You’ve gone the extra mile to organize the ultimate event; you were anticipating a packed venue just to find out a few days before the event that ticket sales are poor, and you’re still lacking sponsorships to break even.
Event organizing can be scary for entrepreneurs: where’s the guarantee that you will be able to get a return on your investment, or at least, close the initiative with a positive zero? How can you set yourself up for success? Effective event advertising is the key to a packed house and in this article, we’re going to shed light on the key strategies for creating the perfect event ad campaign.
Table of Contents
13 Effective Event Advertising Strategies
Having a great event marketing idea is only half the battle. Your timing, budget, ad strategies, and authenticity will all play a crucial role in garnering attention and avoiding dwindling ticket sales.
Let's explore a few actionable tips to help you make the most out of your event marketing endeavors:
- Get an early start
- Target audience research
- Consider advertising channels
- Event branding
- Social media promotion
- Email marketing
- Influencer collaboration
- Early-bird discounts
- Paid digital ads
- Retarget relevant audiences
- Local media outlet advertising
- Build landing pages or dedicated event websites
- Track campaign performance
Get an Early Start
Timing is crucial in effective advertising. The earlier you start with your promotional activities, the more time you will have to generate buzz, raise awareness, and create anticipation. Some experts recommend starting six to eight weeks out, while others advocate for starting promotional activities six months in advance.
Typically, the larger and more complex the event, the longer you will need to promote every aspect of it.
Target Audience Research
Before starting your promotion, you should focus on understanding your target audience. Figure out who the ideal attendee is and what their pain points are and consider the best marketing channels where you can connect with them.
Market research and surveys are a good way to get started, but you can also leverage your existing customer data and previously gathered feedback.
Consider Advertising Channels
If you want to make the most out of your advertising and promotional activities, you need to cover every relevant marketing platform and channel and incorporate it into your overall strategy. Depending on the preferences and demographics of your target audience, event goals, budget, and industry, you may opt for the following online and offline advertising channels:
- Social media ads
- Online ads and paid promotions
- Relevant podcast advertising
- TV and radio advertising
- Newspaper ads
- YouTube advertising
- Paid interviews
- Brochures, banners, posters, flyers, or billboards
You may consider other marketing tactics:
- Email marketing
- Dedicated event website
- Content marketing
- Dedicated landing pages with registration forms
- Event networking
- Online forums and communities
- Organic social media management
- Press releases
Event Branding
While event branding isn’t necessarily an approach focused on paid promotions and advertising, it’s an effective marketing strategy that can complement your paid endeavors as it will help your brand stand out from the crowd. Your event brand is the event's personality and identity, including its tagline, logo, name, theme, graphics, visuals, and communication tone you use in your content or advertising copy.
Social Media Promotion
Paid social ads can be a great way to reach more people and get the word out. Facebook and Instagram can help you reach people from your target audience, get them involved, create buzz, and encourage them to take action.
A well-designed ad campaign with a link leading to your dedicated landing page or registration form can boost conversions effectively. However, paid social advertising is just one way you can leverage social.
Community management and organic content can also help you generate more buzz and raise awareness with fun content, discussions, polls, and engaging branded posts. Simply put, your organic efforts will always complement your paid initiatives perfectly, making the most out of your campaign.
Email Marketing
While not directly an advertising approach, email marketing is an efficient and cost-effective event marketing method. Delivering customized and targeted messaging to your subscription lists can help you boost conversions, generate more leads, and build more event awareness.
Running promotions and fun contests via newsletters can also help you gain more attendees while also building closer relationships between your existing customers and brand.
According to Whishpond, 78% of event presenters rely on email marketing as their go-to marketing tactic and a little less than half of event tickets (45%) can be sold via email marketing.
Influencer Collaboration
Advertising with influencers can also help you reach more people and draw more attention to your event. Influencer marketing can boost your brand’s and event’s credibility, helping you build more anticipation, especially if you partner with an influencer closely related to your industry or niche.
Early-Bird Discounts
Offering early-bird discounts has been a cornerstone of event marketing and advertising for decades. However, a study from Martiz found that early-bird ticket buyers also tend to spend $92 less on average than those who register in the 31-60-day window.
Does this mean that you shouldn’t focus on locking in as many early birds as possible? No. Depending on your event, the expense difference may not be applicable and from a strict promotional standpoint, early-bird ticket sales can help you garner buzz and create the FOMO effect.
Paid Digital Ads
We’ve already covered the importance of social media advertising above. To maximize your paid efforts, you can also set up campaigns on Google Ads, in addition to covering relevant social platforms. All ad campaigns enable you to reach more people, drive traffic toward registration forms, and landing pages, and generate invaluable leads and conversions.
Remember, strategic advertising campaigns will always complement your organic promotions and vice versa. To get the most out of it, there should be a perfect balance between your organic and paid efforts.
Retarget Relevant Audiences
Ad campaigns help you reach more people, but retargeting strategies help you boost conversions and maintain engagement. Retargeting means showing your ad to people who have interacted with your event or event ad previously or visited your website or social channel.
Retargeting ads encourage them to take specific actions, in this case, register for the event. But how effective is retargeting? Well, for a brand named Tirendo, a Google Ads retargeting campaign led to a 161% increase in conversions.
Local Media Outlets for Advertising
Offline event marketing and advertising can still make waves and can perfectly complement online endeavors. Nearly 39% of marketers state that offline advertising still plays a relevant role in creating successful promotions.
Connect with local magazines, radio stations, newspapers, and TV stations. These promotions will help you reach a broader audience, build trust, and create more excitement around your event.
Build Landing Pages or Dedicated Event Websites
While web development and landing page design don’t directly connect to paid advertising, they complement your campaigns. For starters, these platforms have all the necessary information your prospects would want to know about the event, from name to schedules, ticket info, location, registration options, sponsor details, dates, accommodation options, and more.
On the other hand, having a registration form on your dedicated site or landing page can be an essential component in your event ad campaigns, representing the final stage of your buyer journey.
Track Campaign Performance
Tracking the performance of your campaigns and marketing initiatives can help you make quick adjustments based on insights, feedback, and data. Regularly tracking your performance by checking your engagement levels, participant feedback, and attendance can help you get a better idea of the overall health of your campaign.
Great Event Advertisement Examples
It's one thing to talk about successful advertising and promotion campaigns, it's another to provide you with examples from the field. To help you gather more ideas and motivation, here are some outstanding advertising campaigns for events.
Oracle Code One
Oracle Code One is a yearly developer conference from dev company Oracle. To promote is, the brand utilizes a comprehensive marketing strategy, featuring a dedicated blog and website, where it regularly offers essential event details such as speakers, sponsors, agenda, and registration information.
The event also takes advantage of both offline and online advertising channels, such as press releases, media relations, social media, email, and content marketing.
Apple’s Product Launch Events
The launch of any new Apple product resembles a spectacle, with influencers, tech websites, and users trying to guess the new iPhone’s features months before the event.
Apple has an unparalleled approach when it comes to event marketing, making these occasions an integral part of the brand’s identity. From tremendous PR, using global tech influencers like Marques Brownlee and every tech outlet on the Internet, Apple can create unmatched buzz by releasing a few statements about upcoming products or events.
The brand is extremely successful at building anticipation slowly by leaving a few hints here and there in their marketing materials and channels about possible new products and launch events. The event design and accompanying social imagery are super minimalistic, aiding the mystery and drawing focus on the products.
Exit Festival
Serbia’s Exit Music Festival is one of Europe’s best and most popular festivals. While the lovely scenery of the Petrovaradin Fortress is a key player in the festival’s popularity, the marketing team’s dedication to almost every marketing and advertising channel is also an integral part of its success.
Exit has a strong social media presence, while also taking advantage of traditional billboard advertising months before the festival and organizing pre-event parties to fuel anticipation.
The festival also covers ground with regular press releases, comprehensive media outreach, and even activism, to keep festivalgoers excited year-round for those four days at the Fortress.
Finishing Thoughts on Event Advertising
Advertising events alone cannot guarantee utter success. Paid channels can help you reach more people and become more visible, but without a complementing organic marketing strategy, you aren’t using all your assets to create not just an event, but a lasting impression and a tremendous networking opportunity.
This is the essence of branded events: just like good marketing, they aim to create meaning and a connection between the brand and the customer. While paid advertising can help you boost your performance indicators, a comprehensive marketing strategy will help enhance brand awareness, recognition, trust, and appeal for both your event and your company.
Event Advertising FAQs
Which is better — online or offline ads?
The right answer depends on the type of event your brand organizes. For instance, online ads make perfect sense for virtual conferences and other remote events. In other cases, especially when you are hosting a physical event, the best option would be to use both tactics.
Can you rely on paid ads alone?
Paid advertising can help you boost awareness and conversions. However, having a strong organic presence will always be essential in bringing out the most from your promotions. From websites and organic social content to a dedicated content strategy, organic marketing strategies will only aid your paid campaigns, offering more context and building more anticipation and trust with your target audience.
Do you need a dedicated event website?
Not necessarily. Often, an intuitive landing page with compelling copy and a registration form will be enough to boost the number of attendees. However, in the case of bigger, international events, having a dedicated website will only boost trust and prestige.
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