Keeping on top of everything in the run-up to event day is essential. Your event timeline will give you an overview of what needs to happen in the weeks and months before your event.
You already know that email invites, social media promotions, and online advertising are essential to driving ticket sales and registrations. But to maximise attendance, you’ll need more than a few trusty promotional tactics – you’ll need a plan with approximate timings.
Here are our top tips for creating an event promotion timeline.
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Create your event planning checklist
Plan your event promotion timeline
Create your event planning checklist
Before you do anything else – even before you announce the event — sit down and work out the timeline. How far in advance you should advertise an event depends on its size and complexity. You might only need a few weeks for small gatherings, while larger conferences with multiple guest speakers can take months to organise. Start by writing out an event planning checklist, recording everything that needs to happen. You can then create your promotional schedule based on this.
Set anchor points
Anchor points are event management deadlines that are set in stone. Examples include promotional deadlines for when print publications need your ad copy, the date you need to finish sending your early bird tickets, and when you’ll publish blog posts.
Use collaborative tools
While an old-school sheet of paper is great for visualising your plan, it’s more efficient to work with collaborative event planning software.
- With project management tools like Trello and Slack, it’s easy to communicate with your co-planners and see when tasks have been completed. Add new duties such as follow-ups and advertising payments.
- Use shared calendars to assign jobs to particular people – they’ll receive an alert when it’s time to pay for services, for example. Spreadsheets on Google Drive can also be handy for keeping track of budgets as they’re updated for all viewers in real time.
Plan your event promotion timeline
We’ve discussed the basics – now it’s time to look at what to cover. This event planning timeline is by no means exhaustive, but it should give you an idea of what needs to happen and when to achieve the desired promotional outcomes.
16 weeks before your event
From venue contracts to vendor and sponsor requests – you have a lot going on before your event goes on sale. But it will be worth the effort if you take the time to build anticipation and excitement in the weeks leading up to the launch.
- On social media, let your community of followers know the date and time that tickets go on sale or registration opens. Send an email if you have a list of attendees from previous events.
- Behind the scenes, you should be laying the groundwork for a successful launch. Sync with speakers, sponsors, and other partners to coordinate a cross-promotion strategy for the launch.
- And while your event website is in the final stages of development, set up your search engine marketing and display advertising campaigns. Your first campaigns should promote the early bird discount and drive awareness.
14 weeks before your event
Your website is launched, and the event is now on sale, so it’s time to send out the first email invite to let everyone know. Do the same on social media and your blog if you have one.
- Consider an early bird ticket discount to incentivise people who plan ahead.
- Use Eventbrite Boost to manage and automate your marketing campaign.
- Launch your search engine marketing and display advertising campaigns. Keep an eye on their progress but don’t make drastic changes. You’ll need a few weeks of data to make more strategic decisions.
- Make sure your speakers, sponsors, and other partners know tickets and registrations are on sale and that they can start promoting your event. Provide tracking links to monitor their progress and plan to check in with them monthly.
10 weeks before your event
By now, if your early bird tickets haven’t sold out, it’s time to change things up. Your messaging should demonstrate the value of attending the event.
- Do this by highlighting speakers and topics – plus other content that connects attendees to the event experience – in your social media and blog posts.
- If you have a blog, get speakers and sponsors to guest post and share the post with their networks. This extra distribution channel can help spread the word about your event.
- Segment your attendees into relevant groups and send more targeted, personalised emails that speak directly to their needs and aspirations. Targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue.
- Analyse their performance to find out which messages resonated the most and use the data to inform your email marketing strategy moving forward.
- Review your search engine marketing and display advertising campaigns. Evaluate your keywords and targeting to find out what’s working or not. Cut the ad groups or campaigns that didn’t perform, and reallocate their budget to the ones that did.
6 weeks before your event
With your event on the horizon, your messaging should create urgency. Your ads, as well as social and blog posts, should tell interested attendees that the time to register is running out.
- Space out emails over the next three to four weeks to let anyone still undecided know they have a limited time to buy.
- Use retargeting to reach out to people who’ve started the purchase process but never completed it. (Not sure how? Learn more about retargeting.)
2 weeks before your event
Your event is just around the corner, and with a couple of weeks left, it’s time for your last push.
- One final email to people who received but didn’t open previous emails should let them know it’s a “last call,” urging them to purchase or register before it’s too late.
- Your final social media and blog posts should also have a sales-focused message with direct calls to make a purchase.
A blueprint for event success
We hope this guide inspired you to plan your event promotion strategy. Your event may need a longer runway to ensure there’s enough time to promote it, so adapt your planning to your specific needs, then put your plan into action!
