Occasion e mail advertising: The right way to construct pleasure in your subsequent occasion

By Kaleigh Moore November 21, 2023

Occasion e mail advertising is a key technique for constructing anticipation in your subsequent occasion—whether or not on-line or offline. This submit explores key occasion e mail advertising examples and methods to assist.

When a survey requested occasion entrepreneurs their handiest technique for getting the phrase out, the outcomes had been fascinating:

The most effective technique wasn’t word-of-mouth. It wasn’t social media.

It was e mail.

Over 75% of the occasion entrepreneurs polled stated e mail advertising was their desire. They reported 45% of their whole occasion ticket gross sales got here from e mail advertising campaigns.

That makes occasion advertising easy, proper? Join an e mail platform, tie in an occasion advertising platform like Eventbrite, and also you’re good to go.

However simply because one medium is the most efficient doesn’t assure future outcomes.

To make occasion e mail advertising give you the results you want, it’s essential to be taught what it’s and the way to use it. You’ll want announcement and drip marketing campaign emails to pump up pleasure nicely earlier than the occasion. And some examples to indicate the way it’s accomplished received’t damage, both.

Let’s dive in.

What’s e mail advertising for occasions?

E mail occasion advertising is a newsletter-based technique for constructing urgency and a spotlight for an upcoming get-together. An excellent e mail occasion advertising technique has a couple of completely different options:

• Constructing pleasure and anticipation for the occasion, which helps you promote extra tickets
• Saying, with good readability, the important thing particulars—such because the date, the time, and the way to get to your occasion
• Offering hyperlinks and particulars in case your occasion is web-based
• Answering questions in regards to the occasion upfront. This creates much less confusion when the day lastly comes

These steps sound intuitive sufficient. However keep in mind: occasion e mail advertising will be completely different than your typical e mail advertising methods.

The everyday technique could be to filter new potential prospects to your lead magnet. The advantages you possibly can obtain from this technique can construct over time, ad infinitum.

Occasion e mail advertising finest practices

E mail occasion advertising is extra like constructing a marketing campaign round a narrative. It has a starting, a center, and an finish: the occasion itself.

If you wish to do it successfully, you’ll must maintain a couple of finest practices in thoughts:

Personalization

An occasion ought to really feel extra “actual” than most newsletters. 

Occasions imply assembly individuals face-to-face, both on a webcam or in individual. It’s one factor to get a possible buyer to enroll in a lead magnet. It’s one other factor to get them to decide to attending, say, a convention.

With a great e mail advertising platform, you possibly can incorporate personalization options aplenty:

• Use a platform like AWeber to mechanically enter every subscriber’s distinctive first identify
• Use subscriber segmentation and tag every consumer with a selected class so you possibly can ship them event-specific content material
• Add code to your web site and have interaction with subscribers primarily based on their specific site-browsing habits

Arrange your marketing campaign accurately from the get-go, and your occasion emails will come throughout as eerily telepathic. 

However there’s nothing unusual occurring. You’re simply working towards good personalization habits and skipping these e-newsletter subscribers who may not have an interest.

Buyer segmentation

Talking of buyer segmentation: you wouldn’t invite an e mail checklist of cat lovers to an occasion at a dogs-only park, would you?

Not if you happen to needed anybody to indicate up.

With buyer segmentation options, you possibly can tag particular subscribers. Or you possibly can drill down even additional, separating subscribers by the sorts of occasions they may wish to attend.

When you’ve got a far-reaching viewers, for instance, you possibly can tag “NY-Occasions” for subscribers native to the New York space.

Segmentation ensures that you simply don’t waste any time by campaigning to crowds of people that don’t have any intention of ever attending your occasions. 

It’s not sufficient to have a “[CUSTOMER_NAME]” field at first of your e mail.

Use buyer segmentation tags to make sure each e mail feels related to each group you’re partaking. Your objective? Determine particular niches of subscribers who will probably be enthusiastic sufficient to order a spot at your occasion.

Making the occasion appear actual

There’s a humorous factor that occurs with on-line interactions. We frequently neglect we’re interacting with different individuals. As Psychology Right now notes, one survey discovered that school college students had the best improve in well-being after they interacted with individuals in individual.

 Merely put, on-line interactions don’t register fairly as “actual” as face-to-face interactions do.

And that may be a tough promote. In any case, you most likely received most of your subscribers from on-line interactions. 

Now, with occasion e mail advertising, you’re asking individuals to start out seeing you as an actual individual. You’re asking to vary the context of your relationship, which requires a unique fashion of engagement.

Begin by making the occasion appear actual:

• Open loops that may solely shut in individual. For instance, possibly somebody enters a contest on-line—however they will solely gather the prize in individual. 
• Use compelling visuals. Do you could have snapshots from a earlier occasion? Embrace them. Even when your occasion is totally on-line, embody headshots for each visitor who will seem.
• Share a private story. Does the occasion come out of a private story or realization you had? Share it together with your viewers. In case your occasion is a lecture or net convention a few particular subject, speak in regards to the private circumstances that led to your discovery of that subject.

The right way to use e mail advertising to spark curiosity in your occasion

E mail advertising is like every other sort of selling. Besides this time, you need greater than a click on. 

It is advisable to encourage individuals to show up, join, and even pay a hefty sum of money simply to get in.

These are large asks. When you’ve got a younger e-newsletter subscriber base, they’re particularly large asks. You should still be in the midst of constructing familiarity together with your viewers.

To make sure your occasion sparks sufficient curiosity, construct the next methods into your marketing campaign:

Get your announcement in early

Ever discover how Hollywood doesn’t kick off a film marketing campaign with a full film trailer anymore?
It’s normally a sequence of teases. They’ll launch footage from the set years upfront. Or they’ll hype up a quick “trailer tease” on YouTube.

Lastly, the complete trailers turn out to be blockbuster occasions themselves: generally they debut throughout halftime of Monday Night time Soccer.

The ultimate trailer. Tune in to Monday Night time Soccer on @ESPN to observe it dwell. #TheRiseOfSkywalker pic.twitter.com/QAme0H5j0D

— Star Wars (@starwars) October 19, 2019

The important thing to this technique is beginning early. Plant these seeds of pleasure. Get on peoples’ radar nicely upfront of the occasion.

Pleasure begins together with your first announcement e mail. So now’s the time to start out brainstorming.

Brainstorm your e mail topic strains

We’ve received a couple of concepts for finest practices on e mail topic strains. Let’s do a quick evaluation:

• Maintain them below 45 characters. This ensures individuals can learn a whole thought with out clicking. In any other case, your topic strains would possibly fade into ellipses in your recipients’ inboxes.
• Use the “sentence case” in your headers, which retains issues informal. These emails ought to appear to be they’re coming from previous buddies.
• Create a “curiosity hole.” This implies it’s best to introduce a thriller together with your topic line. If readers wish to clear up it, they’ll really feel compelled to click on the e-mail.

Then write down an inventory of your finest concepts for announcement topic strains. 

And right here’s the trick: sleep on them. Whenever you’re recent, have a look at them anew. Ask your self which one popped as probably the most compelling.

Likelihood is, that’s your winner.

Construct an occasion touchdown web page

True: an occasion is just not a static factor. It should come and go. Constructing a web site can really feel like overkill when you understand that is only a momentary marketing campaign.

However you continue to want a centralized hub the place individuals can discover key info and join marketing campaign emails.

Inside AWeber, you possibly can construct a selected touchdown web page with buyer tags. This manner, solely the e-newsletter subscribers who could be occasion attendees will get the segmented emails.

You can even use the touchdown web page as a possibility to do a number of the legwork.

Any occasion goes to have Often Requested Questions:

When and the place? How will you attend? How a lot do tickets value?

You’ll probably repeat this info in social media posts and emails. However having FAQs up on a touchdown web page will make sure the solutions are there for anybody who needs them. 

(Extra on constructing your touchdown pages in a second.)

Start capturing photos from the venue—or use inventory photos

Should you’ve already booked a venue, use that venue’s present photos to make the occasion appear extra “actual.”

It’s one factor to say you’re renting an auditorium. It’s one other factor to indicate an image of 100 empty seats and write the headline: “Three extra days…”

Should you don’t have entry to these footage, you possibly can all the time select inventory footage, together with these related to the occasion’s metropolis, to assist construct anticipation.

Or ask visitors for headshots you possibly can embody in your touchdown web page and emails.

Images are so essential to our perceptions, they will even affect our recollections. The extra visible your marketing campaign will get, the extra “actual” it is going to really feel when the week of the occasion rolls round.

Create periodic reminders

A typical story has a three-act construction:

• An inciting incident, which pulls the story out of its complacency and creates urgency
• A second act of more and more advanced issues and escalating rigidity
• A climax the place the destiny of the story hangs within the stability

You don’t have to show your occasion emails right into a novel anytime quickly, true. However you ought to have a unfastened sense of this construction as you construct anticipation in your occasion.

Enter “periodic reminder” emails.

If the announcement e mail was your inciting incident, these interval reminders will fill the house of an extended second act. 

And that may be a problem. The thrilling first announcement and the third-act buildup to the occasion are sometimes probably the most thrilling elements of an e mail marketing campaign.

What do you do to create periodic reminders in between? Listed here are a couple of concepts:

• “Unpeel the onion.” Like an incredible thriller author, solely unveil one clue at a time. Create intrigue by presenting photos, prizes, and different parts out of your occasion out of context. Maintain your viewers guessing, then slowly reveal what every layer of the onion means to the final word occasion.
• Give away the small print. No must be coy in regards to the logistics of your occasion. As a substitute, permit individuals so as to add occasions to their calendar—together with dates, occasions, and net addresses.
• Construct your reminders in sequence. It’s extra enjoyable in case your emails run in a selected order, with every e mail increasing on what you wrote within the earlier version. For instance, Canva sends educational emails the place every lesson provides mini-skills on prime of the emails that got here earlier than.
• Create a drip marketing campaign. Schedule your “second-act” emails as a drip marketing campaign from the outset, which helps you create a pure chronological timeline that looks like a narrative unfolding.

Collect FAQs and retailer them in your touchdown web page

It’s solely pure: an occasion goes to garner some questions.

When? The place? Who?

Should you deal with your occasion e mail advertising marketing campaign as a true-blue marketing campaign, then each marketing campaign wants that touchdown web page. 

That is the “gross sales web page” in your occasion. And like a great gross sales web page, it ought to anticipate—and reply—each buyer query beforehand.

Begin with Often Requested Questions you understand individuals can have. The 5 Ws: who, what, the place, when, and why. 

Clarify what individuals can anticipate to get out of your occasion, even when it’s one thing so simple as a enjoyable night time out.

And as questions are available in, don’t neglect to notice these and jot down your solutions. Ideally, your touchdown web page will probably be a whole “hub” of any and all info associated to your occasion.

All that’s left for the client is to ask themselves by getting into their e mail deal with. From there, you possibly can tag them to a segmented e mail checklist and get them began in your drip marketing campaign.

Become involved on social media

Occasion e mail advertising could also be one of the best ways to get individuals to enroll, however you continue to want individuals to find your emails within the first place. And social media will be a good way to attract them in.

One technique is to maximise your use of hashtags:

• Create an event-specific hashtag (like #Your-Occasion-Right here-2024) to construct a hashtag “hub.” Anybody who needs to submit their submit, connect a photograph of their invitation, or announce they’re attending can use this hashtag for visibility.
• Use event-adjacent hashtags to get extra eyeballs on your posts. These are significantly efficient when you could have industry-specific hashtags you should utilize. Folks in your {industry}—who might already be on the lookout for occasions—can discover your posts with a easy search.

And maintain at it. Possibly your hashtag posts received’t draw 500 likes and engagements in a single day. However each new submit retains your occasion on the prime of the search outcomes every time somebody appears for the hashtag.

Social media can also be an incredible place to start contests and prizes to create pleasure. You possibly can even use Re-posts on X and different social shares as methods individuals can enter, drumming up much more engagement out of your viewers.

Within the instance above, an occasion for Ukraine Support reveals off the way to create social posts:

• Inspiring, high-contrast visuals to attract the attention
• Important info: who, when, the place, what, and why
• Hashtags like #PossibleWithU assist improve the visibility.

Ideas for constructing urgency when it’s crunch time

Now we enter the third act of your marketing campaign: the climax. 

It’s crunch time.

Your instrument for constructing urgency right here ought to be to play on shortage. Shortage is straightforward: the much less of one thing there’s, the extra individuals will need it. 

Shortage is a pure match for occasion e mail advertising as a result of an occasion is inherently scarce. It solely occurs as soon as. And chances are high, there are all kinds of alternatives to spotlight shortage:

• It’s possible you’ll solely have a certain quantity of on-line visitors
• There are solely a sure variety of seats or areas
• A venue might have a most capability
• If the occasion is barely occurring as soon as, your viewers may miss it
• A restricted variety of VIP spots

That latter level is essential. Creating “VIP tickets” will be a good way to encourage new sign-ups once you’re nonetheless within the “Drip marketing campaign” section of the general marketing campaign.

For instance, “Withings” watches as soon as created a Cyber Monday sale with the next headline:

“Tomorrow is simply too late.”

It’s an on the spot eye-grabber. 

Why is tomorrow too late? If I take motion now, am I one of many fortunate few?

Should you don’t have particular VIP presents, you possibly can construct urgency with distinctive incentives. Possibly time is working out on a prize contest. Possibly there are solely so many prizes you may give out on the door.

These incentives are significantly helpful if you happen to’re approaching the occasion date and nonetheless don’t have sufficient signups. Some prospects may want one last nudge earlier than they decide to your occasion.

Forms of occasion emails (with examples)

Utilizing story construction, it’s best to break up your occasion emails into three main classes:

• The announcement is the inciting incident: you wish to shock individuals, pull them out of their lull, and inform them what they will get by attending your occasion.
• The drip marketing campaign emails are the lengthy second act: slowly construct urgency, reveal new solutions (equivalent to thriller visitors), and remind individuals of what’s coming.
• The pleasure emails will probably be your large climax: constructing urgency for the occasion.

Announcement emails

XXIX’s ten-year occasion announcement e mail begins with a enjoyable “incitement” sentence: Unsubscribe if you happen to don’t like events.

Properly, all of us like events. Now they’ve our consideration.

Listed here are the keys to this announcement e mail’s success:

• A gap sentence that challenges the reader and creates a little bit of a curiosity hole. Don’t inform me I don’t like events!
• It will get the announcement out early by mentioning a key milestone: XXIX turning 10 years previous. There’s the reply to your “why.” It additionally makes the occasion date a bit of simpler to recollect. 
• The e-mail offers particulars immediately so people who find themselves already can begin saving the date and placing the deal with of their calendars. Sure, it’s good to create intrigue, however you don’t wish to be mysterious in regards to the logistics.

Right here’s one other instance, from TwitchCon:

With the arrogance of “you’re going to be there,” this announcement e mail will get straight to the purpose:

• It explains why you’d wish to attend TwitchCon in Paris: “Get able to have fun all of the stuff that makes Twitch particular.” And it solutions one other “W” query by explaining who will probably be there.
• It makes use of social proof with particular faces and usernames of common streamers. This instantly attracts the curiosity of those streamers’ followers.

Drip marketing campaign emails

Bloomreach makes use of particular particulars to attract your curiosity. Should you’re a part of their viewers, there’s a great likelihood you’ll discover one thing at this occasion you’ll like.

• This e mail for Bloomreach re-invites individuals by mentioning the precise occasion particulars they have to know. But it surely doesn’t have the large “splash” of a launch e mail. As a substitute, it tackles the meat and potatoes of the explanations to attend the occasion, together with particular matters and audio system.
• Consists of fundamental particulars about when the occasion is, together with an above-the-fold call-to-action for people who find themselves instantly .

Now let’s have a look at an analogous instance from a 2023 convention from Maze:

Keys to success:

• Discover the time right here, a enjoyable, urgency-building transition to the ultimate leg of the marketing campaign. 
• The e-mail nonetheless highlights what the enjoyable of the occasion could be: “Be part of on-line on September 19 for X, Y, and Z.”
• The e-mail mentions the DJ leisure whereas discussing particular audio system on the occasion, supplying you with extra causes to hitch in.
• It finishes off with a robust name to motion: registering without cost.

Pleasure emails

It is virtually time! ⏰ We’re again tomorrow for G2E 2022.

Observe alongside on our pages this week, October 10-13, as we share highlights from the present. It’s not too late to register: https://t.co/WolNcdnYIY pic.twitter.com/ZqgBUO69EM

— World Gaming Expo (@G2Eshows) October 9, 2022

Though not an e mail, this tweet with an animated “timer” builds urgency and anticipation by letting you watch the seconds tick away.

• Discover the road “it’s not too late to register,” together with a robust CTA. It could be a tweet, however it reads like an e mail.
• The animation highlights how shortly time is passing, which builds urgency—even when it’s unconscious.

Sundance’s upcoming 2024 movie competition makes use of some related rules:

This e mail for the Sundance Movie Pageant doesn’t go off-brand with last-minute contests and prizes. But it surely does spotlight {that a} “countdown” is starting:

• The e-mail builds urgency by highlighting that the lodging is promoting “quick.” Even when individuals assume they’ve loads of time left to register, there are different parts of logistics you should utilize to construct shortage.
• The e-mail contains particular occasion particulars, which is crucial at this stage of occasion advertising emails.
• Lastly, the e-mail features a new supply that may assist nudge individuals who had been on the fence about attending.

Construct an occasion e mail advertising marketing campaign

An occasion e mail advertising marketing campaign continues to be like different campaigns you’ve tried. It ought to have a selected touchdown web page, populated with all kinds of data. It is best to use buyer segments to personalize your messaging.

What’s completely different? Each occasion is a narrative with a starting, a center, and an finish—a climax that culminates within the occasion itself. Should you can construct urgency as much as the top, you’ll have a profitable marketing campaign.

But it surely all begins with a succesful e mail platform. An e mail platform that permits for efficient consumer tagging, buyer segmentation, and automatic drip campaigns to assist construct pleasure.
Don’t have an account with AWeber simply but? Join free at this time. In any case, the clock in your subsequent occasion is ticking.