There are numerous ways you can promote your upcoming conference. Of course, just taking a volume-heavy approach won’t work. You need to have proper promotion plans in place, with all resources used efficiently. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to market your conference, so you should start on planning and marketing your conference using it. Here are a few tips to set you off for now.
Use the right platform
The right email marketing platform can make all the difference. PosterMyWall has everything you could ask for, and more. From email templates to email list management and performance tracking, you can see it all in one place.
Use the email templates to design your own campaigns, and then run them on the same platform by integrating your email lists. You probably already have these at hand, so you can easily utilize these, and create categorized email workflows for each audience segment.
Keep your tone cohesive
Whether you are interacting with potential attendees or with your vendors, you should have a cohesive email aesthetic and tone. This will show the professionalism and effort put into your conference. Use your organization’s color scheme in these email templates to really show your ownership of this conference.
In addition, try to ensure that these emails are sent out at a personal level, with names in your email URLs rather than just random group email addresses. This will make recipients feel like you personally want them to be involved in your event, and make them more likely to respond. Furthermore, this will also prevent them from ignoring emails from company addresses, like people often tend to do.
Start with an announcement campaign
Start your email marketing with an announcement campaign. First of all, send out a teaser email stating that you have something in the works the recipients should not miss out on. Add hints such as pictures of past events and venue teasers to get recipients interested. However, don’t go overboard and send out more than one or two of these teaser emails, as more could make people lose interest.
Then, announce your conference, with the general agenda, the dates, venue, ticketing options, and other relevant details. Once that’s out of the way, you should focus on getting people to sign up for and attend your event.
Send out invitations and follow up
Now, you can send out the invitations for your conference. You should make separate speaker, attendee and partner invitations, with the relevant details in each one. Use the templates mentioned above and create these invitations. Then, send them out to the relevant audiences.
However, this is not the end of the line. You need to send reminders and follow up emails as well after decent intervals. This will keep your conference on the radar for the recipients and serve as reminders for them to attend and participate as well.
Share early registration codes and discounts
There’s nothing that tantalizes audiences as much as special deals and discounts. Incentivize registration by offering early-bird discounts or exclusive access to certain sessions at the conference via email marketing. Make sure your subject lines reflect that you’re offering these deals, so that recipients open your emails and register on a priority basis.
If your event is free, exclusive access or event merch can serve as excellent incentives. So, as long as you’re offering something exciting, you can get people to register for your event.
Have all your vendor communication in one place
While planning your conference, you need to make sure every aspect is mapped out perfectly. There may be some unavoidable issues on the day of the conference, but you should do your part to have things running as smoothly as possible. So, communicate with your vendors via email, and keep all these emails in one repository. This way, whenever you need to refer to something, it’ll be a few clicks away.
Furthermore, this will also help you avoid any miscommunication, and keep your finances in shape as well. Something as simple as organized vendor communication can really be quite effective.
Create speaker shoutout emails
Your session speakers can be some of your best promotion assets. So, you should use speaker email templates and create an email highlight for them. If you have numerous speakers, group these email highlights according to expertise, agenda, or day. In addition, if you have a speaker who is a big name in your industry, highlight them in a separate email and have them add an inviting statement as well.
This will not only encourage speakers, but also drive up registrations. When people see the level of discourse expected at your conference, they’ll be intrigued and be more likely to sign up.
To sum up, it is essential to plan and promote your conference via email marketing. As long as you follow a few simple strategies, you’ll be set for success!
