There are a lot of businesses sending marketing messages for in-person events these days. Let’s face it, the more personal you can be with your customers and prospects all the better, right? So how do you pack the house for your own event? It’s all about repetition and constantly being in the face of who you want at your event.

First you want to define how many people you want at your event, then look at how many people you’re going to need to register. On a daily/weekly basis you should tally up your registrants so you can dial up or down how you need to advertise.

We’ve seen rates of people that show up to an event around 30% if there is no charge for it and 70% if there is a charge. By those metrics if you want 50 people to come to your event and you’re not charging for it, you’ll need 166 people to register (50/.30). Conversely by these metrics if you did charge for it you’d need just 71 people (50/.70). Make sense?

Here is a calendar of tactics that you can use to pack your house for your event that incorporates email marketing, PR and social media!

6 weeks prior

• Offer An Early Bird special: Give a deal if you’re charging for it or offer something free if you’re not.
• Develop 8 exciting reasons for why people should come to your event. You’ll use one each week in your advertising.
• Message for all outlets: Tell them there are only 6 short weeks until the event. Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with. Display the Early Bird offer.
• Find Influencers: Find people who have said nice things about your business and ask if they’ll tell their friends, Tweet and post to their Facebook pages.

Tactics:

• Send an email campaign to your customers.
• Tweet about the event.
• Send a postcard to your customers and prospects.
• Submit your event to local websites and publications.
• Tally registrants by end of week.

5 weeks prior

• Decide if you have enough people registered to keep the early bird special going.
• Message for all outlets: Tell them there are only 5 short weeks until the event. Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with. Display the Early Bird offer if you choose to.

Tactics:

• Send email to non responders of the prior email campaign.
• Send an email to all of those who registered with the message. Ask them to bring a friend. If you’re charging, offer them something free if their friend registers. Ask them to post to their Facebook and Twitter.
• Create event in Facebook and invite your Facebook friends.
• Tweet about the event.
• Submit your event to local websites and publications.
• Tally registrants by end of week.

4 weeks prior

• Message for all outlets: Tell them there are only 4 short weeks until the event. Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with. Display the Early Bird offer if you choose to.

Tactics:

• Send an email to non responders of the prior campaign.
• Send an email to all of those who registered with the message. Ask them to bring a friend. If you’re charging, offer them something free if their friend registers. Ask them to post to their Facebook and Twitter.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who didn’t respond inviting them to the event.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who did respond with the message.
• Tweet about the event.
• Tally registrants by end of week.

3 weeks prior

• Message for all outlets: Tell them there are only 3 Short Weeks until the event. Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with.
• Find Influencers that didn’t respond: Find people who have said nice things about your business and ask if they’ll tell their friends, Tweet and post to their Facebook pages.

Tactics:

• Send an email to non responders of the prior campaign.
• Send an email to all of those who registered with the message. Ask them to bring a friend. If you’re charging, offer them something free if their friend registers. Ask them to post to their Facebook and Twitter.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who didn’t respond inviting them to the event.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who did respond with the message.
• Tweet about the event.
• Tally registrants by end of week.

2 weeks prior

• Message for all outlets: Tell them there are only 2 Short Weeks until the event. Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with.

Tactics:

• Send an email to non responders of the prior campaign.
• Send an email to all of those who registered with the message. Ask them to bring a friend. If you’re charging, offer them something free if their friend registers. Ask them to post to their Facebook and Twitter.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who didn’t respond inviting them to the event.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who did respond with the message.
• Tweet about the event.
• Tally registrants by end of week.

1 week prior

• Message for all outlets: Tell them there is only 1 Short Week until the event. Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with.

Tactics:

• Send an email to non responders of the prior campaign.
• Send an email to all of those who registered with the message. Ask them to bring a friend. If you’re charging, offer them something free if their friend registers. Ask them to post to their Facebook and Twitter.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who didn’t respond inviting them to the event.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who did respond with the message.
• Tweet about the event.

3 days prior

• Message for all outlets: Tell them there are just 3 days until the event. Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with.

Tactics:

• Send an email to non responders of the prior campaign with “Last Chance” message.
• Send an email to all of those who registered with the message. Ask them to bring a friend. If you’re charging, offer them something free if their friend registers. Ask them to post to their Facebook and Twitter.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who didn’t respond inviting them to the event.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who did respond with the message
• Tweet about the event.

Same day

• Message for all outlets: Remind them that the event is here and you’re looking forward to seeing them! Use one of the 8 exciting reasons you’ve come up with.

Tactics:

• Send an email to non responders of the prior campaign with “Last Chance” message.
• Send an email to all of those who registered with the message. Ask them to bring a friend. If you’re charging, offer them something free if their friend registers. Ask them to post to their Facebook and Twitter.
• Send a Facebook message to all of those who did respond with the message. Ask them to post to their Facebook pages.
• Tweet about the event with message and tell them something different exciting about the event.

Day After

• Send an email to all attendees with a link to posted photos of the event thanking them for their attendance. Ask them to post the link to Facebook and twitter.
• Send an email to all non attendees who registered with a “sorry we missed you, maybe next year.” Include a link to posted photos of the event thanking them for their interest.
• Send an email to all non registrants with a “Here’s what you missed, hope to see you next year” message.
• Post the photos to Facebook and thank everyone for attending. Post the photos to the facebook event page thanking them for their attendance. Send a Facebook message to all the non attendees with the photos link with a “Here’s what you missed, hope to see you next year” message.
• Tweet about the event and include a link to the posted photos.

Let us know how it goes!

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