5 simple ways to build an email list for your events promo

Email marketing can provide a powerful way to promote your events. But before you can even begin to start thinking about crafting on-brand messaging and sales pitches – there’s one crucial step you need to take first.

You need to build an email list of willing contacts, who have knowingly signed up to receive your emails.

Doing so from scratch can feel daunting. But it may be simpler to approach thank you think – and it’s well worth doing, according to recent research. One Hubspot report, for example, revealed that, in 2023, 77% of marketers saw an increase in email engagement. And that 64% of brands use email to reach new customers. 

Whether you’re a yoga instructor looking to grow your client base, a nightlife organiser looking to sell-out every event, or a festival creator with big plans in the pipeline, this quick guide is for you. In it, we lay out five simple and effective ways to gather email list contacts. Read on to learn about each tactic:

1. Use pop-up CTAs on every page of your website
2. Offer incentives for email sign-ups
3. Create a referral programme
4. Have an email opt-in at your ticket checkout
5. Pitch your email newsletter to your social media followers

Let’s go ⚡.

Use pop-up CTAs on every page of your website

Website pop-ups might feel spammy, but they’re actually a very popular tool used by marketers, and stats show that they can get good conversion rates. The key is to offer something valuable via your pop-ups – one study showed that 50% of respondents are drawn to a pop-up if it makes it clear what they’ll receive by engaging with it. 

Two effective ways to employ website pop-ups are:

• Use exit pop-ups – when someone goes to exit a landing page, they get a pop-up.
• Use scrolling pop-ups – when someone scrolls down a landing page, they get a pop-up.

The idea is that your pop-ups will prompt users to sign up to your emails. To entice them, always use pop-up copy that focuses on what the benefits for them will be. These could include things like:

• Getting exclusive access to discounted early-bird tickets
• Being the first to hear of ticket release dates
• Getting great content in their inbox – like interviews with performers, or free downloadable resources

Offer incentives for email sign-ups

We’ve all seen those website pop-ups that offer us a discount on our first purchase if we sign-up to the brand’s newsletter. And there’s a reason why these are used so frequently. Sometimes we just need a little persuasion to sign up, and offering an incentive is the easiest way to achieve this.

As an event creator, your incentives could include things like:

• Get a free downloadable resource 
• Get a drinks token worth X amount
• Get a one-time discount on tickets
• Get a discount when bulk-buying classes 
• Get a cool piece of merch for free

Or, basically any other offer of your choice 😌.

Create a referral programme 

Once you start building up your email list, you can then encourage your existing contacts to get their own network to sign-up, too. This is a type of word-of-mouth marketing that can help you grow your email list exponentially. 

But, you’ll need to offer your existing contacts an incentive to take part. For example, you could offer a free ticket to your next event to anyone who refers a friend to your email sign-up. Or a free gift that’s relevant to your event.

The best way to promote your referral scheme is via email to your existing contact list. You can also build a page on your website that clearly lays out each step of your program (like Ticket Tailor's!).

Have an email opt-in at your ticket checkout

Most of us will be very familiar with this particular strategy. You go to purchase something online, and are given the option to check a box that opts you in to receive future marketing emails from the brand. 

It’s a simple but useful tactic – one that makes it super easy for fans of your event to sign-up to your emails in just one click. It’s important to be fully transparent here, though. Nobody likes being duped into signing up to receive emails they don’t want. (We’ve all seen those obtusely worded opt-ins or opt-outs… “Check this box if you don’t want to receive our marketing emails…”)

In the end, tricking people into signing up is just going to make your ticket buyers feel slighted, and could damage your brand.

With this in mind, simply give attendees the chance to sign up if they want to – with clear, transparent wording. After all, you want an email list that’s filled with engaged recipients, not begrudging ones.

Pitch your email newsletter to your social media followers

You may be without email subscribers – but that’s not to say you don’t have a sizeable social media following. 

If you’ve got an engaged community on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or another social platform – it’s well worth tapping into this by promoting your email newsletter to them. The beauty of this strategy is that you’re essentially reaching out to a ready-made email list… one that is simply yet to sign-up! Your social media followers are already engaged with your brand and events, so there’s a good chance they’ll be interested in receiving great content, offers and exclusives from you via email.

Promote your email newsletter across your social channels just like you would anything else. Create concise, impactful content that informs your followers about your newsletter and what they stand to gain from signing up. You could also offer incentives here, just like we talked about above. Likewise, you could encourage your followers to like and share any posts promoting your newsletter through offering them an incentive to do so (aka – a referral scheme, but for social media).

Looking after your email list

After following these tips, you should begin to see your email subscriber list grow. When it does, be sure to take good care of it by:

• Making it easy for subscribers to unsubscribe – it may seem counterintuitive, but trying to hold your subscribers ‘hostage’ by making it tricky to unsubscribe will only damage your brand. Plus, it might make people less likely to sign back up in the future.
• Only sending highly-relevant emails to your subscribers – if they feel they’re being targeted with irrelevant promos – say for another strand of your events business – they might get fed up and leave.

Streamline your email comms with the right ticketing partner

💡Tip: Ticket Tailor integrates with major CRM platforms like Hubspot, Mailchimp, Constant Contact and ActiveCampaign, making it super easy to streamline all comms with your ticket buyers. Nice!

Find out more about ticketing your events with one of the lowest-cost, user-friendly platforms out there 💫👇: 

• Learn how Ticket Tailor works
• View our simple, flat-fee pricing structure