At Eventbrite, our creative event organizers host over five million events every year. With so many exciting experiences vying for attention, it can be challenging to make your event stand out. But don’t worry — we’re here to help.
We’re passionate about supporting our creative and unique organizers in making their events shine. Sometimes, the key is developing a bold marketing strategy that engages your potential attendees on multiple fronts.
Keep reading to learn how to market your event effectively and explore some of the most successful and budget-friendly promotion strategies used by our creators.
How to Market an Event: Start with Research
Before diving into event promotion, it’s crucial to do your homework. Understand what makes your event unique, identify your target audience, and set clear goals.
Identify Your Target Audience
Effective event marketing starts with knowing where your potential attendees are online. Begin by researching similar events and analyzing the types of people who engage with them. Look for common demographics, interests, shared followers, or influencers who are consistently involved.
Take inspiration from Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, which successfully targeted a younger audience by actively engaging on platforms like Facebook. Through Eventbrite’s Facebook integration, they achieved a 61x return on investment (ROI) and built a robust community of young followers who regularly attend their events.
Set Event Objectives
Define clear goals before you start marketing your event. Whether you’re aiming to sell a certain number of tickets or build awareness for a cause, having specific objectives will guides your marketing efforts.
For instance, Secret Movie Club used Eventbrite to scale its operations on a budget, focusing on creating bigger events without significant spending. This approach allowed them to double their attendance and quadruple their events.
Develop an Event Marketing Strategy
A well-crafted marketing strategy is essential for achieving your goals. It should include a detailed timeline, specifying what tasks will be done, when, and how. Make sure to outline the platforms, resources, and budget needed for your event marketing.
For inspiration, consider Sierra Nevada’s strategy centered around social media retargeting. By effectively reaching their audience, they achieved a 10x return on ad spend and sold out their event quickly.
9 Creative Ways to Market Your Event
With a clear target audience, defined goals, and a solid marketing strategy in place, it’s time to brainstorm creative marketing tactics. Here are some bold ideas to help you make a statement and consistently reach your target audience:
- Encourage Healthy Competition
Boost engagement by creating buzz around your event both before and after it launches. For example, host a social media contest where attendees submit user-generated content. Reward the best entries with prizes based on your criteria or data.
Consider a costume contest with a prize for the best-dressed guest or a photo booth competition with awards for the best pictures. River North Fests used this approach for their Sangria Fest, ensuring their event stayed top-of-mind for attendees long after it ended.
Pro Tip: Keep your contest relevant to your event type. For example, a photo contest might not be the best fit for promoting a music festival.
By following these strategies, you can create a compelling marketing plan that captures attention, engages your audience, and drives event success.
2. Launch a Digital Scavenger Hunt
A digital scavenger hunt is a fantastic way to boost engagement and generate excitement for your upcoming event. It also showcases your brand’s personality while encouraging social media shares and tags.
Consider partnering with an augmented reality (AR) smartphone app to create an interactive hunt around town. Alternatively, you can print QR codes and place them in the neighborhood around your venue, helping potential attendees get familiar with the area.
💡Pro Tip: Encourage participation by offering prizes, such as a 20% discount code, to those who complete the scavenger hunt.
3. Let Influencers Take Over Your Social Media
A social media influencer takeover is when an influencer temporarily manages a brand’s social media account. The goal is to enhance brand visibility, reach a wider audience, and introduce fresh content. This strategy is particularly effective on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook.
Collaborating with local influencers allows you to tap into their large following and create buzz around your event. It’s often more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods like press ads, helping you drive traffic to your event page without breaking the bank.
A great example is Pretty Princess Parties, which uses social media influencers to reach their target audience quickly and affordably.
💡Pro Tip: Choose influencers whose values align with yours. Follow them for a while to ensure a natural fit with your brand and event.
4. Pop-Up Events Around Town
While digital marketing is effective, nothing beats face-to-face interaction for building awareness and connecting with potential attendees.
Set up a pop-up shop on a busy street, at a local fair, or even outside your venue. This approach allows you to showcase your event, address any concerns, and connect directly with your audience.
💡Pro Tip: Make your pop-up engaging by including event-related entertainment. For example, if you’re hosting a concert, have a musician perform an acoustic set to give potential attendees a taste of what’s to come.
You can also use Sickening Events Organizer App to sell tickets on the spot at your pop-up.
5. Create Buzz with an Event Playlist
Music can create a lasting association with experiences. A curated Spotify playlist can excite ticket holders in the lead-up to your event.
A well-crafted playlist can organically extend your reach as listeners share it with their friends. For inspiration, check out George Washington University’s Spotify playlist for their last graduation ceremony — a great example of setting the right tone for an event.
💡Pro Tip: Conduct market research before creating your playlist. Consider using an online poll or tweet to gauge what music your audience prefers.
6. Organize a Special Preview
Everyone loves a sneak peek! Hosting an exclusive preview for fans or social media followers can build anticipation for your event.
Consider organizing a taster night or a special preview, much like OASIS did for their Rocky Horror Show, offering attendees a full experience at half price.
💡Pro Tip: Don’t give away too much. Offer a condensed version of your event, about a quarter of its full runtime, to leave attendees wanting more.
7. Boost Engagement with Social Giveaways
Social media giveaways are a fantastic way to drive engagement and grow your follower count. Offering free tickets, VIP upgrades, or drink packages can generate excitement and increase traffic to your event page.
Brooklyn-based House of Yes often uses photos from past events for caption contests, with winners receiving tickets to future events.
💡Pro Tip: Encourage followers to tag friends by adding “tag someone who’d love this” to your posts. Be transparent about the rules and announce winners to build trust.
8. Reward Your Community
Your past attendees are your most loyal supporters — show them some love!
Offering promo codes to your email subscribers can create a sense of exclusivity and turn casual attendees into devoted fans. It also allows you to track which platforms your customers prefer, providing valuable insights for future promotions.
For instance, EEEEEATSCON offers special deals and presale discounts to their social media followers, incentivizing them to stay engaged.
💡Pro Tip: Use a content capture form on your website to collect email addresses. With a ready list of leads, a 10% discount code can quickly kickstart ticket sales.
9. Create a 3D Tour of Your Event Space
Instead of an in-person preview, consider a virtual tour of your event space. A quick walkthrough can address any questions attendees might have about the venue’s layout and design.
Create shareable assets like videos or maps to encourage organic sharing and drive traffic to your event page.
💡Pro Tip: Use affordable virtual platforms specializing in drone flythroughs and 3D tours. If budget is a concern, consider filming a walkthrough yourself and posting it on YouTube.
Don’t Forget: Traditional Digital Marketing Still Works
While creative tactics can capture attention, don’t neglect tried-and-true channels like paid ads and email marketing.
Use Paid Ads and Retargeting
Social media ads allow precise targeting based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. However, not every viewer will click on your ad — that’s where retargeting comes in.
Retargeting follows potential attendees across the web, increasing the chances of them returning to your event page to complete a purchase. With Sickening Events marketing tools, setting up retargeting is simple — just add a pixel to your event page and control when and where ads are displayed.
Email is Still King
Email marketing remains one of the most effective tools for promoting events. It offers an impressive ROI and allows you to reach your audience directly.
Build an email database of past attendees and new subscribers to keep them informed and excited as your event approaches. Sickening Events Marketing Tools make it easy to manage subscriber lists and customize templates to grow your business.
Ready to Start Marketing Your Event?
Creating a successful event marketing plan starts with understanding your audience. People want to feel part of a community and an experience, not just like they’re being sold something.
Building a lasting relationship with your attendees takes time and patience, but we’re here to help. With Eventbrite, you can easily set up event listings, create promo codes, produce social media ads, manage email marketing, and more.
