The most effective ways to promote your event online – a round-up from 20 Bedford Way
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown the ultimate curveball at event organisers this year. Most event professionals have been forced to transition their events online. While this is a very necessary process, it has shifted the focus away from promoting the events.
But with several months of social distancing now behind us, most event organisers have found ways to successfully digitize elements of their events. The challenge now faced is: how to make sure the right people attend them.
Over the years, we’ve written a lot about online event promotion. So, we thought we’d collate all our guides in one place to provide the ultimate resource for promoting your event online.
In this article, you’ll find a list of the most effective ways to promote your event online, complete with links to our more in-depth articles where you can explore each channel further.
5 ways to promote your event online
At 20 Bedford Way, we’ve been championing digital marketing as a way to promote events long before the pandemic. We’re living in an increasingly digital world, and with more events online than ever, online event promotion is crucial to success. Below we highlight the five key ways you should be promoting your event online.
1. Promote your event with email marketing
Emails have been used in event promotion for years, but they’re becoming an increasingly powerful tool to target and engage potential event attendees. According to an Eventbrite study, 78% of event creators say email marketing is their most effective marketing tactic, and for those who track it, 45% of event ticket sales can be attributed to email.
We’ve written a full guide about how to use email marketing to promote your event and increase attendance. Head to our Email Marketing for Events Guide and you’ll find out:
- Why email is so important in event planning
- How to create a pre-event marketing email strategy
- How to benefit from post-event email marketing
- The best email marketing tools to use for events
- How to design your emails for better success
2. Build a website for your event or use event platforms
Creating a bespoke website for your event or using an event platform such as Eventbrite can help your event capture the attention of your potential attendees. It’s a way to showcase everything that your delegates can expect from your event, along with all the information about how they can attend. It also allows you to better predict your attendance numbers, and offers an agile way to communicate event updates.
We’ve written a full guide about this. Head to our Getting Your Event Online Guide where you’ll find out:
- Whether a dedicated website or an event platform is best suited for your event
- What event platforms are available for you to promote your event
- How to use Facebook events for promotion
- Why you should create an event website
- How to create an exciting and effective event website or webpage
- About SEO for event websites
- How to promote your website or event or event platform with paid ads
3. Use social media to promote your events
Social media is key for marketing everything these days and events are no exception. Depending on the channel, you can use social media to promote your event before it takes place, while it’s taking place, and after it’s finished, too.
We’ve written guides about the most commonly used social media platforms for events promotion. You can find them below.
Event promotion on Facebook
Facebook is an indispensable platform for event marketing. It has even positioned itself as an event promotion platform over the years, and is now a key discovery tool for people searching for events taking place.
We explain how you can get the best results promoting your event with Facebook. In our Facebook Event Marketing Guide, you’ll find out:
- How to create a Facebook event & optimise the page
- How to set up an event ad on Facebook
- How to run an effective event promotion ad campaign on Facebook
- How you can use your personal networks to encourage event attendance
Event promotion on Linkedin
LinkedIn is a crucial professional social networking channel for promoting events, especially sector or industry-based events. It’s especially useful for industry events that have had to transition to an online format, as it allows you to promote them to people most likely to attend.
We’ve written all about using Linkedin for promoting your events in our LinkedIn Event Promotion Guide. Here you’ll find out:
- Why LinkedIn is such a powerful tool for event professionals
- How to promote your event on LinkedIn
- How to utilise LinkedIn’s published posts for event promotion
- How to send an event invite by direct message on LinkedIn
- How to create a LinkedIn event showcase page
- How you can create an event networking group and invite LinkedIn contacts
Live event tweeting with Twitter
Twitter is the best channel for promoting your event while it’s happening. It engages your delegates, creates a buzz and allows you to interact with your event attendees. It also allows you to gauge what’s gone well and what could have gone better during your event, providing an excellent place to learn and evolve your events in the future.
We’ve written all about live tweeting at events in our Live Event Tweeting Guide. Here you’ll find out:
- The full benefits of live tweeting at events
- What you should tweet during an event
- What to avoid tweeting at events
- How to increase engagement in your event tweets
Using Snapchat to promote your event
Snapchat offers an effective way to market your event to a younger generation, making it an ideal social media channel if your event is targeted at younger audiences.
There are lots of ways you can use Snapchat to promote your event effectively. We’ve written about this in greater detail in our Snapchat for event marketing guide. In this guide, you’ll learn:
- How to get started with Snapchat for events
- How to get more followers on snapchat
- How to make geofilters for events
- How to create ads to promote events on Snapchat
- How to use snapchat before, during and after an event
4. Use video marketing to promote your event
Video has become increasingly important as an online promotion tool and boasts some unique benefits that other promotional content doesn’t offer. It makes social media ads more compelling, it can help sell your event content faster than written promotional material, and is the most shared content on the web.
We’ve written an in-depth guide about how you can use video to promote your event online. Head to our Video Marketing For Events Guide, and you’ll discover:
- How to create your own event videos
- The best way to work with a video production company
- How you can promote your event video
5. Online content marketing for events
Online content helps people realise that they want to attend your event. It’s what inspires and compels them to buy a ticket and attend your event. That’s because you can create content that speaks directly to your audience and adds genuine value. Once you get it in front of them, it’s only a matter of time before they click “attend”.
We’ve written a whole guide about online content marketing for events. Head to our Content Marketing For Events Guide, and you’ll learn:
- What the best types of content are for event promotion
- Why you should use content to market your event
- How to create compelling content that attracts attendees
- How to optimise your content for SEO
- What content you should promote on social media and how
- How to use content after your event has finished
Promoting your events online – help from 20 Bedford Way
Things are the toughest they’ve ever been for event professionals. That’s why we want to make sure we’re here for you.
We’ve created content designed to help you achieve the best possible results despite facing the biggest challenges our industry has ever faced. Head to our blog, and you’ll find a whole range of content that can help you organise all types of events, from conferences to training events. We’ve updated our articles with actionable ways to adapt your event to an online environment.
And, when things are back to normal, our event venue will be here waiting for you. If you want to book your event at our Bloomsbury event venue, you can contact our team today on 020 7612 6143 or email venuehire@ioe.ac.uk.
