Event marketing is crucial for a successful event. How will people know of your event if you don't market or properly talk about it?

As crucial as event marketing is, some individuals struggle to utilize it effectively. Still, it's only growing. For instance, in 2024, the global market for virtual events was $193.45 billion. In 2029, this is expected to increase to $537.18 billion.

So, what event marketing ideas can you use to boost your event numbers and success? Follow along to discover 10 ideas.

What is Event Marketing?

Before we can dive into the various marketing ideas, we should define event marketing. Event marketing is a type of marketing strategy that focuses on promotion through an event.

The promotion could be for a service, idea, or product. Event marketing is diverse. It encompasses a range of events, from large public gatherings to smaller, more intimate and exclusive gatherings.

How Helpful is Event Marketing to Grow Your Business?

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Why use event marketing to promote your product, brand, or service? Is it really that effective?

Even if you don't sell your product or service at an event, hosting events establishes your company as credible and improves brand awareness.

For instance, if you host an event with webinars in your industry—let's say technology—your company is more likely to be seen as credible and authoritative.

Another benefit of event marketing is the numerous networking opportunities it provides. You never know who will RSVP to your event and who you may meet who can help you boost your sales.

It’s also important to note that while you may not get sales right away, you can use the data from events for future use. For instance, if you know one of your previous attendees needs software for a library system and you recently acquired a similar program, you can use your connection to contact them.

The same goes for the other way around. If you make a good enough impression at an event, someone may refer a lead who better fits your product's needs.

10 Event Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business

Now that we have a better understanding of event marketing, let's explore event marketing ideas that can enhance your event's success. 

1. Include Collaborative Playlists 

Event marketing is more than just trying to get people to come to an event. Events are also a valuable tool for fostering community and engagement. What better way to engage someone than to include them in the event design?

While most of the event planning is going to fall on you, there are a few things you can leave to eventgoers, like music. It's not a bad idea to create an interactive playlist on platforms like Spotify, where eventgoers can add their favorite songs for the event.  This creates pre-event buzz and excitement.

Instead of allowing them to edit the playlist, it's better to create a form and vet the song choices to ensure variety and suitability for your target demographic.  

2. Tap into your email list for event promotion

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When advertising and hosting an event, you have to use all your resources—this includes email. Email is one of the most effective ways to communicate with potential event attendees.

Not only can you send out forms for those interested in the event, but you can also gauge interest based on the data gathered from email marketing. For instance, if you notice only a small number of people open the email, it's likely time to change your strategy.  If you're unsure how to build a comprehensive plan for integrating email with your larger content marketing approach, this Content Marketing Strategy Proposal Guide from AI4Chat is a great resource. It provides a structured blueprint for aligning content efforts—like email, blogs, and social media—with business goals, including event promotion.

Some email marketing tips include:

• Adding a compelling subject line that matches the tone/voice of your brand. Examples would look like:

• For law firm branding, that would be something like ‘Over 40 Years of Experience. Hundreds of Millions Recovered for Our Clients.’

• For a social media firm, that would be something like ‘The Social Media Agency You Need to Beat the Algorithms at Their Own Game .'  

• Including engaging and clean visuals that are easy to read and interact with. The more visuals vs. text, the better.

• Include a clear call to action at least once in your emails. The call to action can be to fill out a form or sign up for the event.

Email marketing isn’t as scary as you think. With so many programs out there, you can leave the email automation to them.

3. Utilize Influencers to Promote Your Event

Social media is a crucial tool in event marketing. However, it extends past posting about your event daily. Another way to use social media with event marketing is by hiring influencers to promote your brand and event.

Influencers have powerful connections. Even the smaller influencers with follower counts of less than 50,000 can help boost your event by just talking to their fans about it.

Not all influencers are alike, nor are they a good fit for every event. Instead of choosing a randomly popular influencer, find out in your overall industry. For instance, if you are in the book or publishing industry, you might want someone with a book-inspired following.

The same applies to other topics, such as business. If your event focuses on teaching business strategies and networking, consider finding an influencer with a similar audience.

4. Including a Special Guest

Special guests can entice potential eventgoers to sign up for your event. This is a unique way to grab a person's attention. If possible, find an expert in the field your event centers around and give them a role.

This is a common event marketing idea that pop culture conventions use. Although the event is already enjoyable, it's the guest speakers at panels and celebrity signings that really convince people.

An example of this is Comic Con. A big part of their event is their featured special guests. On their website, they clearly label this information and list each guest with a headshot and their bios.

For people within the comic niche, these special guests are big deals and worth the ticket to the event. You can apply this event marketing idea to any industry.

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5. Exclusive Pre-Event Networking Chats

Exclusivity can convince people to sign up for events. Imagine receiving an invitation to an online conference hosted by a fitness company.

There are plenty of fitness conferences and online courses, so you may not immediately sign up with them. However, what if they sent you an exclusive offer to join a networking group chat before the event, filled with other industry professionals? Would this convince you more?

Advertising exclusive and important networking chats and groups is a great way to market the event further and your overall products/services. You'll need to utilize email marketing tools and visuals to emphasize the exclusivity of the group chat and highlight its many benefits.

6. Strengthen Your Event Registration Website

Another event marketing idea to grow your business is to focus on optimizing your website, especially your event registration form and landing page. If your website doesn't look professional or clean, how can you expect potential event goers to trust you or your service?

Before you start on the form or registration page, take a look at your website. Make sure it is optimized with keywords and credible links. You should also double-check to ensure there aren't any misspellings and that your visuals translate on computers and phones.

Your landing page link should also work. Common event marketing mistakes are simple ones, like including a broken link or one with grammatical errors. This can tank your credibility and authority.

7. Clearly Write the Details of Your Event

This idea is probably the simplest one we've listed, but it is so important to highlight. How is a potential eventgoer going to know where to go and what to do if you don't give them enough details?

A great way to earn someone's trust and increase the number of people attending your events is to provide detailed information promptly. This goes beyond details like tickets and location. You can even use tools like Writecream’s Event Agenda Text Generator to automatically generate polished, professional agendas for your event—saving time while ensuring clarity for attendees.

Email the links to any scheduled seminars or forums at your event. You should also give information on parking. Rushing through traffic only to be confused by the parking situation can leave event attendees in sour spirits.

A visual way to do this is by creating videos with details. Videos go a long way when it comes to customer retention, especially those that are interactive. 

8. Offer Urgent and Early Bird Discounts

Last but not least is to drive a sense of urgency. When people think that something is limited, they are more likely to purchase it, or at least heavily consider it.

People also love discounts. If you can combine these two facts, you can drive more of your target audience to the event. The urgency can be highlighted using words and phrases like 'limited time,' 'only for a short while,' and 'ending soon.'

Event marketers can also use imagery that portrays a sense of urgency, like a countdown clock showing when the Early Bird special expires.

You can clearly see an example of this in the example listed below. Right on the page, the heading "Pre-register for LIFE SURGE Tulsa now and get 70% OFF your ticket" is capitalized and bolded, showcasing how important the information is. Who doesn't want a 70% discount?

Below that heading is text that emphasizes urgency - "Tickets will sell out fast!"

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9. Host In-Person Networking Mixers

Event marketing can take on a lot of different shapes and forms. Although it's easy to equate event marketing with events full of courses and speeches, this isn't always the case.

A powerful event type is networking. One of the best ways to get people to network and come together is by organizing a mixer with food and drinks.  In mixers, you can connect with potential customers and build a community.

You can use social media, influencers, email marketing, and physical flyers to market the event.

10. Lead with a Freebie

Unless you've been in the game for a while and have proof of your events, it's hard to increase eventgoers and your event's credibility. One way to do this, though, is to create a lead-freebie.

This freebie pulls in interested eventgoers by providing them with an educational piece of content. This can be a free webinar, short course, or template.

However, just giving it for free isn't enough. It's also a good idea to plug your event into your freebie and leave with a cliffhanger.

You can use phrases like: "If you're interested in continuing to skyrocket your financial goals, attend our event."

To Summarize

Overall, event marketing is a great way to boost customer retention, brand recognition, and potential sales. The hardest part about hosting an event, though, is getting enough people to sign up. Thankfully, using freebies, special guests, influencers, exclusive networking opportunities, and social media, you can entice potential attendees easily.