What is Event Marketing? Strategies & Examples

Event marketing can have a big impact for your business. Connecting closely with your customers at events can generate an immediate or long-term return on investment (ROI), help to grow your brand, and build customer loyalty.

Planning an event takes months of work. You can’t risk having a low sign-up rate—the success of the event and your performance review depends on it. But how to find your audience and promote your event in the places potential attendees are hanging out?

There are plenty of ways to advertise your event depending on its type and your target audience.

By the end of this comprehensive event marketing guide, you’ll be able to combine different actions and lay out a plan for your custom event marketing strategy.

What is an event marketing?

Event marketing is the practice of hosting in-person, hybrid, or virtual events to promote a product or service. The purpose of these events is usually to entertain, educate, or connect with potential customers.

What is an event marketing strategy?

An event marketing strategy is a plan for using an event to promote a brand or product. Your strategy could be a high-level timeline of promotional activities or a granular, step-by-step breakdown of attendee touchpoints.

Types of event marketing (with examples)

Any virtual event marketing guide could tell you that there are different types of events that you can use as event marketing tactics, including:

• In-person
• Online
• Hybrid

In-person event marketing

These live events happen face-to-face - not virtually. These events allow your prospects to interact with you and your products firsthand. Examples include:

• Sponsored marathons, half-marathons, and 5K walks
• In-person conferences
• Launch parties for new products
• Anniversary celebrations
• Trade fairs
• Pop-up shops

Online event marketing

Online marketing events happen virtually and are only accessible through a meeting link. These events reach a wider (even global) audience. You will likely need an event marketing tool or software to host this kind of event. However, since it requires less effort for people to attend, the signups to attendance ratio are usually lower than in-person events. Use cases include:

• Webinars
• Deminars
• Workshops
• Conferences
• Master classes
• Seminars

Hybrid event marketing

Another great event marketing example is a hybrid event. These events can be attended virtually and in-person, meaning they’re more easily accessible to a wider audience. It usually works by recording and streaming a real-life event to online attendees. Some of the best event marketing examples for a dual audience include:

• Industry summits
• Master classes
• Product launches
• Fundraises
• Seminars

Why you should run events on your marketing strategy

Events make great marketing tools because they maximize your one-to-many marketing efforts. They also help:

• Build or improve brand awareness at every stage of the event (before, during, and after)
• Generate prospects and engage with previously captured leads
• Share insights and research behind products or services with potential customers
• Involve prospects in the marketing process and make them feel part of something bigger
• Promote products, services, or new functionality
• Invite others to network and build relationships with industry peers
• Increase client satisfaction and engagement
• Invite potential customers to give feedback
• Reach a wider audience

The event marketing industry is growing exponentially

According to a study conducted by Verified Market Research (2022), the events industry is expected to reach USD 2,194.40 billion in worth by 2028. That means people are and will continue to invest in events for marketing purposes.

A great deal of B2B marketing events are profitable over time

Markletic reports that 45% of B2B event organizers expect at least a 3x ROI one year after the event. This means that for B2B marketing, events are highly profitable in the long run.

The tech that you use matters in virtual and hybrid marketing events

Having the perfect microphone and webcam for webinars and webcasts is critical for its success. In fact, Markletic shared early this year that 70% of their surveyed marketers agree that having a quality microphone is crucial for these events. A good camera is also important according to 60% of the surveyed people.

A marketing event usually improves the perception of the brand among attendees

Earlier this year, Visme shared that 74% of the surveyed attendees leave the event with a positive impression of the brand. This leads to them doing further research about the brand and potentially becoming customers.

How do you plan an event marketing strategy?

Before you can implement your event marketing strategy, you have to write it.
To do that, you need to define your objectives, understand your audience, and establish a timeline for planning, promoting, and pulling off your event.

1. Define your objectives and set KPIs
2. Evaluate your resources
3. Research your target audience
4. Choose an event format
5. Decide on the basic details of your event
6. Establish a timeline
7. Map out your touch points
8. Write an event marketing plan template

1. Define your objectives and set KPIs

Goals are your strategy’s best friend. There are different goal-setting approaches that you can follow. That way, you can make future data-driven decisions and measure the success of your event in a specific way :

• S.M.A.R.T. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Use it to focus your efforts on attainable and result-driven goals.
• B.H.A.G. Big, hairy, audacious goals. Use it to set unrealistic but inspiring goals.
• H.A.R.D. Heartfelt, animated, required, and difficult. Use this strategy to set personal growth goals.

Assign specific key performance indicators (KPI) to each objective so you can measure the success of the event. If you’re hosting an online one, set virtual event metrics and track them using the Livestorm analytics dashboard.

Examples of B2B event marketing goals and objectives include:

• Get more than 50% of attendance rate out of signups
• Increase the prospects list by 50 names and contact information
• Get a score of at least 4.5/5 in the post-attendance feedback survey

2. Evaluate your resources

Setting boundaries for your project will help avoid making promises you can't deliver or blowing your department budget. Evaluate all your available resources, including:

• Budget. Do you have any money assigned to spend on paid ads, influencer marketing, or offline marketing? How much?
• Team members and capabilities. Who will be working with you on this event? Do they know how to approach the planned tasks? Do you need to request hiring approvals?
• Time capacity. Does your team have the bandwidth to take on additional responsibilities? Will it delay the deliverables?
• Tools. Do you need to pay for any specific tools (e.g. social media scheduling platforms)? Does your team know how to use them?

Plan to close potential gaps before you start promoting your event.

3. Research your target audience

Your event marketing strategy should be tightly linked to your target audience so you can craft posts that speak directly to them. You should know everything about your audience:

• Their likes and dislikes
• Time preferences
• Media consumption habits
• Who are the influencers they follow
• How they spend their free time
• How old they are
• What’s their field of study
• What’s their favorite social media and social media group/community

This information will simplify the decision-making process on further steps like deciding the format of your webinar and identifying touch points with your audience.

4. Decide on the basic details of your event

Your marketing strategy will likely be different depending on the type of event. Define the:

• Format. Will it be in-person, virtual, or hybrid?
• Content-type. Are you hosting a conference, seminar, webinar, or trade show?
• Location. Where is this happening? Do you need to book a venue? Do you have the right online events platform to host this event?
• Speakers. Who is leading the event? Can you use the speakers as part of your promotion strategy?
• Potential automations. How much manual intervention does the strategy require? Can you automate email campaigns and retarget ads? Do you need to manually invite every single attendee or buy personalized gifts?

5. Choose an event format

Each event has its particularities and to plan properly, you need to define its format. The type of event and format are tightly linked. The type is the way in which you will reach potential customers, and the format is the structure you’ll follow to reach them. Typical formats include: deminars, conferences, parties, master classes, and sponsored races.

6. Establish a timeline

One of the key aspects of successful event marketing is planning ahead. A good way to do this is by preparing a timeline with a list of everything that needs to happen before the event.

Identify when you need to start and finish promoting your event. If you’re hosting an event on-demand, determine whether or not you'll need recurring promotional activities. You may find project management methodologies useful for laying out your timeline. For example, you could build a Gantt chart where you can assign tasks with deadlines and detailed responsibilities.

7. Map out your touch points

Leads need to be exposed to the same information several times before they click or convert. Map out the places where your audience will hear from you, what you’ll be including in those communications, and in which format. Drip registrants with information and reminders to drive attendance.

Here's an example. Your potential attendee:

1. Gets an email recommendation from your event three months in advance
2. Sees an Instagram ad a week after they get the email
3. Listens to an influencer talking about your event in their Instagram stories three days after they saw the ad
4. Sees an ad while searching for something online a week after they listened to the influencer
5. Someone hands them a poster with your event information on campus 9 weeks before the event
6. Listens to their favorite influencer giving out a discount code seven weeks before the event
7. Opens the landing page and signs up seven weeks before the event
8. Gets a confirmation email right after they sign up
9. Gets an email with further information a few days prior to the event

You can also list the things that happen during and after the event:

• Gets to the venue/joins the event– what do they see?
• Gets a gift for attending the event– what is it?
• Gets an email to fill out a feedback survey– how does it look?
• Offer a discounted rate for the next event if they post an Instagram story and tag you– how do you verify they’ve posted the story?
• Get an Amazon gift card if they leave a review on your website– how much? Who sends it?

8. Write an event marketing template

A great way to save time in the future and make your job much more efficient is to create an event marketing strategy template. This allows you to have easy access to the basic steps you need to follow for planning an event. You can write one for live, hybrid, or virtual events.

10 Event marketing strategies and ideas

It’s time to take action! Approach this list with a mix-and-match mentality. Use the information gathered during the planning stages to come up with your unique promotion strategy. In this section, you’ll find ideas to help you:

1. Design an event website or landing page
2. Plan amazing content
3. Create a promo video
4. Promote on a mix of channels
5. Deliver a press release
6. Partner with influencers
7. Create a sense of urgency and build FOMO
8. Get attendees to share on social media
9. Livestream in-person events
10. Try virtual event marketing

1. Design an event website or landing page

You need a registration page for any type of event. The format might vary depending on the type of event. Every landing page should contain:

• The date and location
• Informative but compelling explanation of the event
• Unique value proposition that speaks to your target audience
• Form for people to sign up
• Clear CTA button
• The price
• A summary of the event
• The event agenda
• A short bio of the speakers
• A way to contact your support team

Send further information via email like any required pre-reads, recommended hotels and maps with accessibility, or fun things to do in the event destination.

If you’re hosting an online event, you can use Livestorm to create your registration page with a custom form. If you’re hosting a hybrid or in-person event, use tools like Carrd or Swipe Pages to easily create these event landing pages.

2. Plan amazing content

The best strategy is to host an event that impresses the audience and adds so much value that they can’t help but talk about it afterward. Hosting an impressive event can look different depending on the type of event.

• If you’re hosting an in-person event. Make sure the speaker is engaging and captivating. Foster opportunities for people to connect with each other and have organic fun. Incorporate ice breakers and give each one of the participants a giveaway present.
• If you’re hosting a hybrid event. Guarantee the event is equally enjoyable for the people online as to the ones that are physically there. Use a virtual conference tool like Livestorm to display virtual attendees’ questions or poll results on a screen.
• If you’re hosting an online event. Identify opportunities to make your virtual event more engaging with features that invite your audience to participate and avoid getting bored. It’s part of virtual conference best practices to use polls, Q&As, virtual whiteboards, or share your screen to cast videos to engage your audience.

3. Create a promo video

Another marketing event strategy idea is to create a promo video for your event. Determine whether you want it to be animated or want someone to memorize a script and record it. Either way, you’ll need to:

• Hire experts to:
  • Record
  • Animate
  • Direct
  • Write the script
  • Edit
• Ensure you’re following brand guidelines and that the information is clear
• Make it short
• Tailor the video to each event marketing platform: you can’t post the same video on Twitter and TikTok, because the formatting and audience are different.

If you’re making it in-house, consider following an event marketing trend to make it more organic. Use tools like CapCut to edit your video, or use Instagram Reels templates. Take a look at this video as an event marketing example from Delack Media Group:

4. Promote on a mix of channels

Despite the type of marketing event that you’re hosting, you need to create digital assets to promote and host your event. The different assets that you can’t skip include: social media posts, paid ads, presentation design, banners and backings,and brand kits.

Your target audience hangs out in different places, you need to be there as well. Don’t stick to popular marketing channels like Instagram, LinkedIn, and email marketing. Contact influencers, think of smart offline initiatives (e.g. handing out flyers on a campus), and leverage your network to come up with a word-of-mouth strategy.

Use Facebook and Google Ads to place promoted ads on Instagram and Facebook, and add promotion to relevant blogs and Google searches.

5. Deliver a press release

Include public relations tasks as part of your event marketing. Give the media a press release with your well-designed assets to start generating buzz. A press release can be as simple as a Google Doc that outlines your event, mentions sponsors, and links to promotional resources. Send it to news outlets and influencers or post it on your website.

6. Partner with influencers

People trust other people over brands. Brands will always say that their products are the best, but a person can choose the ones they’re willing to represent. Use these event marketing tools to find niche influencers to promote your virtual event(it works for in-person events as well!):

• Google. Use this formula to find experts in your field: “[industry or niche] + experts/influencers/speakers/bloggers/tiktokers”
• BuzzSumo. Go to the influencers tab on this platform to discover influencing experts on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
• Twitter lists. Look at other influencers’ Twitter lists. You can find those in their profiles by clicking on the three dots next to the follow button.

7. Create a sense of urgency and build FOMO

Create different pricing tiers with early bird tickets offered at a discounted rate as a registration incentive. When you release tickets in stages, it generates a sense of urgency. So, people will want to buy the cheapest ticket and will buy it faster. You can even use a price optimization tool, like the one on Eventbrite, to automate price changes.

Pro tip: If you’re using Livestorm to plan, host, and analyze your virtual or hybrid events, connect it to Eventbrite directly and redirect attendees from your registration page to it without any trouble.

8. Get attendees to share on social media

The only way to get people to attend your event is by promoting it, and one of the most powerful channels to do it is through social media. You should design a social media campaign that invites followers and non-followers to sign up for your event.

A good idea for promoting your online event is by giving away free access to competition winners. This will help you generate FOMO among your followers and have others sign-up just to avoid missing it in case they don’t win.

Create a branded hashtag for the event and think of initiatives that invite your attendees to announce on social media they’re going to your event. To do so:

• Plan a giveaway that requires people to use the hashtag online
• Make the experience highly “Instagrammable”
  • If it’s a virtual event, go beyond the screen and surprise them with a gift that you deliver to their homes.
  • If it’s an in-person event, add backings for people to take pictures, brand everything, and make the catering appealing and eye-catching.
• Offer a discounted rate for future events to the ones who post online using the hashtag before, during, or after the event

9. Live stream in-person events

Don’t let all of your efforts disappear after one event. Record and stream your live events online to reach a wider audience. Make sure you have the right equipment and team to record high-quality video and audio.

Use a platform like Livestorm to create a registration page for people to sign-up for the live stream. Also, use the same platform to create an on-demand video and gate it, so anyone can watch the event at their own pace when they share their contact information.

10. Try virtual event marketing

Many in-person events can happen virtually. You only need superb virtual event software that lets you talk and engage with your audience. Livestorm is your best option if you want to make interactive virtual events as it comes with several features to plan, host, and analyze your event. These include:

• Creating landing pages and adding custom fields to registration forms
• Setting recurring events if you’re running a virtual conference with multiple sessions
• Customizing your room, emails, and landing pages to show your branding
• Sending automated emails with reminders
• Exporting all your attendees’ contact information
• Using engagement features like:
  • In-app file sharing
  • Emoji reactions
  • Q&As, polls, and private and public chats
  • Virtual and interactive whiteboard
  • Breakout rooms
  • Call to action (CTA) button
• Accessing your data analytics and getting a participation report
• Giving easy access to participants as it’s a browser-based platform

11. Plan interactive elements

If you’re hosting an online or hybrid event, you can follow some of these virtual conference engagement ideas like including interactive elements in the presentation. If you’re using Livestorm to plan, promote, and host your event, you can make use of these interactive elements to enhance the user experience: live polls, Q&A, live chat, emoji reactions and CTAs. You can replace these elements when hosting in-person events by asking people to speak up, raise their hands, or scan a QR code.

12. Measure success using event analytics

The way you measure the success of your event depends solely on the goals you’ve set for yourself. However, these are some of the metrics that you can review after a Livestorm meeting or any kind of event: number of registrations, attendees, and no-shows, number of replays (if you shared the recording), number of questions, polls, and messages and the average attendance duration

13. Gather audience feedback

Feedback is crucial for growth, and only your attendees can let you know if they found the event useful, entertaining, or a huge waste of time. There are three things you can do to gather feedback during the event (if it’s a presentation):

• Ask people at the beginning about their expectations. This will let you tailor the content and ensure you address people’s needs.
• Use quick polls or ask questions for people to answer by a show of hands. This will allow you to get a sense of how people are feeling in the middle of the event.
• Send a Typeform with a few questions after the event. This enables you to gather anonymous and more detailed feedback from your event. You can automate this with Livestorm.

14. Record the event

Marketing for an event includes thinking about how to make your event shareable before, during, and after it’s done. If you’re hosting an in-person, online, or hybrid event like a niche conference, you should record it. This recording can be used as evergreen content that you can repurpose and share for a fee or use to get leads. For example, if you do an online personal branding conference, you can then use the recording to create different video modules for people to access once they share their email with you.

What’s the best way to promote your event?

You need a strategy to market your event—a list of coordinated actions you’ll take to reach out to potential attendees and get them to sign up. Pick out the actions you’ll take as part of your event marketing plan.

• The best way to promote an in-person or hybrid event is to mix offline with online marketing strategies. Try these ideas:
  • Create an event website that has a registration form and it’s packed with your event information.
  • Get more participants by opening the event to a global audience by live streaming.
  • Create Instagrammable_ _moments to leverage user-generated content (UGC).
• The best way to promote a virtual event is to focus mostly on online promotion that has a clear call to action that takes potential attendees to your registration page. To achieve this, try these promotion strategies:
  • Design a custom registration page. If you’re using Livestorm, you can do this directly from the platform and customize it to suit your branding.
  • Find potential partners and influencers with a quick Google search, on BuzzSumo, or by reviewing other influencers' Twitter lists.
  • Define a pricing strategy and generate FOMO.

The best event marketing strategy is the one that suits your business goals and gets your audience buzzing about your brand. You should also aim to minimize repetitive tasks by automating as much as possible. Try using a platform like Livestorm to automatically send email reminders and set recurring events, taking the hassle out of virtual event management.

Should you host conferences and event marketing?

Yes, event marketing can make your business profitable. To get the most ROI, you must come up with a strategy that will help you measure your event marketing initiatives and tailor them to a clear goal.

The first thing that you need to do is define the type of event that you want to host. You can have virtual, live, or hybrid events. Then, you’ll need to

• Plan ahead and make an event marketing template for the future
• Promote your event on social media and other channels
• Record the session for future repurposing
• Measure the event’s success

If you’re hosting an online or hybrid event, you’ll also need to add “choosing the right virtual event marketing software” to the list. In that case, Livestorm is one of the most complete options for hosting large (3,000 attendees), interactive, and analytical platforms you’ll find.

Frequently asked questions about event marketing

What does an event marketer do?

An event marketer is responsible for planning, organizing, and executing marketing events. Depending on the marketing strategy, the event marketer might also manage other marketing aspects like networking and public relations.

What is an example of event marketing?

One of the most common examples of event marketing is a product launch. Apple is quite popular for hosting hybrid marketing events to announce the launch of their newest products.

How effective is event marketing?

Event marketing is highly effective, when done correctly it can help businesses to

• Increase brand awareness
• Boost sales and revenue
• Build trust and close relationships with their customers

When should you start event marketing?

You should start event marketing as soon as it aligns with your strategy. Because contrary to popular belief, event marketing doesn’t need to be expensive. You can start with an online webinar or conference, and then slowly grow into a hybrid or in-person event with thousands of attendees.

What are the 5 essential features of event marketing?

These are the five essential features of event marketing:

1. Have clear goals and objectives
2. Promote and send reminders
3. Choose the right venue or platform
4. Have a clear CTA
5. Analyze your results