Event Marketing Guide 2024: Tips, Tools and Trends

Here we bring you a complete event marketing guide for 2024 that goes beyond just suggesting marketing solutions & strategies. 

As in this guide, we will discuss the current event marketing trends, the challenges event marketers or event planners face nowadays, solutions to these event problems & moreover, and suggest some event marketing strategies for your ease & benefit. 

Event Marketing Statistics

• More than 3 million global professional events will take place in 2024
• Over 50% of the event professionals have invested higher in event technology than the previous year
• Almost half the event marketers agree that “Engaging the audience” is the most crucial element in a live event
• Over 80% of the event planners consider an event’s content highly crucial in making the live event experience memorable
• More than 95% of event planners or marketers believe that social media & event marketing integration helps their events massively.
• 86% of the event marketers believe that event technology has a major positive impact on their event’s success

Types Of Events That Use Event Marketing Strategy

#1 Trade Shows

Trade shows are specific theme events that aim at presenting different booths related to the same market niche.

These types of events collaborate with diverse marketers from a variety of related products and services. These products are offered to the exhibitors with the agenda of providing them with various options under one roof.

#2 Conferences & Seminars

One of the most common types of events, conferences and seminars consists of engaging speakers, enthusiastic audience, interactive sessions. Mostly focused on educating attendees and interacting with them, these types of events are a perfect balance between the professional and social audience.

#3 Networking Events

The goal of the networking program or events is to provide opportunities for different people of the same niche to meet and interact with each other and share their interests and opinions on a common topic. 

It allows the eager and enthusiastic industry to find more related contacts and share their voice with all the attendees of the event.

#4 Concerts & Ceremonies

Entertaining events that spread fun and excitement to all the attendees of the event. These types of events are mainly concerned with either showcasing the talent or sharing the glories of their personal lives. 

It is a sophisticated way to mark any specific and special occasion and provide a charming way to present a brand.

#5 Company Meetings

A company meeting is the internal gathering of the company employees to discuss any focused point or subject. It is mainly to share everyone’s progress report and their points to kick off a project. 

These meetings mainly comprise of smaller groups with around 20-25 employees and provide ample benefits to them to start a new project or increase their pace on the ongoing one.

Must Read – How To Plan A Product Launch Event

#6 Product Launches

Products launch are the events to showcase new products and new updated features to the attendees of the event. Mainly focus on educating about the upgraded version, these events are the best way to generate curiosity in the existing and potential customers about the product.

#7 Virtual Events

A virtual event is the popular event trend for any sector is it educational, official, personal, entertainment, etc. It is a major necessity for companies that work internationally and connect with clients and people all over the world. 

For companies that work on full-scale global projects, hosting a virtual event is a perfect choice. These events do not include in-person gatherings and allow people from any corner of the world to attend the event.

#8 Job Fairs

Job fairs or recruitment events are the ones that are conducted to impart jobs to potential candidates. The goal is the find the best-suited talent for the company for some specific departments and secure their talent for the company’s progress.

To expand the business and upgrade business growth, job fairs are mostly conducted in the premises of colleges and universities to grab fresh minds and enthusiastic zeal.

Now since we know what event marketing is, what are the different types of events that include event marketing strategy, let us know some major event marketing trends that can help you boost your event marketing in 2024.

Event Marketing Trends 2024

Here are some of the best event marketing trends that you can leverage or acknowledge while forming your event marketing strategies. 

#1 Virtual Events

Virtual events are the result of emerging and the most advanced technology. The craze of virtual events is growing rapidly, even people are loving them, as they can attend the event from anywhere. A virtual event is a new add-on in the event marketing trends of 2024.  

Virtual events are high in demand due to the present pandemic situation. But, this is not only the situation, there are other benefits as well which can be easily fulfilled by organizing virtual events.

 Benefits of Virtual Events

1. Budget-friendly! Yes, it does not require any expenditure of booking a location and much more like the expenditures are involved in live events. 
2. It becomes easily accessible for everyone from anywhere in the world.

Some stats about Virtual Events-

• 93% of event professionals plan to invest in virtual events in 2024.
• 63% of organizations are moving to digital events in 2024.

#2 Interactive & Personalized Events

Nowadays marketing has become more interactive & targeted as the audience is looking for more personalized communication & interaction with the brand rather than seeing promotions. 

So, it is essential to make your event marketing strategies to be instilled with interactive elements & deliver personalized communication pre-event, during the event, and post-event through proper event planning. 

#3 Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing at events is a growing trend among brands as it focuses on providing a more immersive and exciting event experience to the attendees. 

https://youtu.be/EEq_2dq4OyM

Having experiential marketing opportunities as your event can be greatly helpful in enhancing event engagement. 

You can do it by gamifying the event experience through the in-event contest, leaderboards, social media integration, communication opportunities, use of technologies like AR & VR, etc. 

#4 Social Media Walls 

Social media walls or social wall for events is an emerging trend among event planners, event organizers, or brands as it is a trend that redefines event marketing on social media. 

What are Social Media Walls?

Social walls are a feed of amazing social media content that has been collected & curated from different social media platforms into a single feed that can be displayed in live events or virtual events through social media displays to enhance audience engagement and event experience. 

Social media walls are an event marketing solution provided by the event marketing tool called social media aggregators like Taggbox with greater possibilities for successful events. 

Key Event Marketing Challenges 

We have listed down the five key challenges that event marketing managers & event planners face with their event marketing efforts. 

#1 Content Curation For Event

Almost 50% of the event marketers believe that curating content around their event and brand is one of the biggest challenges they encounter. 

It is essential to have some amazing content that you can display in your events to promote your brand & engage the audience but how do you curate it or what content to curate or manage the massive amount of content, etc. are key challenges. 

#2 Event Promotion & Registration

Event promotion is an immense challenge that requires a holistic event marketing strategy, budget allocation, channels of promotion, etc. as a shortcoming in event promotion will lead to reduced impact & diminished returns. 

Also, even after effective event promotion, many event marketers face a challenge in attaining maximum expected registration with reasons for it being insufficient audience awareness about where to register, how to register, data privacy, etc. 

Also Read – Top Event Management Companies in USA

#3 Audiences’ Event Engagement

The greatest challenge for event marketers is a low audience engagement at their in-person event or virtual event. 

It is highly hurtful for event marketers & event organizers as they invest a lot of effort and budget to bring you to the event, and it all goes in vain. 

Low audience engagement leads to an adverse impact on brand promotion, brand image, returns on investment, future events, etc. Therefore, it is always a hustle for event marketers to find Event Marketing solutions that can increase audience engagement. 

#4 Sponsorship & Revenue Generation

Concerning the challenge as mentioned above, the engagement & audience base hugely influence the sponsorship opportunities and generate revenue from the event. 

Firstly, if there is low audience attendance and engagement, sponsorship revenue will automatically reduce as the sponsor also wants to earn returns on their investment with your event.

It will also impact your revenue from the event through both sponsors & audience. 

#5 Capturing Valuable Event Insights

It is imperative to measure your event ROI and get insights into the audience’s experience, feedback, and behaviour as these valuable insights can help you plan better for your next event. 

Event marketers or event organizers face challenges with measuring the success of the event through the KPI”s. Also, the audience insights & feedback show you the gap in your plan & execution that can be improved in the future. 

Event Marketing Solutions & Strategies

Explore some of the best ideas for event marketing solutions that you can leverage to address the event marketing challenges & create an impact event marketing strategy. 

#1 Create Buzz About Event On Social Platforms Using Hashtags & Ads

The first & foremost in event marketing strategies is creating a buzz about your event on different channels, out of which the most important one is event marketing on social media. 

Why Social Media?

Social media is a goldmine when it comes to gaining marketing benefits. 

Hence, the initial step is to start with setting up social media strategy which can include forming an event page, creating your unique event or brand hashtag, running social ads, sharing curiosity messages, etc. 

Event marketing on social media will help in building a buzz about your event leading to great reach, exposure, and awareness among a vast social audience. 

#2 Leverage Social Media Event Marketing solutions To Boost Engagement

Event technology and event apps are immensely popular among event planners & marketers as audiences love to engage with innovative & exciting elements at any event.

The perfect social media event marketing solution-

You can use a tool like Taggbox to boost your engagement by integrating social media, content, and technology. Also, it helps you counter most of the challenges that we discussed earlier. 

Why Choose Taggbox?

• Helps you collect & curate content from social media platforms into a single feed
• Customize the feed to make it more attractive
• Moderate content quality
• Display the content in your event through digital screens to engage the audience.

Spotlight Features Offered By Taggbox

• Fetch content from your event hashtag in real-time and display it live to drive audience interactions, panel discussions, engagement, memorable event experiences, contests & polls, deliver entertainment, and much more. 
• Display your branded content, promotional offers, and most importantly display sponsored posts & banners. 
• Analytics feature to analyze and evaluate the insights into audience interests, most active users, their sentiments during the events, and much more. 
• Inculcate Social Media Listening and know what your audiences are saying about you worldwide. It will help you improve your event marketing strategy and boost audience engagement in your event.

#3 Make Use Of Industry Influencers 

Influencers can be the perfect choice to attract and drive the audience to your event. Firstly, you must find relevant and popular influencers in your industry. 

Now, based on your event planning or event marketing plan, you can allocate promotion checkpoints to trigger your influencers’ strategy before the event. 

Having different checkpoints will allow people to explore more about the event with first promotion while acting as a constant reminder about the event. Also, you can even allow the influencers to live-stream your event that will help in brand exposure & event promotion to a greater audience. 

#4 Don’t Miss Out On Emails

Emails might sound outdated, but they are still highly effective in capturing the audience for your brand (or event). Leverage email marketing to send out curiosity mails, informational emails, and invites your audience to attract them to the event. 

Ways to Leverage email marketing

• Send Curiosity mails
• Send Informational emails
• Invites to your audience
• Keep the users updated who have already registered for your event
• Emails regarding guide, venue, highlights, and regulations in your event planning
• Send post-event emails to show your gratitude to the attendees
• Share a “Thank you” message, and ask them for their feedback, comments, and overall event experience

#5 Build Curiosity Through Snippets & Teasers

There are many ways to build excitement & curiosity like the movies do with their short teasers & trailers that play a huge role in bringing the audience to the theatres. 

Ways to create curiosity for your event

• Showcase who will be the chief guest or celebrity guest
• Share behind-the-scenes videos on social platforms
• Embed a user-generated content feed about the event on your event landing pages
• Build a little secrecy around what’s new in your event, etc.

These all event marketing ideas will greatly help in making your event successful.

Must Read: Discover The Live Social Wall For Sports Events

Future Of Event Marketing In 2024

The event industry is growing rapidly. From in-person events to virtual events, the world has seen a huge change in the way event marketing has evolved.

Let us see the scoring tips that will shape the next generation of event marketing.

#1 Try Focusing On Regional Destinations

It is one of the most needed events marketing tips. After the pandemic situation, not everyone is comfortable travelling far for meetings, business gatherings, conferences, seminars, etc. People are now more resistant to travel lengthy and long distances.

Companies should consider conducting their events at a designated location near the headquarters and should focus on regional destinations.

#2 Manage Proper Seating Arrangement

To make your event marketing strategy more effective, marketers should revise their seating arrangements with minimum capacity. They should try to maintain the proper distance between the seats.

The fact is, when restaurants and hotels are working with minimum capacity then why not corporate and general events. With the well-defined seating capacity, the attendees of the event would be comfortable to attend it without any hesitation. 

#3 Go For Hybrid Events

Just imagine, an event that can take place both physically and virtually. Doesn’t it seem to have more number of attendees as compared to either of them? This is exactly what Hybrid Events do. 

Hybrid events are the events that take place in both the online and offline environments.  In fact, once the live events will resume, hybrid events will become the most favorable event marketing trend.

Stats says that more than half i.e. 59.4% of event marketers believe that hybrid events will be a key part of their event marketing strategy in 2024.

#4 Make Outdoor Events Your Premium Choice

We need to accept the fact that having a proper seating arrangement along with minimum capacity is a must, especially in the present scenario. 

Events taking place indoors, not just allow huge gatherings to attend but also restrict people to have comfortable seating during the event. To avoid this issue, it is important to look for an outdoor destination to accommodate a larger group of people and make them feel comfortable with the seating arrangement.

#5 Give Sanitation A Priority

The most important tip to boost your event marketing strategy is to consider the importance of proper sanitation before, during, and after the event.

The global pandemic situation has increased the awareness of sanitation worldwide. Here are some tips to improve sanitation at your event destination.

• Hand-over a facemask to each attendee during their entry. 
• Disinfect all the seats, bathrooms, doors, handles, handrails, elevator buttons, etc. at regular intervals.
• Install sanitizer stands at every short distance at the event destination.
• Provide name tags to all the attendees to have a safe and comfortable introduction.
• Avoid handshakes.
• Avoid the buffet system for snacks and food and offer pre-packed meals. 
• Use disposals.

#6 Pre-Entry Testing

Till the time quick testing kits are not introduced, make sure to check the temperature of the employee at the entrance of the venue. This will ensure the safety of all the individuals present during the event.

Conclusion

Event marketing is not just about advertising the event, but it starts from event planning to event marketing strategies, promotions, in-event experiences, post-event feedback, and beyond. 

Thus, you must create a holistic event marketing plan that covers all these aspects so that you can organize a successful that will prove to be fruitful & profitable. 

So, leverage this complete event marketing guide to explore the best trends, technologies, and ideas that can help make your next event successful and boost your event ROI.