If you're in the event marketing business, or just planning a one-off event, smart email marketing is a crucial aspect of your event's success. Whether it's in-person or online, a major conference or an hour-long webinar, to get event registrations rolling in you need to have a beautiful and intriguing email campaign. Here are 5 tips to help you maximize event attendance and keep your attendees engaged before and after the event.
Tip #1: Start with a great design brief
To get potential registrants excited and intrigued, your email campaigns about the event need to look as polished and as beautiful as your event will be. To pull it off, start with a well-thought-out design brief that provides a design roadmap—without being too prescriptive. Make sure your design team knows important details like the target audience, the full scope of the campaign, and how you're measuring success. For more, read our post: 10 Questions to Consider When Writing an Email Design Brief.
Tip #2: Set your event invitation apart from the rest
The best way to grab attendees’ attention from the start is with a bold, unique header. Use live text over a background image to make sure your message always appears, even if your image fails to. Get creative with HTML background colors alongside images.
Tip #3: Optimize your event registration call to action
You can get more creative than "Register here" or "Sign up." Engage and delight your potential registrants—especially when you want them to click!
- Choose words that reflect the brand, incorporate personal pronouns ("my" and "your"), and make it original!
- Choose the right color (yes, there's a "right" one)
- Make it bulletproof, never an image
Tip #4: Roll out an event reminder campaign
As your event approaches, have email campaigns planned to remind those who registered, as well as those who haven't yet.
- Make sure registrants have the information they need to get to the correct place on time
- Still have open seats? Incentivize registrants to make last-minute friend invites
- Have a plan to re-engage people who don't complete the registration process (Here's how).
Read our 5 effective strategies for event reminder emails.
Tip #5: Afterward, send an event follow-up email
Be sure to thank those who attended, and ask for feedback with a survey. Better yet, make it an in-email single-question survey to increase your response rate. For more event email design inspiration, check out these tips for event follow-up emails.
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