by Wikus Engelbrecht
5. settembre 2010 23:15
Do you host events?
Perhaps not even regularly, but every once in a while you have a company event, festival or open day you need to promote. See, most people use their email newsletters to promote specials or to offer their subscribers valuable industry information – but it’s also the ideal way to promote your events.
How? Well, that’s easy. You’re already doing email marketing, right? So here are a few easy steps you can take, using the tools you already have at your disposal, to make sure the word about your event gets out.
1. Make sure you let them know well in advance.
It’s three months before the actual event, there’s no point in sending out a mailer solely focused on telling your subscribers all the exciting details (you want to save that till closer to the time!), but you want to make sure they keep the date available…
Include a short snippet in your weekly or monthly newsletter – just give your subscribers enough to get them interested. “Shhhh… we have a surprise coming up! Make sure you’re available December 1st!” or “It’s that time of year again – our annual 1st of December summer party! We’ll be sharing exciting details soon!” are great ways to let your subscribers know something’s up. You can then slowly build the hype and release more details as and when you have them, or even send out a mailer dedicated specifically to the event.
2. Set up an invitation template
A special event requires a special invite… Surprise your subscribers with a special email invitation! They’ve become used to your newsletters, so borrow some of the details from your newsletter layout and add a few tweaks or a special image to draw their attention. Your invitation can include all the need-to-know information, and also inform recipients a bit more on what the event is about.
Browse through our template library and simply adjust one of our invitation templates to set up a special mailer to invite subscribers to join your event. You can, of course, also create your own invitation template using the 2008 Editor or the Drag-and-Drop Editor (beta version).
3. Ask them to RSVP – and keep track of your guest list
Of course, once you’ve sent out your invitation you need to keep track of the guest list! It’s easy to do within your GraphicMail account by using TriggerMail to set up an RSVP trigger. Here’s how it works: In your invitation you can ask people whether they’ll be attending the event and to click on “Yes” or “No” accordingly. By setting up a RSVP trigger, GraphicMail will then automatically add everyone who clicks “Yes” to a dataset in your account. That way you have a list of every subscriber who will be attending in your account. You can even ask them to enter dietary preferences or any other information you might need! You can find out more about RSVP triggers here.
So there’s another thing your email marketing efforts can come in handy for. Useful to have us hanging around, hey?
