Almost anyone can promote their event using excessive resources, multiple marketing channels, and a massive team of professionals. However, the question is how to market events on a budget?
Event budgeting has become more complex with the rise of virtual and hybrid events. Many event planners reported that the pandemic has negatively affected their budgets in 2020. Worse yet, 83.7% of event organizers believe COVID-19 will further impact their event budgets in 2021, says Bizzabo.
So, it’s only natural to look for efficient solutions on how to market events in 2021. After all, cutting costs is the ultimate way to gain an advantage in the competitive market. So, let’s get right into it!
How To Market Events Efficiently In 2021?
Every event is different, that’s for sure. Still, you can find a way to implement the following strategies, regardless of your goals, business mission, and vision.
Here are three unique suggestions on how to market events on a budget using digital marketing.
Build An SEO-Focused Strategy
As an event marketer, you might have asked or searched how to market events. Undoubtedly, you have heard the advice “Use the potential of social media platforms” numerous times. Fortunately or not, there’s more to it. See, it’s not enough to share your event or content on socials.
Social media holds great potential for spreading the word for your event. Still, potential attendees might perceive it as spam if you don’t have a particular strategy in place. Going on, if you want to stick to your budget, you should develop a cost-benefit analysis. Then, focus on the most profitable options.
In general, from an economic aspect, you can increase your event ROI or profits in two ways. You can either increase your revenues or cut your costs. Here’s how to achieve the latter.
The most effective option is to target your ideal audience using only a few platforms. Essentially, you need to direct your resources based on where your audience spends most of their time. But that’s only the start of it!
Before you start posting, you should also carefully consider which keywords your potential visitors might use for searching the web. Here, you can use some tools for finding popular and relevant key terms, such as the Google Keyword Planner.
Once you detect the keywords with high search rates and low competition, you can incorporate them into your event marketing strategy. For instance, you can add them to your web pages, blog posts, or even social media posts and descriptions. In turn, you will have a more focused strategy.
In other words, you will cut costs as you produce less content that achieves better results.
Don’t Oversee The Power Of Email Marketing
Email marketing has been a popular solution for promotion for quite a while, covering the most diverse niches. It even answers how to market events, and it’s for a reason!
You can use email marketing for multiple purposes. Your potential visitors are most probably already on their desktops or phones. They will refresh their social media regardless. So, why not include a pointer to your upcoming event?
The best part about email marketing is that it leads to conversions, significantly increasing Return On Investment (ROI). Email marketing ROI is 4200% or $42 for every $1 spent, says Snovio Labs.
However, according to Litmus, more than 40% of marketers have seen budget cuts to email since the pandemic. So, now, you must develop an email marketing strategy on a budget.
The best possible alternative is an automated, cheap, and effective tool, such as MailChimp, Sendinblue, Cakemail, MailerLite, SendGrid, or Sendy.
You can further improve your event email marketing strategy. For instance, you can write a catchy subject line. The question is, what will attract the attention of your particular audience? What do they want to read once they open their eyes in the morning? Or how to grasp their focus in the middle of a busy workday?
One Press Release, Multiple Channels
Getting a press release on your upcoming occasion is yet another answer on how to market events while on a budget. It’s a cheap solution for sure. Still, it would be best if you found a way to make it effective, and here’s how.
First, you need to research relevant publications and consider your hook. In other words, you need to answer the question, why is your event important? At this point, you can point out its uniqueness or guest speakers. Furthermore, you can promote it as a one-off event, a seasonal occasion, or find a way to tie it to a popular trend or some significant movement. And once you find your “angle,” you can use it to promote your event to the press.
In general, print publications have longer lead times. So, these are only effective when you have your event scheduled months in advance. If not, digital media is a much better option for when you have short lead times. At this point, you can contact the right team members of the publications by email to increase your chances of getting your event featured. Also, you can use the potential of bloggers within your niche.
One thing to keep in mind is to keep the press release short and to the point, especially if you plan to distribute it to multiple media contacts.
Other Tips On How To Market Events For “Cheap”
As you probably assume, there are many answers on how to market events on a budget. Essentially, you can go for an alternative that cuts costs.
So, apart from digital marketing, you can negotiate with the venues and vendors or be flexible with dates. For instance, hosting an event on a Tuesday is significantly cheaper than having it during the weekend.
Furthermore, you can invite sponsors and brand partners to entertain your guests on a budget. You can also source a local music act, recruit volunteers, streamline operations to improve efficiency, and so on.
The sea of opportunities is endless. So, make sure to make the most out of it!
