Event Promotion Guide for Ideas, Results, and Growth in 2024

If you’re running a paid event, you should be hitting 80% of your revenue target by the day of your event — that means only 20% of attendees should buy at the door. 

How do you achieve this? Through groundbreaking event promotion.  

Effective event promotion goes beyond basics like posting on social media or sending emails — but you already know that. It’s about truly understanding your audience’s desires and using the right event marketing strategy to make your event irresistible. 

At Eventbrite, we’ve helped thousands of event organisers sell more than 284 million tickets. In this article, we’ll share our proven strategies that’ll help take your event to the next level.

Let’s start with the most important part: your audience.

Stage 1: Connect with your audience on a deeper level

To truly influence an audience, move beyond targeting surface-level interests and instead focus on tapping into their emotional responses.

 Harness the power of feeling and memory

When purchasing event tickets, attendees are often driven by emotions without even realising it. 

So, if your event branding is inconsistent or only focused on event features rather than creating an emotional connection, it could be the reason you’re struggling to increase ticket sales or generate buzz.

We relate to brands the same way we relate to people — and your event is no different. To motivate an attendee to take action, you need to trigger a memory filled with emotion.

To do this, you want to market to the primal brain instead of using logical reasoning.

The most common example is the “FOMO” (fear of missing out) effect. Emphasising what people will lose if they miss your event can help you increase ticket sales.

• A short and snappy tagline: A tagline that grabs attention right away will instantly garner interest for your event.
• Videos with quick-cut editing: Quick cuts that capture the energy of their events will reinforce your brand’s message and give potential attendees a sneak peek of what to expect.
• Bold typography: Use bold typography in your event branding that matches your logo and creates a cohesive visual identity to draw attendees into your event’s vibe and your brand.

When designing your event brand, it’s important to go beyond what looks visually appealing — that will only get you so far. Instead, consider what emotions and memories you can trigger to influence your audience.

Pro tip: Create a free event website through Eventbrite to build a custom page with consistent branding. 

Use neuromarketing strategies 

Simple things like image layout may not seem to impact how your audience views your event, but the truth is they do — and you can use this to your advantage.

By understanding neuromarketing techniques, you can tap into the subconscious desires of your target audience. For example, Netflix uses aesthetic visual analysis to create custom thumbnails for each user based on their individual preferences and behaviour.

Here are some core neuromarketing techniques that you can use to take your event promotion to the next level. 

• Use colour psychology: Colours can significantly impact how people perceive and remember your event. Therefore, choosing a key colour that evokes emotion in your target audience is important. For example, black can symbolise power and mystery. 
• Create sensory experiences: Engage multiple senses at once to appeal to the subconscious desires of your target audience. For example, Coca-Cola focuses its brand identity on the refreshing taste, feel, and sound of a cold Coke. Take this idea and use it in your event promotion. For instance, if you’re promoting a nightclub, a slow-motion shot showing attendees’ faces as they dance to loud music can help trigger excitement from memories of being in the action. 
• Understand eye gaze and anchoring: The first piece of information a person receives is crucial as visual searching helps people subconsciously decide if they’re interested in your event. Therefore, it’s important to place compelling information in the centre of your ad to boost the audience’s engagement. 

With Eventbrite’s marketing tools, you can gain valuable insights into how your community responds to specific aspects of your event promotion:

Audience reports allow you to see if your audience is new or returning visitors and how long they’re on your site. This can help determine what aspects of your promotion are making an impact. For example, if potential attendees only spend 5 seconds on your site and don’t scroll past the first section, you may not be anchoring the right information about your event. 

A/B testing allows you to experiment with different elements of your event ads, such as colour, image, and text, to determine what best resonates with your audience. For example, you could run two separate Facebook and Instagram ads with different-coloured text to see which generates more engagement.

Behaviour reports provide detailed information on how visitors interact with your Eventbrite site and social media accounts. These reports can help identify factors of your promotion that impact potential attendees’ emotional experience, such as the loading speed of your landing page.  

Use precise audience targeting 

Of course, consistent branding and images that elicit emotion won’t get you very far if your target audience doesn’t see your event promotions! When it comes to event promotion, targeting the right people is the key to increasing your chances of selling tickets. Think of it like a word-of-mouth recommendation versus a cold call — the more targeted your approach, the more likely you are to succeed. 

• Take advantage of event discovery sites: Our research shows that more than half of urban event-goers search neighbourhood guides for things to do. Reach them by making your event more discoverable on Eventbrite. Our promotional channels highlight unique events worldwide to put them in front of interested audiences. 
• Use and integrate your customer relationship management (CRM) software: It’s much easier to manage your event community when the data from your event registrants go directly to your CRM. Eventbrite allows you to segment and market to your attendees and have an organised list of people you can promote to now and later. 
• Enhance your event email marketing strategy: You might be missing the mark if you blast your whole mailing list every time you announce an event or book a performer. 

Instead, optimise your event email marketing strategy by segmenting your email lists into categories: people who have bought tickets to your events versus people who haven’t, or specific demographics within your target audience. Then, create campaigns that speak to those smaller groups with a targeted message using email marketing platforms like MailChimp or Emma.

• Consider ad retargeting: Incorporating ad retargeting into your event promotion strategy can help optimise website traffic and maximise the return on investment (ROI) of your paid advertising campaigns. The technique works by placing a tracking pixel on your website that captures visitor information and displays targeted ads on other websites they visit. Eventbrite organisers have seen an average of 6x return on investment using ad retargeting.

To maximise the effectiveness of your event promotion, focus on audiences who are already engaged in your community and likely to be interested in your event. With Eventbrite’s audience targeting tool, you can easily identify who’s responding to your ad and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.

Pro tip: Use Eventbrite to keep track of your email list across multiple events. With our Mailchimp integration, you can send over 10,000 emails a day to nurture leads in between events. This can help grow your audience and increase ticket sales over time.  

Get creative with your promotional strategies 

Now that you’ve developed a deeper understanding of your audience and where to reach them, it’s time to use out-of-the-box strategies to really make your event stand out. 

Connect with people who can help promote your event

Connecting with the right people can help you expand your event’s reach and improve its visibility within your community. Here are a few potential partnership opportunities for your event.

• Pair up with a sponsor: If you’ve secured a sponsor for your event, consider ways to partner with them on promotions and marketing. They have, after all, committed to your event and are interested in its success, so they may be open to cross-promotional opportunities. Encourage sponsors to share promotional posts you’ve created with their audience. 
• Hire a brand ambassador or influencer: The highest level of “influencer marketing” is the paid brand ambassador. Partnering with nano- and micro-influencers who are deeply entrenched in your niche can significantly boost exposure rates. Hire them to create strategic and timely posts about your event. 
• Turn attendees into event ambassadors: You can create free ambassadors by investing in your attendees’ experience. Focus on creating an immersive experience for your attendees that’s worth sharing on social media. If they have a significantly large network, you might even incentivise them by offering a personal link to share where they earn a percentage of each ticket sold. 
• Partner with another event: Partnering with other event organisers extends your visibility. By joining forces with another event brand that knows how to manoeuvre the event scene and has an established network, you set yourself up to increase ticket sales by association. 
• Donate tickets: Ticket sales are essential, but donations can help develop relationships with other organisations. What you may have lost in direct sales, you can gain in loyalty and promotion, so set a few tickets aside to offer strategically as gifts!

One way to find potential event sponsors, influencers, and collaborators is through an event listing page. Eventbrite allows you to discover the most popular events in your area of expertise through personalised recommendations. 

By analysing these events, you can get an idea of which sponsors might be interested in your event, what ads work with your audience, and which event companies might collaborate with you.

Pro tip: Follow Eventbrite organisers to find nano and micro-influencers who might be interested in promoting your event.

Feature exclusive offers at your event

Give your event an exclusive feel with creative offers and VIP experiences that can build interest. Check out these ideas.

• Create a promo code: There’s no denying the power of a limited-time offer when encouraging people to purchase a ticket. To maximise the FOMO effect, incorporate a promo code in your event promotion that offers a discount or special incentive to those who act quickly.  
• Invitation-only sessions: An effective way to attract people who might not otherwise attend your events is to offer an elite VIP package. You can piggyback this with free event entry to encourage mixing and mingling. A VIP presence at your events increases your audience and amplifies your online promotion. 
• Enable native checkout: Make it easy for people to buy tickets without leaving the page they discovered you on. This eliminates the risk of ticket buyers getting distracted during checkout or bouncing because of a slow site load. On average, events that leverage Facebook’s end-to-end checkout drive 2x more sales and free registrations than events redirecting to a ticketing page.

Eventbrite’s powerful marketing tools allow you to easily create and distribute custom promo codes, VIP tickets, and native checkouts seamlessly across multiple platforms. With the ability to track performance, such as how many VIP tickets are being sold, you can examine which promotional offering is most effective.

Pro tip: Offer exclusive perks and benefits for those who regularly attend your events. By showing your appreciation, you can increase brand loyalty and foster community around your events.

On Eventbrite, you can funnel event data to see which ticket holder is a new or returning customer to help you target returning customers more accurately.

Use social media to generate hype 

Social media is incredible — and the best part is many opportunities are free. Enlist these social media strategies as event promotion ideas.

• Be authentic and mysterious: As you prepare for your event, use stories on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to offer an insider view of what’s to come. This is an intimate way to make people feel connected and more inspired to attend.
• Use Instagram story ads: Using Instagram story ads allows you to interrupt a customer’s viewing experience with an eye-catching ad. This can pique interest and generate buzz for your event. With Eventbrite, you can take advantage of this moment by allowing users to swipe up and buy tickets without being redirected.  
• Create an event community: Using social media to showcase your past events and promote upcoming ones will get people talking. Take advantage of the chatter by monitoring social, engaging with those discussing it, and using your hashtag to encourage a larger event community. Create a space where people gather, network, and develop relationships extending past the individual events you organise.
• Orchestrate a social media ticket giveaway: This might be as simple as your basic enter-to-win sweepstakes or something more unique and playful: a judged Snapchat drawing contest or a tag-a-friend contest (like “Who would you bring?”). People love to share chances to win with their friends. Use the online space to promote your event in creative and engaging ways.

Eventbrite can help take your social media marketing to the next level. With our add-to-Facebook tool and expert suggestions on optimising your ad spend, you can effectively target your audience and ensure that the right people are seeing your event.

Use the 3-month window to step up the intensity

Once you’ve unlocked the power of tapping into your audience’s subconscious mind and have chosen the best strategies to persuade them to buy tickets, it’s time to put everything into action.

You can start as early as 12 months before your event. But for the vast majority of events, the most important period for sales is between one and 12 weeks out.

3 months before: pique curiosity

Three months before the official launch is the perfect time to generate buzz and anticipation within your existing community. Tap into their subconscious desire to uncover secrets by creating a sense of mystery around your event.

Here’s what you want to focus on:

• Build an event website that showcases your event brand 
• Create custom event tickets 
• Send out a “something exciting is coming” email 
• Use Instagram and Facebook stories to offer a sneak peek of what surprises you have in-store 
• Identify and make contact with potential partners and influencers
• Offer early-bird registration

The trick is to balance providing enough information to keep your audience interested but withholding enough to keep them intrigued.

2 months before: cultivate hype

With the cat out of the bag, it’s time to use creative marketing strategies to cultivate hype among your target audience. Create noise by building a movement around your event.

Here’s what you want to focus on:

• Reveal featured acts one day at a time and use hashtags to boost exposure 
• Nurture your email list to get subscribers to register for your event 
• Offer a free entry or promo code through a social media competition 
• Implement cross-channel marketing  
• Promote your event through paid advertising on Facebook

At this stage, it’s important to focus on generating new leads while still appealing to your existing audience. To get the most out of your advertising budget, break it up like this:

• 40% of your budget on the combined on-sale and announce stages
• 20% of your budget on your maintenance campaigns
• 40% of your budget on closeout/last-minute tickets 

You don’t want to blow through your entire ad budget when you’re still six weeks out from the big day. Make sure you have plenty of money left to reach those last-minute ticket buyers who won’t want to miss your event!

1 month before: trigger memories  

Now is the time to nurture the new leads you’ve accumulated in the first two months of promotion. Keep them on the hook by triggering memories of unforgettable past events and tapping into their subconscious desire to experience them again. 

Here’s what you want to focus on: 

• Create engaging highlight reels of past events and promote them on social media 
• Link to a secure event page on your website and in the description of your social media 
• Enable native checkouts through Instagram and Facebook 
• Send past attendees a personalised email to show how much your attendance means to you

It’s important to highlight that attending your event will allow participants to relive feelings of excitement. This will help your event stick in their minds and continue to chip away at any hesitation they have to buy a ticket.

Week before: leverage FOMO 

The week before your event is your final chance to turn nurtured leads into sales conversions. The best way to do this is to use FOMO to create a sense of urgency. 

Here’s what you want to focus on: 

• Contact influencers and ask them to express their excitement about attending your event 
• Promote “last-chance” ticket offers 
• Encourage featured acts or speakers to post about your event on their social media and tag you 
• Create posts that indicate this will be your best event yet 

FOMO is a strong motivator to push attendees who are on the fence to buy a ticket, especially if they’ve seen three months of promotional material leading up to the event. Remind them that this is their last chance to be a part of something special — it’s now or never.

Day of: fuel excitement 

This is it — the day has finally come! Today is not just about prompting door sales but also building a strong connection with your attendees. This can help maximise your chance of attendees sharing their experiences on social media.

Here’s what you want to focus on:

• Share behind-the-scene pictures and videos of the venue setup  
• Send last-minute text reminders that get attendees hyped up 
• Encourage attendees to post and tag you once they arrive 

It’s crucial not to drop the ball now, as encouraging attendees to promote your event on social media can increase brand awareness and provide invaluable social proof for future sales. 

Event promotion in practice: two inspiring examples

Now you know the process, it’s time to see it in action. Discover how two successful Eventbrite organisers use their event promotion strategy and our marketing tools to target their market audience and boost ticket sales.

Seed Talks: using marketing tools to drive global expansion

Eventbrite organiser Seed Talks harnessed the power of Eventbrite’s marketing tools to boost global ticket sales. 

Seed Talks’ ethos is the belief in enriching lives through a diverse array of talks, ranging from psychology to the art history of Studio Ghibli, aiming to entertain and provide meaningful insights into various fields. Their rapid expansion into seven UK cities, with plans to penetrate markets in Europe reflects an ambitious strategy to widen their impact. 

With an increase in ticket sales from 30,000 in 2022 to 66,000 in 2023 and a following of over 23,000 on Eventbrite, Seed Talks is a testament to strategic growth and audience engagement. 

How they did this:

• Seed Talks reviewed its pricing strategy by increasing the cost of tickets between 50p and £1
• They used Eventbrite QR Codes to gather valuable event feedback to foster continuous improvement and audience connection
• They also used Eventbrite’s targeted email marketing, which was instrumental in driving sales, showcasing the effectiveness of tailored communication in promoting events

Overall, Seed Talks leverages Instagram and Facebook ads, as well as the Eventbrite app, to effectively evoke emotion in their target audience and drive engagement. Using consistent branding helps make Seed Talks instantly recognisable and hard to forget.

As a regular Eventbrite user, Seed Talks can use real-time data to analyse if their storytelling and community is working to increase attendance and build a loyal following.

London Sound Bath GONG: sold out events using Eventbrite’s marketing tools

GONG is a great example of growth and community engagement in the wellness event space, beautifully harmonising the tranquillity of sound baths with the growth-boosting capabilities of Eventbrite. 

Achieving consistently sold-out events, GONG’s journey with Eventbrite has been nothing short of transformative, seeing a significant uptick in engagement and sales. A staggering 20% of ticket sales are attributed to Eventbrite’s discovery channels, showcasing the platform’s prowess in connecting GONG with a diverse audience eager for relaxation and community.

How they did this:

• They used strategic promotion, including enticing ‘3 for 2’ offers accounts for 40% of ticket sales
• Transition to virtual events broadened their reach and amplified their growth, especially with initiatives like offering free tickets during Stress Awareness Month

GONG has masterfully utilised Eventbrite’s suite of marketing tools to elevate their event listings, integrate seamlessly with their website for a fluid booking experience, and foster community through targeted communications and feedback mechanisms.

Revolutionise your event promotion with Eventbrite 

If you’re looking to level up your event promotion, the best place to start is with your approach to marketing.

Instead of solely focusing on direct sales, leverage the power of neuromarketing to target attendees’ subconscious minds and build a strong brand identity.

And partnering with an event promotion platform like Eventbrite can help you maximise your ticket sales by reaching people looking for events like yours. Eventbrite can also help you streamline your marketing and your attendees’ ticketing experience, as well as gain valuable insight into your community with audience reports.

Remember, the key to effective event promotion is creativity — so don’t be afraid to think outside the box.