Beginner’s guide to event promotion and marketing

Promotion can feel elusive to those new to the event planning world. And when phrases like ‘email marketing’, ‘custom audiences’ and ‘retargeted advertising’ start getting thrown into the mix – you can soon find yourself in a spin. 

Don’t worry, though. As they say – knowledge is power, and as soon as you start scrubbing up on your event marketing basics, you’ll find it’s easier than you think to get the word out, and the ticket sales rolling in.

In this article, we cover off the basics of learning how to market an event successfully. Let’s get started.

🔍 Research your event audience 

82% of marketers cite “understanding their audience” as a key factor in successful content marketing. Which might not feel that relevant to you if you’re, say, a yoga instructor running small classes for your local community. But the truth is, no matter the size or scale of your events, understanding your audience matters. Why? Because the cost of spending time, money and effort on advertising to people who just don’t care can damage your operation (not to mention your morale). 

Audience research can feel like a daunting topic – but thanks to various tools and AI, it’s easier than ever. Ultimately, it’s all about finding out:

• Who your target audience is (e.g. age, location, gender, lifestyle interests, problems they’d like to solve)
• How they behave (what actions do they take online? What events have they attended in the past?)
• Why they’d be interested in your event (what is it about them that makes them a good match?).

Understanding these factors helps you to create marketing content that truly resonates with your intended audience. And to distribute it in the places they will actually come across it. For example, let’s say you are a yoga instructor. Your target audience could look like:

• Gender: Around 80:20 women-to-men ratio
• Age: 25-40 
• Lifestyle interests: wellness, cooking, mindfulness, fitness
• Problems to solve: daily stress and overwhelm, lack of physical fitness and strength, poor sleep
• Active on: Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok

How to research your target audience

If you’re brand new to audience research, try these methods to get started:

Talk to your current or past attendees
This is a really simple but effective way to ease yourself into audience research. Ask current or past attendees what they liked about your event, what could be improved, and how they heard about your event in the first place. A quick email or social media survey, or even casual chat after a class can reveal a lot.

Check out local Facebook groups or community pages
See what people are talking about and which types of events are getting attention – it’s a great way to understand what your local audience cares about.

Use Meta’s Advantage+ Audience Tool
Running Facebook and/or Instagram ads can be a really effective way to promote a wide range of events – from U-Pick farms to festivals, creative classes, online workshops and so much more. If you choose to do so, Meta’s Advantage+ Audience feature can help you maximise your efforts. It uses AI to automatically show your event to people who are most likely to be interested in it, based on your ad content and goals. It also gives you insights into which age groups, genders, and locations are engaging most with your ads.

Explore TikTok’s Audience Insights tool
If your audience spends time on TikTok, head to TikTok Ads Manager and explore the “Audience Insights” tool. You can filter by age, location, interests, and even device type to get a clearer picture of who’s engaging with content like yours – helpful even if you’re not planning to run ads yet.

Observe who engages with similar events or businesses
Spend some time looking at businesses or creators who offer something similar to you, whether that’s yoga classes, conferences, or community events. Who follows them? What kind of posts get the most comments or shares? What questions do people ask in the comments? This kind of “social listening” helps you spot trends and see what your potential audience responds to without needing any expensive or complex tools.

Use Google Forms or Instagram polls for quick feedback
Create a short, friendly questionnaire using Google Forms or run an Instagram Story poll. Ask simple questions like: “What time of day suits you best for an event?”, “Would you prefer a one-off workshop or weekly class?”, or “What’s the biggest reason you don’t come to events like this?” These mini-surveys are easy to create and can give you real-time insights to shape your offering – plus, they help your audience feel involved and heard.

📅 Map out an event promotion timeline

Every solid marketing strategy needs a timeline – which helps you to plan out content in advance, and target your audience at crucial moments in the run up to your event. 

Exactly what your timeline looks like will depend on factors like the size and scale of your event, appetite for tickets, and how established your event already is. But as an example, here’s what an eight-week event promotion timeline might look like:

• 8 weeks: Set event goals, define your audience, research which tools you’ll need
• 6 weeks: Publish listing, begin teaser content
• 4 weeks: Launch email and social campaigns, early-bird ticket release
• 2 weeks: Push final call messaging, early-bird ends
• Event week: Share reminders, behind-the-scenes content
• Post-event: Thank you emails, recap content, ask for feedback

💻 Create your event listing (website optional!)

You don’t necessarily need a website for your events business. An event listing on a reputable event registration platform can easily work in its own right.

👀Tip: Ticket Tailor has a really incredible event page builder tool that makes it easy to create  beautiful, professional box office pages that sing with your brand personality. You can choose from eight fresh themes, with the option to customise colours, fonts and photography – making for a bold, unique page that reflects your events, not our brand. 

We have a guide on how to create an event page that boosts sales and engagement – which is definitely worth checking out if you’re new to this.

Alternatively, you might choose to also set up a website for your events – which is easier than ever to do thanks to platforms like Squarespace, Wix, and Plot.

👀Tip: If you create an event website, you can integrate your Ticket Tailor box office so that users don’t have to leave your site to buy tickets or sign-up. Nice.

Read through our article, 9 tips for creating an engaging event website, to learn more 🙌.

📲 Hone your social media marketing strategy

Did you know that 55 % of consumers buy or find tickets via social media? 🤯Getting your socials right is pretty important, then – but don’t panic. Having carried out audience research, you’re in a good position to create content that resonates on the right channels, with the right people. 

👀Tip: Some of the most popular social media channels in the UK and USA right now are TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, and Snapchat.

You should aim to use more than one platform in your marketing (driven by your audience research – aka, where your audience is hanging out). But don’t be tempted to try and master promotion on all of them as it’ll unnecessarily drain you of time and resources.

Here are some quick tips for making the most out of social media marketing for your events:

Think about your social media ‘brand’

What type of content do you post and repost? Does it have a certain aesthetic, touch on specific themes, or use a particular tone? Aiming to keep the content you post relatively consistent will help your audience to get to know your brand personality, and recognise any content you share.

Be active in comments

Posts that receive 10+ comments get a 194% boost in overall engagement, and brands that respond to those comments can increase their reach by 12.4%. Also, and crucially, 78% of consumers say that a brand’s social media response influences their likelihood to buy from that brand. Essentially, people use your social media responses to gauge how credible and reputable you are. It’s even important to reply to any negative comments – always with tact, politeness, and an apology where appropriate.

Leverage WhatsApp Communities

WhatsApp Communities is a feature that allows you to bring multiple group chats together under one organised hub. It’s been gaining traction as a marketing and audience engagement tool since around 2022. In a nutshell, you can use this to connect with your audience in a more intimate way than, say, via social media. For example, as part of your event promotion strategy, you can use the Community’s announcement group to share key updates, ticket links, and exclusive offers directly with your most engaged followers. Sub-groups can be used for things like FAQs, early-bird access, or behind-the-scenes content to build hype and foster a sense of connection. 

Jump on viral TikTok formats

Jumping on viral TikTok formats can be a powerful way to boost visibility and engagement when promoting your event. These trends often come with built-in audience attention – meaning the algorithm is more likely to push your content to new viewers. By creatively adapting a trending sound, challenge, or format to fit your event, you tap into what’s already working on the platform while showcasing your personality. It’s a fun, low-cost way to stay relevant, connect with your target audience, and increase the chances of your event being shared or remembered.

Utilise hashtags effectively

Hashtags may feel a tad old school but they’re still a valuable tool for marketing. As an event creator, they can help your content get discovered by the right people – especially those who aren’t already following you. Whether you're promoting a conference, comedy club, or Christmas lights show, using relevant and local hashtags makes it easier for potential attendees to find your posts when searching for events or interests in their area.  

You should also aim to create your own hashtag, which can help to build a sense of community around your event. Then, you can encourage others to tag their own posts with your event hashtag so you can build buzz, reshare user content, and keep the momentum going before, during, and after your events.

🎨 Consider the materials you’ll need for event promotion – logo, photography, copy

From quirky illustrations for your social media pages to eye-catching flyers and persuasive website copy – as an event creator, you’re likely to need a range of creative assets. AI and design tools can be very useful when it comes to creating these elements, especially if you’re on a tight budget.

Here’s a quick list of platforms and tools that we love:

Design & branding

Canva: A super user-friendly design tool perfect for creating event flyers, posters, and social media graphics – with lots of great templates to get you started.
Looka: An AI-powered branding tool that can help you generate a logo for your events.
Mojo: Great for making short, eye-catching animated social posts and stories to promote your event.

Website creation

Wix AI Website Builder: An AI-powered website builder – answer a few questions and have your website created in a few minutes.
Carrd: Perfect for one-page event sites — quick to set up, clean designs, and affordable. Squarespace: A beautiful all-rounder with sleek templates, ideal if you want a bit more creative control.

Writing & copy

ChatGPT: Great for generating blog topics, writing email invites, or suggesting social media post ideas.
Copy.ai: An AI tool built for marketers – works well for headlines, bios and promo blurbs.
Notion AI: Ideal if you’re planning your event in Notion already — it can help you brainstorm, tidy up your writing, or reword tricky sentences.

AI and design tools can be brilliant. But, if money allows, you might consider hiring professionals to:

• Create authentic, concise copy for your website that provides an intuitive user experience, helping to drive visitors to sign up or buy tickets.
• Create unique illustrations or design assets that represent your event’s creativity and core personality.
• Photograph and/or film your events so you’ve got a beautiful library of imagery and footage to use across your marketing channels.
• Create a technically brilliant, super fast website with robust code – helping it to rank in search engines.
• Write and/or edit blog posts, social media captions and other content – 97 of UK marketers still choose to edit AI-generated copy before it goes live, and over 81% of marketers agree AI cannot fully replace human creativity. 

📈 Get familiar with email marketing for events

Email marketing has been around for a long time. But it still remains one of the most effective marketing tools to add to your repertoire as an event creator. In fact, the return on investment (ROI) generated by email grew in 2025 from $36 in revenue for every $1 spent (2024) to $42 per $1 spent. That’s a jargon-y way of saying email marketing works. And that it’s actually more cost effective than most other marketing channels. Not that you particularly have to spend loads of money on it. Far from it. There are lots of affordable email marketing platforms out there that can help supercharge your email promo efforts for a small monthly cost or even for free.

👀Tip: Ticket Tailor integrates with powerful and affordable email platforms like MailChimp, Constant Contact, Hubspot and ActiveCampaign.

Signing up to a reputable email marketing platform gives you access to tools that make it easy to design great-looking emails, track how they’re performing, and stay GDPR-compliant. These platforms also help you schedule emails in advance and segment your audience (for example, by interest or location), so you’re sending the right message to the right people at the right time.

Also – quick tip from the marketers at Ticket Tailor 👉 we love the website Really Good Emails, which is a curated gallery of well-designed, high-performing marketing emails from real brands, ideal for sparking ideas. 

💡Did you know? The average marketing email open rate across industries is around 41.7%, which may feel disheartening at first glance – over half of people I email may not even open my email?! The truth is, this is actually very encouraging. Look at it this way: that’s a lot more eyes on your events than if you were to send no emails at all. And there are lots of things you can do to encourage higher open rates, anyway.

What really moves the needle is creating a sense of urgency – tactics like emailing your subscribers exclusive limited early bird pricing or first-access tickets can drive higher click-throughs and encourage people to act quickly. Whether you're running a class, a market, or a festival, email is a powerful channel to build anticipation and turn interest into bookings.

👀Tip: Check out our guide to crafting email subject lines that get a higher open rate.

📋 Think about digital event promotion vs offline marketing

It’s undeniable that pretty much all event marketing efforts should involve a digital strategy. But it’s important not to forget about the value of offline promotional activity too. From flyering through to hosting a stall at someone else’s event, there are lots of ways to reach new audiences offline.

👀Tip: Ticket Tailor can provide you with QR codes to include on your flyers and posters – when someone scans the code with their phone they get directed straight to your event box office, so they can buy tickets. 

Think about what might resonate most with the people you’re trying to reach, and plan a marketing strategy that accommodates this – whether digital alone, or digital plus offline. Don’t forget to display your hashtag prominently on offline marketing materials too!

✅ Discover where to post your event outside of the obvious channels

Alongside the usual social media channels and your official box office page, there are lots of other places you can post your event. Spotify lists events for example, which makes it easy for users to navigate to shows from their favourite artists.

Using event discovery sites like this can help to land your events in front of a broader audience. However, watch out for event registration platforms that promote themselves as ‘event discovery’ sites, as they often hike their ticketing fees because of this, but the return on this investment often isn’t great. For example, Eventbrite has some of the heftiest ticketing fees around; given the fact that it’s also an event discovery site, you might think it’s worth the extra cost. But the fact is, this type of event promo isn’t anywhere near as effective as other marketing tactics. So, while it can be a nice additional tool to use if you’re not paying through the roof for it, it’s probably not worth giving up too many of your precious profits for.

📊 Measure and optimise your event marketing

Once your event marketing strategy is under way, it’s essential to track what’s working and what’s not. This the only way you’ll be able to hone the tactics you’re using, and improve your efforts over time. Some useful metrics to look at include:

• Click-through rates on email or ad campaigns
• Social media engagement and shares
• Ticket sales from different channels (called UTM tracking – this is where you add specific codes to various URLs, for example, to your website’s ticketing page. It lets you know where the source of traffic is coming from, so you can guage which marketing channels are directly impacting ticket sales)
• Survey attendees post-event – ask them how they heard about your event! It’s that simple.

Tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and native platform insights can help refine your efforts for future events.

👀Tip: Ticket Tailor lets you add tracking pixels and UTM parameters to monitor campaign performance.

🚀 Supercharge your event promo with Ticket Tailor

Promoting an event might seem overwhelming at first, but with the right tools and strategies, it can soon become an exciting part of your creative process. Wait up, did somebody mention the importance of using the right tools? This sounds like a great time to give you one final (totally shameless 😌) nudge towards Ticket Tailor. Our platform is packed full of useful features and integrations that make promoting your event much easier and much more effective. Having a ticketing platform with rich promotion capabilities and amazing customer support to help you make the most out of them can genuinely make a big difference to your marketing efforts. 

Learn more about how we can help you promote your event with ease 😌>