The 100 Most Effective Event Marketing Ideas

Enticing people to a new event is becoming harder and harder. Companies are aware that events are one of the best ways to increase brand awareness and engage with their target audience, but competition is increasing all the time. That’s why it’s essential that you know exactly what strategy you want to implement when you attempt to bring in the crowds.

Event marketing isn’t an exact science, so experimentation will always be necessary to get noticed by your target audience. From eye-catching guerilla marketing to carefully calculated ad retargeting, there are so many fantastic event marketing ideas out there that can help you fill those seats.

Our list of the 100 most effective event marketing ideas can benefit any event organiser; whether you’re organising a seminar, a conference, a festival or an expo, there’s something here for you.

Event marketing ideas like these can reinvigorate your marketing efforts. There’s so many different options in our list that you can test out and fine tune to get optimum results.

You might find an event marketing idea that you had never thought of implementing before, and that particular idea could have a huge impact on the success of your event.

Generating interest in your event is the most important and extensive phase of event marketing. First and foremost, you need to decide who your target audience is and then make concerted efforts to attract them to your event. The following event marketing ideas show you exactly how to get a huge turnout.

Creating a promo video can be a very effective marketing tool. The purpose of your promo video will be to get people excited about the event, so it’s crucial that it’s done right.

If you are shooting your own video, make sure that you are well prepared first. Plan each scene in detail and get your hands on the best equipment available to you. Most importantly, remember to make your promo video interesting and unique!

However, if you don’t have the budget for creating a promo video from scratch, Design Wizard has a huge collection of professionally-made videos and video templates to choose from. These video templates can be easily customised in just a few minutes.

Going Facebook live is a fantastic way to connect with your audience and build hype for your event. Go live multiple times in the build up to the event to continuously increase anticipation.

You could share updates, ask for opinions, answer questions or do an interview; there are so many possibilities. With live streaming you can speak to a section of your audience that you may otherwise have had no way of reaching.

Facebook live is cost-effective too. Viewers don’t expect high-quality camera work when they view a Facebook live stream, allowing you to focus entirely on the message you are putting out.

Get your event noticed with attractive posters and flyers. The great thing about posters and flyers is that they are affordable and easy to produce.

Place your posters in areas where they are most likely to be seen and hand out your flyers at locations where lots of people pass by. You could also give your flyers to non-competing businesses like local restaurants, hotels and colleges and ask them to promote you.

To create your own personalised poster or flyer, check out Design Wizard’s wide range of event poster templates and event flyer templates. 

Holding competitions for free tickets is one of the best ways of engaging with possible attendees on social media. The simplest way to run this competition is to encourage people to like, share, retweet and comment on your post so that it reaches a wider audience.

However, there are lots of interesting ways to do your ticket giveaway. For example, you could have a best caption competition, a best photo competition, a Snapchat drawing contest or ask people to give you a reason why they deserve to win and then choose the best answer.

Free tickets are the perfect prize to give away and if your audience has any interest in your event they will be likely to enter the competition. Make sure to promote your competition on every platform available for maximum impact. Also, be wary of each of those platform’s rules surrounding competitions.

Influencer marketing is one of the most reliable ways for event organisers to reach their target markets. If an influencer with a significant social media reach is attending your event, it will be certain to increase the event’s online appeal.

Working with smaller, ‘micro-influencers’ has proven to be an incredibly successful marketing tactic for many events. These influencers drive meaningful engagement and interactions, whereas bona fide celebrities are often seen as less trustworthy and less authentic.

If you don’t feel like you have the budget to acquire the services of multiple influencers, don’t fret. You could offer them free tickets and a VIP package instead of direct payment.

Getting the word out about your event via the press is one of the most tried and tested event marketing ideas and it can serve as a phenomenal promotional tool.

If local newspapers and online news sites start talking about the event, it will help to add to the hype around it. Send news outlets a press release, and if they publish it, it will increase the exposure of your event.

Include all the information you want to get across in a clear and concise manner. Remember to time the press release correctly and to tailor it to the audience you’re trying to reach.

Guerilla marketing is the one of the most creative event marketing ideas out there. It involves brands using unorthodox methods to advertise products or events, often in public spaces. It has the potential to be far reaching, very cheap and highly memorable.

Some examples of guerilla marketing include flash mobs, random acts of kindness, pop-up events, street art and skywriting.

Plan your guerilla marketing campaign in detail, put it into place and then attempt to leverage any online reaction to increase ticket sales.

Creating an event landing page provides an online home for your event; it’s where people come to read about it, register for updates and buy tickets.

It’s essential that this landing page is attractive, efficient and informative. You don’t want people arriving on your page and then leaving immediately. To figure out the optimal layout for your landing page, experiment with some A/B testing.

Know who your audience is and appeal to what they want with the content of the landing page. Include clear call-to-actions that prompt engagement from visitors.

A bad invitation can be extremely off-putting to a potential attendee, but a good one can convince them that they have to go to your event.

Creating a striking video invitation and sharing it with your followers on social media gives you the opportunity to talk directly to your target audience and spark interest in your event. If possible, use a recognisable face that your followers will be encouraged to listen to.

To easily create attention-grabbing video invitations, check out Design Wizard’s extensive range of video templates, including expo events video templates, summer party invitations video templates and party invites blank video templates.

If you want people to buy tickets for your event, then it’s important that you make your ticket purchasing process as streamlined as possible. If there are too many hoops to jump through, it will put off potential attendees.

Ensure that tickets can be purchased where your event is discovered. For example, if someone finds your event on Facebook, give them an option to buy tickets there.

Don’t ask for unnecessary information or personal details from your buyers when they purchase tickets and continuously keep tabs on your website loading speed.

Similar to Facebook live, YouTube is fantastic for live streaming and can offer you a superb platform for sharing original video content.

Regularly update your channel in the lead up to the event by posting teasers, informational videos, interviews and anything else that is relevant and appealing.

Use the description sections of your videos and YouTube channel art to provide ticket information and links to your event landing page.

Creating an infographic is one of the most thought-provoking ways to engage with potential attendees. You could include an interesting overview of your event to entice people in.

An infographic offers a highly visual way to tell people about some of the topics you’re going to focus on and if it gets shared a lot on social media, awareness about the event will increase.

If you show your audience some facts or stats that they might not have known about previously, they will be more inclined to share it.

Blogs are a valuable marketing tool for promoting your event at every stage of its life cycle. Before your event, you can boost interest and awareness with some engaging blog posts.

Creating a bloc on your own website is free and easy to do. Sharing blog posts on social media will help drive traffic to your event landing page.

If readers like your blog, they will continue to follow it in the build up to the event and possibly even after it has concluded.

Depending on the length of time between an event’s inception and its start date, SEO can be hugely important in determining how many people will find out about it. The longer you have to prepare, the more SEO you should do.

Look for keywords that relate to your event’s topics and optimise your blog, website and social media content around that. If you want to be found more easily on mobile devices, make your page mobile responsive.

Build relationships with other sites that can promote your event and start link building. If lots of reputable sites are linking to your page, it’s more likely that people are going to discover it.

Creating a consistent, recognisable social media hashtag gives your audience something to associate you with online. If people keep seeing the same hashtag over and over again, they will become familiar with it.

Choose a hashtag that is relevant to the event, otherwise it will be harder for your followers to pick up on it.Hashtags are a superb way of getting your event noticed on Twitter and Instagram, where they can very quickly become trending topics.

Your hashtag should accompany all of your social media posts and marketing material, and you should encourage your followers and the attendees to do the same.

Instead of having an event landing page on your regular website, you may decide to set up a completely new website.

On this website you can host a blog dedicated entirely to the event and you’ll have the creative freedom to introduce some new web design that you might not have been able to implement on your main site.

You can create separate web pages that inform your audience about speakers, performers, the event schedule, the venue, the event’s history, accommodation etc. However, it’s important to note that you must still have a specified landing page where people can buy tickets.

The event logo is one of the first things a potential attendee will see when they discover your event. That’s why it’s crucial that it’s a memorable one.

With so many choices out there, first impressions can be pivotal in determining whether or not someone decides to attend your event.

To ensure that your event stands out, personalise and download one of Design Wizard’s expertly-created logo templates.

The Facebook events feature is ready-made to exponentially increase the amount of people that hear about and attend your event.

Facebook allows users to buy tickets directly from their event pages, making the ticket purchase process so much easier. Events are easy to find on Facebook, with users able to hone in on specific genres, dates, and venues.

Make your event stand out by writing a detailed description, posting regularly on your event timeline and creating a striking event cover photo.

If you’d never heard of an event before and wanted to check out what it was all about, one of the first things you’d do would be to check photos from previous years. That’s why having a professional photographer on your team is such a huge help.

If photos look amateurish or portray your event in a negative light, it will turn off new attendees. Professional photographers will be able to capture high-quality images of the event without hampering it in any way.

You can always rely on a professional photographer to get the exact shots that you want. The best photographers will have the equipment needed to capture every aspect of your event.

When trying to promote your event, don’t limit your potential by trying to do everything yourself. Team up with companies that you don’t compete against and feature them at your event.

Allying with another company or organisation can make your event stronger, more thought-out and ultimately a better experience for your attendees. Another company may have resources that can enhance your event, which you wouldn’t otherwise have had access to.

A partnership could involve sharing marketing responsibilities, advertising space, advice and information with each other.

To build anticipation for some of the guest speakers or performers at your event. Share videos that give an insight into their background and expertise.

For example, these videos could include a clip from one of their previous appearances or a short interview.

Sharing content in such a way lets people know what sort of topics will be discussed or what type of performance they can expect. If a fan of the guest speaker or performer sees the video, they may be encouraged to attend.

Ensure you get seen on social media by taking advantage of paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter.

Facebook is extremely precise when it comes to targeting potential leads. You can target specific ages groups and locations with ease, while identifying lookalike audiences to expand your reach. Instagram is the best platform for posting highly-visual ads that will get a large volume of engagement.

Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter still gives users a reasonable opportunity to promote themselves without paid ads. This means that when you do pay for ads, you’re even more likely to reach your target market.

Adding an exclusive element to your event appeals to basic human nature. Those who don’t have exclusive access are going to want it and those who do have are sure to feel privileged at being invited.

You could host a pre-event party or dinner and invite a select number of VIP guests. Try to get a few influencers to attend, as their presence and social media posts will help to boost attendance for the main event.

Offer a limited number of these VIP tickets to members of the public at increased prices to provide them with an unmissable opportunity to mingle with the invited guests.

Some event marketing ideas are purely common sense; such as featuring your event on an event discovery site. This way, you can make your event visible for people who are actively looking to attend one.

As we’ve already mentioned, Facebook events is widely considered the number one platform for discovering events, but there are other popular options too.

Goldstar, Bandsintown, Spotify, Eventbrite and Billetto are just some of the many outlets where users discover new events and buy tickets every day.

Get noticed by potential attendees with a universal event image that can be used on social media, your blog and your website.

Encapsulate the mood, the excitement and the theme of the event in this one image and you will have added an amazing asset to your marketing material.

Design Wizard has lots of stunning image templates that are ideal for creating an amazing event image.

If you want to make the most of your email list, make sure to divide it up into relevant segments. It’s no point bombarding everyone with the exact same emails.

Start out by separating those who have already attended your event and those who are yet to attend. Then take a look at factors like age, location, occupation and email open rate to segment further.

Identify who your biggest advocates are and tailor certain content towards them, while simultaneously making a plan to make an impression on some of your more disengaged contacts.

Managing and balancing every aspect of event marketing can be stressful. That’s why hiring a social media manager can take a lot of the pressure off your shoulders.

If you are able to acquire an experienced professional who has worked in events before, you will be able to implement an effective social media strategy that will give you the best chance of reaching your target audience.

A social media manager will help to ensure that the content, branding and tone of voice remains consistent over all mediums.

Direct people to your event’s landing page whenever possible. Including links on all of your social media platforms is an effective way to do this.

It makes it easier for people to buy tickets and find out important information about your event. The event’s landing page serves as its online home and you should always be directing new visitors to it.

Event marketing ideas such as this one are relatively easy to implement, but can have a huge impact on how many people get as far as the ticket purchasing stage.

One of the event marketing ideas that can result in a huge boost in your attendance is searching for a ‘lookalike’ audience. Facebook makes it super easy to identify an audience that’s similar to the one you’ve already created.

You could decide to give Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest a list of people who have just purchased tickets and they will find you a list of similar people that you can target with ads.

Lookalike audiences give you the opportunity to quickly grow in avenues that were previously not available and can make people who were not even aware of your event interested in buying tickets.

By dividing up your tickets into certain sections, you can provide something for every member of the audience.

To please loyal fans who have already attended some of your events, offer them early bird tickets at discounted prices. For the attendee who may be willing to spend a little more, the VIP package could be a suitable option.

If your event is for all the family, be sure to sell cheaper children’s tickets and student tickets to attract people who may not otherwise attend.

One of the most eye-catching event marketing ideas has to be the world record attempt. No matter how bizarre the attempt, it can attract media attention from near and far.

To ensure that the world record attempt generates interest in the event that you’re hosting, try and base it on some of the topics that are being covered.

Guinness world records actually have a marketing solutions section on their website where you can get in touch with them about launching experiential marketing campaigns.

The subject lines of the emails you send out should be just as punchy and to the point as the emails themselves.

A good subject line makes a reader want to open an email and find out what’s contained within it. Try to evoke emotion with your wording, as a tepid subject line won’t increase open rates.

Try and pick a specific time to send your email when you know your target audience will be active online.

Choosing a suitable theme for your event is of paramount importance to its success. Pick the right theme and it will enhance the event and add to its fluidity, complementing speakers and the subjects they discuss.

However, a poorly chosen theme can be jarring and can prove harmful to the event. Think about who your target audience is, the technicalities of displaying the theme visually, the purpose of the event and what the potential theme could bring to it.

If your theme is going to be an extravagant one, make sure you have the budget to pull it off! Also, to help you choose a theme, you could send out surveys to let your audience pick their favourite.

It’s no point coming up with lots of great event marketing ideas if you don’t know what the end goal is.

You must know the purpose of the event, how much tickets you want to sell, what your budget is, how much profit you hope to make etc. Start figuring this out long before your event begins and then set a plan in motion.

Set realistic, measurable goals and do everything in your power to achieve them. If you have suitable targets set, your event will be a lot easier to plan around those parameters.

Just as important as an easy ticket purchase process is an attractive one. Your event should appear as attractive and welcoming as possible to potential ticket buyers.

An outdated UI may not put off some of your more hardcore fans, but casual fans may question the credentials of an event with a questionable looking ticket page.

To ensure a welcoming aesthetic, use clean, modern web design that incorporates a clearly visible call-to-action.

It’s important to make use of every opportunity to promote your event, no matter how minute it may seem.

Email signatures might not be the first place someone might look after opening an email, but for the sake of a few quick changes, they should be used as part of your marketing push.

You could create a specially designed signature for this purpose and include an image of yourself or your event’s logo alongside it. Make sure to get in all of the relevant information without cluttering the design too much.

Hosting a webinar can be beneficial for your event, but you must provide value for your audience to reap the rewards.

Implement a webinar strategy for maximum impact. Conduct multiple webinars over a certain period of time and let your audience know exactly when they are taking place.

After you have decided how and when you are going to run your webinars, you need to start thinking about what content you will provide. You could bring in guest speakers from your event to create content that your target audience wants to engage with.

Go where your audience is and join in on conversations with them in Facebook groups. You could join a pre-existing group or create your own.

Make sure that you’re providing value for the group by posting informational, educational and engaging content.

After you have built some sort of rapport with other groups members, you can slowly start promoting your event and providing links to your event landing page.

An event map gives your audience a sneak peek of what to expect as the start of the event draws ever nearer. Use the reveal of the map to announce new areas, stalls and attractions.

If you’re hosting an annual event, try to expand on the event map from the year before and add new features to it. Print out your map and have it ready to be handed out on the day of the event.

Post about the map on social media and build anticipation by asking your audience what they are most looking forward to see.

Make it easy for ticket buyers or those who are on the fence to get updates about your event with an email sign up button. The more people think about the event, the more likely they are to spread the word to their friends.

You could add a fun element to the email sign up. For example, some websites ask for an email address and then allow users to play a game to win prizes.

Prizes could include discounted tickets or a month’s subscription to your website. If you don’t use a game as part of your email sign-up, trying using a clear, concise call-to-action button.

While some of your speakers may be quite adept at self-promotion, others may not be so comfortable with it.

To ensure everyone has a chance to shine, help your speakers out with their promo. Share links to their social media profiles and give them all the tools they need to shine.

Share video clips of their past appearances and interesting interviews that are relevant to the topics they are going to be discussing at your event.

Event marketing technology allows you to track key metrics and analyse them to improve future events. Get your tech up and running long before the event starts for the best results.

Research what tools best suit the event you are hosting and the stats you want to uncover. Some of the best event management platforms include Eventbrite, Splash, Bizzabo, Cvent, Gather, Aventri, Event Espresso and Event Smart.

If you don’t make use of this technology, you’ll be really missing out. These tools allow you to easily plan, market, manage and measure your event.

Hiring a brand ambassador can often be one of the trickiest event marketing ideas to implement correctly. However, it can also be one of the most effective.

Choosing the right brand ambassador is no easy task. Brand ambassadors, more so than regular influencers, will be directly associated with the image of your event, making it crucial that they align with it.

Ideally, your brand ambassador will be passionate about your event and your brand, know in detail the message you want to get across and will have a large platform available to them. Be aware of your target audience and your budget when deciding what brand ambassador you would like to pursue.

Becoming a member of internet forums such as Quora or Reddit can have a ton of benefits. You can make yourself more visible, highlight what your event is about and build up a loyal following.

However, it’s worth noting how volatile internet forums can be. If you appear to be acting too promotional, it won’t be long until you get told off about it.

To better your chances of winning the forum crowd over, post regularly and sincerely. Provide thoughtful insights and spark meaningful discussions.

Crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular way of raising money for events and other projects.

To make it easier to raise the necessary funds, make your event look interesting and unique in your pitch. Offer rewards for those who contribute, such as free tickets, meet and greets and VIP passes.

The added benefit of crowdfunding is that, if you manage to hit your target, you know there are legions of donors who would be interested in attending your event.

Past attendees who enjoyed your previous events can become some of your biggest promoters. Reach out to them via email or social media to see if they would be willing to help you out.

If these past attendees are influencers, all the better. They can use their significant platform to tell everyone how much they enjoyed the last event and speak about their plans to attend this one too.

Through the medium of past attendees, your target audience will get a trustworthy, first-hand account of what took place at the previous event.

Few things give the seal of approval to your event like an award. An award that you win can be used extensively in your promotional material to highlight how good your event is going to be.

No matter how small the award may be, you should never discount its value in the eyes of potential attendees.

It shows you have excelled in a certain area and is a mark of quality that entices people to attend. If you haven’t been nominated for an award, enter some!

The information drip is one of the oldest event marketing ideas in the book, but it’s still very effective.

Not only does it give you additional time to prepare, but it helps to build excitement about what’s going to happen at your event.

As soon as you have confirmed your date and venue, you can start releasing teasers on social media. The larger the event, the longer the lead time, so try to gauge when you should start releasing information with that in mind. For most events, 2-3 months offers you enough time to prepare, but also ensures that nobody loses interest.

Eye-catching call-to-actions are the bread and butter of an effective landing page. Without them, your conversion rate will suffer.

Make sure your CTA button is easy to see, includes a clear direction and takes the user to a page that they would expect to be taken to.

CTAs can really stand out if they contrast with the background of a landing page and can also work well if they dovetail with your logo and branding.

More often than not, people don’t like being sold to. They want to buy what they need or want and make their own decisions.

That’s why it can pay off to be conversational rather than promotional on social media. Don’t constantly post about the tickets you have for sale. Flesh out your content to make it more interesting and engaging.

There is no shortage of content on social media, so to attract attention, a post must be personalised for your target audience and spark enough interest for them to view it. People will feel valued if you talk with them rather than talk at them.

Local radio can provide a great platform for event promotion. You could team up with some local radio presenters and run a variety of different promos.

You could organise competitions for tickets, organise guest speaker interviews and provide sponsorship for primetime shows.

Look out for stations who’s listenership is the same as your target audience. You could offer to advertise the station at your event in exchange for free promo.

Make use of the advertising spaces that you already own and advertise your event at your business premises.

If your business has multiple stores or outlets, you will be able to directly inform customers about your event.

You could also sell tickets for the event at your stores, which may make it easier for certain members of your target audience to purchase them.

Ensure that your event looks professional at all times by unifying your branding on all platforms.

It can be very harmful to your brand image if your event landing page looks completely different to your Facebook or Instagram pages, for example.

All of your communications should be on message too. If people are getting mixed signals, they will become confused and frustrated. The brand voice for the event should be consistent across customer service, advertising, social media and your website.

Tap into your target audience by speaking to them at events that are somewhat similar to your own.

Get in touch with organisers that would be willing to allow you to guest speak or showcase your products at their event. Direct competitors can be ruled out, but companies that you don’t compete with may be willing to strike a deal.

You could offer them the opportunity to feature at your event in exchange; forging a symbiotic marketing relationship.

Sponsors are crucial to any event that needs to raise money to operate. Before you go to the negotiation table, be aware of what value you offer a sponsor.

When trying to attract sponsors, it’s important to know who your target audience is. If a sponsor is suitable for you, chances are that they will be marketing to the same target audience too.

It’s also important to be conscious of what sponsors might ask of you. For example, they could request access to your database of attendees in return for sponsorship. Decide whether you are willing to make these concessions before you begin your search.

Your attendees will often be the best promoters for your event. If they’re looking forward to attending, they might post about it online.

Ask your followers to use specific hashtags when posting so the event becomes even more visible. Share these fan-made posts to show your appreciation for your audience’s input and to further your reach.

User-generated content is typically seen as more trustworthy and reliable than content a business puts out itself. While you may not have control over user-generated content, it can certainly provide a huge increase to the interest in your event.

Creating a sense of urgency can be a huge win for your event. Potential attendees may be considering going to your event, but they may want to wait a while before making up their mind.

Eliminate that by using call-to-actions that demand urgent action from site visitors. Examples of this are ‘get your ticket before they’re gone’ or ‘sign up before it’s too late’. Send emails that say how near it’s getting to the event and highlight the dwindling numbers of tickets that are still available to purchase.

Early bird tickets are another fantastic way to create urgency. Attendees will want to get a ticket at a cheaper price if possible and by supplying a limited amount in a limited timeframe, there is more chance of them being purchased.

Pop-ups may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they can have a positive impact on your website or blog.

Pop-ups need to appear at the right time and not harm the user experience of potential attendees. Bombarding people with pop-ups would not be one of the brightest event marketing ideas.

You could use scroll pop-ups (which require a certain amount of the page to be scrolled through before the pop-up appears) or entry pop-ups (which appear when someone enters the page) on your blog to try to get people to subscribe to your email list or purchase tickets.

A billboard can be a superb event marketing tool. So much advertising is online these days, but billboards can still be hugely influential.

Make sure your billboard is in the right location to attract the attention of your target audience. If you place it somewhere where they don’t frequent, it will have minimal impact. Make your billboard simple, yet interesting, so that it catches the eye of passers by.

The more billboards you can put up the better, as this will only help to reinforce the message you want to get across. Include a captivating call-to-action that prompts viewers to visit your event landing page.

Ad retargeting gives you a chance to follow up with visitors to your event landing page who didn’t purchase a ticket on their first visit. With retargeting, you can track these visitors and advertise to them on other web pages.

Even if a potential attendee is thinking of going to your event, they may need a few prompts to purchase a ticket. Segment your ad retargeting into groups of people who opted out at different stages of the ticket purchase process.

Try to think of different ways that you could advertise to people to try and get them to purchase a ticket second time around. Has a new guest speaker or performer been added to the event that might spark an upsurge interest? If so, use this in your ad retargeting campaign.

An ‘Ask Me Anything’ gives event organisers a fantastic opportunity to engage with their target audience.

Host an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session with a prominent guest speaker or performer to get the maximum turnout. You could go Facebook live and take questions as they come or ask the audience to submit questions before you start recording.

With an ‘Ask Me Anything’, you get to communicate with potential attendees in a very personable manner, provide engaging content and promote your event all in one go.

Publishing a LinkedIn article can offers an insightful way of promoting your event, especially if that event is business oriented.

Most of your audience on LinkedIn will be motivated professionals who are seeking to advance their careers. To engage with them, showcase how your event can provide networking opportunities and job opportunities for them.

Your article could be provide advice and tips that revolve around the industry of your company and the theme of the event. Include at least one link in the article that directs readers towards your event’s landing page.

Depending on the type of event you’re hosting, many attendees will want to be able to take some value from it. Enjoying themselves is one thing, but if an attendee leaves the event feeling they’ve had a truly memorable experience or learned something new, then you’ve truly triumphed.

To help persuade potential attendees of the value of attending your event, constantly remind them of the benefits you can provide in your event marketing push.

Highlight the expertise of certain guest speakers and remind them of the pedigree of some of your performers. You want to clearly emphasise how they will be missing out if they don’t attend.

Pinterest may not be the largest social media site, but it still supplies a powerful platform for both finding event marketing ideas and promoting your event.

Pinterest is a highly-visual platform and is popular amongst a young, mostly female demographic. If this is your target market, regularly posting lots of eye-catching pins and boards can help generate leads and drive traffic to your website.

Some of the content that you could post on Pinterest might include, event photos, event schedules, slides, infographics etc. Make a community board for your event and invite attendees to contribute to it.

Depending on your budget or the type of event you’re hosting; creating a unique, professional-standard app for your event may not be viable.

However, there are many app developers out there who can help you create one. Some of these app creators include GoodBarber, Shoutem, Swiftic and AppInstitute.

Your event app could include articles, the event schedule, the event map, social media updates, an about section, bonus content and much more.

Put a face to the name by uploading pictures of your guest speakers with accompanying bios to your website.

Create a dedicated page that clearly showcases what speakers look like and what their background is. You could go one step further and create individual pages for each speaker with in-depth profiles.

Not only does a speaker page add valuable content to your website, but it highlights what attendees can expect from the event.

Memorable website design might often be overlooked when it comes to event marketing ideas, but it can play a crucial role in selling your event.

Great website design will communicate the vibe and theme of the event effectively, while still managing to provide visitors will all the information they need.

For example, if your event is fun and light-hearted, your website should reflect that. Corporate-style web design would not be suitable in this instance.

Even though YouTube provides a far larger platform for videos online, Vimeo has created a niche for itself that ensures it remains a very useful site.

Vimeo is home to more high-quality, tailor-made content. While YouTube allows users to upload almost any type of video, Vimeo has a strict policy as to what it allows on its site. Less videos can work to your advantage and increases the chances of your content being viewed.

If you are acutely aware of who your target audience is, Vimeo can be a fantastic place for interacting and connecting with them.

Marketing an event can be a complicated business. There are multiple deadlines and targets to hit, allowing for very little room for error.

That’s why it’s of vital importance that everyone is on the same page. Bad communication between your marketing team can result in bad communication between you and potential attendees.

Make sure everyone knows what message you’re trying to get across at each stage of the lead up to the event. You might get away with one misplaced tweet, but if you are not being consistent then people will become confused.

Offer incentives to third-party promoters with an affiliate program. If they manage to help you sell more tickets, they can pick up a referral fee.

Eventbrite offers an affiliate program tool that allows for easy implementation of your affiliate program. The promoters will be credited if tickets are bought through the unique referral link that they are provided with.

These third-party promoters could be anyone, from an influencer to a regular attendee. It’s an arrangement that can benefit everyone involved.

Partnering with local businesses can be a good source of sponsorship for your event, but it also makes your event more visible in the area.

If you haven’t held an event at a certain location before, local businesses can help give you the necessary advice and put you in touch with the right people. These small details can have a big influence on the success of your event.

If your target audience is based in your local area, they may be more supportive of your event if local brands are aligned with it.

As time moves forward, originality is becoming ever more difficult to achieve. If you think you’ve uncovered something amazing, don’t be surprised if someone else has already beaten you to it.

Occasionally in events however, you can discover a unique approach that either nobody has thought of before or that nobody has dared to implement.

Make time to study competitor’s events. See what they did right and note where they went wrong. Use this information to learn how you can avoid the same mistakes and promote areas where you believe you have an advantage over them.

Snapchat and Instagram stories allow for real-time content to be widely shared with your followers during the event. Stories allows you to provide great content for your attendees while also showing those who didn’t attend what they’re missing.

While the rest of your event photography needs to look professional, viewers of your stories won’t expect the highest quality footage. This reduces the time needed to post and gives you the opportunity to experiment a little.

Use these platforms to encourage your attendees to post about their experiences at the event. Both Snapchat and Instagram cater for crowd-sourced stories, so you can create a story for your event and let your attendees add photos and videos to it.

Facebook live is just as useful during your event as before it. Engage with your attendees by conducting polls, revealing behind-the-scenes content and conducting live interviews.

Let your friends and followers know that you intend to go live at a specific time to make sure that as many people as possible are watching. Respond to comments on your live stream and try to persuade your viewers to go live too. The longer your live stream goes on for, the more people it will reach.

Remember, you want to reinforce attendees’ positive feeling about the event and show those who didn’t attend what they can expect if go to the next one.

Featuring a new product at your event can bring in more ticket sales if you manage to create a sense of excitement about the launch.

Give attendees a detailed presentation about the new product, highlighting its capabilities and the benefits it can bring them.

Depending on the product, you could give your attendees a hands-on experience. If they enjoy trying out your product, they might be encouraged to purchase it.

Providing short updates on Twitter is a useful event marketing idea for this stage of your event. You can let attendees know of any changes to the schedule, reveal new information and hype up the next speaker or performer.

Keep using the event hashtag that you introduced in the build up to your event to reach a larger audience. Encourage your followers to use the hashtag in all of their posts too.

Post visual updates as much as possible, as this is more likely to spark engagement than standard text updates.

Decide before the event what your live blogging strategy is going to be. You may want to cover the entire event or just specific speakers. Think about the role of your content and how best to use it to get engagement.

The live blog feed, like your Twitter updates, should be clear and concise. You won’t have time to write lengthy posts during your event and your attendees won’t have time to read them either.

If you’re live blogging and tweeting at the same time, you can seamlessly integrate the two. Tweet about your live blog and post about Twitter responses that have came in from attendees.

If you’re hosting a large event, you’ll be dealing with a greater number of attendees. This means more varied interests and preferences.

To cater for a wide spectrum of attendees, consider hosting mini-events. These events within an event can focus on specific hobbies, topics and themes.

Having something for everyone ensures that even more of your attendees get a valuable experience from the event and tell their friends about the great time they had.

Create a Snapchat geofilter for your event and watch as your attendees share location-specific images with their friends, boosting awareness in the process.

Snapchat geofilters are relatively easy to set up: you create your filter, set a date and time, decide the location where your filter will be available and then choose whether your filter is for personal or business purposes.

Make sure the Snapchat geofilter you have created is unified with your event’s branding and aligns with its theme.

Selling merchandise at your event not only increases your revenue, but serves as a platform to market your event after it has ended.

For example, if an attendee wears a t-shirt that they bought at your event, they are effectively promoting the event and giving it exposure to a wider audience.

Merchandise may not be an event marketing idea that’s viable for everyone, but if it suits your event, the benefits can be well worth it.

Does your event need a sprinkling of fun? If so, consider including some unique interactive entertainment.

This entertainment could be anything from arcade games to a magician. If you create a memorable experience for your audience, then they will associate your event with that experience.

If you advertise the entertainment you have to offer before the event begins, it can help draw the crowds in.

Tap into your attendees’ desire to see themselves on the big screen by implementing a social media wall at your event.

Social media walls can display posts from various platforms (often Twitter) on large screens around your event venue. They are superb for engagement, as they are very good at encouraging people to post. Promote your hashtag and ask attendees to include it in their tweets.

You could also use the social media wall to promote your speakers and sponsors. There are a number of great social media wall suppliers that offer a range of fantastic analytics features.

After an insightful speech from a guest speaker or a riveting musical performance, share some video snippets to social media.

These videos should be quite short, ensuring that the full speech or performance is not given away for free. However, it needs to be long enough to provide interesting content for your followers. Around 10-30 seconds is the optimal length.

Attendees can share these video snippets with their own friends and followers, generating even more interest in your event.

In the same category of event marketing ideas as sharing video snippets is the idea of sharing pictures of guest speakers with quote overlays.

There are lots of useful apps, such as Over and Snapseed, that are fantastic for creating these quote overlays.

They give an insight into the topics that are being discussed by your speakers and provide an ideal format for circulating them on social media to start a larger discussion.

Free promotional products are a hugely underrated addition to any event. Items like branded pens, USB sticks and notepads fulfill a number of subtle roles that may not be initially apparent.

For one, a passer by will be more likely to stop at a stall at your event if there are some free gifts available. They’ll also remember your event and brand every time they use the pen.

Promotional products make people feel valued and increases the chances that they will return to your brand at a later date.

Photo booths are a superb way to generate attendee-created content on your own terms. You could use your own filters and provide the option to share photos directly to social media.

While many photo booths are enclosed, it can be beneficial to place open photo booths in open spaces, where crowds can gather and easily see the fun other people are having.

These booths can vary from the simple options to the more elaborate, so choose the one that best suits your event and your budget.

Provide event visitors with access to free WiFi in exchange for details such as their email and phone number, allowing you to keep in touch with attendees after the event is over.

Internet connection is a must at many events, so attendees should be happy to opt-in to the agreement that allows them to use WiFi.

After the conclusion of the event, you have an avenue to promote your next event, sell tickets and survey attendees.

Don’t miss any opportunity to display your event logo and your company logo to those in attendance.

Regular and consistent branding serves as a constant reminder to attendees that your company is the reason that such an amazing event is taking place.

To display your logo, you could use brochures, posters, flyers, business cards, TVs, big screens, banners, t-shirts, hats etc. It’s important that the branding at your event is in harmony with the branding on your website and social media pages.

One of the most essential event marketing ideas is to keep talking about the event online after it has concluded.

Post regularly on social media in the event’s aftermath to start discussions and keep interest rates high.

Add photos from the event to your social media pages and encourage attendees to share them and tag themselves.

Online surveys are hugely beneficial for finding out what your event got right and what it got wrong.

Send your survey to attendees via email soon after the event has finished and politely ask for their feedback. To get a bigger response, you could provide incentives for those who complete the survey.

Ask attendees questions such as what their favourite part of the event was, their least favourite part, would they attend again and would they recommend the event.

Reaching out to your attendees for testimonials can be a highly-effective event marketing idea. A testimonial is more likely to build confidence and trust in your event than promotional material you have created yourself.

Ask your attendees for testimonials and make it easy for them to wax lyrical about the great time they had at your event.

Place these testimonials strategically on your website and share them on social media to maximise their impact.

Plan your event’s highlight reel before the event even starts. Decide what shots you want and what equipment you need to achieve those shots.

If you’re using music in the highlights reel, make sure that it matches the theme of the event. Good sound quality and the right choice of music will make the video more enjoyable to watch.

The highlights reel should be ready to be released shortly after the event has finished, so it can slot straight into your post-event marketing material.

Turn your attendees into promoters by sending them custom badges to place on their website. These badges emphasise that attending your event was a beneficial exercise for their businesses.

These badges can also be posted on social media with links to your event page or website, ensuring that anyone who views the post knows exactly where to find you.

Badges significantly increase the perceived value of your event and can reinforce the positive feeling an attendee got from being there.

Offer fresh takes on your event by blogging about what happened. Discuss speeches and write thoughtful pieces that your audience will enjoy.

If your event generated attention on social media and you want to talk about a subject an attendee or speaker brought up, don’t just pick the first thing that comes to mind.

Go for the option that can enhance a discussion and bring about new perspectives. Your post-event blog can then serve as promotional material for future events.

You may already have shared some behind-the-scenes content during your event, but sharing it after it’s over can be just as shrewd.

Similar to the way DVDs often include behind-the-scenes content, your audience can view parts of the event that they were initially unable to see.

Post blog posts and videos on social media with titles that clearly inform viewers that it’s something they’ve never seen before.

Guest speakers can be some of your best post-event promoters. They likely have significant audiences already in place who will be willing to listen to them talk about their experience at the event.

In many cases, you may not even have to ask your speakers to promote you, as they are usually only too happy to write about the speech that they gave.

However, to make sure that they are receptive to the idea, ensure that their experience at the event is a positive one. Provide them with all the support they might need and inform them of any updates to the schedule.

Show your attendees how grateful you are that they came to your event with a personalised thank you email.

Along with being a nice gesture, sending a thank you email might increase the chances of them wanting to attend your next event.

Don’t just limit the thank yous to attendees; send them to speakers, performers and sponsors too. Let them know how much you enjoyed working with them

Following up with your attendees who didn’t attend is just as important as following up with those who did. Segment your email list appropriately and try to find out why they didn’t turn up.

You can use this as an opportunity to invite them to your next event and to persuade them to attend it.

There are many reasons why someone may not have turned up, the most likely being that they simply couldn’t, so there’s no need to jump to conclusions. The main goal is to keep them engaged so that they turn up for the next event.

Have a plan in place that details how you are going to follow up with your attendees and monitor the effectiveness of that plan.

A well thought out lead nurturing strategy will result in a higher number of attendees becoming a customer of your business and purchasing tickets for your next event.

A/B test different methods and then evaluate which is the most efficient for achieving your goals.

Your first event might have been a huge success, but don’t rest on your laurels. Now it’s time to start promoting your next event.

Capitalise on the social media buzz surrounding your event by identifying what people are talking about and using the positive comments to fuel your promotion push and create new content.

This generates momentum and helps to carry interest from one event to the next. If you are organising a series of events in quick succession, this tactic is essential.

Marketing an event is never going to be an easy process; there’s going to be lots of ups and downs along the way. However, with the help of these event marketing ideas, you will have the tools to make your event a massive success.

Take one step at a time when deciding what your marketing strategy is going to be. Carefully consider what you need to implement to achieve your goals, and soon enough, you’ll have a thorough and detailed event marketing plan.

If you have any more great event marketing ideas that you’d like to share with us. Go ahead and tweet us @getdesignwizard. If you’ve used one of our ideas, we’d love to know how it benefited both your event and your business.