Event Marketing Checklist: A Step-by-Step Guide

Event marketing plays a vital role in generating profits for businesses. Today, event marketers look for a cohesive approach to maximize their reach and achieve greater visibility. 

With immersive technologies, user-generated content, social media marketing, and gamification, it has become easier for marketers to plan an event.

But, while planning and organizing activities for an event can be overwhelming, an event marketing checklist can help.

The event industry market size is worth $2194.50 billion and is growing at a CAGR of 13.48%. The event industry is organized into three categories: corporate, entertainment, and education, while various event types fall into each category.

More than 84% of B2B marketers rely on in-person events to drive demands and increase business profits.

While all the essential facts from the industry point towards the growing need for event marketing and improved event management to achieve the objectives and goals.

The Importance of an Event Marketing Checklist for Streamlined Execution

An event marketing checklist plays an essential role in completing an event. It helps event marketers streamline all the processes at different stages and define roles for each to ensure no last-minute rushes. The benefits of having a checklist include the following:

• Organizes every aspect of your event
• Ensures you stay on track
• Maintain brand consistency
• Budget control
• Scales collaboration and coordination
• A valuable reference for evaluation post-event

A Powerful Event Marketing Checklist

A powerful event marketing checklist will ensure marketers stay on track, remain focused and achieve their goals.

The event marketing checklist can be divided into three stages: Pre-event, during, and post-event.

To-Do List for Pre-Event Marketing

The event space is shifting drastically; only marketing can take it to the next level. Pre-event marketing is all about creating hype and boosting registration. Be creative, and keep the attendees at the top of your mind when working on event content marketing strategy.

Here are five important aspects you need to focus on for pre-event marketing:

1. Event brief and branding strategy
2. Defining event basics
3. Creating a dedicated website and digital content
4. Developing engaging email campaigns
5. Developing themes, designs, and colors

1. Event Brief and Branding Strategy

Event brief and branding strategy are the core elements of an event marketing checklist. Event branding sets your company apart from the crowd by incorporating elements that make your event memorable. Event branding strategy creates cohesiveness, develops a look and feel, and tells a story about your company.

Core event brand elements include:

• Logo
• Slogan/tagline
• Color palette
• Typography
• Imagery
• Brand voice
• Brand story

To further enhance the experience for your attendees, you can create an event website or landing page. 

2. Defining Event Basics

Let’s make it simple. What kind of event are you planning? How many attendees will be there at the event? No matter what, the event basics remain the same.

Here are some elements you need to consider before organizing an event:

• Event type
• Event purpose
• Event goals & objectives
• Event budget
• Event location
• Event time
• Target audience

3. Creating Dedicated Website and Digital Content

The need for event content marketing increases as the world shifts to the digital platform.

The main steps to follow for creating an event website include the following:

• Draft your story
• Add catchy tagline
• Plan your content
• Define brand tone
• Select imagery for website design

Once you know what the event is and what the event’s purpose is, you can easily create the content for the website. Once the website is ready, you can create digital content for social media platforms and emails, promote your event website page, increase visitors on the landing page, and ticket registrations.

4. Developing Engaging Email Campaigns

You know how much a well-planned and well-executed event email campaign can help your business grow and increase attendee registration.

In recent years, event marketers have started to rely on social media channels to reach the audience, which can be effective. However, capturing their attention via different channels would be best to reach a wider demographic. And email marketing remains one of the best ways to promote an event.

5. Developing Themes, Designs, and Colors

Colors, designs, and themes do impact the human mind and behavior. Color influences perceptions and surprisingly develops an association with your brand. Using the same color in your events can build brand awareness and create an emotional connection with the target audience.

• Keep these tips in mind as you develop themes, designs, and colors for your event:
• Warm and cool color wheel, combinations, and association
• Consider the venue, whether it’s indoor or outdoor, landscape, and space
• Set the tone for the event while considering the event’s purpose
• Look to nature and identify colors that best suit your industry

For example, Gitex Global showcases the metaverse experience for their attendees at the upcoming event. It has created a complete environment with the right theme, color, and design to give the attendees the feel.

Source: Instagram

During the Event Checklist 

Remember, once the event starts, you won’t get to make a first impression again. The event marketing campaign planning checklist is your roadmap to ensure your event goes off without a hitch.

Here are five essential things that you need to do during the event:

1. Deploying the event marketing checklist
2. Organizing marketing collateral and promotions
3. Welcoming Attendees
4. Building networks with sponsors
5. Event gamification

1. Deploying the Event Marketing Checklist

During the event, an event marketing checklist can help marketers ensure smooth execution. It serves as the guideline to provide all necessary steps are taken and nothing is missed in action.

Here are some reasons why implementing an event checklist is essential:

• Event workflow and efficiency
• Effective coordination
• Meeting deadlines
• Mitigate risk
• Audiovisual arrangements and services
• A positive experience for attendees

Be sure that your event marketing plan for during the event makes it memorable and highlights your unique proposition to create an edge among the competitors.

2. Organizing Marketing Collateral and Promotions

Maintain consistency and organize all your marketing collateral. Keep track of all your promotional activities and marketing materials to engage the audience effectively.

Here are some tips to follow:

• Identify the marketing collateral needs
• Organized collaterals for the event
• Group collaterals on the basis of the event stage
• Update, proofread and refine
• Standardize some marketing materials

3. Welcoming Attendees

Thoughtful planning goes into providing a warm and engaging welcome to both in-person and digital attendees. 

Consider these strategies for your event:

• Make the registration desk recognizable
• Have a dedicated presenter to welcome them
• A smile goes a long way
• Interactive touchscreens and tablets
• Light-up desks to stand out
• Ribbon queues
• Pop-up booths
• Event apps
• Visual displays on the venue

4. Building Networks with Sponsors

Event sponsors and partners allow marketers to hold a bigger event. It is important to highlight them to promote your event effectively.

Sponsors and partners provide financial support and resources, enhance your exposure, increase event reach, and generate high ROI. Their logos displayed on event marketing material attracts valuable brand exposure.

5. Event Gamification

Why does gamification work to promote virtual events or in-person shows? Because as human nature; we like to compete and feel a strong sense of satisfaction when rewarded for our efforts.

Gamification taps the human psyche and makes the event more engaging. Here’s how you can incorporate gamification:

• Choose games that resonate with your target audience
• Consider the interest and preferences of your attendees
• Create a mesmerizing experience
• Experiment with different games to keep the experience fresh

Plenty of games can be added to the events depending on the type of event and audience interest. Here are some gamification ideas that you can incorporate:

• Trivia
• Photo contests
• Engagement leadership
• Personalized badges
• Social media shout-outs
• Live polling

Post-Event Checklist

While you might plan to celebrate the success of your event, you must go through your post-event marketing checklist.

Don’t let the grass grow. Follow up and ask your event attendees, sponsors, collaboration partners, and affiliates questions about the event experience to gain 360-degree feedback.

Here are four important things that you need to do post-event. 

1. Evaluating the event budget
2. Sending acknowledgments and appreciation
3. Creating an event recap
4. Conduct a post-event survey

1. Evaluating the Event Budget

You cannot evaluate the actual numbers before your event happen.

You need to calculate and gather your finances to understand actual expenses against the budget clearly. It will help you get the figures you expect to hit and the actual reflection of the event performance in reality.

Here are some tips to follow:

• Run reports and collect data
• Analyze forecasted and actual expenses
• Review the operational costs incurred
• Measure financial progress before, during, and after the event
• Identify deviations from actual plans

Also, it will give a transparent insight into actual numbers and reveal how meticulously you’ve handled the expenses and costs. It will also determine whether the event achieved its goal or generated ROI.

2. Sending Acknowledgments and Appreciation

Thank everyone. Be it attendees, partners, vendors, investors, and sponsors. A personalized email to everyone who made your event successful with an opt-in mechanism to continue future communication.

For a detailed acknowledgment and appreciation, you can share an event summary, essential details to remember, or key takeaways for the attendees

For example, Small Business Diversity Network posted a thank you appreciation post on Facebook after the event to express gratitude for the attendees.

Source: Facebook

3. Creating an Event Recap

Evaluate and debrief your event.

Maximizing the post-event engagement and keeping the momentum forward helps you unlock opportunities for future events. Here’s how you can present your event recap:

• Event summarizes posted on social media platforms
• Share key Highlights from the event
• Throwback videos from the event
• Attract new audiences through post-event social feeds

Capitalize on event success, and lead with a strategy to continue conversations that nurture as leads. In short, post-event engagement is the formula to achieve even more significant success next time.

For example, Sandoval Landscaping posted a recap video on Facebook from their Grow conference and touring summit.

Source: Facebook

4. Conduct a Post-event survey

To be precise, a post-event survey clearly describes whether your event succeeded or failed to meet the event objectives. By conducting post-event surveys, you can understand what went great and what didn’t work for your event attendees.

Feedback is the most important part of the event marketing checklist that helps event marketers implement changes to improve and create a better event experience. 

Final Words

Without an event marketing checklist, you can’t plan a flawless and streamlined event. It’s hard for event marketers to remember every detail and focus on each aspect without documenting. Also, you need everything in one place for a solid event marketing plan to come into action.

As we conclude, we can say that a lot goes into successful event marketing, but an event marketing checklist can simplify the process. By utilizing the expertise of an events marketing firm, you can take your event promotion to the next level.