Using the EventElephant email system is a really effective way to promote and market your event. Plus it’s really easy to use.
People are far more likely to want to find out more details about your event if you make things easy for them. So whenever you send out a marketing email to your target list, make sure it includes the URL to your website (the URL is automatically added to automated emails sent by EventElephant). This way, people can act immediately when they get the email – if you make them search for your event, they may well not bother.
You can also boost visitors to your site by adding the URL to your business website, any personal or business blog postings, and any of your social networking profiles.
Where do I find the URL for my website?
EventElephant automatically creates your event URL for you when you’re in the ‘Create an event’ wizard.
The URL is created using the name of your event. For example, if the name of your event is ‘Event X’, the URL would be
www.eventelephant.com/eventx (you can change the URL, if you prefer).
The URL box:
Your URL will appear in the browser at the top of the page once you’ve created your website.
Is my URL automatically added to the emails I send out via EventElephant?
When you send automated emails, your URL is embedded in the email automatically. When you send a customised email, you’ll need to add the URL yourself.
How do I add my URL to customised emails?
To add your website’s URL to your customised email, click ‘Insert link’ at the exact point you want to place it.
Adding your URL:
A pop-up box will appear asking you to confirm the URL for your event. The link will automatically appear in the email when you click ‘OK’.
Can I use social networking sites to promote my event?
Of course. Social networking sites are great for letting lots of people know about your event, very quickly. Just log on to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn etc and send your URL to your contacts.
Another really good way to let people know about your event is to add your URL to any personal or business blogs that you write.
And because EventElephant is all about making things easy, we’re working on integrating it with a wide range of social networking sites as we speak.
When should I start marketing my event?
EventElephant lets you build as many registration websites as you like, whenever you like. It’s best to create your site well in advance of the actual event. This way you’ll have lots of time to promote and market it, which means there’s more chance of it selling out.
You can begin emailing your target contacts using EventElephant as soon as you’ve created your event. Again, the quicker you build the site, the quicker you can start emailing people and letting them know about your event.
You can see who has signed up for your event by going to the Event Control Area and clicking ‘Booking area’. From here you can also remove contacts from certain mailout lists – you might, for example, want to remove from the list any attendees who’ve already signed up for the event.
Do I need to do any post-show marketing?
Marketing shouldn’t end when the event is over. This is the perfect time to use EventElephant again and formally close the event.
It’s always courteous to thank attendees for coming to your event, so why not use EventElephant to send a thank-you email or give them a post-event update? Or you could use EventElephant to pre-book or sign up attendees for your next event.
And if your next event is very similar to the one that’s just finished, you can create a copy of it and just change the details. For example, you might be running a series of events on the same theme and just need to change the dates, location and venue etc.
Do I need to comply with opt-in regulations?
EventElephant gives attendees the choice to either opt-in to marketing mailouts for your events or choose not to receive them. This way you keep on the right side of the Data Protection Act.
The opt-in tick box appears in any emails attendees receive from you, and during the registration process when they sign up to the event.
Managing opt-ins (and opt-outs) is really easy with EventElephant. The database automatically records when someone opts-out of receiving emails from you. You then simply remove them whenever you’re assigning contacts to an event.
To manage opt-ins, just go to the Event Control Area and then go to ‘Contacts’ or ‘Database’.
Managing opt-ins:
Will my emails get caught by spam filters?
When you’re emailing contacts for the first time, a very small percentage of your emails may fall foul of spam filters and end up in the recipient’s junk folders.
To stop this happening, EventElephant recommends that you contact target attendees – especially those who are a top priority – and ask them to ‘white list’ your URL on their email system. It’s really quick and easy to do, and will ensure that their firewalls and email filters allow your email through, as you’ll then be a recognised contact.
Will my event be picked up by search engines?
All the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, Ask etc – will visit your website via EventElephant and index your event’s registration pages. So too will other indexing companies, such as Oodle, Googlebase, Eventful, and Zvents.
During the ‘Create an event’ wizard you’ll be asked to categorise and describe your event. Plus you’ll be asked to enter keywords that relate to the subject matter of your event. Try to be as detailed as possible, as this will help search engines to more accurately index your site.
And remember, the more tightly focused the content on your website, the better the rating a search engine will give it. So make sure your site’s content relates to the name of the event and any headings you use.
Can anyone find my event on EventElephant?
EventElephant gives you the choice to categorise your event as public or private. If you make it a public event, any visitor to EventElephant can search for it – either by name, subject matter, date, location or company.
If you mark your event as private, visitors to EventElephant will not be able to find it via the EventElephant home page or when they run a site search.