Struggling to get your event in front of the right people? We’ve got loads of amazing event promotion ideas to help you boost attendance. With all kinds of digital and physical event marketing techniques to play with, this guide will help you make your next event the ‘bee’s knees’!
Skip to:
- Event promotion ideas for your business
- Social media-based event promotion ideas
- Digital marketing ideas for your event
- Traditional and physical event marketing ideas
- Final thoughts
Game-Changing Event Promotion Ideas You Need To Try
Struggling to get your event in front of the right people? We’ve got loads of amazing event promotion ideas to help you boost attendance. With all kinds of digital and physical event marketing techniques to play with, this guide will help you make your next event the ‘bee’s knees’!
Social media platforms to consider for promoting your event
Social media is a relatively cheap way to get your event in front of lots of relevant people. You can also target potential attendees in specific locations and demographics with ads tailored to your dream audience. This makes it perfect if you’re working on a tight budget and need event promotion ideas that won’t break the bank.
You can also implement many different types of social media content for your event, using influencers, videos, and text-based posts to name a few, across various platforms.
Instagram ideas for event promotion
Instagram isn’t for every event, but impressive imagery and videos can give you a boost on the platform. Don’t be afraid of getting creative with what you share, either, and make the most of stories and grid posts to maximise reach. You can also go live before and during your event to capture people’s attention and drive sales.
Hashtags are key with Instagram and moulding your event around memorable tags will help it shine. Hashtags are particularly successful when used in tandem with Instagram contests and giveaways, both of which can help you capture the attention of plenty of people.
You can also leverage the expertise of influencers and industry leaders with Q&As, instructional videos, and other engaging, relevant content on Instagram.
Meta (Facebook) event promotion ideas
Regarding digital marketing for events, Meta, or Facebook, is a leading social media platform for converting customers. With Meta, you can create an event page that acts as a digital hub for your event, using it for distributing information, discounts, and interacting with customers.
A top tip is to utilise your Facebook business page and event page to cross-promote your event. You can do this by pinning the event link to the top of your business page and also sharing it with relevant Facebook groups, via your business page. Meta Business Suite also allows access to post scheduling, analytics, and more, so you can successfully manage your event.
In addition to the above, Meta Ads are powerful tools for event promotion and can help you take yours to the next level. Thanks to detailed targeting, you can home in on specific demographics and locations and get your event in front of as many relevant people as possible.
Threads and your event
Threads is Meta’s new platform that lets you share text-based posts and imagery with your Instagram followers. Since it’s a relatively new social media platform, brands have yet to use it to its fullest potential. So, if you post regularly on Threads, you can get an edge over your competition.
Using Threads can capture people’s attention because the information is word-based, so it stands out against the flurry of images and videos.
Threads also allows you to interact with customers through comments, likes, and reposts, and you can post links, which isn’t possible on Instagram.
TikTok
TikTok is incredibly fast-growing and a great way to reach younger demographics with snappy video content. You can use this to your advantage and create exciting posts about your event, including behind-the-scenes action, setup, event teasers, and more.
TikTok’s algorithm is designed to promote content that has the potential to go viral, so by creating resonating, relevant, exciting content on the app, you can supercharge interest in your event.
Experiment with TikTok trends and TikTok Ads Manager to advertise your event, and try a TikTok contest to increase engagement. Influencers are also prominent on TikTok so if you can find a relevant expert that resonates with your audience, consider reaching out for help with your event promotion.
YouTube
For longer-form event promotional videos, YouTube is the platform to use. As long as your content is natural, informative, and entertaining, you can reach your target audience and develop a loyal following.
This helps you promote events, and by implementing YouTube SEO practices such as optimising video descriptions, tags, and titles with keywords, you can better reach your target demographic.
However, you should avoid clickbait on YouTube if you want to appeal to the right audience and minimise bounce rates. Bounce rates happen when somebody clicks your video due to the title but leaves because it isn’t for them.
YouTube event marketing examples include explanations of your event, keynote demonstrations, live streaming of different highlights, or even a stream of the entire thing. You can also film content throughout your event and share it on YouTube afterwards to encourage signups for the future.
YouTube ads offer sophisticated targeting and enable you to tailor your campaigns to match your audience’s behaviours and interests. You can also access comprehensive analytics to analyse performance and create new videos if necessary.
LinkedIn is the leading corporate social media platform where B2B events are likely to succeed, especially if you have an active following.
Personal pages are fantastic ways to promote your event and generally garner more traction than business pages, and you can share articles and links as well as photos and video content. This helps you drive traffic to key landing pages on your website and ticketing platforms.
When it comes to posting on LinkedIn, highlight important details about your event like the date, time, and location, as well as who will be speaking and what will be happening. This provides context and helps encourage signups.
X (formerly known as Twitter)
To promote a successful event on X, ensure your brand’s tone of voice is well-established and speak directly to your audience.
Videos and images are popular on X and if you get your strategy right with engaging posts and hashtags, you can boost engagement and event attendance. You can also share articles and links on this social platform, and reposting relevant customers or influencers can expand your reach.
While not as detailed as Facebook or Google, X also has analytics to help you finetune your approach to event marketing and target the right audience. Please note, however, that these analytics are only available to X Premium subscribers.
More digital marketing methods for event promotion
Let’s explore some digital marketing techniques for events that can be used alongside social media or on their own.
Harness the power of video
From personalised video invitations to footage of event setup, there are many video-based event promotion ideas to choose from. For example, you can carry out live streams and answer questions about your event on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or your website, with content edited differently to suit each platform.
Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular, too, and when it comes to digital marketing for events, hosting video podcasts or webinars with influencers, guest speakers, or organisers can create valuable video footage that leads to more ticket sales.
Testimonials and other user-generated content of previous attendees will also provide great social media posts to help you promote future events.
Bring in influencers
Influencers are some of the biggest celebrities on the planet and if your demographic is right, they can be used to fuel interest in your event. Live videos with influencers before the event can build anticipation and Q&As can also have a positive effect and are often suitable for all digital platforms. By answering key questions about the event or their role in it, you can create a ‘buzz’ and convert interest into ticket sales.
You can also ask influencers to post on their own social channels in the lead-up to your event. This can make the most of the reach on their platforms and help you target a highly captive, often substantial audience.
Get your organic search up to scratch
Organic search is a long-term strategy to promote website pages and services. A core facet of organic search is SEO (search engine optimisation) and when it comes to SEO for events, you can add keywords to your website pages to attract your audience.
You can also write blogs and articles that target relevant phrases and search terms. If you take this approach, remember to include CTAs (calls to action) with ticket links in the middle and end of each piece.
For this type of marketing, your content must be valuable and relevant, or it won’t rank organically. It’s also important to be realistic and not expect instant results from SEO as it is a long-term strategy, which isn’t always the case for PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns.
Use PPC ads for your event
PPC is one of the leading B2B marketing channels that can also benefit B2C organisations.
To get started, create targeted ads for search engines and tailor them to specific audiences. Google Ads is the biggest of its kind and can be a game changer for your event, and you can tailor adverts to specific audience types for great results.
Social media PPC is becoming more popular, too, with detailed analytics available on LinkedIn, Facebook, and more, to help you refine your strategy and improve event engagement.
Carry out email marketing
Email marketing takes many forms and one of the most effective ways to promote an event via email is with a regular newsletter. For yours, include information about your event such as ticket sales, guests, and what’s happening, and combine this with industry announcements and other relevant stories.
Email segmentation is crucial for this technique and enables you to reach high-interest prospects with different messaging. This can include people who clicked your event ticket page but didn’t finish their purchase, who you can contact in the lead-up to the event date with reasons to attend.
Make the most of augmented reality
One of the newer event promotion ideas, AR (augmented reality) is becoming increasingly popular. Most people have some experience with the technology, too, thanks to popular games like Pokémon Go and filters, effects, and lenses on TikTok and Snapchat.
When marketing your event, there’s lots of room for creativity with AR, and you can create immersive games and experiences for your customers to entice them into buying a ticket.
You can also use AR tech to appeal to sponsors, offering the opportunity to advertise their brand logo within your AR experience in return for funding or prizes for your guests.
Consider ad retargeting
Ad retargeting is the process of reaching out to people who’ve visited a certain page on your website, i.e. your event page, with tailored adverts. Since you know they’re interested in your event, you have a qualified lead just waiting to be followed up.
By listing the benefits of your event in your follow-up contact, you can attract more attendees, and ad retargeting is a tried and trusted tool of digital marketing for events.
A/B testing
With A/B testing, you create two versions of the same website page to compare performance. A/B testing isn’t for beginners, however, and optimisation requires technical expertise. This will come in the form of altering design elements, CTAs, headings, and more, and requires time, effort, and patience.
Use QR codes
Since COVID, QR codes have become commonplace, with restaurants and other hospitality businesses regularly using QR code menus and payment methods. Since practically every smartphone can scan a QR code with its camera app, the tech provides a fantastic opportunity to direct traffic to your event details.
QR codes also offer the chance to direct customers from physical locations to online ticket links, with a code on a poster, flyer, business card, or practically anywhere else. They can be used for large-scale corporate events and smaller, B2C events by adding registration code links to materials in high-footfall, relevant areas.
A top tip is to use different QR codes for different marketing materials to see which ones are performing well. You can then use this data to refine your strategy.
Geotag event marketing campaigns
Targeting potential event attendees via their location is becoming more popular in event marketing and it isn’t hard to see why. Giving you the chance to provide personalised ads based on where people live and work, you can deliver valuable advice like how to get to your event.
This unique form of marketing helps you stick in people’s minds and can make them more likely to attend your event.
Traditional and physical event promotion ideas
From digital event marketing to traditional techniques, next, and some old-school methods that can work wonders for your event.
Early bird discounts
Early bird discounts help you reward people who commit to buying tickets sooner than others. This is a great way to attract interest in your event and you can promote the number of tickets sold early on to entice further purchases.
Host pop-up events
Physical marketing is underrated in a digital world, but experiential events offer a unique way to stand out. Hosting mini, popup versions of your event in different locations can help you generate in-person interest, and you can capture video footage to promote online via social media, your website, or email.
Printed marketing materials
Of course, digital marketing for events is highly advised in the modern world, but that isn’t to say that physical marketing techniques aren’t useful.
Billboards, flyers, merch, and other real-life materials can help you stand out in a digitised landscape and capture people’s attention in ways that digital tools may not offer.
Final thoughts
Whether a family-friendly, small-scale affair or a corporate event with hundreds of attendees, being creative with event promotion ideas will help you attract more visitors and boost brand engagement.
If you’d like help with your event marketing, or any marketing, give our experts a ‘buzz’ on 01904 373 069. You can also email beefoundonline@webhummel.co.uk.
