42 Event Promotion Ideas for Higher Attendances [2024]

Did you miss attending live events when the pandemic hit our world a few years back? It is not surprising to see the number of events booming after the pandemic faded away from our society. Sports games, live concerts, exhibitions, premiere events, etc. These events are great opportunities for like-minded people to gather together. On the other hand, it is also a golden opportunity for marketers out there. 

If you agree with the statement above but still have no idea how to make your event a success, here, we have compiled 42 event promotion ideas. Rest assured that events will not be erased from our society easily, also in marketing strategy. So, let’s begin.

Pre-Event Promotion Ideas

1. Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Social media is the perfect platform for promoting an event to a large number of audiences. Nowadays, there are plenty of options you can choose from: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or even more professional platforms like LinkedIn. 

Wondering which platform you should choose? The answer typically depends on two main factors: the type of event and your target audience. And remember, you can choose more than one (and it’s recommended to do so!)

2. Create Compelling Event Websites and Landing Pages

Imagine customers deciding to attend an event as if they were going on a date; in this scenario, the website serves as their first impression. It’s crucial to make the appearance of your website as compelling as possible. Today, there are even pre-made templates available that you can customize to fit your needs and functions. 

Aside from appearance, it’s equally important to prioritize the user experience, considering that your website acts as a middleman during the registration and payment processes. If your website lags, customers might leave and never return. Therefore, the user journey should also be as smooth as possible.

3. Never Underestimate Email Marketing

Who said people don’t use email anymore? In fact, email marketing campaigns can be highly effective for event promotion. You can send out event invitations, registration information, event details, countdown reminders, and even early-bird discounts and offers. 

But most importantly, emails should serve as confirmation notes to reassure attendees that they have completed the registration process successfully.

4. Tease the Audience With Engaging Event Teasers and Trailers

Teasers or trailers are one of the best ways to hype people up before the event. If your event is held annually, your teaser can be a highlight clip of moments from your previous event(s) in the last year(s). Suppose your event has never been held before. In that case, you can still include some interesting activities, speakers, or celebrities in your clip so the audience will have a clearer picture of what to expect from attending your event!

5. Video Content Is a Must

These days, people spend more time watching videos than you might imagine, whether short-form or long-form. Therefore, you might need to produce various types of videos to promote your event. 

Depending on your budget, this could include a teaser video for your event with full production, aesthetically shot short reels, or entertaining clips filmed with smartphones, like a #[name]challenge that people can jump in and join the trend.

6. Visual Content Is Also a Must

While creating engaging visual content means you should put effort into artwork and design (aesthetic-wise), it also means you need to consider the end results on different devices. Engaging visual content on PCs, laptops, tablets, or mobile phones is not exactly the same. You should embrace this variety and create slightly different designs so your audience can see the best results, regardless of the device they use.

7. Partner with Influencers and Industry Leaders

It is always a good idea to partner up with influencers or industry leaders as it can bring more exposure to your event. You don’t always need a top-tier leader with a significant number of followers, it’s suggested to choose someone who genuinely aligns with your brand. This way, your event will be promoted directly to your target audience.

The figures similarly show that more than 90% of marketers agree that influencer marketing is one of the most effective tactics to achieve their goals. Moreover, ads with influencers deliver 11 times higher ROI compared to traditional banner ads.

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8. Offer Early Bird Discounts and Promotions

How about we get back to the simple but effective idea of offering discounts? We all know that people are enticed by great deals, especially if they are limited-time offers. So, never forget to set a clear deadline for the early bird discounted prices or a clear number of quotas. 

This strategy doesn’t only intrigue people to buy your event tickets faster but can also create buzz among attendees, leading them to talk more about your event.

9. Organize Contests and Giveaways

Just like how people love limited deals and offers, many people also love to participate in contests and giveaways. So, you can set up an activity to give away free tickets to your event. 

However, you need to make sure that the entry-level is not too difficult for anyone to complete. This can be something that will, in turn, boost your engagement, such as clicking ‘like’ or following your page, sharing your event posts, or writing/creating user-generated content about what they would like to see at the event, etc.

10. Get Your Event On Event-listing Websites and Directories

Nowadays, there are many event-listing websites or pages that primarily post about interesting events in their respective fields. For example, a page that focuses on rock concerts in their town, or a page that focuses on art exhibitions nearby.

As an event promoter, bear in mind that it would be beneficial to your event if you try to collaborate with these websites or pages and get your event listed among the upcoming events. This might help you reach a whole new audience.

11. Host Pre-Event Meetups or Webinars

Many people view events as opportunities to gather and meet new people. By hosting pre-event meetups or webinars, they serve as space where connections can form, so that by the end of the event, attendees might develop meaningful relationships that extend beyond the event itself. 

Doing the pre-event session beforehand is not only beneficial to them but also to you, as it can increase engagement and create a positive brand image in the eyes of your attendees if they actually make new friends.

12. Create Interactive Event Experiences

You can spice things up a bit and create interactive event experiences, right? This could involve a pre-event quiz to test the audience’s knowledge on a particular topic, or setting up a fun and unique costume theme during the event day so that attendees can get themselves ready and be in full-on mode. The options are endless, depending on the type of event you are going to hold.

13. Offer Exclusive VIP Experiences

Supposing your event consists of multiple days, you can choose to designate one day as an exclusive experience for VIPs. As suggested by the title ‘VIP’, offer them something extra, such as an event with a gala dinner, an event featuring prominent speakers, or even an event where attendees can have one-on-one conversations with related celebrities. You know, some audiences are willing to pay more for an extraordinary experience.

14. Search For Event Sponsorships and Partnerships

When considering sponsorships and partnerships as a business strategy, people might think solely about seeking more funding. However, with the right sponsors or partners, this can introduce your event to a whole new audience who might be interested—truly the best of both worlds. Therefore, it’s recommended to choose complementary brands, services, or products that align well together.

15. Offer Sponsorship Opportunities for Local Businesses

Local businesses are usually on the lookout for opportunities to gain more exposure and promote themselves. Hence, you can offer local businesses a slot or booth at your event, ask them to create special products or services during the event day, or even ask for some discounted deals for your attendees. 

Partnering up with them can be a win-win situation on both sides, where you will also be perceived in a better light for ‘helping small businesses’.

16. Consider Ad Retargeting

We all know that these days, many marketers take ad targeting seriously to enhance their exposure. However, one more thing that is equally important is ad retargeting, which is meant to specifically reach out to your previous visitors. Many of these people are already interested in your event, which is why they came to your website/page in the first place, but they might get distracted by something. Therefore, reaching out to them might work wonders.

17. Let the Participants Be Involved

Asking for ideas from participants is a great way to boost engagement. You can involve your participants by letting them select the topics they want to see, the band or songs they want to hear, or the guest speaker they would like to invite. For example, allow them to vote, and inform them once confirmed. 

Not only will you earn better engagement, but attendees will also be more excited and less likely to ghost your event afterward.

18. Utilize User Reviews and Testimonials

Let’s say you have already held your event or workshop(s) in the last year(s); it’s likely that you have received feedback from previous attendees. So, let’s turn this into something. On one hand, you can use it to improve your event this year, but on the other hand, you can also utilize it for event advertising ideas. 

For instance, [mention some well-known and respectable people] attended our event last year and said “It’s amazing!” or similar comments.

19. Implement Referral Programs

A referral program is a form of word-of-mouth marketing strategy where attendees are incentivized with discounts for inviting more people to join the event. 

This can be implemented in several ways: you can offer reduced prices for both the referrer and the invitee, for one person only (either the one who signs up first or later), or sell tickets in packages. Believe it or not, this can significantly boost your sales, as many people prefer not to attend events alone.

20. Promote Certifications and Credits

This might not work with every kind of event, but if you’re holding a bit more professional one, and you are qualified enough to offer them certifications and credits, you can use this to promote your event. Certificates can be a brilliant marketing incentive for many working professionals out there. It’s a win-win situation for both parties at the end of the day.

Post-Event Promotion Ideas

21. Host Post-Event Networking and Follow-Up

If you already have a platform for attendees to connect before the event, it would be even better to carry on that momentum into the post-event period. You can host a few small activities or a quick follow-up session for people who are interested. 

Aside from helping pre-event connections bond even more, it can also enable people to easily reconnect with interesting people they met at the event and foster further connections.

22. Create Hashtags

If you want your event to be unforgettable, one thing you can’t ignore at all costs is coming up with the #hashtag. In fact, this hashtag should be advertised even before the event. So, when the post-event period comes, attendees know exactly what your hashtag is, and they can share content from your event. 

Make sure the hashtag isn’t too long; keep it simple and clear-cut, for instance, using your event’s name and the year it is held.

23. Leverage User-Generated Content In Your Hashtag

With a hashtag, you can bring together people who are interested in and attend the event, making it easier to boost interactions. So, you might want to start a social media challenge using your hashtag to leverage user-generated content. For instance, you could create a humorous or cute filter on Instagram and TikTok, or ask attendees to share their happy moments, all with your hashtag added at the end. 

24. Encourage More User-Generated Content With Incentives

If your event was successful, there’s a high chance that your audience might experience post-event blues. So, you might want to leverage this opportunity and start a small, cute, or entertaining challenge to encourage people to post user-generated content. But, don’t forget to add some incentives! Offer some kind of prize for the winner or a consolation prize for everyone who participates. This way, the more likely they are to join your challenge, and your engagement will skyrocket.

25. Repost When Other People Are Talking About Your Event

Once you’ve got the event hashtag, there’s a high chance that people will come in to post and share about your event. When promoting events, you should interact with those people, whether replying to them with simple thank-you texts or at the very least, clicking ‘like’ and ‘share’, to let them know that you’ve seen their feedback. 

Remember, reposting can significantly boost your online engagement; this is one of the best word-of-mouth approaches.

26. Create Post-Event Content and Highlights

Nothing would be better to make people miss your event than to remind them with pictures or videos. Share posts or pictures on all your platforms to capture highlights of your event and show how much people had fun and enjoyed it – especially candid shots of your attendees that might boost the number of likes and shares. 

Apart from making your attendees miss your event, this is the perfect time to share memorable moments with people who are your audience but missed out on the opportunity for some reason too.

27. Post Inspiring and Touching Quotes

People enjoy reading inspiring and touching quotes. You can select some of the finest lines and share them on social media and websites to promote your event and foster online engagement. You can even share the quotes in the following year if you’re hosting the same event.

If your event features speaker sessions or keynote addresses, this strategy is particularly effective for promotion. However, if not, there’s no need to force it.

28. Send Post-Event Surveys and Ask For Feedback

Conducting surveys and compiling feedback from your attendees is an integral step that can help you improve your future events or future marketing campaigns. In general, questions you should include are: what they liked about this event, what they disliked, or what they would like to see next time. The questions can be categorized into food, venue, speaker sessions, and so forth. Remember, the more detailed questions you provide, the more well-rounded data you might receive.

29. Host Post-Event Sales

Another great way to make your event memorable for your audience is by selling branded or event-related merchandise. These days, your brand, your event’s concept, and your event’s slogan can be creatively turned into products – whether it’s a cap, cloth bag, easy-to-wear t-shirt, water bottle, stickers, or more. 

The bright side of this is that your customers will be reminded of your event every time they see your merchandise. Additionally, if they use or wear it publicly, they become like walking brand ambassadors for you.

30. Create Urgency with Limited-Time Offers

For any customers out there, the perception of something being limited creates a sense of urgency in their minds. Therefore, you might want to offer some limited-time deals after your event. 

There are plenty of examples of campaigns you can run, such as offering free shipping on your event merchandise, providing a discount code for your brand’s products, or even hosting a pre-order session for your merchandise.

31. Share Attendee Stories and Experiences 

Aside from the event highlights you can record, you can also share genuine feelings and feedback from your attendees. This strategy is simple yet brimming with honesty. 

There are various formats for this type of content, and you can get as creative as you want: whether it’s text-based answers they provide in surveys, a memo board, or having an MC conduct short interviews during the event.

32. Work With Influencers, Again!

As we’ve mentioned, influencer marketing plays a pivotal role in today’s world. So, you can partner with influencers both before and after the event. You can sponsor them to create content such as “A Day with Me at the XXX Event.” Let them share their experiences and showcase your event’s highlights in their own style, posting on their channels. This approach might attract audiences from diverse pools to your brand in the long run.

33. Utilize SMS Marketing Campaigns

Even though it’s the post-event period, never underestimate the power of an SMS marketing campaign. It might be more useful than you thought. SMS can be used to collect feedback from attendees, conduct surveys, and encourage participation in small post-event campaigns, contests, polls, or quizzes. 

Moreover, you can further impress them by sending thank-you messages and wrapping up beautifully by encouraging their attendance at future events (if they are planned to be held).

34. Send A “Sorry We Missed You” Message

We have talked a lot about how to promote an event and follow up with your attendees, but another thing you can’t ignore is sending follow-ups to people who didn’t attend your event. 

If there were no-shows and you know exactly who they are, you can reach out to them personally and warmly by sending messages like “Sorry we missed you” or “Sorry you couldn’t make it; we hope to see you next time.” and show them what they missed from your event.

35. Offer Early Access to Future Events

If you’ve got another event coming up that’s kind of related to the previous one, make sure to reach out to your attendees. In fact, you might even announce it earlier than the general promotion, making it an “early access” to build exclusivity. 

This is the best way to leverage the momentum from the last event and might increase the number of people attending the next one.

36. Let Them Have Fun With Group Discounts

Most of the time, during the event, attendees are probably handed small thank-you gifts or merchandise. You can also do this after the event, such as offering discounts on your existing products or early access to newly launched ones. 

One fun idea is to give them special discounts and packages, and how about offering ‘group discounts’ as well? This way, they might be encouraged to gather friends they made at the event and buy two, three, or more of your products.

37. Provide Exclusive Access to Event Resources

Suppose your event includes something that your attendees might want to rewatch (e.g., speaker sessions or performances). You can record those sessions and turn them into exclusive content, creating exclusive access to event resources. 

There are many ways you can offer this special content to your attendees. It can be sent personally to each attendee’s email, or it can also be sold to everyone if you choose.

38. Offer Loyalty Programs for Repeat Attendees

If you organize recurring events, make sure to offer loyalty programs to repeat attendees. These people show love and support for your brand and products and deserve great offers from you. 

It doesn’t have to be anything big or require a lot of funding; you just want to let them know that you appreciate them and offer them a touch of ‘exclusivity’. Examples include special discounts for the next event, early-bird registration, VIP thank-you gifts, and so on.

39. Don’t Underestimate The Power of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for sharing content from your event. People use it for professional purposes, and they often check their feeds to see which events their networks have attended. So, you might want to share post-event content here, as well as your pre-event content. 

By consistently sharing content from your brand’s profile page on LinkedIn, you’ll also foster networking and community building.

40. The LinkedIn Event’s Feature Was Made For You!

One more thing you can do on LinkedIn is create your LinkedIn Event, a feature that makes it easier for you to reach your attendees, allow them to invite their connections, and provide updates directly on this page.

The steps are straightforward. First, click on the Event button. Then, a signup form will appear asking you to fill out relevant information such as event name, time and date, description, and featured speaker names. You might want to start this before the event and continue utilizing it until after the event.

41. Don’t Forget Audience Segmentation

We’ve mentioned plenty of ways to engage with your attendees and non-attendees after the event, but there’s one tip you should follow, and that is audience segmentation. 

With all the tools available today, you can use the data you have collected to segment your audience group by group. For instance, segment geographically, segment by the number of visits to your website, and segment by whether they have logged into your event app (if there is one) or not. This will allow you to target your advertisement more effectively.

42. Make Sure To Do Some #Throwbacks

Once your event has passed, whether it’s been a month, a year, or even a few more years, it would be nice to share posts or pictures on the occasion of its anniversary. You can insert captions like “Remember our event on this day, a year ago?” or “Wanna see an event like this again?” 

This can remind your audience of the splendid moments they had, and who knows, it might elevate your brand’s engagement and exposure to another level.

Your Event Success Starts Now!

Now, your horizon regarding what marketing campaigns you can execute before, during, and after the event has likely expanded. The final step is to choose the tips that align and fit with your plan and execute them. 

We believe you are ready to create a brilliant event alongside a stellar event promotion plan. Hope you can make your event as memorable as possible!