Getting the Most Out of Event Email Marketing: A Mini Guide

Event email marketing is one of the most powerful online strategies to promote your events. By sending well-crafted marketing emails, you can regularly check in with your audience, increase registrations, secure sponsorships and speakers, and grow your brand visibility. 

This guide provides everything you need to consider when creating an effective email marketing strategy for your event. 

Event Email Marketing Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Before you prepare promotional marketing materials to boost your event, you must familiarize yourself with the key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure campaign performance and success. Here are some metrics you should consider measuring for your campaign:

• Open Rate: Rate of subscribers who open your emails. Divide the number of people who opened the email by the number of people who received the email. 
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Number of subscribers who open the email and click on the content that links to their following action, such as navigating to your registration page. Dive how many clicked on your email by how many people opened the email. 
• Unsubscribe Rate: Rate of people who unsubscribe from your email sends. Divide the number of unsubscribed users by the number of emails delivered, then multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

As you track metrics, use these insights to optimize your email strategies and improve your performance. For example, keep track of your unsubscribe rate and adjust your actions if the percentage becomes too high. Consider sending messages less frequently or increasing the value of the messages to the users.

Consider other KPIs according to the goals you need to accomplish. For example, you might also track:

• Ticket sales
• Event registrations
• Sponsorship inquiries and signups
• Speaker inquiries and signups

You’ll have a more focused perspective of your marketing results when you track indicators relevant to your event goals. Keep an organized record of these metrics to identify areas of potential improvement. Incorporating this data into your event marketing strategy will ultimately lead to more effective methods of promotion that resonate with your audience.

Event Email List Segmentation

Sending the right message to the right person at the right time is the best way to guarantee the success of your event email marketing campaign. Use an email append service to ensure your contact information is correct while focusing on the details of your messaging and branding.

While an email append will ensure you send messages to the right people, you should also consider the steps you can take to send the right messages. Different groups will require different messages to feel motivated by your content.

MemberClicks’s guide to event planning recommends identifying shared characteristics of your audience members to determine how you can create relevant email lists. 

For example, you’re trying to secure sponsorships for your upcoming event and want to send targeted messages to various companies. Here are a few lists you can create to attract more sponsorship interest:

• Companies who demonstrated interest in sponsoring one of your events in the past have yet to do so.
• Companies who sponsored your events in the past but haven’t sponsored any recently.
• Companies who sponsored your last event.
• Companies who would be a good fit to sponsor your event.

The beauty of segmenting your lists is that you can personalize and craft targeted messages. This may yield more responses than a generic email. Similarly, you might also segment your attendee list, for example, by job title, industry, and ticket type.

Email Subject Lines for Event Promotion

Once you’ve determined who your audience is, you’ll need to decide how you’ll grab their attention. When sending your message through email, a well-crafted subject line can define the success of your entire campaign. Without an attractive reason for people to open your email, your contacts may end up not even reading what you say. 

Studies show that shorter subject lines yield higher open rates, but you should also consider wording that generates curiosity and inspires action. Here are some strategies and ideas for subject lines to promote your event:

• Fear of Missing Out: “Last day to grab your tickets to the ABC Conference!”
• Curiosity: “Lineup for the ABC conference is out!”
• Funny: “All-you-can-eat muffins (and a great conference too)”
• Vanity: “Become a better marketer in 1 step!”
• Greed: “2 for 1 tickets. One day only. Go!”
• Sloth: “3 steps to become a better marketer”
• Pain Point: “How to drive more sales through email marketing.”
• Retargeting: “The ticket in your cart is about to expire.”
• Personal Subjects: Hey John, will we see you there?”
• Straightforward Subjects: “ABC Conf 2018”
• Top Subject: “Upgrade to VIP”

As you consider ways to draw readers to read your message, be as specific to your audience as possible. Rely on your metrics to determine what is most important to your recipients, then use this information to craft targeted subject lines that will pique their interest.

Email Call to Action (CTA)

If you want readers to take action (and we know you do!), tell them what you want them to do. Less is more regarding email structure, so focus on one clear call to action in each message. The best way to do this is by adding a button to your email. 

For example, if you want to urge readers to visit your event registration landing page, create a button for your email that links to your webpage. 

Follow these tips to create a call to action that your readers can’t ignore:

• Use a color contrasting with the other colors on the email to stand out from the rest of the page. 
• Pay close attention to the copy you add to the button, ensuring it has a clear message. For example, avoid generic messages, such as “click here,” and write something more direct, such as “Get Early Bird Tickets Today.”
• Add the button close to the top of the email so users don’t need to scroll down to see it. Consider adding one call to action button on the top portion of the email and another one on the bottom.

You might test out different button colors, messages, and locations to see which performs best. Ensure your calls to action are cohesive with the email’s overall design.

Event Email Design & Branding

Your company likely creates branded materials for all of its outreach efforts. For example, a hospital might create branded eCards to wish their patients a quick recovery. Branding helps an audience associate the message with your organization, and the same can be said about events. 

One of the primary objectives of running an event is to generate brand awareness and create a memorable experience. Make sure your email design is consistent with your event branding. Consider these elements for your email design:

• Color
• Imagery
• Language
• Layout

Keep your organization, event, and email branding consistent to generate excitement over your event. A loyal audience will gladly support an event associated with your organization, and new audiences will have better insight into your work when they experience your brand through an event.

Event Email Content

Although the email’s design and user interactivity are essential, its content is the most crucial part of your promotion. Use the content to set the stage for the action you’re asking your audience to take. For example, consider these key messages when planning your event email marketing calendar:

• Save the date message
• Early-bird tickets on sale
• Notifying of price increases
• Promote speakers
• Promote workshops
• Accommodation, transportation, and tourist attractions
• Special offers
• Photos and videos from previous events
• Sneak peek of the key takeaways from the event
• Post-event survey
• Follow up with a discount code for the next year’s event

Promotion of each of these tasks will be dependent on their timing. For example, you’ll want to send a save-the-date message early enough so your attendees can mark their calendars and clear their schedules. Reduce the stress of managing your timeline by putting together a calendar to help you outline and schedule the critical pieces of information that you need to communicate with your audience.

You can also incorporate relevant themes for your messages. For example, construct a short message to follow up with attendees after an early December event. Then, use eCardWidget to create and include a fun holiday card, wishing your attendees a fantastic close to the year.

A Strong Event Email Marketing Strategy Yields Event Goals

Event email marketing is definitely a science, but it’s not a difficult one to master. Follow the steps in this guide, and you can put together a solid email strategy to meet your event goals.

Event Marketing Automation At Your Fingertips with Attendease

Promote your meetings and events with integrated event marketing automation tools. Easily launch and promote your events, interact with registrants, and track your campaigns, all from one place. The Attendease marketing suite is a planner’s best friend. Attendease will automate repetitive tasks, creating efficiencies for you and a more personalized experience for your audience.

• Streamline and automate communication.
• Deliver fully branded experiences.
• Gather data that matters to you.