Event Marketing Tips

25 Event Marketing Tips

When it comes to the world of marketing, event marketing can often be a little bit hit-and-miss. Once the initial planning has taken place, it is important to maintain a presence so that your audience is aware of your upcoming event, when done correctly, this can make all the difference between a successful event and one that passes by without your audience being aware. If you’re hosting your own event, you don’t necessarily need a big advertising budget to get the most out of your marketing campaigns.

By definition, event marketing is the promotion of a product, brand, or service through in-person interactions. There are many forms of event marketing and each can be catered to address a marketer’s specific goals. Hosting an event allows you to build stronger relationships with prospects and customers and leads.

Business Event Marketing

Business Events are a great way to meet and connect with other business owners, build, and maintain relationships that can ultimately lead to collaborations, partnerships, sales and a combined sharing of knowledge with your peers. Business Event marketing can come in many different forms, whether its to promote a product, new service, rebranding or networking event; and hosting one for yourself holds many benefits to reap.

How To Market Your Event

Pre-Event Marketing Activities

1. Event Branding – consistent voice, colours, branding, recognisable. When you first set out to begin marketing your event, the first thing to think about is branding, what colours will you use, do you need to create imagery, are you going with your own brand or creating one dedicated to the event? All these things are ones to think about when it comes to branding your event, it will set the tone for the entire event, considering these will be seen before, during and after the event and may be used for future events. It’s also wise to think about who your target audience is, and who are you aiming this event at, from a parenting event to a business launch – your branding will differ heavily based on what type of event you are holding.

2. Marketing your event through your website – For some events, creating a dedicated website is suitable, but for others simply updating an area of your own website can be enough to keep your audience updated with the relevant information for the event. Make sure you have all the information that potential attendees will need, including start dates, times, event timelines and access to ticket sales, news releases and connection to social media platforms. Don’t forget to make your event page SEO friendly to ensure that people looking for your event, can find it and your website shows up first.

3. Facebook Event Marketing – We often say that Facebook is the new Yellow Pages, so setting up a Facebook Event is a great way to make sure that every interested party can register their interest and find any relevant information for your event. Once people show their interest it not only ensures that you have a clear picture of the number of attendees but also allows them to follow along with updates and new releases that you may share. It’s also a good idea to link to your other social channels, event website and company page.

4. Social Media Content – In the lead-up to your event, you will need to drive interest. The best way of doing so is by shouting about your event, its features, speakers, benefits and sponsors to drive engagement and excitement about the event. It’s an important feature when it comes to your event marketing. Keep to your branding, tone of voice and reason for the event.

5. Event Features – Make sure those attending the event know what’s on offer to them for coming along. Make a point to share what’s happening, a timeline of events and what to expect from the event; can they meet other business owners, will they get first look at a new product/service. Everyone wants to gain something, so what can they gain from you by coming to the event, even if it’s a free glass of bubbly, share what they can look forward to!

6. Relevant Connections – If your event has sponsors or you are co-hosting an event, make sure that they are given time in the spotlight too. Shout about your partners, exhibitors, guest speakers and anyone else who is helping to make your event as successful as possible. They might do the same for you in their marketing, so either way, it’s a win-win for all involved.

7. Event Hashtag– Setting up an event hashtag is a good port of call when it comes to your event marketing. Creating a hashtag that can be used throughout the life of the event is a surefire way of keeping connected and building a live stream of updates and conversation surrounding your event, before, during and after. Choose a good hashtag – don’t try to be too clever, keeping it simple and relevant is best. Make sure you check that the hashtag hasn’t been used before.

8. Email Marketing – We have a great blog on different forms of email marketing, one of these ideas could come in handy for your event marketing campaigns. Email Marketing for your event will help you drive interest, target your audience, gather emails, and make use of your existing email database while gathering new contacts, whether it’s potential customers or current clients.

9. Evidence – Do you have any third-party endorsements that you can use, or any previous event information whether it be feedback from visitors, testimonials? Whatever you can share to help evidence that your event is coming from a reliable source and holds all the potential of being a worthwhile event to attend. If this is your first time hosting an event, are there any colleagues or peer business owners that can help you build interest through their opinions on your upcoming event?

10. Social Activity – Stay consistent and persistent on social media channels where you are promoting your event. The key is staying active and posting engaging content on your page to build interest and increase numbers. Build excitement and engagement surrounding the event – reply to any comments and questions and continue to shout about new information/updates via your own page, and online networking hours, such as #CovHour and via your email marketing campaigns.

11. Blog – Create a few blog posts for you to publish on your website and share across your social media for a different form of event marketing. What’s coming up in the event? Why should your audience attend and what can they gain from it? Not only do blog posts help gather interest and suit your target audience, but they will also improve your SEO score and ensure you are being found by those looking to find you!

12. Networking – Take part in networking hours via Twitter and any business events whether they be in person or via Zoom. Are there any local events you can take part in to engage more people in your event? Face-to-face event marketing is one of the most successful forms of drumming up genuine interest.

13. Offline marketing – The most reliable form of not only event marketing but marketing as a whole is word of mouth. Even if one person can’t attend your event, they will know someone who will, the more people speak about your event, the more interest that will accumulate. Is a press release in the budget? If so, choose a place to release the news of your event that is relevant to your target audience, there’s no point sharing a mummy and baby event in a men’s fitness magazine. Think carefully and plan ahead.

Marketing During Your Event

14. Stay active – Whilst it is your job to ensure that the event goes off without a hitch and be the host, take some time out in intervals to stay connected online via Twitter and Instagram using the event hashtag to share key events of the day and tell people what else is coming up, including timings if needed. You can also use a scheduling tool like Buffer to schedule posts in advance. This will give you some more freedom on the day to follow the hashtag yourself. Follow, like, and engage with people who are using the event hashtag. What a fantastic way to network with people at the event and then maintain that connection long after the event has finished.

15. Make use of your hashtag – get everyone at your event tweeting – at the start of your event, take the time to explain how to connect to the Wi-Fi and how to tweet correctly. Then take every opportunity throughout the event to remind them to keep tweeting and connecting with each other. Why not create a competition using your hashtag? Who can get the most retweets, whose image gets the most likes, and who can connect with the most people from the event?

16. Get involved – make sure you get involved in the day’s events, don’t just stand by and let the day run away from you, make sure you run the day. The oldest and most effective form of event marketing is through word of mouth, there are a million and one opportunities for you to create throughout the day with all attendees of the event.

Marketing After Your Event

17. Event Gallery – Some would much rather see a display of photos and videos than a long list of the day’s event, so dedicate a page on your website or album on your Facebook page to share all the images you managed to gather, reshare ones others have shared and tag in attendees, sponsors and exhibitors…in other words: share, share, share!

18. Reshare – use everything you have gathered from the event and use it throughout your future marketing, it helps to evidence that you are a credible business for any future clients, customers or potential partners and keeps the momentum going. Whilst your event may have ended, there will continue to be a buzz surrounding the event, keep the momentum going and take advantage of the fact that you’re being spoken about. Make sure you engage.

19. Review the day – It’s always a nice idea to review the day, not only for you and other visitors to look back on, but also for any future attendees to see what’s in store for them when they decide to take part in any future events. Create a blog – even better, can someone else create a blog for you to share from the event, list the top tweets from the event, who got the most shares, make use of the event hashtag to continue the conversation and make it last longer than just the one given date of the event.

20. Give thanks – After an event, it’s always wise to share and thank your guests, speakers, sponsors, customers, and anyone and everyone who helped make the event the success that it was, this not only shows your appreciation but also gives credit to those that helped and will make sure that you will get the same time of involvement for any future events.

21. Email – Be sure to send out a post-event marketing email, if there are actions you need to complete after the event, use an email campaign to do so, share any new contacts you have made, any news from the event and thanks.

22. Utilise gathered information – if you collected email addresses, contact information or names of other businesses, use them! Add them to your database, get in contact or connect with them on social media.

23. Feedback – requesting feedback from both attendees, participants and sponsors of the event will ensure your event was a success, create a dedicated feedback form to allow honest answers regarding your event from start to finish, it will help you understand any action points for any future events.

24. Share your contact information – Make sure that everyone knows how to stay in contact with you. You should also let people know how to find out about any future events. Use an email provider, social media platform or the original event page.

25. Presentations – Can you release a summary of presentations from the event or did you happen to record a guest speaker? Whether it’s videos of speakers, a document of events, or whatever you can share, do so! People might like to relive the moments from the event and others would like to see what they missed if they couldn’t attend.

If 25 tips aren’t enough, here is our biggest and best tip and the main thing to think of when it comes to your event marketing: IT’S ALL ABOUT ENGAGEMENT! Anything you can do to increase engagement wins!

Do you need marketing support for your event or exhibition?

Piece of Cake Marketing is here to help! Our one-off consultation package is specifically designed to boost your event marketing presence and make your event a resounding success. With our expertise in social media marketing, we’ll collaborate with you to create a tailored strategy that generates a buzz and engages with your target audience.

Prices start from £299 and include –

Blog post/PR creation and distribution/loading to the website.
4-5 social media posts for you to use on your channels.
Outreach work to the chosen target audience.

Don’t miss the opportunity to create a s social media buzz around your up-and-coming event. Get in touch with Piece of Marketing today to discuss how we can help you gain the most exposure for your business. Email us at hello@pieceofcakemarketing.co.uk or call Emma on 07799626332.