Do you do any kind of event marketing?
Email is where it’s at whenever you want to sell tickets for events, engage with your attendees or collect important post-event data.
With the events industry generating £40 billion for the UK economy, and with the industry worth $800 billion globally—email is a major growth channel to maximise your event success.
That’s because email marketing has an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. This makes email the most successful marketing technique based on industry average ROIs. 🔥💰
So here's a crash course on event email marketing to point you in the right direction. The EcoSend team have also shared some event email examples below to inspire your event campaigns.
What Is An Event Email?
Email marketing for events is a way of advertising your event and sending out various types of communication relating to that event through email.
As a highly targeted, easily measurable and cost-effective marketing channel, email marketing is one of the best ways to incentivise users to book tickets and engage with your brand in the run-up to the big day.
An event email should provide details such as:
Event name
Event date and time
How to book tickets
Why it’s worth booking tickets
How users can find additional event info
Different email templates can also be created depending on whether you are looking to encourage ticket sales, thank users for their ticket purchase, provide any essential information or ask them any follow-up questions.
In either case, the purpose of using email as a primary event marketing channel is to benefit from segmentation, while also being able to monitor the performance of your campaigns.
If you have an existing mailing list, email marketing can offer you a readymade audience to advertise your event and maximise ticket sales, especially if the event is related to the reasons why people signed up for your list in the first place.
Event Email Marketing Types & Examples
The beauty of email event marketing is that you can tailor your email templates and messaging depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
For instance, if ticket sales are slow, you can use email to engage your list through persuasive subject lines, email copy and enticing email templates. Likewise, if you want to promote event merchandise, or inform users about the line-up of the event, email is also one of the most effective ways to get your message across.
Tailoring your email to your specific aim is the best way to drive success. So let’s take a look at some of the most popular event email types.
Event Invitation Email 🎉
According to Mailchimp, email campaigns related to events and entertainment have average open rates of 37.29%.
So whether you are just announcing the event or want to retain high levels of engagement in the run-up to the day, email marketing is a powerful marketing channel to choose.
Email event invitations can be customised to any event type such as:
Career events
Conferences
Educational events
Entertainment events
Exhibitions
Festivals
Hybrid events
Live streaming events
Online events
Product launches
Social events
Trade shows
Webinars
Workshops
Similar to welcome emails (which also boast some of the highest open rates of any email type!) event invitations sent by email can also be extremely effective.
Therefore, you need to think about how to make the email look and sound as enticing as possible.
You may also be interested in: 7 Tips To Improve Email Marketing ROI
Event Booking Confirmation 🎟️
Follow up on any ticket purchases by sending an immediate booking confirmation. This email should recap all of the details of the event and ticket purchase.
We recommend using upbeat language to thank users and make them look forward to attending.
Additional Pre-Event Email Marketing Campaigns 👩💻
In the above image, Ahrefs are letting people know about events local to them. However, it is an excellent example of how to provide essential information about your event in a way that's super easy to digest.
You can use this email format to continue to engage with those who have purchased tickets in the weeks or days leading up to the event, depending on how far away the event happens to be.
Doing so ensures you don't go radio silent, especially if there is a long time between when people book tickets and the event itself.
Some ideas to share through email include the event itinerary, venue information, travel information and anything else of interest. If your event has any merchandise, you can also include a link to your online store to encourage more sales.
Reminder Email ⌛️
Your attendees are busy people. Make sure they don’t forget to attend your event by sending reminder emails leading up to when the event starts.
For online events especially, sending reminder emails in the days or hours before the event starts is essential. Include a link to where to join the event so that everyone knows where to be and when.
Post-Event Follow Up 👋
Once your event has finished, don’t just leave things there! By sending follow-up emails, you can maintain engagement with your audience, gather important feedback and build loyal connections with your audience.
Some things you can do with event follow-up emails include:
Thank users for attending
Let users know when the next event will be (if applicable)
Conduct a feedback survey
Share event highlights
Provide access to online recaps or additional resources
Share special incentives or discounts
While you should be careful not to over-engage with your audience after the event is over, providing relevant and helpful content can emphasise the quality of your event.
On the flip side, not sending a follow-up can end your event on an abrupt note. So choose the right approach depending on your event type and audience.
Event Cancellation Email ❌
If you have to reschedule or cancel your event, then email is the best way to ensure everyone who has booked a ticket online is informed.
Beyond having a functional purpose, cancellation emails can be used to encourage a positive outcome despite the disappointment.
Although the above email example is for a train cancellation rather than an event cancellation—hopefully you still get the idea when it comes to the need to provide succinct and informative communication.
Perhaps you could share another event that may be interesting to users instead. Alternatively, you could just take the opportunity to explain what’s happened honestly, apologise for any inconvenience and ensure you end the email on a positive note.
Compared with people turning up because they didn’t get the message, or even being left in the dark about why something has been cancelled, email can be used to engage and retain your audience.
How To Build An Event Invite Template 🏗️ ✉️
Curious about how to build an event invite template? The best way for us to show you is through EcoSend’s drag-and-drop email builder.
Chris will take you through all the steps on reusing your templates so that they feel on brand. However, you can also use our email software to create new email templates including event email campaigns.
Give this video a watch, and be sure to subscribe to the EcoSend Youtube channel!
What Are The Benefits Of Email Marketing For Events?
Email marketing allows you to build a large list of loyal and engaged subscribers. So when it comes to advertising an event, email could just be your secret weapon.
In terms of tangible benefits, these are just some of the ways your event can succeed through email marketing.
Increase Event Attendance
Did you know the average person checks their emails 15 times a day? With over 4.2 billion users of email, you have a captive audience just waiting to be tapped into.
Crucially, emails get sent directly to users’ inboxes. Unlike with social media or physical advertising, you can ensure higher visibility. This is especially the case with tricks such as segmentation, ensuring the right message gets sent to the right person at the right time.
Build Anticipation
If there’s a long period between when people book tickets to your event and when the event will be held, email neatly fills the silence to retain that level of anticipation and user engagement.
When planning your event, consider what you can include as part of your event marketing to send in between the time after the tickets have been purchased and when the event starts. For instance, sending users the event itinerary or announcing new guests or attractions.
Inform Attendees & Share Key Information
Clear communication is the best way to ensure your event will be a success. Email is the perfect channel for this, and can boost the overall satisfaction not just with the event itself, but also your company as a whole.
Let users know how to access the event, tailoring the messaging depending on whether it’s an online event, a hybrid event or an in-person event.
Consider anything that people may not know if they haven’t been to the event or the venue before so that you can prevent potential issues on the day.
Maximise Event Revenue
Events are a business like any other, in that they need to generate a healthy profit. With email offering a direct form of communication, not to mention the ability to design engaging email templates, email can ensure your event is a success financially.
If you didn’t know, email has been around since the 1970s! So unlike other forms of marketing, email offers a tried and tested format that is also easy to track and refine. If you have a large list of engaged subscribers, event email marketing puts that list to the best use.
You may also like: 9 Ways Make Money With Email Marketing In 2024
Advertise Event Sponsors
If your event has any sponsors, then you can include sponsor names or logos in the campaign as part of your offering. Depending on the size of your list, this could prove very lucrative.
Beyond the financial aspects of displaying sponsors, communicating any associations can also be used to signify trust or reassurance. Therefore, there are lots of ways that email can be used to achieve your event aims.
Easily Measure Campaign Performance
You can also track the metrics in terms of open and click-through rates to best understand the performance of your event marketing campaigns.
Use email marketing software such as EcoSend to track essential email metrics including:
Bounce rate
Click-through rates
Clicks
Complaints
Open rates
Sends
Unsubscribes
By exporting and analysing this data provided to you by your email platform, you can create a recipe for success.
Generate Long Term Value From Subscribers
Here to support your marketing long after the event itself, email can be used to create loyal engagement with your event attendees. This can include following up with surveys to gather important data to direct your future strategy in the right way. Plus keeping users engaged to encourage them to purchase tickets for your next event.
Event Email Best Practices
We love some of the statistics mentioned by Hopkin about email marketing for events:
Sending a reminder email within 4 hours of an online event increases the show up rate by 28%
94% of people who unsubscribe from your campaigns are those who haven’t clicked or opened your campaigns in the last 6 months
Subject lines that start with a number have a 22% higher open rates
Swap out ‘on demand’ for ‘watch now’ in your subject line to boost open rates by 26%
Event Emails FAQs
Have a question about maximising the success of your event through email marketing? We’ve answered some of the most popular queries here.
Alternatively, if you have any questions about creating email campaigns for your events using EcoSend, please get in touch if you’d like a product demo or need any other help getting started.
How To Write An Invitation Email For An Event
Start by making notes about the key pieces of information such as the event name, event date and the event location. Consider your audience to turn your notes into an engaging on-brand piece of communication that warmly invites people to your event in a way that feels engaging. You can also take a look at some of our event invite examples above for inspiration on how to write and phrase your message.
How To Send Marketing Email To Get Someone To Sign Up For An Event
You’ll need email marketing software such as EcoSend to design your event email and send the message in bulk to all of your subscribers. Once you have the functionality to send email campaigns, you can focus on the quality of the subject line, email messaging and email template design.
How To Create A List For Event Email Marketing
We recommend collecting subscribers by placing a form on your website. EcoSend Forms gives you the ability to build your email list on your website, including your event website before tickets go on sale. Doing so will mean that when the tickets are on sale, you can immediately send out an email campaign to everyone on the waiting list to encourage ticket purchases.
Reduce The Carbon Footprint Of Your Event Through EcoSend’s Sustainable Email Marketing Platform
Did you know that the events industry is responsible for 10% of worldwide carbon emissions? That is the equivalent of all the carbon emissions generated by the United States!
If you are putting on an event, or work within the events industry, then you’ll know the importance of reducing your event carbon emissions. This can be as much as 200kg of CO₂ per attendee per day, or up to 1,000kg of CO₂ if the attendee has had to travel a long distance.
One such way to lower your event CO₂ is to use a sustainable email marketing platform such as EcoSend.
Most businesses don’t realise their digital marketing has a carbon footprint. But with every email creating up to 26g of CO₂ and over 300 billion emails sent per day—that soon adds up!
Switch to our sustainable email platform today to instantly cut the carbon emissions of your event campaigns.
Want to talk to us first? Reach out to us to discuss your event email marketing needs, and we'll be right with you!
