Top tips for creating event EDMs that work

It doesn’t matter how ‘cool’ or well-planned your event is if people don’t know about it! As end-to-end event producers, we help our clients at every stage – from the planning and promotion to execution and evaluation, and from our experience Email Marketing is one of the most effective tools when it comes to promoting an upcoming event.

Email Marketing or EDM’s should never be an afterthought and the earlier you start, the better. It’s through these regular and engaging email communications, that you will be able to directly target and communicate with past and current customers or clients, and anyone else who has explicitly expressed interest in your business or event. These are your ‘warm leads’ and the most likely to support and attend your event!

So, what’s the purpose of EDMs for Events?

• Communicate: to share the basic and most important information, let people know what’s happening; the when, where and how they can participate or attend your event.
• Promote: this is your chance to sell your event, give people compelling reasons to attend
• Engage: keep people interested, build excitement and anticipation by sharing regular updates and reminders in a fun and interesting way.
• Announce: perhaps there are changes or additions to your event along the way, it’s important to share these, especially if they may impact the decision to attend.
• Relationships: stay connected, build and maintain relationships, and establish trust and loyalty – like a good friend who checks in from time to time.

Here’s our top tips for creating EDM’s that work

• The right software – from MailChimp to Campaign Monitor, there are many products available that allow you to easily build, send and track your EDM’s. Ask us about our faves!
• Consistent branding – have your EDM’s professionally designed, so readers instantly recognise and connect with your brand colours, logos and overall vibe.
• Engaging layout – use a range of headings, subheadings, columns, sections and images to break up the info and make it fun and easy to read.
• Keep it short and simple – we’re all busy, have shorter attention spans and read emails via phone or tablet; so provide digestible bite sized snippets, rather than large sections of text.
• Planning is key – if you have a lot to say, it’s better to map out and send a series of shorter EDM’s on a regular basis, instead of just one really long EDM that no one reads.
• Be reliable – research and book a regular date, day and time to send EDM’s, according to MailChimp Tuesday and Thursday are the best days – avoid Monday and Friday.

Your subscribers list or database is the most valuable marketing asset you own and should be nurtured and protected at all times. If you want to be really clever and targeted with your Marketing efforts, you can personalise your EDM’s to specific groups of people or individuals by segmenting and managing your database. For example, you can address people by their first name, remember their birthday and send special offers, or even have one EDM go out to those who have already purchased a ticket, and a different EDM to those who may still be considering.

One of the best things about EDM’s is our ability to track and monitor their effectiveness. These results give us valuable information to help make future communications even more successful.

Make sure you’re able to measure:

• Open rates – how many people are actually opening and reading your EDM? (event industry average is 21% – but this may also depend on your specific business industry too)
• Click rates – how many people are clicking on your EDM? (2.3% events industry average)
• Links – which links are people clicking on, what content are they most interested in?
• Sales/ bookings – are people purchased a ticket or enquiring, and if so, how many?

The event experience starts from the moment someone first hears about it and continues well after the lights go out at the venue. Think of EDM’s like the icing on a cake, holding all of the ingredients together and making it look and taste just that little bit sweeter.

Want more tips on how to plan a successful online or in-person event, or ways to go green at your next event? Check out some of our other blogs HERE.

Need help with planning, producing and marketing your next event? Get in touch today.