Best Email Marketing Practices for Promoting an Event

Best Email Marketing Practices for Promoting an Event

If you’re looking to promote your event, look no further than email.

According to statistics, 40% of marketers believe that email marketing is the most effective way of promoting an event, and this number goes even higher (46%) for B2B organizations.

However, it’s not always easy to stand out in the sea of newsletters.

To help you make the most out of your email marketing campaign for promoting an event, here are some tips and best practices.

1. Create a targeted list

Before starting to send your email invitations, you first need to make sure you have a perfectly curated contact list.

You may have an impressive list of contacts from all around the world, but when it comes to promoting an event, you don’t really want to target all of them.

Slicing and dicing your audience is one of the most important outreach strategies.

For example, if the event is taking place in LA, chances are that your audience from London won’t really be interested in attending it. That’s why you should limit your contact list to a certain geographical radius and create list categories. 

This radius depends on the type of event you’re organizing.

If you’re organizing a few-day-long training seminar with a huge payoff, the bigger the chance that the audience will be willing to travel a longer distance for your event.

On the other hand, if it’s just a short meetup, you’ll probably attract a mostly local audience. So, the bigger the value you provide, the broader audience you’ll win over.

2. Create an email sequence

When it comes to event promotion, timing is everything.

You need to make sure that you send the invitation soon enough so your attendees have enough time to prepare.

A good rule of thumb is - the more money your attendees need to spend on the event, the sooner you should send the invitation so they can plan out their budget.

However, just one email won’t really do the job. Use an email automation platform to create an email sequence and ensure to get as many people as possible interested in your event.

If the initial email didn’t get opened or simply didn’t capture interest, follow up. Try out a different subject line or even provide special discounts and special offers.

Once you get a positive response, you also need to send another email. This should be some sort of a thank you note with some additional information if necessary.

Also, include a couple of reminder emails right before the event to boost anticipation and build hype.

Recommended email services: 

• HubSpot Marketing
• Mailchimp
• Constant Contact
• Zoho
• Autoklose

3. Value proposition

Every good event invitation needs to provide a value proposition that will clearly show the benefits of attending the event.

If you’re organizing an event that requires buying a ticket in order to attend it, you need to offer enough value to justify the costs.

Even if the event is free, you need to make sure that it’s interesting so your potential attendees won’t change their minds at the last minute.

Do you have any special guest speakers?

What are the biggest takeaways from your event?

What will your attendees learn and will the event help them solve any problems?

If it’s a recurring event, include testimonials and images from the previous events to back up your value proposition.

These are all the things that can help you convince invitation recipients to hit the RSVP button or purchase your tickets.

4. Create clear and strong CTA

Besides the value proposition, a strong and clear CTA is one of the most important elements of every email event invitation.

In fact, you want your CTA to be the most visible part of your email.

And even though email attention span is increasing, people still spent only around 11 seconds skimming the email, so it’s important that such a crucial element stands out.

Instead of hyperlinks, use CTA buttons, as they prove to be 33% more effective.

Pay attention to colour contrast and fonts, make sure that the button is big enough so it’s clearly visible, even if one’s just skimming the email. Also, keep your CTA copy clear and concise.

5. Make your email mobile-friendly

Responsive website design has been a word on everyone’s lips in the past couple of years, but your website isn’t the only thing that needs to be mobile-friendly.

More and more people are using smartphones from browsing the internet to checking their emails. In fact, even 46% of emails are opened on mobile devices.

This means that most of your audience will probably check their invitation on their smartphones, so make sure that the email looks great on the smaller screen as well.

Wrapping up

Email might be just one of the channels you use for email marketing, but it certainly is an important one.

So, create the perfectly targeted list for your event, set up the email sequence with catchy subjects, great value propositions and clear CTAs, and watch your campaign successfully unfold!

Author: Milana Jovic

Milana Jovic is a digital marketer and search engine optimizer. After getting a degree in marketing and economics, she started focusing on B2B and SaaS industry. Interested in combining traditional marketing strategies with new technology-driven tactics.