Email marketing tips for B2B events

Emails are a powerful and cost-effective way to promote business events to a targeted audience. This is true despite social media marketing’s continued growth in popularity. If you are planning to host a virtual, in-person or hybrid event, email marketing is a great way to get the word out and have more people sign up. 

According to a study by the Content Marketing Institute, 81% of B2B marketers say email newsletters are their most used form of content. Meanwhile, 31% consider it the best tactic to nurture leads.

For business events such as conferences, exhibitions and trade shows, a well-designed email marketing campaign can help generate buzz, encourage sign-ups and gain valuable feedback for future events. Here are our pre-event and post-event email marketing tips:

Before the event

Optimise your emails for mobile: More people are consuming content on their phones than ever, making it even more important to optimise emails for this format.

Always check your mobile template before sending an email blast. The design and font should be clearly visible on different devices so the user can easily read them.  

Personalisation: There is more chance of people opening your emails if you personalise them. Make sure the subject line is short – this is more likely to grab the attention of readers.

Analysis from Pinpointe shows open rates can be increased by nearly 35% if a real person’s name is used to send the email, rather than the company. Take time to conduct A/B testing and determine which subject lines and call to actions (CTAs) get better responses.

Hook the reader: Build engagement by showcasing teaser videos of the event. This could include information about special guests and photos of attendees from the last year having a great time.

Using a countdown clock to the event – a form of urgency marketing – is also a good way to get more sign-ups from readers.

CTAs should be clearly visible: Having a clearly visible CTA button – not a text hyperlink – is important to your email marketing campaign’s success. It is where you ask for the reader’s attention.

The CTA should be visible in a clear, concise way and motivate the reader to take action. This could mean signing up for the event, downloading the app or joining the community.

Create a sense of FOMO: Offer time-limited discounts and deals to the reader if they sign up for your event. Promote the value you are offering, for example, with early access to exhibit or sponsor at the event.

Increase the FOMO (fear of missing out) by including testimonials from past attendees talking about how valuable their experience was.

Send personalised reminder emails: Most event marketers have upscaled their digital marketing campaigns, including through email, amid the lack of face-to-face opportunities the pandemic has brought.

With a deluge of messages being sent to inboxes, missing an invite is common for a lot of people. Make sure you send out personalised emails at relevant time intervals to remind them of the invitation. For example:

 “The countdown is on! Have you registered for {event name}?”

“You don’t want to miss {event name}, sign up now!”

“Last seats available for {event name}, grab yours now!”

Reminding your audience about the event can be as important as first telling them about it – you have to keep the conversation going through regular communication.

After the event

Thank you messages: After the event, send your attendees a personalised thank you video. Include links to on-demand content and an invitation to join the 365 community, where they can unlock new content and continue business conversations.

By thanking your attendees and sharing access to more resources and tools, you can build a stronger relationship with them.

Event highlights: By sharing the best moments from the event, the attendees will feel valued and incentivised to keep that momentum going. It’s important for them to feel they were a part of something big, so create a montage of the highlights.

These could include the most popular sessions, booths that got the maximum engagement and statistics showing how successful the event was.

Feedback survey: Send your attendees a feedback survey once the event finishes asking them about their likes or dislikes. It should also look for suggestions on how to improve next time.

Use this to shape your future events and ensure you’re doing what your attendees want. The more information organisers have about an attendee’s experience, the more they can prepare for future events.

Exclusive discounts and offers for next event: Attendees should feel valued when they have been to one of your events. Offer exclusive discounts and packages in a follow-up email to encourage registration for the next edition.

Keep the relationship going by offering perks like access to premium content and services, invitations to an exclusive year-round community or other membership benefits.

Access to on-demand content: Send emails highlighting that presentations, webinars and written notes will be available for attendees after the event. It is even better if the sessions were instructional and informative.

This is a great way to kickstart another lead-nurturing campaign and lets you track recipients who are regularly engaging with the content.

Learn how ExpoPlatform can help you craft a compelling email marketing campaign to engage your audience before and after the event.