How to Use Email Marketing Effectively to Promote Events

When it comes to promoting a time-sensitive offer in your business, there are many avenues you might want to test out, such as Facebook ads, influencer outreach and search ads.

Another one, often underrated, is email marketing. As well as community building, email marketing has benefits for any type of promotion, including:

• It is low-cost, and typically provides higher reach and engagement for its cost compared to paid advertising
• It is aimed at an already warm and engaged audience
• Getting started is extremely simple
• Even with basic measurement and tracking, it is easy to show the return on investment

Furthermore, unlike social channels, email marketing doesn’t depend on algorithms or the nature of any particular platform. It’s reaching people who have consented to hearing from you through a personal and protected communication channel – their email.

In this guide, we’ll specifically look into promoting one-off or annual events, such as industry conferences, one-day sales, charity events, and highly purchase-oriented periods such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Why Email Marketing Works for Events

Unlike your social media following, your email list naturally consists of people who are close to your brand. They may have simply subscribed to receive offers and discounts, or they might be someone who’s purchased from you in the past.

Either way, no matter how big or small your list is, it’s easy to see the value behind it. As mentioned above, it’s the most one-on-one way to communicate with your audience, with outcomes such as:

• Return of $44 for every $1 spent
• Open rates from 20.4% to 24.1% for events and non-profit categories
• Almost 5% click-through rate for event email marketing

These numbers mean that even a small email list can drive significant results without risking your budget.

What makes these outcomes happen for email more than any other promotion channel? Here are some email-specific features to consider.

Powerful segmentation. From the first moment you attract a new subscriber, you can start segmenting them. One way is to ask for relevant information directly in the sign-up form, like Melyssa Griffin does on her homepage. This allows her to target relevant subscribers with new digital product launches and in-person events.

Another way to segment is by tracking activities of specific users, such as certain clicks and purchases, in order to tailor the messaging towards the launch of your event. For example, if a visitor has viewed the pricing page, but hasn’t purchased, you can send them a different email to someone who never visited your website at all.

Timeliness. By being clever and intentional with your subject lines, you can leverage people’s curiosity and the fear of missing out (FOMO) to drive time-sensitive activity such as buying during early bird pricing and other limited-time offers.

Testing a new idea on a small segment. If you have an idea that differs significantly from what you usually send to your list, but you believe it could bring better results, you can take a smaller segment of your list and test the idea out with them first. For example, you can test a different sender name or subject line style, the format of your email, or the type of promotion you’re running. If this returns positive results, you can roll it out to a bigger segment or the rest of your list.