18 Surefire Event Marketing Growth Hacking Tips & Ideas

Last week our team won a competition to help a charity fun run drive 10,000 ticket sales for a local event. Some great ideas were generated. These event sale ideas listed below can be adapted to pretty much any event.

1. The idea I came up with was to develop a list of all personal trainers/ gyms/ runners clubs ect in the given area 50km and offer 20% off for a group deal 10+ ticket buys with each specific venue. This can be done via cold outreach email to the specific business location, via a phone call or via targeted Facebook advertising to each location.

2. Using Facebook ads custom audience, upload the email list of the past event database of emails. (Any one who is using the same email on Facebook you will be able to target with ads).

3. Using Facebook ads to target other fun run events.

4. Target other relevant Facebook groups with posts about the event.

5. Offer early bird pricing to the event as a way to drive traffic.

6.  Up sell customers who have already purchased a ticket with an offer to buy more (Buy for a family or work mate and get 20% off)

7. Use Facebook and Instagram ads with a discount offer (Use great image and video content)

8. Create a campaign which gets friends to like/tag/ talk about it. (Winner gets $500 to donate)

9. Use Video ads on Facebook to drive conversion for the event. (If the event has been featured on the news or in a high end publication re-use that video content with video advertising and a lead generation form).

10. Ensure that you like all comments and engage with everyone on social media who talks about the event.

11. Have a backend referral system offer an incentive to customers who have signed up for the event.

12. Have a lead capture on your website so you can email people later who have shown interest in the event.

13. Create some great content to promote the event, it could be a related to the charity involved and the difference the funding will make.

14. User generated content – let past fun runners leave a testimonial/ motivational story about last years race, for example a runner might have passed a specific goal to enter the race. Offer a cash prize to the best answer.

15. Drive buzz via local media and PR for the event, this will involve gaining targeted placement on relevant sites which will promote the event and drive engagement.

16. Listing websites and existing event websites – All local government sites usually have up coming events sections where you can gain a listing on, you can also cold email the local government site to ask if they will include it in a up coming news letter.

17. Are any celebrities involved with the event? You could ask them to share the event.

18. Do you have any significant sponsors involved in the event? Ask them to share the event and promote the fact that they are involved.

Overall these are 18 great ideas to help promote your event, these ideas can be adapted to any niche.

If you need help promoting a large event with growth strategies be sure to get in touch with our team.