How to Sell Out Your Event Using a Promotional Calendar
- by Alyson Shane
The secret to selling out your event isn't just about having the best speakers or the hottest venue (though those don't hurt.)
The secret to selling out your event is being organized.
Unfortunately that can be hard to do with so many deadlines, dates, and details to manage at once - especially in the months and weeks leading right up to your event.
That's where your promotional calendar comes in.
By organizing your event's significant dates into a campaign-style calendar, you can have a better understanding of what to say, and when.
To get started, download this free event promotional calendar template and follow along as we walk you through how to use it:
Identify your event milestones
Sit down and make a list of all the important dates between now and your event, such as:
- The day you announce calls for speakers
- The day the event schedule is released
- The day early bird tickets go on sale
- The day early bird ticket pricing ends
Identifying these dates in advance means you always have something to build towards in your promotional content.
Countdowns and posts highlighting that there's only a few days left to save on early bird tickets, for example, is a great way to incentive people to register early.
If you'd like some help generating and scheduling that content, fill out the box below:
16 weeks before your event
There's a lot to do in the weeks before tickets go on sale, but now is the time to start promoting your event to your community.
First, announce to your followers on social media that tickets will be on sale soon. This will start to generate some initial buzz that you can build on later.
Second, if you have a list of attendees from previous events, send them an email letting them know when they'll be able to register.
Start working with sponsors, speakers, volunteers, and other partners to coordinate a promotional strategy for the day tickets go on sale, and make sure your website is created (or updated) to start promoting the event.
13 weeks before your event
Tickets should now be on sale.
Send out an email to your mailing list to let everyone know registration has opened, and publish updates to your social media profiles and event blog (if you have one.)
Make sure your sponsors, speakers, and other partners are in lockstep and ready to start promoting ticket sales on the same day. Provide them with tracking links and any special codes they can distribute to attendees, and plan to check up on them every 3-4 weeks.
Roll out any social media or search ads announcing that tickets are now available. Make sure to highlight early bird pricing if you're offering it.
10 weeks before your event
Start heavily promoting your event and the benefits of attending.
If you've been selling early bird tickets, now's the time to end the sale and introduce regular registration pricing.
Start sending your attendees more personalized emails by segmenting them into categories based on why they're attending.
Use these emails to highlight the benefits of attending that are unique to each group and their needs, and that encourage them to share the event with their colleagues and friends.
Use your mailing list and social media to highlight speakers and topics, give shout-outs to sponsors, and testimonials from past events if you have any.
If you have a blog, ask speakers and sponsors to write guest blogs and share with their communities.
Keep track of your email open rates and click-through-rates (CTRs) to see how different messaging resonates with different categories of attendees. Now is also the time to end any unsuccessful ad campaigns, and to reallocate their budget into new ads, or ads that have been performing.
6 weeks before your event
Now is the time to add a sense of urgency to your promotional content.
Your social media, blog posts, ads, and emails should all be notifying interested attendees that time is running out.
Use this time as an opportunity to "dig deep" into your event and highlight different or unique ways to be prepared to attend. If attendees have to travel to attend, highlight interesting or unique things about the city you're in, or the venue where the event is being held.
Blog posts with subjects like "everything you need to know about XYZ event" and "everything you need for a successful XYZ event" can also be great ways to help attendees get excited about attending.
If you've been running ads, retarget users who have visited your event website and started the process of registering, but didn't finish.
Now is a great time to run a contest to keep the momentum going. There are lots of contests and giveaways you can choose to do, but the key is that contests should encourage your community to share something and, ideally, post about why they want to attend.
2 weeks before your event
Send an email to everyone who hasn't registered yet and remind them that there's barely any time left, so they should act now.
Your social media and blog content should also be sales-focused, with lots of calls to register worked into your copy.
If you were running a contest, it should have ended by now.
Download the free template
Take the guesswork out of promoting your next event and download our free event promotional calendar template.
We've created it in a spreadsheet so you can modify it to your needs, after all, some events need more than 4 months' of promotion - some get promoted all year!
If you're not excited by the idea of writing 4+ months of social media content to promote your event (we get it) sign up to be in our closed beta and start saving time on your event marketing:
