According to a survey from Eventbrite, 80% of an event’s revenue target should have already been hit by the day of the event. This means that only 20% of your attendees should buy tickets at the door.

How can event planners ensure they are hitting this goal in 2024 and beyond? Through strategic event promotion.

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What Does effective event promotion really look like?

Well for sure it goes beyond the obvious basics of sending out emails and posting on your social media accounts. Getting people to your event requires you to really understand your audience and use the right marketing strategies to make your event irresistible to them.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can connect with your audience and create campaigns that target them specifically.

Get Emotional with Campaign Creation

2024 is the year to start connecting with your audience on a deeper level. If you truly want to influence and drive action, move beyond targeting their surface-level interests and tap into their emotions. Some studies have suggested that as much as 95% of purchasing decisions are driven by emotions. This is true regardless if the person is buying a car, a laptop, or a ticket to your event.

So how do you tap into prospects’ emotions? You forget about focusing solely on event features and instead create an emotional connection. Storytelling is the most powerful way to do this.

Instead of creating content and ads that simply recite facts and features of your event, think about telling a story through videos and images. How can you create FOMO (fear of missing out)? This is a powerful emotion that often gets people to pull the trigger and buy a ticket well in advance.

Use visuals from previous events. Did someone share really powerful feedback with you about how your event inspired them in some way? Create a story around it. Your prospects want to be moved and inspired as well.

Neuromarketing Techniques

In addition to telling great stories, here are a couple of neuromarketing techniques you can use to tap someone’s subconscious:

Color Psychology

Colors definitely evoke emotions in people. Big brands know this and use color psychology in their branding campaigns. Event planners can learn a little about color psychology and use it to their advantage in their event promotions.

Engage All of the Senses

Create sensory experiences in your campaigns that make your event irresistible. As an example, Coca-Cola has always offered viewers a multi-sensory experience in their ads. Even their print ads help you see, taste and even hear the sound of a Coke.

Use this same idea in your own event promotion and give your audience a sensory experience of what coming to your event will look and feel like!

Leverage Precise Audience Targeting

Of course, you can come up with amazing campaigns that tell stories that trigger an emotional response in your ideal demographic. But you won’t get very far if your ideal attendee never sees your campaigns!

When it comes to marketing your event in 2024 and beyond, you’ll need to be certain you are marketing the right people to increase your chances of selling a lot of tickets. The more targeted your campaigns, the better your outcome.

We have found over the years that we’ve gotten the best results when focusing on audiences who have already engaged with our organization in some way. These are the people who will most likely be interested in our event.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to place a tracking pixel on your website that captures visitor information. These people will then be served targeted ads on other websites and social media sites they visit. We consistently see 5x returns on our investment when we leverage ad retargeting.

Similarly, when deploying email marketing, you’re much better off if you segment your subscribers into those people who have purchased tickets to your events in the past and those who haven’t. For those who haven’t purchased before, you can break down audiences even further into specific demographics to be able to create highly targeted messages that speak directly to each group’s needs.

The moral of the story is don’t waste money throwing ads at the entire world. Get really focused and specific and spend money on sending ads to those most likely to buy.

Think Outside of the Box

Now that you have a deeper understanding of your audience and you know the best ways to reach them, it’s time to get creative to help your event stand out. Here are some ways you can think outside of the box when it comes to event promotion:

Partner with a Sponsor

If you’re planning on attracting sponsors for your event, then consider partnering with them on promotions and marketing. Once a sponsor commits to your event, they are as interested in its success as you are. Ask about cross-promotional opportunities and see if they’d be willing to share your marketing materials with their audience.

Hire an Influencer

Influencer marketing simply works. Think about partnering with a micro-influencer who is highly engaged in your niche. This can dramatically boost your exposure rates and your ticket sales.

Donate Tickets

Donations are a great way to build relationships with other organizations that can help you in your current promotional efforts and with those in the future. Sure, you may lose a few direct sales by donating tickets, but you gain loyalty and further promotion, and that’s invaluable.

Create a Promo Code

There’s no doubt that offering exclusive features is a great way to create buzz and increase ticket sales. To maximize FOMO, use a promo code in your promotions that offers a discount or other special incentive for those who act quickly.

The Wrap

If you’re looking to level up your event marketing in 2024 and beyond, focus on creating deeper connections with your audience through stories and neuromarketing techniques, get more ROI by getting your message in front of targeted prospects, and think outside the box with marketing strategies.

If you focus on these 3 things you should be able to generate 80% of ticket sales before the day of the event. And if you need any help planning your next event, give us a shout!