. While they are receiving the henna, hand out details to your event and, if they show up with their Henna tattoo they will receive free prizes and discounts!
This can be a great twist to typical marketing tactics for your future events. Henna can last for up to 1-4 weeks at a time, meaning anytime anyone asks the person where they got the Henna, they can easily mention your organization.
Swag Bags
This definitely will not be the last time we mention using freebies to promote a future event. Swag bags with your organization's logo on the items are the best and easiest ways to get someone excited for an event. Who doesn’t love free items? Here is a great article we wrote that shows 3 types of swag bags that your organization can put together.
Showcase the Speakers
Showing the future attendees what they could expect from the event is an easy way to promote the credibility of your speakers and get your attendees excited about what they are getting into. Make sure include full bios and job descriptions when marketing the speakers to your audience so they know whether or not they would resonate with these individuals.
Even showcase prominent people that will be attending the event to show attendees who they could potentially run into!
Dinner and Drinks
Invite speakers, sponsors, and prominent individuals that will be attending the event for a night out before the event. Make sure to include members of the press for some free event promotion right before the big night!
Consistent Event Branding
At the forefront of your organization, the first thing your audience is going to see is your outer visual identity. This would include your name, logo, and overall brand message. Coming up with a notable and catchy visual identity for your organization is going to be key when wanting your brand to speak for you.
Although event promotion is great before an event, keep up with consistent event branding so your overall brand image isn’t lost in your marketing techniques.
Interested in taking a tour of a seamless, all-in-one event management platform? Book a Demo and we'll show you around Glue Up's easy to use event platform that can help automate, personalize, and scale all your events in one place.
