We asked NYC Event Planners to rank the most effective event marketing tools. Here they are ranked for you:
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Website
- Registration site
- Printed media
- Influencer marketing
- Experiential marketing
- Video
- Press releases
- Remarketing
Social media is the clear winner for NYC Event Planners when it comes to promoting events, followed closely by email marketing – an often times neglected tool for event marketers.
Price vs. Outcome: How NYC Event Planners Compare Mainstream Event Promotion Tools
We think that all NYC Event Planners can agree that platforms, marketing and costs can be super confusing when trying to make the best decisions about promoting your event.
We decided to make things a little bit easier for you to analyze the best event promotion tools on the market.
In the handy table below, there is a breakdown of different platforms and marketing channels you can utilize as well as how easy you’re going to find it working with them. Plus, we look at the potential reach you can generate, as well as the downsides and options for specific targeting on each platform.
The average cost per click relates to the amount you’ll probably spend to get attendees to click through to your website, ticket page or even those that go to sign up. There are many factors that NYC Event Planners need to consider and obviously these are mostly averages. You may in fact find cost to be substantially lower if you the keywords you are targeting are not very competitive or if you use your own contacts with remarketing or uploading emails.
For direct mail however, this gets a bit trickier to track scientifically! It’s a lot harder to track the outcome of an offline campaign. To make it easier, if attendees have to sign up, NYC Event Planners need to ask how they heard about the event and collect their addresses in the registration form and you’ll get a better idea of the geographical areas that converted.
Platform |
Avg. Cost Per Click |
Ease of Use |
Potential Reach |
Drawbacks |
Targeting Options |
Email Marketing |
Easy (especially with a well maintained list) |
High |
Limited by the quality and amount of email addresses you have on your list. Spam filters can reduce deliverability. |
Narrow Targeting |
|
Facebook Ads |
Setting up the ad is easy. Targeting can be tricky |
High |
You need to understand targeting, Facebook ads, your audience and quality of the ad which can all affect the outcome. |
Adaptive. Broad and narrow targeting options. |
|
Twitter Ads |
Easy to set up |
High |
Targeting isn’t as good and engagement on Twitter ads is generally lower so the cost per click is higher. |
Adaptive. Broad and narrow targeting options. |
|
LinkedIn Ads |
Easy |
Medium |
It’s costlier, but leads are often better converters. |
Adaptive. Broad and narrow targeting options. |
|
AdWords |
$0.05-$2.32 |
Slightly more difficult to navigate for beginners |
High |
For beginners it can feel like a stab in the dark. Cost varies based on keyword competition. |
Highly targeted |
Organic Social Reach |
For event promo campaigns $0. (although a consideration for the cost of building your audience and content should be mentioned here.) |
Easy. The level of effort required will depend on the competition in your niche |
High |
You’ll always be limited by social platforms because you haven’t paid. |
Broad targeting |
Direct Mail |
$0.60 (cost of distribution of A5 leaflet per area with high targeting) |
Medium. Difficult if you’re doing the distribution yourself |
Medium |
There’s not a lot of conversion data so while some campaigns are beneficial, others aren’t. A lot of variables. |
Broad and Targeted. Highly targeted for local events. |
Now that NYC Event Planners know the how, keep checking our blog to read about the top promotional ideas for events in order to see real results!