SMS Marketing for Events

SMS Marketing for Event Management

An effective marketing strategy can make all the difference in the event marketing industry. The quality of your campaigns will have a direct impact on the success of the event that you are promoting. Whether that is a concert, sporting event, conference or something else, the aim is to get as many people to attend as possible. A great way to increase attendance is by incorporating SMS marketing into your overall strategy. SMS marketing has several major benefits which include both high open rates and high conversion rates compared with other forms of marketing, such as email. It also provides you with a way of getting your message directly into the inbox of potential attendees. Here are some great ways in which SMS marketing can be used in the event management industry:

Promote Events

The first way in which SMS marketing can be used in the event management industry is by promoting upcoming events to potential attendees. This is a great way to increase awareness of the upcoming event due to the high open rates of SMS, as mentioned previously. The text campaign could also lead to conversions as potential attendees that were previously on the fence may be persuaded to purchase if your campaign is enticing. Since SMS allows for documents to be included, you could include an event flyer as part of your text. Another option would be to include a link that directs potential attendees straight to the event booking page.

Ticket Warnings

SMS marketing can also be used to provide potential attendees with ticket updates. You can text potential attendees with the news that tickets are running low and may sell out soon if they don’t act soon. Additionally, if pricing is organised in tiers then you can inform potential attendees of a scheduled price increase. As well as messaging potential attendees, you can also include people who have already purchased as they may have friends or family members who have yet to buy their ticket. Not only does this provide transparency to those who have expressed an interest, but it can also lead to a late push in ticket sales.

Price Reductions

Another way in which you can use SMS marketing is by informing people of a reduction in price or a limited time special offer, such as 2 for 1. Sending out an SMS campaign to inform people of this reduction could be the difference between them purchasing a ticket or not and therefore could lead to a push in sales. Furthermore, doing this through SMS marketing again guarantees that a large number of both potential and confirmed attendees receive the offer directly.

Event Changes

SMS marketing gives you a way of informing attendees of any unexpected changes to the upcoming event. This could be a venue upgrade, time change or cancellation. Using SMS to do this ensures that all of the attendees are contacted individually and reduces the likelihood that attendees show up at the wrong time or go to the wrong place. Since 90% of text messages are read within five minutes, you can inform attendees of any changes right up until the start of the event.

Event Reminders

A final suggested way in which you can use SMS marketing is to simply remind attendees that their event is upcoming. Whilst most attendees will have the date remembered, a small percentage could have forgotten or assumed it was a different date. This is particularly useful if the event in question has multiples showings and is spread across different days. The reminder could also include the address of the venue and the running times of the event.