by Dorottya Dvorak 
Finally the cold days are gone, and we have stepped into the spring season with numerous interesting events planned for the coming months. Organising an event can take weeks or months, and preparing your promotion campaign is one of your most important tasks.As first steps, you have to decide what mediums are the best fit for your audience, message and budget; is it email, social, paid, display, print or a mixture of all? Any of these channels can be effective, but there is one that all event campaigns have in common – email marketing.
Before you begin, I advise you to take a step back and personalise every step of the journey for your potential attendees, and review your invite strategy and design. Use my top tips below to start preparing for your next email campaign.
- Work with your design team to create a compelling banner image, including your event’s title and company logo, so your potential attendees know instantly what they are invited to.
- Highlight the most important details of the event (i.e. what is happening when and where) in the top section of the email, and make sure your register button attracts the eye of your reader.
- Make your copy short and informative, but also create excitement for your event – share some of the topics/key areas you’re planning.
- Plan your campaign with each email serving a unique purpose:
- 1st email: Inform your audience 2 months before the event with a save the date type of email. This would help you to see the initial interest which will be useful information for the organisers as well.
- 2nd email: About 1 month prior to the event send your customers further details about the speakers and what they have planned for their sessions. Having an insight to the event can turn your attendees initial interest into an action – a registration!
- 3rd email: Remind your potential attendees 1-2 weeks before the event what they will miss if they don’t attend your event. Include testimonials and reviews from previous attendees to win over some interested but still uncertain customers.
If you don’t believe me, take a look at the recent study of Certain and Heinz Marketing – The 2018 State of B2B Event Marketing – which confirms that email is the most popular channel at the pre-event stage of promotion.
Email is used by 93% of all event marketers in the build-up to events , outranking other channels by 40%. It is also viewed as the most effective medium, by far. But it is less likely to be used during the occasions themselves, according to The 2018 State of B2B Event Marketing, a study by Certain and Heinz Marketing.