How do you turn your online events into must-attend occasions?

You can leverage online event marketing ideas that lead to more signups, event attendance, and engagement.

Furthermore, your virtual event promotion ideas can directly influence success.

But which online event marketing ideas can help you drum up increased registration and engagement?

According to a recent study, marketers leverage social media, email, websites, and ads to drive registrations to their virtual events.

Image via Markletic

The question is, would these online event marketing ideas also work for your brand?

Are there other ideas you can try?

Find out below as we list the most beneficial online event marketing ideas your brand can use to promote, amplify content in-event, and drive registration.

8 Online Event Marketing Ideas That Always Deliver

Online event marketing ideas don’t have to be complicated.

If you leverage the right ones, you can promote your event at an affordable price and reach more people.

But what are the best online event marketing ideas?

Discover them below:

1. Optimize the Event Website or Landing Page

One of the first online event marketing ideas you should implement is building a website or landing page dedicated to the event.

A landing page or website will help you encourage your target attendees to register for the upcoming event. The event website can help you raise awareness, get people to buy tickets, or sign up.

However, for this to work, your landing page or event website needs to have all the necessary information to convince attendees to show up. These include the host, topic, time, and speakers.

In essence, you need to include everything that can support your registration goals.
But how do you optimize your landing page for conversions?

Leverage these tips:

• Ensure everything from the headline to call-to-action focuses on one conversion goal.
• Target specific attendees.
• Include FOMO elements that get people excited about attending. For example, teasers, a sneak peek into speakers, quotes, or photos from past events.
• Highlight important details while also setting clear expectations.
• Make it easy for attendees to reserve tickets or sign up.
• Include testimonials from people who’ve attended previous events.
• Include partner details.

For example, check out the landing page from Drift’s RevGrowth Virtual Summit.

Image via Drift

Their landing page has an intuitive layout, with a crystal clear call-to-action and a chatbot to help audiences easily book spots or ask questions.

They also feature speakers, catchy copy, clear headlines, and a countdown to build excitement and encourage registration.

2. Drive Attendance via Email

According to research, email is among the top three most effective channels you can use when promoting your event.

Email becomes one of the best online event marketing ideas you can implement.

You can use it to generate interest before you start selling tickets and use it to encourage registration or signups.

Start by integrating high-performing customer relationship management software into your email marketing platform. This way, you can easily collect data, segment attendee emails, and have an organized list of people you can engage in your promotional campaigns.

Then, leverage these event email marketing best practices:

• Send informational emails, letting your subscribers know about an upcoming event

Image via Really Good Emails

• Promise exclusive offers to your readers.
• Encourage users to share your email by incorporating social handles in your emails.
• Keep sending event details to people who purchased tickets.
• Encourage people to ask questions related to the event via email.
• Use urgency to remind people about the event and encourage registration. You can also remind registrants about important event-related dates.
• Thank people for attending the event after it’s over.

3. Harness the Power of Social Media Marketing

According to research, more than 4.2 billion people use social media, with the typical user spending 2 hours 25 minutes each day on these platforms.

Image via We Are Social

For this reason, social media marketing is one of the most effective online event marketing ideas around.

People you want to attend are likely active on social media, and that’s where you need to be available if you want to reach them.

Once you’re on the target platforms where your audience lives, use the steps below to promote your virtual event on social media effectively:

Choose your platforms: Depending on where your audience spends most of their time, choose platforms that can help you promote an event. These can include Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc.

Create an event hashtag: Make it unique, short, and easy to understand. This way, you can include it in all your event-oriented posts, and your audience can use it to join the conversation.

Create Facebook events: Facebook events can help you create event awareness, provide valuable information, interact with your audience, and so much more.

Image via Facebook

Most importantly, this is one of the online event marketing ideas that can help you generate social proof.

When people see that their friends are either interested or going to an event, they may be triggered to check it out. Additionally, with Facebook events, you can add as much information about your event, including a description, time, links, calls-to-action, etc.

Leverage platform features: Each platform has features you can leverage to spread the word about your event. For example, use the Countdown Sticker on Instagram, Snapchat Geofilters, or filters and stickers on TikTok. With them, you can personalize posts, engage attendees, create awareness, and a lot more.

Use teasers: Share teasers with relevant details on the event to build buzz and provide further information about the event. It’s one of the online event marketing ideas that can help you introduce your guest speakers or share interviews.

Invest in tools: Leverage tools that help you streamline the process and save time with your social media promotions. For example, many tools can help you easily create on-brand graphics, curate content, edit online video, schedule posts, monitor responses, and analyze performance.

These tools can also help you create a social media event promotion timeline that guides your marketing strategy.

Give sneak peeks: Promote your virtual event on social media by giving your target audience a glimpse into what they can expect during the event. These can include photos and videos of your program, venue, or speakers.

Host giveaways: Giveaways and contests are online event marketing ideas that can drive engagement and more registrations. In this case, you encourage potential attendees to use your hashtag to join and ask event sponsors to provide giveaway items you can give away as gifts.

4. Ask for Help from Bloggers and Journalists

To ensure more people learn about your virtual event, leverage one of the well-known online event marketing ideas: involving journalists and bloggers.

Identify reporters and journalists at an online newspaper, publication, or association you would like to get featured on, and either call or email your pitch to them.

Not all of them may get back to you, but the few who do can give you some powerful links and great coverage.

Contact relevant bloggers in your niche and tell them about your upcoming event online. Ask them to write about it in their blog and give them something in return like a free ticket code they can offer to their readers.

Alternatively, consider using press releases as one of your online event marketing ideas. Leverage them to spread the word about your event.

5. Create Promotional Content

Content marketing ensures your virtual gathering does not exist in a vacuum.

By aligning your content marketing efforts with other online event marketing ideas, you can ensure people stay hooked to your event.

But how do you go about creating promotional content for your virtual event?

Conduct research into event-related keywords or topics your target audience searches for. Then, incorporate them into your headlines and blog content to increase the chances of ranking.

Second, write compelling meta descriptions that drive people to click on results that direct them to your landing page or event website.

Third, include an event markup in your webpage so that details of your event can appear on search results.

Fourth, when writing social media content, keep in mind that each platform has a style and vibe. And, the best way to reach audiences on each platform is by understanding what kind of content these people enjoy and create more of it. These can include videos, GIFs, photos, etc.

Image via Instagram

Most importantly, be sure that your content is not overly promotional. It should be conversational, informative, and engaging.

Next, since not every visitor to your website will head directly to the landing page or event website, use pop-ups and banners to redirect the traffic and boost signups. Utilizing banner maker tools like Visme, you can easily do that without any experience.

Image via Search Engine Journal

Finally, leverage online event marketing ideas that get your content on other websites and in front of a broader target audience. These include posting content on other blogs, syndication websites, and forums.

6. Leverage Ads

One other way to remain competitive while promoting your event is through social media and Google ads. It’s one of the online event marketing ideas that can help you compete (and win) from other virtual gatherings happening on the same day as yours.

How do you create social media and Google ads that effectively promote your event online?

Monitor and update your ads as often as possible. A/B test different graphics, copy, creatives, and videos so that they all resonate with your audience.

Consider urgency and lead time. If your event seat is costly, people might take more time to decide to register for it. They will likely want to consider budgets and other events they can attend at a lower price.

Promoting early via ads – even if it’s only a save the date – can give your audience the consideration time they need.

Use retargeting. Most people who see your event on social media or your website will not convert the first time. For this reason, you can use retargeting ads to convince them to sign up or get a ticket.

Integrate giveaways in your ad. Integrating giveaways or contests in your ads can lead to more engagement and thus, encourage signups.

Maintain brand consistency. While you may need to keep changing your copy, graphics, and buttons, maintain branding consistency at all times. The viewer should recognize the event no matter what platform they see it on.

Feature big-name speakers in your ad. Feature thought leaders or celebrities (if you have the budget) who will attend your event in your ad to drum up attendance.

Image via LinkedIn

Monitor ads. Frequent ad monitoring can provide you with insights to hone your online event marketing ideas in the future.

7. Partner with Affiliates, Influencers, and Ambassadors for Promotion

Partnering with trusted influencers and ambassadors who can help promote your event is one of the greatest online event marketing ideas.

You can work out an arrangement with affiliates where they are paid a fixed commission for driving signups. Or, you can reach out to influencers, requesting they create promotional content for the event.

At the same time, you can leverage referral marketing where customers promote your event in their circle of influence. In this case, you can encourage them to promote more aggressively by offering them incentives like selling merchandise online, free tickets, and more.

Doing all of this increases attendee numbers since people trust recommendations coming from their trusted family and friends.

And guess what?

Compared to branded and influencer content, consumer-generated content is a more effective purchase decision driver.

Image via Stackla

8. Register with Event Sites

Last in our roundup of online event marketing ideas is event sites. Many online sites can help you reach and inform people about your event.

Sites like Eventbrite, Meetup, and Evvnt allow people to browse events using various filters and help you with ticketing and booking.

Ready to Leverage These Online Event Marketing Ideas?

Although it can be challenging to promote an event digitally, you can leverage these online event marketing ideas to make your work easier.

And, whether you decide on using one of the virtual promotion ideas or all of them, it’s essential to understand your audience and use the right promotion platforms.