55 Creative Event Marketing Ideas: Attract a Sell-Out Crowd!

For your event marketing to be a stunning success, you need lots of people to attend your special events. Attracting a sell-out crowd is what every promoter wants.

This is easier if you have an unlimited budget, but what if your budget is small? Read on to get lots of of affordable ways to market your event.

To help you out, we have put together 55 creative marketing ideas to surge the attendance of your events. Sure, you know some of these ways to promote events, but I bet you will discover a few new and effective ideas. Let’s get busy selling out your event.

Tip One:  Create a promo video.

Take footage from a previous event, if you have it, or a general short video that will attract people to the event. Include a call to action.

Check out these exciting promo video templates to use to promote your event.

Tip Two:  Be a guest on a podcast.

Get in touch with an influential podcast in your industry and request to get booked.

Tip Three: Host a free webinar.

A free webinar is a great way for your target attendees to take a peek into what to expect at your event.

Tip Four:  Create an infographic.

Gather up data about the topic of your event or offer stats from a previous event you held.

Tip Five:  Tell a personal story.

Humans respond well to hearing personal stories. Share stories from people that attended a previous event you held.

Tip Six:  Request referrals.

Ask people in your network and industry to help with promoting your event.

Tip Seven:  Speak at other events.

You can share what you know at other events and help people find out about your upcoming event.

Tip Eight:  Make it easy to share promotional material.

Have a kit for people who want to spread the word about your event in an easy-to-use way.

Tip Nine:  Create images with quotes.

Create an on a shareable image with a quote from previous event attendees, along with any distinguishing titles they have.

Tip Ten:  Share photos.

You can share one photo per day that was taken at your previous events to ramp up excitement and reservations.

Tip Eleven:  Write a press release.

There are several services on marketplaces like Fiverr where you can have a press release sent to dozens of news agencies to help promote your event.

Tip Twelve:  Spread the word on social media.

Use the power of social media to get the message out about your event.

Tip Thirteen:  Give out free tickets.

Give out some free passes to sponsors, vendors, and influential attendees so they can spread the word about the event and invite others.

Tip Fourteen:  Offer an exclusive feature.

Create something exclusive, such as VIP access, to generate interest in something rare and valuable.

Tip Fifteen:  Celebrate a milestone.

If you have a notable anniversary coming up, such as this being the 5th year of the event occurring, make sure to emphasize it.

Tip Sixteen:  Send out email blasts.

If you have a mailing list, send out emails periodically leading up to the event for some good old-fashioned email marketing.

Tip Seventeen:  Create a crowdfunding campaign.

Generate awareness, as well as money, for your event.

Tip Eighteen:  Offer discounted tickets.

The most effective discount trick is to offer early bird rates.

Tip Nineteen:  Enable social sharing.

Any content you create online should have the ability to be shared on social media.

Tip Twenty:  Publish guest blog posts.

Get in touch with other bloggers and offer to write a guest post on their sites. It should be on subject related to your event, but not about it exclusively.

Tip Twenty-One:  Give away swag.

Let people know that you are giving away swag with all ticket sales to give people more incentive.

Tip Twenty-Two:  Buy ads.

Use the power of Google, Facebook, and others to promote your event.

Tip Twenty-Three:  Hang banner signs.

Print banners and put them up in high-traffic areas in the city or area where there the event will be held.

Tip Twenty-Four:  Re-purpose old blog content.

Employ content marketing by using some of your older relevant blog content that gets lots of traffic to promote your event.

Tip Twenty-Five:  Build landing pages.

Turn a lead into a ticket sale with well-designed landing pages that have a clear call to action.

Tip Twenty-Six:  Tell your founder’s story.

Whether you or someone else is the founder, share their story, along with the event’s story.

Tip Twenty-Seven:  Create a community.

Create an online community somewhere like a Facebook or LinkedIn group.

Tip Twenty-Eight:  Create engaging blog posts.

Create informational blog posts that can rank high on search engines.

Tip Twenty-Nine:  Hold a pre-event Q&A.

Use Twitter to hold a Q&A where people involved with your event can answer questions your target audience has about the event.

Tip Thirty:  Create event-specific branding.

Have a theme with unique pictures and colors to showcase the event.

Tip Thirty-One:  Change your email signature.

If you email lots of people every day, be sure to change your email signature to one which promotes your event.

Tip Thirty-Two:  Run a social media contest.

A contest with a prize will generate lots of hype and buzz around your event.

Tip Thirty-Three:  Disclose high-profile attendees.

If well-known figures in your industry are attending, let your audience know.

Tip Thirty-Four:  Create flyers and posters.

Printed leaflets and posters put up in the area in which the event is will help get the word out.

Tip Thirty-Five:  Go on local radio.

Promote your event on local radio stations, which still have massive audiences. Record a professional radio commercial with a top voice-over artist such as Dave Courvoisier. 

Tip Thirty-Six:  Coordinate a flash mob.

When you start a flash mob in a high-traffic area near your event, you can turn lots of heads to find out what all the hype is about.

Tip Thirty-Seven:  Promote in local shops.

There may be shops in the area of your event which will be open to you putting up a poster or holding a brief “taster session” about the upcoming event.

Tip Thirty-Eight:  Display video projections.

If you have permission, generate a video projection on the wall of a building near your event.

Tip Thirty-Nine:  Sell merchandise.

Offer things like t-shirts, buttons, stickers, pens, etc. and give some away for free as well.

Tip Forty:  Hire sign spinners.

Get a few locals to become sign spinners, pointing people to your event.

Tip Forty-One:  Set up gigantic props.

People will see your gigantic props from far away and become curious about what they are related to.

Tip Forty-Two:  Give out business cards.

Hand out business cards wherever and whenever the opportunity strikes.

Tip Forty-Three:  Optimize your event website.

Incorporate website analytics, A/B testing, and heat mapping tools.

Tip Forty-Four:  Make attendees event marketers.

Whenever an attendee buys a ticket, send them a discount code that is shareable with others.

Tip Forty-Five:  Partner with another event.

Join forces with other events to bring in more attendees.

Tip Forty-Six:  Get featured in an events directory.

Send email pitches to high-traffic event directories to get listed.

Tip Forty-Seven:  Create a unique event agenda.

Show off the list of speakers and other features of the event in a flashy event schedule.

Tip Forty-Eight:  Use social media image filters.

Get your audience to use funny and interesting filters on social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat.

Tip Forty-Nine:  Promote at local libraries.

Give your local library promotional information on your event and they will use their wide network to share the news about it.

Tip Fifty:  Have a specific website for your event.

Create a dedicated website solely for the event.

Tip Fifty-One:  Offer interactive entertainment.

Bring in something unique and unrelated to your event that is entertaining.

Tip Fifty-Two:  Create a short hashtag.

Use a hashtag specific to your event and use it on all your social media posts.

Tip Fifty-Three:  Design special graphics for your speakers.

Having special graphics encourages your speakers to share these designs on their networks.

Tip Fifty-Four:  Do a Livestream before the event.

Show people around the space where event will be held to give a taste of what is to come.

Tip Fifty-Five:  Hire an expert to help with your digital marketing.

Get some extra help from someone who can help with your campaign creation, management, and monitoring.

Start Attracting That Sell-Out Crowd!

Now that you have 55 event promotion strategies in your arsenal, it’s time to start using them. When you incorporate these tips into your marketing strategy, you will have tremendous success in marketing your next event.

Learn about more entertainment event business ideas here

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