Posted on August 3, 2023
Email marketing goes a long way to facilitating your brand’s marketing and communication. In fact, did you know you can enhance your email marketing with a pre-event email template? A perfectly designed pre-event email campaign is a great way for brands to build awareness and encourage excitement and curiosity about their upcoming event.
Whether a trade show or online giveaway, incorporating this type of email marketing in your brand’s communication boosts participation. Do you want to know how you can integrate pre-event email campaigns as part of your email marketing efforts? Here’s just the guide you need.
Why Use Email Marketing in Event Promotion?
Email marketing is a great way to build awareness about an upcoming event among your subscribers, existing clients, and potential ones. When done right, event promotion through email marketing boosts numbers across your brand’s spectrum. These include an increase in overall ticket sales and event attendance.
The email recipients also learn more about the event before the actual date which, in turn, boosts participation and leads to better engagement during the event. Depending on how successful your email campaigns are, this can also increase word of mouth. As a result, you can get more people to subscribe and become potential clients for your brand.
For instance, if the event is a mass site-wide sales or giveaway program, engaging an eCommerce email marketing agency can be beneficial in attracting new clients who are eager to enjoy the discounts. It’s a great way to remind readers of why your brand stands out and even about your product/service offerings. This, in turn, further boosts engagement and overall sales.
What Are Pre-Event Email Templates?
A pre-event email template is a pre-designed email layout that includes standard text and media, such as images or videos. Instead of having to create a new email for every event promotion, a pre-event template makes the process easier for your team. All you have to do is slightly adjust the text to plug in the key information about your particular event and swap the media if you have to.
Benefits of Using Pre-Event Email Templates
Pre-event templates don’t just make your team’s job easy by eliminating redundant work. Other perks come with using pre-event templates to help boost your brand’s marketing results. Here are other benefits of these email marketing templates:
For The Brand’s Team
- Using a standard pre-event email template maintains consistency when it comes to your brand identity and tone across all your event promotion efforts.
- Standard templates reduce the margin of error during communication with subscribers or customers.
- They increase productivity as your team can focus on more detailed work.
For the Customers/Subscribers
- They improve the overall communication of the brand and create a more personable relationship with customers and subscribers.
- Pre-event templates build excitement and anticipation of the upcoming event while sharing essential information.
- Pre-event templates serve as public reminders for your subscribers and existing customers.
- Sending out pre-event templates is a great way to raise attendance, ticket sales, and potential loyal clients for the brand.
- Pre-event templates can also harness better engagement during the actual event day.
- Pre-event templates allow you to create more awareness about your brand, services, and offers.
Understanding Pre-Event Email Templates
Pre-event email templates are truly effective when incorporated into your email marketing efforts. However, you want to design a proper template to enjoy these results. Part of this process is to figure out what components your template should contain.
Components of an Effective Pre-Event Email Template
The five important components for a stand-out pre-event email template include the subject line, personalization and segmentation, engaging content and visuals, clear call-to-action (CTA), and timing and frequency.
Subject line
The subject line is the very first place to capture your subscriber’s attention. The subject line also allows you to get more personal to convince your subscribers to open the email. You will notice that many email campaigns from various brands tend to use your first name on the subject line. Now, doesn’t this sound personable?
In addition to using more personable language, you want your content to evoke actions quicker. So, you need to have a tone of urgency, yet remain personable. For example, let’s say you have a product launch event. Instead of making it sound like the launch offers are available for everyone, you can instead say, “Deanna, here’s a special $20 off for you to unlock TODAY.”
Personalization and Segmentation
As mentioned earlier, a pre-event template reduces your in-house team’s redundant work and helps to create consistency for your brand’s marketing and external communication with customers and subscribers. Therefore, you have to personalize each template before sending it out to customers. For example, you can’t use the same pre-event email for an online sale and a trade show.
In addition to the content personalization, you have to segment your emailing list. Segmentation comes in various categories. Some events may be directed to a particular group of your subscribers and not all of them. For instance, during Women’s day, you can plan a one-day sales special intended just for women.
In this case, you will have to categorize your emailing list to just a list of female subscribers (and from ages 18+). Alternatively, you can choose to segment your emailing list based on actions, if you are sending out a series of emails.
For example, the first series may be directed to the entire subscriber list while the second is only directed to those that opened the first one. The third may be directed to email addresses that replied, with each stage sharing relevant information about the event. To further improve the deliverability of your email, make sure you verify your list using a bulk email verifier before sending.
Engaging Content and Visuals
Incorporate engaging content and visuals in your campaigns to make them more inviting. Adding media to your emails, such as videos or photos, creates more memorable information than simply using text. Similarly, you can also use media such as infographics to explain more about the event.
As a brand, you should also pick a specific color theme and font for your brand. Then use the same theme and font on your pre-event template to create consistency across all event email marketing campaigns.
This makes it easier for your subscribers and customers to get familiar with your brand and form an emotional connection to it. Over time, you will be able to build trust in the industry and make it easier to build a following for your events.
Did you know that different colors evoke different emotions? Brands use experts to develop particular colors for their brand to achieve the reaction they want from their customers. According to Zoho, black is associated with sophistication and is usually used in promoting luxury fashion and apparel. On the other hand, white represents neutrality, with many brands choosing it to achieve a minimalistic look.
Set a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
Your pre-event template should always have a CTA. When going through a promotional email, a reader will always have a “so what?” in their mind. So, for the campaign to truly be effective there should always be a call to action. Mind you, a CTA doesn’t have to be complex.
It can be anything from prompting readers to RSVP or clearing their schedule on the event day. But, events may also have several other CTAs. In this case, you can decide to create a single comprehensive email or a series of pre-event emails pertaining to that particular event.
Some of the key CTAs may be calling for volunteer sign-ups or signing up for sponsorship opportunities. You can also make CTAs part of your marketing as the attraction of the event. For instance, giveaways may target the first 100 customers to purchase a certain product or service. In this case, your CTA may be calling for these customers to hurry to make the first 100 lists.
Timing and Frequency
In addition to clearly communicating the event schedule in your emails, you want to figure out your own campaign timing. Remember, the timing and frequency also affect how your message is received. If you can’t decide the ideal timing, you can always use tools to help you.
For instance, you can invest in tolls that offer A/B testing features where you can test email-sending times and frequencies. This allows you to gauge the right times and frequencies for sending emails. On the other hand, email marketing tracking and scheduling tools automate the process for more seamless consistency and to reduce errors.
Curating a Results-Yielding Pre-Event Email Template
At every step of your pre-event email template, you have to keep the key components in mind. Each building step requires you to be mindful of the small details to produce a comprehensive template. Here’s a step-by-step guide to curating an effective pre-event email template.
Identifying Your Target Audience and Goals
Before you design your email template, you need to identify your target audience and your goals. This doesn’t just make it easy to choose the more basic details, like the content. Knowing your target audience and intended goals will also help you focus on the smaller details.
These include smaller details, such as the color themes, font, and even the type of media to include. You can also shape your brand voice and determine how to market your brand and upsell your products and services based on the event and audience you are creating the campaign for.
Crafting a Compelling Subject Line
The very first introductory point of your pre-event email campaign is the subject. The way you craft your subject line significantly impacts whether or not the subscriber will open the email. There are plenty of resources online to help you write your subject line for your pre-event emails. Nonetheless, no matter the subject line you craft, it has to tick the box for several essential characteristics. So, whenever you put together a subject line, ask yourself these important questions:
- Is it personable?
- Does it evoke a sense of urgency?
- Does it create exclusivity?
Ultimately, a good pre-event email should create a sense of “fear of missing out.” Make it seem like you are giving the reader a chance to join something special and that they can’t miss out on it. If it’s an offer or sweepstakes, the language should make it seem like the offer is incredible.
You can use the subscriber’s name, an emotional word to capture their attention or use the event’s name, putting it in a way that addresses their concerns (for example, “Struggling to craft a subject line? Here’s a solution for you” or “Janine, here’s your chance to join the VIP club to claim your OFFER”).
Personalizing and Segmenting Your Email List
To get as many readers to open your email, read it, and act on it, you want to personalize your emails. The content should resonate with your reader and offer something they need. Nailing the content’s relevance for your target audience is a great way to build a loyal customer base along with trust and consistency in the industry you are in. It’s important with all email lists that you keep them up to date and verify the emails regularly.
Use the personalization tags feature on your email marketing platform to enhance your personalization efforts. You can also use the Klaviyo email marketing tools segmentation features when you are sending emails meant for a subgroup or segments. To reduce redundancies, you can group your subscribers based on various categories to make email segmentation easier.
A single subscriber can be grouped into various categories too. After all, segments can be built based on your set categories (e.g., VIP club members) or demographics (e.g., age group or gender). While some emails can be directed to all subscribers, others can be directed to particular segments. So, always ask yourself this when designing a template.
Designing Engaging Content and Visuals
When incorporating media into your pre-event emails, don’t just throw in random photos or videos. The content and visuals you add to your campaigns should be tied to the message you’re sending. When it comes to content and media, get as creative as you can. The image, video, or any media used should relate directly to the content.
While being creative with your content, don’t forget to tie it to your brand identity. For instance, some brands choose to use consistent media that makes it easy to recognize the brands. This can be through the image themes and styling elements. In addition to the media, don’t forget to choose the right color themes and font.
While design and aesthetics play a role in effective email marketing, content is vital as well. Think of email campaigns as newsletters and virtual billboards/ads. So, the key is to offer as much information as possible while keeping it short and simple. Nobody wants to read through an email for 30 minutes, while simultaneously browsing through complex design elements!
Creating a Clear and Enticing Call-to-Action (CTA)
A pre-event template makes it easier to call for action. In addition to adding your CTA to the content, you can also integrate it through the layout. For instance, if it’s an event email about an online seminar, add a Register or Sign Up button to the template.
You want your CTA button to be easily recognizable. So, place it in clear view. You can put it at the center of the email or the bottom as soon as the reader finishes reading the content. So, before they ask what is next, there is already a button to click.
On the other hand, e-commerce brands use their event subject to create CTA buttons. For instance, you can place a photo or icon with the actual product or one of the products in your intended sale with a preorder link to it. Then, write a copy that compels them to click on the icon or image to “pre-order the item to avoid missing out on it on the sale event day.”
Timing and Frequency of Pre-Event Emails
In addition to the design and content, an effective pre-event email campaign should be sent at the right time. Now, even the biggest brands may struggle to figure out the timing and frequency. So, the first attempts for your brand may be trial and error.
The good news is that you can find excellent tools to help you determine the best timing and frequency. In fact, the right email marketing platform will also incorporate automation, segmentation, and A/B testing features, among others, to help you with the timing.
A/B testing and tracker tools help you figure out the right time and frequency for sending out email campaigns by tracking previous emails. These tools can help you deduce when your emails are mostly read (time, date, season, etc), and what frequency gets the most opens.
On the other hand, automated scheduling and segmentation features help to simplify your processes while ensuring emails are sent to the right target audience. An automated scheduling tool lets you schedule email sending during peak times when subscribers most read your emails. Similarly, you can use the automated scheduling feature to schedule the optimal email-sending frequency.
Best Practices for Pre-Event Email Templates
Want to know how to create consistently successful and effective pre-event email templates? Here are 6 interesting tips to help you do so.
Keep Emails Concise and Scannable
As mentioned earlier, you want to keep emails concise, straight to the point, and scannable. This applies to the text, design, layout, and media. You don’t want loud and complex graphics or long-form text that takes more than a few minutes to read.
According to Campaign Monitor, the ideal email copy should be between 50 and 125 words, if you want to harness response rates of over 50%. You shouldn’t make the content too short, either. After all, a very short email copy may yield the same results (less than 45% response rate) as a long 500 to 2,000-word email.
You are more likely to fail to include sufficient event information with very short emails. Maintain the same practice for the type of media you add and graphics, including the color/style/pattern themes.
Optimize For Mobile Devices
With the ever-growing dependency on tech everywhere we go, it’s a good idea to always optimize email campaigns for mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones. This increases the possibility of your emails being read, even when the subscribers are away from the office PC or laptop.
Studies suggest that nearly half of the emails are opened on mobile devices. Further, depending on your brand’s industry, the email reading trends vary. For example, if you run a clothing brand and your target audience is a younger demographic, your emails are more likely to be accessed via mobile devices.
But, if you are doubtful, use tools built into your email marketing platform to figure the numbers out. You can use your email marketing tracking tools to figure out the number of emails viewed on various devices to decide on the optimization options.
Incorporate Social Sharing Buttons
Adding social media buttons in your pre-event email templates boosts the engagement capability of your emails with social media. It is also another excellent way to redirect your subscribers to find out more about your events.
After all, having event reminders across every facet of their online life is a good way to further build curiosity and interest in the upcoming event. It is also a great way for the subscriber to learn more about your brand, including product/service offerings and future events.
Share buttons let your subscriber share the email campaigns with people in their social media network to further build your potential future customer and subscriber pool. Place the sharing buttons at the header or footer of the email to increase the chances of the reader interacting with the buttons.
Leverage Personalization and Dynamic Content
Personalize and optimize your pre-event emails to make the most of them. Based on your brand offerings, you can use your email marketing platform to track every subscriber’s activity on your site and social media. You can then use these results and the personalization features of the platform to create dynamic content for each subscriber.
For instance, by sending out a pre-sale email, you can also add product recommendations at the bottom of the email. This doesn’t just encourage the subscriber to participate in the sales event. The product recommendations increase the chances of them spending money as it shares products they actually need.
When you use tools to generate personalized components like product recommendations, these aren’t just randomly chosen products. Instead, the email marketing tools recommend the products based on the subscriber’s browse and purchase history on your site.
Showcase Social Proof and Testimonials
Email marketing campaigns are another platform to reinforce your brand’s trustworthiness, integrity, quality product offering or service delivery, and authority in the industry. In your pre-event email template add your best real customer reviews and social media proof. But don’t overdo it and saturate the emails with testimonials. Doing so does the complete opposite and may come off as trying to force the legitimacy of your brand.
Utilize Urgency and Exclusivity in Messaging
The best pre-event email templates should contain an element of urgency and exclusivity. This is what sells the event to your subscriber. Use tricks such as addressing your subscriber on a first-name basis. You can also use your email marketing platform tools to track subscriber activity on your site and the efforts of your social media marketing. This makes it easy to figure out what your subscriber’s “problem” is and allows you to curate a subject line that offers a “solution” for them.
When providing this solution, you can also integrate the exclusive element. For example, a good subject line for a discount on a product can be “Marlene, Mark your Calendar to Claim your 50% Off this Friday.” Other effective keywords for pre-sales emails include “Limited time,” “Exclusive Offer,” “Join the VIP Club,” and “Special Offer for You,” to mention a few.
Examples and Inspiration for Pre-Event Email Templates
While keeping the principles and essential components in mind, there are myriad ways to craft a pre-event template. Nevertheless, most follow a similar step-by-step layout. Here is a standard way to start crafting your pre-event email today:
- Choose the font style and size, and color theme/style.
- Create your attention-grabbing subject line.
- Start with a personal greeting, like “Good morning Jane.”
- Go straight into introducing the subject of the email, sharing as many details as possible. Use persuasive and engaging copy to persuade the reader to participate in the event.
- Finish with closing and CTA or reminder.
- Add relevant attractive media (e.g. photos, videos, testimonials, infographics, etc.).
Here are some examples of effective pre-event email templates:
Subject: You’re Invited! Join Us for an Exciting Event
Dear [Name],
We are thrilled to invite you to [Event Name], where industry experts and thought leaders will share their knowledge and experiences on [Event Theme].
Date: [Event Date]
Time: [Event Time]
Location: [Event Venue]
The event will feature engaging keynote speeches, interactive panel discussions, and valuable networking opportunities. It’s a fantastic chance to connect with like-minded professionals and gain fresh perspectives on [Event Theme].
We truly believe this event will provide immense value to all attendees, and we would be honored to have you join us. Please reserve your spot by clicking on the registration link below:
CTA: [Registration Link]
We look forward to your presence at [Event Name] and sharing an enriching experience together. Should you have any questions or need further information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,
[Your Name][Your Title/Position]
[Company/Organization]
Conclusion
Clearly, using pre-event email templates offers a great way to leverage email marketing for your brand. Perhaps, the most important perk that comes with using pre-event templates is how they help build awareness, curiosity, excitement, and engagement for our upcoming events.
Furthermore, their rippling effects create a vast range of benefits for both the brand and subscribers. Whether you want to maintain brand consistency, reduce redundancies, or boost overall communication with your target audience, pre-event templates are worth the investment.
You can find a wide range of tools to help you streamline your pre-event email campaigns. Platforms like InEvent cater to various business needs. InEvent offers a myriad of event production, sales, IT, and marketing management features.
But, that’s not all – the platform also offers tools for in-person, virtual, hybrid, and webinar events. However, the best part is that it’s built with specialized features to cater to various industries, whether it’s tech, education, or fashion, to mention just a few.
About the Author / Ana Almeida
