Event Marketing Plan

What an event marketing plan includes

A complete plan answers nine questions. Keep each answer to a few lines:

• Goal

  The registration or attendance target, and for business events the kind of attendee that counts, such as target accounts.

• Audience

  Who you are trying to reach, by segment: past attendees, members, prospects, partners, speakers' networks.

• Message

  Why someone should attend, in one sentence, and the proof: speakers, sessions, people they will meet.

• Offer

  Ticket types and prices, early bird dates, group and member rates, and promo codes for partners.

• Channels

  Where you will reach each segment: email, the event website, social, partners, paid ads, press.

• Timeline

  What goes out when, from announcement to the post-event follow-up.

• Budget

  Spend by channel, including design, ads and any tools.

• Owners

  Who writes, designs, approves and sends each piece.

• Measurement

  Registrations by source, conversion from page visit to registration, attendance rate and cost per registration.

How to build an event marketing plan, step by step

Work through these steps in order. Each one feeds the template further down the page.

1. 1

   Set the target

   Work back from capacity and goals: how many registrations you need, and how many of them must come from priority segments.

2. 2

   Segment the audience

   Split your lists by relationship and interest. Past attendees and members need a different message from cold prospects.

3. 3

   Write the core message

   One sentence on the value of attending, plus three proof points. Every email, post and ad reuses them.

4. 4

   Build the registration page first

   Every channel points to it, so it must be clear, branded, easy to use on a phone and live before the announcement.

   Event registration software
5. 5

   Plan the offer

   Use early bird pricing to create a first deadline, and promo codes for partners and speakers so you can see who brought registrations.

   Event ticketing software
6. 6

   Choose channels and schedule them

   Put every send, post and ad on a calendar with an owner, using the timeline below as a starting point.

   How to advertise an event
7. 7

   Track by source

   Give each partner and channel its own link or code, so registrations can be traced back to where they came from.

8. 8

   Review weekly and adjust

   Compare registrations against the target each week, and move effort to the channels that are working.

Event marketing channels compared

Most events need a few channels done well rather than every channel done thinly:

An event marketing timeline

Adjust the timing to your event: a large conference starts much earlier than a local seminar. Treat the stages, not the exact weeks, as the fixed part.

Event marketing plan template

Copy this template into a shared document and fill it in with your team.

EVENT MARKETING PLAN: [Event name]
Date and format: [date(s)], [in person / virtual / hybrid], [city or online]
Plan owner: [name]
Last updated: [date]

1. GOAL
Registration target: [number]
Attendance target: [number]
Priority segments: [e.g. X registrations from target accounts / members]

2. AUDIENCE SEGMENTS
- [Segment 1, e.g. past attendees]: [size of list], [what they care about]
- [Segment 2, e.g. members]: [size], [what they care about]
- [Segment 3, e.g. new prospects]: [where to reach them]

3. CORE MESSAGE
Why attend (one sentence): [message]
Proof points: [speaker or session], [who they will meet], [what they will leave with]

4. OFFER
Ticket types and prices: [list]
Early bird: [price], ends [date]
Promo codes: [code] for [partner or segment], [discount]

5. CHANNELS
Email: [lists, number of sends]
Website and registration page: [URL]
Social: [networks, frequency]
Partners, speakers and exhibitors: [who, what kit they get]
Paid: [networks, budget]
PR: [media list, release date]

6. TIMELINE
[Date] Registration page live, tracking links ready
[Date] Announcement
[Date] Early bird reminder
[Date] Early bird ends
[Date] Speaker announcements
[Date] Last call
[Date] Know-before-you-go email
[Date] Event
[Date] Thank-you email and survey

7. BUDGET
Design and content: [amount]
Paid media: [amount]
Tools: [amount]
Other: [amount]
Total: [amount]

8. OWNERS
Copy: [name]
Design: [name]
Email sends: [name]
Social: [name]
Partners: [name]
Approvals: [name]

9. MEASUREMENT
Weekly: registrations against target, registrations by source and code, page conversion
After the event: attendance rate, cost per registration, survey score, [pipeline or other business result]

How Eventdex supports your event marketing

Eventdex covers the registration side of the plan and the messages to people who have registered. Keep promotional email in your marketing email tool: Eventdex email campaigns are for event communications, not marketing.

• Attendee emails

  Confirmations, reminders and updates to registered attendees from standard or custom templates, sent to filtered groups, scheduled by date or days before the event, with delivered and failed counts in the campaign logs.

  Event planning software

• Offers and tracking

  Early bird and group tickets, several kinds of promo code with a promo code report, and affiliate ID links with orders filtered by affiliate.

  Event registration software

• A page that travels

  A short URL for the registration page, social share buttons, and an embed or popup widget for your own website.

  Event ticketing software

• Recover unfinished registrations

  The abandoned order report lists registrants who did not complete payment, so you can follow up.

• Reach attendees in the app

  Push notifications to chosen ticket types or tags, sent now or scheduled.

  Event mobile app