Email marketing for your events is one of the most important tools you can have in your promotional toolbox.
Think about it. With social media advertising, you have to interrupt someone’s feed to get them to notice you. An email has the upper hand in this situation because people already subscribed to get your messages. Plus, an email stays in the consumer’s inbox until they delete it.
And if you need more reason to use email, you should know that email marketing still has amazing conversion rates. In fact, SalesForce reports that email marketing has an ROI of about 4400%. That means for every $1 you spend, you get $44 back.
Lastly, you own your email list. You could lose your reach on social media in a split second if the platform wants to shut you down or changes its algorithm. Your email list, in contrast, is yours.
The question is… how do you leverage email marketing for events to get the most bang for your buck?
Join our in-depth training on what emails you should be sending, how often, what email marketing tools work best, how to revive an unengaged list, and more, all in the name of driving more registrations to your events. If you’ve been interested in how to utilize SMS marketing, that will be discussed too!
Email Marketing for Events: What Kind of Emails Should You Send?
To start, we’ll look at three different types of emails you should definitely be sending your subscribers:
Transactional
Relational
Promotional
Each of these plays a vital role in your email marketing plan, so make sure you’re using all of them!
Let’s look at the first one.
Transactional Emails
Transactional emails have the highest open rates—up to 60-80%! And yet they’re the most under-utilized type of email.
But what are transactional emails? They’re the emails that confirm someone’s pre-registration. Or they may provide a customer’s ticket receipt or order confirmation.
Support tickets, account resets, password resets, and customer services emails also fall into this category.
These emails are often automated, so I encourage you to regularly audit them and make sure your messaging is on-brand.
Also, be sure these emails ask your audience to take the next step of their buying journey. That can be asking them to follow you on social, share the event with their friends, or RSVP on the Facebook Event Page.
Here’s a great example from one event company asking for participants to invite their friends in the order confirmation email:
Relational Emails #
Relational emails are the ones you send to new subscribers to welcome them to your list.
They’re also the ones you send for your newsletter or blog articles, public relations, surveys and review requests, social updates, contest announcements, or referral requests.
The most important relational email is the one you send to your new subscribers. Take the time to initiate them with a welcome email. Lay out for them everything they can expect from you. That includes how frequently you’ll email them, what offers they'll receive, and more.
If you have a particular persona or person behind your brand, this is the perfect time to put a face to the name!
Promotional Emails #
Your promotional emails are the ones you send for price bumps, new products, event releases, sales announcements, and offer upgrades.
Promotional emails are by far the most popular type of emails that businesses send. And to be honest… they’re the ones in most need of a refresh.
Don’t get stuck in a cadence. Think of these promotional emails as your "popcorn." No one wants stale popcorn. Keep the content fresh and relevant—and take advantage of holidays if you can!
This is a great opportunity to add some FOMO (fear of missing out) to your emails. For instance, if you have a VIP offer for your event, let your subscribers know how much they’ll miss out on if they don’t upgrade their ticket.
Put a hard timeline on that upgrade to increase the sense of urgency to buy.
Join us for the live webinar on April 29th at 2pm ET/12pm MT/11am PT.
REGISTER ON ZOOM HERE
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Ashley N. Cline supports TicketSocket clients in selling more tickets. She focuses on the strategy and tactics it takes to acquire more customers at the lowest cost possible - without having to increase budgets. TicketSocket provides Race Directors with a customizable white label registration platform and prioritizes organizations’ ownership of their own funds, data, brand, and functionality.
TicketSocket is the exclusive race registration provider for USA Triathlon. Request a free demo today.