Email marketing is dead as dinosaurs, right? Wrong.
Super wrong, in fact—70% of US-based Internet users choose email as their preferred method of contact from businesses. Who knew, right? Turns out it’s a great day to learn more about event marketing emails! (We know you’re excited.)
When it comes to spreading the word about your event, event marketing email should probably be at the top of your communications list. It’s effective, it’s cheap, and it allows for hyper-targeting and superior analytics.
But just busting out any old event marketing email isn’t going to give you the ROI you’re dreaming of—and knowing what to say (and where to say it) can be tough to figure out.
That’s why we rounded up the 5 fundamental building blocks for crafting an event marketing email that people will actually want to read.
1 While we’re on the subject …
35% of email recipients choose what to open based solely on the subject line. That means you have exactly one sentence to capture your audience’s attention and make them complete an action. No pressure.
Truth is, when it comes to writing subject lines that get clicks, it’s more about what to not to say.
Subject lines that include overdone superlatives turn viewers off, so avoid phrases like “biggest event…”, “best event for…”, or “THE event of…”. Your audience knows this is just marketing talk, and we’re all programmed as humans to try and tune out blatant advertising.
It’s also a good idea to avoid being too dry, or giving away the entire contents of your email in your subject line. This way your audience is forced to click to get more information.
Do: Don’t let all your friends hang out without you…
Don’t: Attend MyEvent 2021, the #1 event for events professionals!
2 Here’s a lil’ sneak peek
The subject line is what catches them, but it’s what directly follows that keeps them around. 84% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 use an email preview pane—a snippet of email content that appears before taking the deep dive into a full open. It’s important to keep this content relevant, entertaining, and captivating enough to get you the full monty: a boss-aweing, big ol’ open rate.
In Gmail, this can just be a few words, while in Outlook you could be showing half the email. It’s most important to optimize for short previews, assuming you’re also paying close attention to your email’s body content (we’ll get into this in a sec.)
Short previews, like in Gmail, can be anything from 4 words to a few sentences. This is a great place to add a little more context to your subject line, without giving away the whole farm.
This could be an opportunity to employ some social currency, which is fancy marketing talk for name-dropping your previous VIP attendees. If your subject line was super vague, you can use your header to clarify who you are.
Think of this as a complement to your subject line: if it was more specific, use your headline to be a little more provocative. If your subject line was catchy but unclear, use this space to fill in the blanks.
Do: Don’t let all your friends hang out without you …
Inc Magazine and Atlassian are already attending MyEvent 2021. You in?
Don’t: Attend MyEvent 2021, the #1 event for events professionals!
MyEvent 2021 is the best place for events professionals to talk about events.
3 The devil’s in the details
Woohoo! They opened it! Now you have 15-20 seconds to tell them everything they need to know.
No, seriously. That’s how long email recipients spend reading your sparkly event marketing email that took 3 days to perfect and went through 4 rounds of approvals. No, we’re not saying you should throw in the towel and send whatever crappy email first comes to mind—you just need to be intentional about how you’re communicating with your audience before hitting send.
The best practice is to make key details stand out. Who, what, when, where, and why—maybe in bold, or large font, and moving down the page towards your CTA.
The lead up to your CTA can be the most important—your most crucial information and the link you want your audience to click need to be close together, or you’ll lose your reader before they even see your button.
This doesn’t necessarily mean moving your CTA to the top. You can use bold type, larger fonts, and color in important details to point your reader all the way to the bottom of your email, where your link lives.
4 Personalizing your event marketing email
When it comes to wooing potential customers, making them feel special goes a long way. I mean, consider this is your own like. Even if you’re a marketer and you know a lot of the strategies, doesn’t that special extra step always make you feel warm and fuzzy? You want to tap into that. Not only because it’s good marketing, but because you actually do want your customer, or prospect, to feel seen.
Personalization is important, and it’s a good idea to send your event marketing emails through a gateway that allows you to make your message feel totally custom to the recipient.
The number one way to do this is through adding a *name tag to your post, so your email greets its reader with their first name. Yeah, yeah, we all know it’s a formula, but we still gravitate to it. Also, it indicates that, somewhere along the way, they opted into this email; it’s not just spam.
Arguably the most important form of personalization is speaking to your audience in their own language: literally. While it may be true that your event will be in English and most of your attendees will know how to speak English, sending an event marketing email in Dutch to a Dutch attendee can make you look super savvy, and that person feel like your communications are really tailored for them. And that’s key.
5 Call to action (CTA)
Woohoo! They’ve reached the bottom of your email. Your open rate is achieved, and now your click through rate is like the final boss before you can officially call this marketing communication a success.
Here are 3 basic rules for successful CTAs:
1. Make it a button
This one’s simple: buttons just stand out better than text links do. Use a bright, contrasting color and bold or all caps text to make it even clickier.
2. Use a verb
A call to action needs to imply just that: action. Use a strong, decisive verb so readers are prompted to make a decision.
3. Keep it snappy
Long buttons are not effective; your CTA should be to the point. Keep it short to maximize its effect on the page.
Wrap Up
There’s no secret recipe to crafting the perfect event marketing email. Kick butt and take names with these 5 simple tips to increase conversions and open rates.
- Grab reader attention with a clickable subject line
- Give em’ a lil’ sneak peek of your email content
- Get to the point and make key details stand out
- Personalization goes the extra mile
- Close the deal with a captivating CTA
Now, go get ‘em! That email’s not gonna write itself.
