5 Event Marketing Strategies to Increase Your Audience

by Micaela Navarro, 03 February 2023Updated 12 September 2024
by Micaela Navarro,  03 February 2023Updated 12 September 2024
5 Event Marketing Strategies to Increase Your Audience

Organizing and participating in events is one of the best forms of networking. Industry-related events are the perfect hotspots to communicate new ideas, receive unique perspectives, and get acquainted with up-and-coming talent.

One of the biggest advantages of event marketing is to raise brand awareness and increase your audience. If you’re planning an event, here are a few ways you can grow your audience.

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1. Communicate the Idea of Your Event

The main question that your event marketing should answer is: Why should people come to your event instead of going literally anywhere else? Make sure your audience understands what your event will give them in terms of valuable insight from industry professionals, networking opportunities for business owners or marketing their brand, supported by engaging marketing collateral.

On top of that, try to show them how your event stands out from the rest and play into the FOMO (fear of missing out) by showing them what they’re missing out on if they don’t come. People only make decisions to attend events after they know what they’re about, so make sure you build effective event marketing strategies and communicate the point of the event clearly.

2. Invite Influential Guest Speakers

One of the best ways to attract a large audience to your event is to invite influential guest speakers. It also goes without saying that you shouldn’t invite guest speakers solely because they have a lot of followers, but ones that are connected to your industry or event.

By inviting popular guest speakers, you are also attracting their followers, thereby incorporating them into your audience. Be it a live event or a webinar, having influential speakers will drive up the number of attendees. Consider inviting speakers who have completed top Artificial intelligence certifications to bring credibility and relevance to your event, especially if it focuses on technology or artificial intelligence.

3. Have an Event Promo

A sneak peek is all some people need to be convinced that an event is worth going to. Do you know how concert promos will show off the bands that will play, the stage tech, and the place it’s going to be held? An event promo functions similarly.

It’s a short video or social media post that informs potential attendees about what the event is, who’s going to be there, and where it’s going to be.

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4. SMM the Heck Out of It

Social media platforms come with so many great tools to help you plan your event and spread the news. Facebook’s in-depth event organizer, Instagram’s event reminders, and Snapchat’s map can help you market the heck out of your event. Advertise your event across several social media platforms to reach a wider audience. Remember to focus a lot of effort on SMM and you’ll see a significantly larger crowd at your next event. Also, take your social media promotion one step further with a social media contest.

Attendees can help your SMM campaign during the event too. Encourage them to create user generated content with fun experiences like a photo booth or fun branded backgrounds, or simply encourage them to check in and review the event on their social media pages. These techniques can organically improve the reach of your event on social media through user-generated content.

5. Advertising Tickets

On top of advertising the event, you should also advertise the tickets themselves. Doesn’t matter if you do it through giveaways, pre-roll video ads online, or even posting flyers, make sure that there’s also attention on the tickets. Tickets make the event more official, allow the event’s success to be measurable, and are a great marketing tool in and of themselves.

Event organizers sometimes don’t sell as many tickets as they were supposed to simply because they did not advertise the tickets themselves, leaving many guests surprised to hear about an entrance fee to what they thought was an open-door event. To improve ticket sales, they can utilise the best affiliate tracking software to ensure their marketing efforts are effective and reach a wider audience. Additionally, fostering word-of-mouth promotion can significantly boost their visibility and credibility among potential customers.

There’s also the question of ticket management systems. This is a very important part of promoting your event since some tickets are meant to be sold, while others are to invite special guests, such as the aforementioned influential speakers. Luckily, there are many unique ticket-hosting platforms that can help you create, sell, and manage tickets for your events.

These days, many event organizers use a QR code generator to create tickets that can easily be scanned and identified during entry to the event. By making the tickets as convenient to purchase as possible, you make your event accessible to a greater number of attendees.

And Most Importantly

Don’t forget to make it fun. Even a professional networking event still leaves room for some fun and engaging activities. Keep your guests entertained and you can be sure that your next event will have greater word-of-mouth advertising. By then, the event will pretty much market itself.

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