Although the digital age has provided marketers with a wide range of tools, email remains one of the most effective, especially when talking about events. Generating anticipation, building a guest list, and sharing crucial information about an event all become much easier with email marketing.

That said, it’s important to focus on developing an effective email strategy to reap the full benefits this channel offers. Following best practices, like segmenting lists, using an email address checker, and personalizing messages are important parts of launching an email campaign, no matter what the purpose.

The following tips and information will help you plan an event email marketing campaign that helps you achieve your goals.

Focusing on key metrics can help you better evaluate a campaign’s performance. Specific metrics to pay attention to include the following:

Your goal should be to design a strategy that helps you improve these metrics. Keep the following tips in mind to do so effectively:

It should come as no surprise that the majority of emails today are read on mobile devices. That’s a key reason to ensure the formatting and design of your messages are simple and clean.

This doesn’t mean relying solely on text. It just means breaking up your content into scannable sections. A smart principle to keep in mind when designing your emails  is the “Rule of Three.” By separating your marketing email into three sections, you can convey important information without overwhelming a reader.

The first section could explain when and where the event will take place, along with what types of experiences a guest can expect to have if they attend. The next part might be a video that gives a reader a more dynamic look at the event. The third could then give them the option to sign up for a guest list.

Breaking up your content into these basic sections makes it easier to present all the necessary information in an organized manner. It’s also more likely to appeal to a recipient and keep them reading.

Colors that don’t match can make an email look too jarring to a recipient. An inconsistent color scheme also reflects poorly on your brand. That’s why you should use a color wheel or consult with a designer to make sure you’re using an arrangement that pleases the eye.

That said, your call to action needs to stand out. This is where you ask a reader to register for your event, so it’s important that it’s visible. Make sure you choose a color that doesn’t blend into the background when designing your CTA.

Segmenting your email list is another smart way to boost your open rate. This is especially important when promoting an event. After all, there’s a good chance many of your existing email list subscribers won’t be able to attend your event if they live far away. Through segmentation, you can ensure you’re only emailing people who’ll genuinely have the chance to attend.

Keep these points in mind as you design your campaign, and remember to monitor its effectiveness. Email marketing is powerful because it gives you the chance to communicate with potential guests directly. With a strong, well-planned campaign, you’ll be able to take full advantage of this marketing tool.

Trying to attract more guests to your next event? Consider using Facebook ads to grow your reach. The popular social media platform boasts 2.19 billion active monthly users. It also gives Facebook advertising firms and event marketers alike the option of targeting specific types of users with its Custom Audience tool. That makes it easy to reach people who are actually interested in your event.

To design an ad that performs well, it helps to focus on these key features:

Studying examples of strong Facebook event promotion ads can help you better understand what you can do to guarantee yours is effective. The following examples illustrate how to create promotional ads that work.

Many events feature a wide range of “sub-events” that may be more appealing to specific types of users. For example, a music and arts festival could play host to sub-events like a specific artist’s performance, a unique exhibit, and individual activities.

That’s why these examples from London’s annual “Totally Thames” event are worth paying attention to:

Instead of promoting the event in a generic way, the marketing team focused on ways to highlight the individual activities guests could participate in. This is a smart tactic for larger events with many attractions that could otherwise be overwhelming to attendees.

Statistics indicate that using video in marketing content can have an extremely positive impact on an ad’s effectiveness. That’s why you should use it when promoting an event on Facebook, like the marketing team for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe did.

Video works because it gives users a more dynamic look at the event than they are likely to get from images alone. This makes it more naturally appealing, and viewers can get a true sense of the event as well.

Corporate events often support social causes. Organizers may look to donate a portion of the proceeds to a charity, for example. It’s smart to highlight this in an ad. This example from Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea indicates how you might do so:

This is a particularly smart strategy if you’re targeting a younger audience. According to surveys, members of Generation Z want brands to be socially-conscious. Even if they can’t attend your event, users who see this type of ad may be more likely to engage with your brand in the future.

As with all Facebook ads, it’s important to A/B test, experimenting with different approaches to find out which are most effective. These tips will help you design ads that perform well and attract guests to your event. By applying them and monitoring your ad’s performance, you’ll achieve the best possible results.

Looking for a way to revitalize how you promote your events? Look no further – here are a few of the most promising strategies of to try now.

Running a successful event is about more than what you do on the show floor. It’s about what you do before and after, as well. How effectively you promote a trade show or conference is arguably as much a factor in whether it flies or flops as vendors, keynote speakers, or presentations – maybe more-so.

With that in mind, let’s go over some of the biggest trends in event promotion emerging this year – and how you can tap into each with a successful strategy to bring your event to more eyes than ever before.

By now, everyone knows that they need to be on social. Promoting your events on Facebook or live-tweeting a keynote is table stakes in 2018. This year, why not take things a little further?

After all, recent changes to social algorithms are going to make it more difficult than ever to reach your target audience. Posts that don’t immediately inspire deep engagement are likely to get lost in the digital noise of the social web. As such, in order to stand out, you’re going to need to get creative in how you engage your audience.

Promote your event while it’s going on with Instagram stories, and save the best ones to your instagram account. Make smart use of influencer marketing (find people with pull who are into your events, and inspire them to promote for you). Consider hosting livestreams of your event or live Q&As on sites like Twitch TV.

The trick is that you need to start using social media in the same way your attendees do – it’s no longer enough to use it like an event planner, you need to start using it like an attendee.

You might be surprised to see email on this list. After all, it’s an archaic medium, isn’t it? What good is it for event promotion? You might be surprised.

I don’t think I’d be remiss in saying that you’ve probably planned most of your events via email. You probably have a ton of emails from vendors, clients, and sponsors sitting in your inbox at this very moment. And even if that statement is inaccurate, the vast majority of people still check their email accounts every single day.

Creating intelligently-targeted, personalized promotional emails to people who have signed up for an event or signed on for a mailing list can be a great way to increase engagement and encourage more people to attend. And when I say personalized, I mean deeply so – your email lists should be segmented as much as possible, separated by anything from interests to location to age.

Just make sure you make unsubscribing from such lists both easy and intuitive, or you’re bound to generate more frustration than engagement.

Also referred to as engagement marketing, experential marketing encourages its audience to directly participate in the evolution of a brand (or in this case, of an event). Rather than looking upon your attendees as passive participants, it looks at them as part of the event itself. It gives them a direct, active role in shaping their event experience.

What that means depends largely on you. Maybe you’ll allow people direct input on what keynotes and presentations to include as part of your promotional efforts. Maybe you’ll include virtual reality or augmented reality on your event floor.

The important thing is to give your attendees agency over how they experience your event – and to make it clear from the start that they have such agency.

The biggest challenge facing event planners (and businesses in general) is reach. There are so many different businesses and brands vying for our attention online these days that it’s a wonder any of them get through to us. This is one of the biggest challenges in event promotion – but it’s also one of the most promising opportunities.

As part of your promotional efforts, you need to decentralize. Extend your reach beyond a social media page or event website. Start posting about your event on promotional apps and websites like Goldstar. The key is to allow attendees to find out about your event through as many channels as possible – and to let them purchase tickets the instant they find out about the event.

Promotion is as much a part of your job as event management, like it or not. That’s why you need to be aware of emerging trends – and aware of how best to tap into them. Because if you don’t know how to promote your event, it doesn’t matter how great it is. No one will know about it.

Brad Wayland is the Chief Strategy Officer at BlueCotton, a site with high-quality, easy-to-design custom t-shirts.