3 ways to automate your event marketing

Event marketing is one of the toughest jobs around. There's no way around the fact that running a high-quality event requires a lot of work, much of which starts months before the event itself.

Automation can be a helpful tool in event planning, because it lets you cut down on repetitive tasks like adding new registrants to a spreadsheet or sending out reminder emails. By automating repetitive, behind-the-scenes tasks with Zapier, you can free up time to focus on providing a high quality event experience. 

Zapier's automations are called Zaps, and you'll see several Zap templates—our pre-made Zap workflows—throughout this piece. To get started with a Zap template, just click on it, and we'll guide you through the quick process of setting it up. 

Looking for advice on choosing an event marketing app? Check out our top picks.

Seamlessly promote your event across platforms

So you've scheduled and planned an event. Now, it's time to find attendees! One key way to promote your event is by sharing it online, but that can involve a lot of copy-and-pasting.

You can use automation to share your event as soon as you've finalized the details. For example, you can use a Zap to share your event on a platform like Twitter or Facebook. You can even customize that Zap so the post includes whatever text you'd like, as well as a link to the event registration page. This is a great way to spread the word early and quickly—without having to manually share event details on multiple platforms.

Prefer to use a social media management tool like Buffer or Hootsuite? A Zap can simply add any new events to your queue. 

Automation can also help you more easily track how effective your social promotions are. Instead of manually exporting ticket purchases from your event platform, you can use a Zap that creates conversions in your advertising platform for all new ticket sales.

Add new registrants to a digital event or webinar

In order for an event to go off without a hitch, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Giving people an easy way to register—and sending them the information they need to show up, like a webinar link for a digital event—can take a lot of time when done manually.

Automation can make it significantly easier (and faster!) to add registrants from your event marketing platform to an event or to a list in another app, like your web conferencing tool.

If you want to stay on top of registration numbers, you can do that with automation, too. Just use a Zap that notifies you in your favorite chat app whenever someone signs up for your event or buys a ticket.

Need to track ticket sales? You can use a Zap that creates a new record in your accounting app for every ticket sold. And if you prefer to track sales in a spreadsheet, a Zap can do that, too.

Looking for more guidance on running virtual events? Read more about how you can automate your webinars with Zapier.

Communicate with attendees before and during your event

A big challenge when running an event is making sure that registrants know all the details of your event—and that they remember to attend. 

One of the most popular ways to keep in touch with attendees is email, but it can also be time-consuming. You have to import and export email addresses, segment them into lists for specific events, and then schedule and send email blasts.

Instead of doing it manually, you can use automation to add attendees to your CRM, your marketing automation platform, or to a specific list in your email marketing app so you can send targeted emails. 

You can also automate the process of staying in touch with attendees during an event. For example, if you're running a conference with several sessions, you can send attendees a reminder in a Slack channel or by SMS before the next session is about to begin.