There are plenty of different ways to promote an event, but email still remains one of the most important — in fact, 61% of consumers prefer to be contacted by brands through email.
The most important thing to remember? Email recipients spend an average of 15-20 seconds reading each email, so not only do you need to make an impact, but you need to do it quickly.
Whether you’re inviting prospects to stop by your trade show booth, attend a thought leadership panel, networking event, VIP dinner, or otherwise, better attendance doesn’t just mean filling the room — it can mean more opportunities for engagement, and more potential value for your business.
Below, we walk through 8 email best practices that’ll help you drive better event attendance.
It’s a proven fact that recipients open an email based on the subject line. To be most effective, create engaging copy that'll make users want to click. Try including action verbs, numerical data, or a psychological component to make invitees feel special.
A good example of this: “You’re Invited: Join 2000 Marketers at Dreamforce.” The subject line expresses the value of being with thousands of other marketers, and the "Your Invited" makes it feel more personal.
Pro tip: since messages get truncated on mobile, try to make subject lines less than 50 characters.
Once someone opens your email, there’s a good chance the first thing they’ll see is the headline. Your headline should communicate what a guest will get out of attending your event (aka your event mission statement). Keep the copy concise and informative, and most importantly, highlight a draw of your event — like an impressive speaker or unique networking opportunity.
Just because you want grab people’s attention quickly, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t provide all of the important information. Include the 5 Ws for your event: who, what, when, where, and why — and try to keep the details as clear as possible (bullet points are your best friend).
Here's one of our favorite examples from our event at SXSW:
Think about who will receive your email, and incorporate language (think about your tone and copy) that'll resonate with them the best. For example, if you're targeting CTO’s, highlight pain points of cyber attacks and how CTO’s need to learn more about the cybersecurity solutions at your trade show booth.
Pro tip: include a link to a piece of your content (that relates to the event) that you think recipients will be interested in.
In addition to thinking about your target audience, tailor the copy to the event itself, too. If the purpose of the event is to socialize and entertain, keep the copy light and fun. If the event is more professional, communicate its educational and networking value with a more serious tone.
Make sure you don’t just mention, but actually explain, the benefits attendees will get from coming to your event. And as the saying goes, time is money — so make sure your attendees quickly understand the value of your event.
Showcase qualitative and/or quantitative results — for example a testimonial from a past attendee or how the knowledge shared at the event will impact their business.
Here's an example we love from the SaaStr conference. They quoted David Ewart, Head of Digital Marketing at Oracle, saying, “It’s Dreamforce Meets Burning Man” — which evokes feelings that attendees will find professional and personal value. In the email copy they focused on the data-driven benefits and include, “We help you get from $0 to $100M ARR Faster with less stress and more success.”
Social proof is “a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect the correct behavior for a given situation… driven by the assumption that they possess more information about the situation.”
You can incorporate social proof in your emails by mentioning other brands that will be there (if they've already RSVPd) to create more buzz around the event.
Once you’ve laid out the importance of attending the event, finish with a strong call-to-action (CTA) button. This is the real test to see if you’ve created an effective message — track CTA click-through rates and see the percentage of open rates to RSVPs. But before you get there, you want to create a CTA that will draw people in.
Here are a few ideas that we've seen work well:
Whether it’s by mentioning that there’s only a certain number of tickets or capitalizing on FOMO, you always want to create a sense of urgency around your event — starting from the very first email.
We’ve also found that the “P.S.” is the mostly commonly read and clicked part of an email, so use it to your advantage. Try out copy like, “P.S. Only five tickets left. Don’t miss out on the best event to network with other leading account-based marketing professionals.”
When done right, this can help influence invitees to take action and RSVP right then and there.
Email is a crucial part of a successful event promotion strategy. Get our all-in-one guide to promoting your event.
Ben Hindman is co-founder and CEO of Splash, the country's fastest-growing event marketing platform that helps businesses and brands more effectively market through their events. An event planner turned tech entrepreneur, events are in Ben’s DNA. Prior to starting Splash, Ben was the Director of Events at Thrillist, where he produced large-scale events from concerts to mystery fly-aways.
