5 Creative Ways to Use Everyday Email to Generate Pre-Event Hype

So you've got a big event coming up and your marketing team is stressing out about how to generate leads before they even start? Well, don't worry - we've got some ideas. 

For many marketing teams, the thought of outreach and building pre-event hype seems expensive, unrealistic and overwhelming. But with the many events making a come-back this year both - in-person and virtual - this channel provides both incredible opportunities to increase leads but also intense competition and a dire need for out-of-the-box event marketing strategies.

So how can brands like yours tap into an impactful channel to capture the attention of your best audience without burning your budget on ads?

Leverage an existing owned channel: everyday email.

Utilize everyday email to get the most bang for your buck while still making an impact among your target audience and increasing event attendees. 

Think about it - you communicate with your target audience via email every single day. The average employee sends upwards of 10,000 emails each year to prospects, clients, vendors, and partners. These emails are being opened and engaged with because they are leveraging the relationships that your team has worked so hard to nurture. This low competition, high engagement marketing vehicle is what makes everyday email so valuable and successful.

Not only that - you're able to deliver a beautiful and uniform brand experience while you're at it. It's truly a win-win-win. If you're interested in learning how leading brands are generating pre-event hype through employee emails, keep on reading!

1. Spread the word throughout your event’s lifecycle. 

Leveraging employee email signatures and email ad campaigns allows you to change out your banner creative as your event coasts through its lifecycle. This means that from teaser content, to launch, to early bird registration, to location announcement, to keynote speaker highlights, to last chance, to event occurrence, you can swap out graphics as needed to keep it fresh and timely.

By giving email recipients numerous opportunities to engage with your promotions, you’re increasing their chances of clicking through to learn more and considering the possibility of attending.

2. Retarget click-throughs who didn’t register.

If you’ve ever run an event, you know that getting people to register can be a challenge. But what do you do if someone clicks through to your event page, but doesn’t end up registering? Luckily, there are ways to retarget those potential attendees and get them on the list! If you're leveraging email ad campaigns, be sure to maximize the power of this channel by connecting it to your marketing automation platforms (here's what that looks like).

Doing so, allows you to retarget recipients who expressed interest in your event but haven’t signed up yet. Check out a fun example below.

3. Generate last-minute interest with sneak peeks. 

Even the best events can start to feel a little ho-hum as the hype dies down and people get caught up in their other responsibilities. But don't give up yet! There are still some things you can do to stir up excitement and get people excited about coming. One great strategy is to drop sneak peeks of what's in store in your emails. Share behind-the-scenes details and give them a taste of what's to come. This approach makes recipients feel valuable and like they’re getting special treatment, thereby increasing the likelihood that they choose to sign up.

You can leverage this tactic to create a sense of urgency and even include discounts for targeted recipients.

4. Schedule campaigns ahead of time to eliminate stress.

It's a couple weeks before your event and you're scrambling to get everything in order. Your event promo should be the last thing you do at this point. When you use a platform like Opensense, you can schedule as many campaigns as you want well in advance. This allows you to get the legwork of creating engaging event email ad campaigns out of the way so you can focus on more pressing matters.

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5. Keep the buzz alive even after the event. 

Just because the event is over doesn’t mean the value has to stop. As event marketers, we're always looking for ways to keep the buzz alive after the event. Use your email ad campaigns to share testimonials, speaker highlights, sponsorship opportunities for next year, event highlights, attendee stats, and recordings with people who were interested but didn’t register or attend. This allows the life cycle of your event content to last even longer and can continue generating engagement (and revenue) for your event, even after it’s come to an end. 

There you have it!

There are lots of creative ways to use everyday email to generate pre-event hype and excitement. We’ve highlighted five of our favorites here, but there are plenty more where that came from. Be sure to check out our comprehensive event marketing playbook which breaks down each tactic in detail. If you want to learn more or see them in action, contact us for a demo. In the meantime, start planning your next big event by putting these tips into practice!