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You have all the details laid out for a great event, but now it’s time to attract quality attendees for said event. The answer is simple: event promotion! We’ll break down what exactly event promotion is and give you 31 creative promotion ideas for a great event.
In the event planning process, one of the key ways to attract quality attendees is with a thorough event promotion strategy. Event promotion is the way in which a company advertises a specific event they’re hosting. This can be through a multitude of ways, with the majority of promotion strategies being through social media. Promoting an event is all about spreading the word, so any avenues that allow you to advertise as quickly and to as many people as possible is key!
We’ve created a list of 31 event promotion ideas for your company to utilize. Try these out and let us know how you did!
A great way to boost your registration numbers is by offering potential attendees the option to register ahead of time before the general public. Doing this builds anticipation for your event and will get people excited to attend if they know they’re receiving special access. Limited time offers offer the same sentiment, and attendees may be more inclined to register for your event if they know they’re receiving a rare offer that won’t last long.
In the promotional process of your event, it’s crucial to have a landing page that will entice attendees and encourage them to sign up. Work with a skilled graphic designer to create a page that accurately displays your company’s logo and color scheme. If you’re hosting a virtual event, look into your hosting platform; some platforms offer landing page creation, so you don’t have to worry about creating one yourself. Platforms like Hubilo offer landing page creation where you can customize pre-built templates and more.
Similar to the landing page, you’ll want to create a custom website for your event. Here you’ll display all the details regarding an event and can showcase event highlights like speakers, sessions and tickets. Make sure to include a layout that accurately reflects your company’s branding, which includes any colors and logos that are relevant to both your company and your event.
In order to successfully advertise your event online, you’ll need to create content that attendees will want to click on, watch, or read more about. This can include creating videos explaining your event, having any guest speakers talk about your event, or writing blog posts about the event topic or industry.
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While online advertising is the main way of marketing these days, print advertising is still very effective! Placing a poster or banner at your physical place of business is a great way to get the word out, or even around the event location if you don’t have a physical business spot!
These days, almost everyone is checking their email on a regular basis (if not daily). This means, the chances of people seeing your email about an event you have coming up is very likely. Create a compelling email campaign specifically for the event and include a link to the landing page or website. You can even use email software that can track how many people clicked on your links or how much of the page they actually read - further helping your email marketing!
One way you can create a buzz about your event is by creating a whole new brand for it. Start an entirely new website for it and fill it with every event detail and special features. Don’t replicate it after your company- create a whole new color scheme, logo, and more! Creating a whole new identity for the event will make it seem more legitimate and not just any event.
These days, a large number of people rely heavily on event discovery sites to find new events and purchase tickets for events. By adding your event to a site like EventBrite or Biletto, attendees can come across your event based on location or interest. This is a great option to reach new audiences you may not reach through traditional advertising techniques!
When attendees are ready to purchase tickets, the easier you make the checkout process, the better. No one wants to go through a checkout process that takes a while to complete, so ensuring you can make it easy for attendees will make the experience that much better!
An element you can add to an event promotion strategy is a well thought out infographic. Infographics are a great element to add to online promotions of your event on social media or even in emails. Combining important information with an entertaining graphic is a sure fire way to draw people’s attention and get them to register for an event!
Similarly how you’d create a new brand for your event, creating a new channel on YouTube to advertise the event would be beneficial. With this channel, you could create video content that surrounds all aspects of your event, including introductions from guest speakers, additional information on exciting event features, or any tips you may have for preparing for the event. You can then share those videos on social media as additional content to promote your event. Having an exclusive space for attendees to view content surrounding the event will build excitement while keeping them informed!
Podcasting is a great addition to any event promotion plan. Creating a podcast solely around an event is a great opportunity for attendees to gain more insights around an event. You can have guest speakers join you to talk about their experience and give any background info, or have people from your team talk about the event in greater detail.
These days, keeping your content to primarily pictures won’t get you the results you're looking for. Instead, try experimenting with video content! Video content is now taking precedence over picture content, and when it comes to marketing your event, this is a great form of content! You can take videos covering anything and everything about your event, from what the event space looks like to having your guest speakers answer fun questions about the event.
In order to promote your event website properly, you should ensure that people can find your site as easily as possible with the right SEO measures. Make sure your website has enough keywords to increase its visibility through search engines, as well as making sure there’s enough content on your site. When people search for events in their area or ones specific to their industry, your event website will be likely to appear with the right SEO techniques.
Take your event promotion to a whole new level with live streaming! According to a study, 80% of live stream viewers would rather watch that than read a blog- meaning you’re missing out on a whole new promotional technique if you don’t live stream! Live stream offers a new way for potential guests to see in real time not only details about the event, but also the faces behind the event brand.
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One of your greatest assets to promoting your event are the important people who will be attending! This includes speakers, influencers, brands, sponsors, and even celebrities! Have them use their social platforms to promote their involvement with the event and how excited they are to be an event participant. This will give extra eyes on your event from the audiences that your important guests already have - leading to more registrations!
Using social media, you can develop an entire online community around your upcoming event. Use techniques like custom hashtagging or creating exclusive Facebook groups for your event. Having your attendees connect online is another way to build excitement for your event; guests can even share moments and highlights before, during, and after the event!
To add an element of philanthropy into your event, donating free tickets to a charity is a great promotional technique. This will show your audience that you care about giving back and that your values are aligned with important causes.
As you prepare for your event, build the excitement to your audience by sharing any behind the scenes pictures or videos. Have people on your team take pictures of any and all moments as you plan and execute the event details. Guest speakers or event partners can even create content themselves for you to share about how excited they are. This is where you should prioritize promoting on social media - there’s so many content options you can post!
Posting about your event and retargeting your ads to post throughout the event timeline is a great way to boost registration. When you use paid social media ads, you can get granular with who and what you target and you can re-target them further if your first round didn’t produce enough results.
Make your event a unique and fun experience by creating a custom hashtag to use! Guests can view all the posts about your event by clicking the hashtag, allowing them to connect with others and view what others are posting. During the event, make sure to encourage guests to use the hashtag so you can view everything they posted afterwards.
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Another way to promote your event online is through a contest or giveaway! Offer a contest where the winner will win tickets to your event, either by tagging friends in your post or following your social account. Doing this can help build awareness for both your event and your brand and fill up spots at your event!
Creating a social media filter is another great way to build awareness for your event. Once at the event, guests can take pictures with your custom filter and post it to their social media accounts. With a filter, you can get as creative as you’d like- incorporate event colors and logos! Combine that with a custom hashtag, and you’ve got an impeccable way to promote your event and your brand.
Another technique that you can add to your promotional strategy is utilizing social media paid advertising. With paid ads, you can target specific groups of people or locations to see whatever you post about; in this case, you’d be promoting your event. Incorporating paid ads in your promotional strategy is a key to boost registration and get the word out about your event.
Facebook groups are such a great way to get the word out about your event! There are a number of groups you can join depending on your industry and event subject - there are even groups to solely post about events in different areas!
Social media challenges are fun for everyone! It’s a great way for your audience to directly engage with your company while increasing brand awareness. Choosing to have an influencer or important guest speaker takeover your social media account for a certain period of time is another great way to add a fun element to your event promotion.
Prioritizing promoting your event in the press is just as important as promoting it on social media. A great way to do this is to create a press release that you can pitch to important members of the press. Highlight important features that your event has that could spark interest from these important members so they’ll be more inclined to talk about your event.
A fun way to combine guest engagement with promoting your event is to have your attendees become ambassadors! You can give them the opportunity to become representatives for your brand by encouraging them to post about the event. Gift them with event swag filled with your company and event merch, and when they promote the event give them a personal link for people to use.
What better way to get people talking about your event than with a surprise visit from a celebrity? If you hint at a grand appearance to some degree, this should peak curiosity and have people wanting to know more about the event- and see for themselves!
A way to build excitement for the event is to send out gifts for attendees ahead of the event date. Have them choose what they’d like to receive for gifts, or offer them the chance to win an experience like a trip at the event!
A great way to promote your event is to pay for ads in important newsletters. Make note of which publications fit your event and contact the head of their publishing to see how much it would cost to publish an event ad in their letter. This will give you an additional spot to promote your event that may be in front of a new audience!
Whether you use one of our ideas or all 31, you can be sure you’ll be on your way to getting attendees excited and geared up for your event. Talk with other teams to collaborate with different marketing ideas so everyone is on the same page. The key takeaway is no matter what idea you choose, make sure to keep your content fun and enticing to future attendees for an event that’s even more fun!
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