Want to make your event the talk of the town? The best way to promote your event is right in the palm of your hand -- your phone! SMS messaging is the perfect way to reach potential attendees throughout while they’re on the go. 84% of people never leave home without their phone, so being able to share information with attendees regarding upcoming events is the most effective way to reach the most people.

How to Use SMS Text Messaging for Event Promotion

 You can use a text messaging platform to promote your events every at every step of engagement with your target audience. From drumming up interest to promoting ticket sales or event bundles, to following up after the event, text messaging makes getting the word out to potential attendees quick and painless.

Step 1: Target The Right Audience

Acquiring a database of contacts is the first step in effective event promotion. text keywords are a convenient way for potential attendees to text in to receive event text alerts, and depending on which keyword they use, you can then sign them up to receive alerts about similar events they may be interested in. This allows you to grow a larger database of contacts that you can leverage for future events as well.

Step 2: Share Links of Upcoming events

With SMS you can send relevant information to your potential attendees and garner better interest from more people. The 87th Force Support Squadron was able to use Trumpia’s text messaging automation to boost their attendance to their various summer programs such as concerts, BBQs, and movie nights. They set up a keyword for each program and automatically sent personalized invites to maximize attendance.

Step 3: Build Excitement Around Your Event

By sending a text message to potential attendees, you can share event details to get your audience excited about your upcoming event. Have a surprise speaker or new release? Then send a blast to your audience prior to the event to get their juices flowing. Event, such as E3 and Comic Con, can further attract attendees by allowing exhibitors to advertise their new product releases and guest speakers with a single text.

Step 4: Send Event Updates

The best chance of making an event successful is by informing your attendees of updates and activities with a quick text. Let them know what exhibitors will be there, the schedule of activities, and what speakers will be there to drum up excitement. If the event is large, you can alert people about an upcoming seminar or performance no matter where they are.

Step 5: Make Sure You Send Attendee Reminders

SMS is a fast and simple way for your guests to RSVP, as well as send text reminders to those who have RSVP’d, making your attendees more likely to show up. This also give you better information to determine how much to spend on food, refreshments, and facilities.

Remembering an event is not always a guarantee. SMS is the best way of reminding your attendees of the event, increasing event attendance, and overall brand awareness. Sending out text reminders, which are read at a 98% rate, ensures that everyone remembers your trade show, conference, or event.

If your text messaging solution is mutli-channel, you can also blast your message across even more communications such as email, social media, SMS, MMS, and voice broadcast to get even more reach.

The Benefits of Using SMS to Promote Your Events

Sell Out Events with Special Ticket Offers

Selling out an event may seem impossible, but SMS makes selling all your tickets a breeze. Make your potential customers unable to resist attending your event by sending them special offers directly to their phone. These offers can include captivating pictures, coupons, deals, and links to discounted tickets.

Get Feedback To Improve Future Events

Creating a spectacular experience for event-goers will make them want to come back year after year. An effective way of collecting feedback from event-goers is to send them a convenient SMS survey. Guests are more likely to respond to a text survey than traditional survey methods. The speed and convenience of mobile surveys and polls compared to online or email creates more responses with greater detail.

Want to tailor your event to your attendees preferences? Then use two-way sms communication to allow guests to provide their input on what they want to see at your event. The U.S Open was able to use SMS voting to get feedback from guests, resulting in increased engagement and participation. Because texting doesn’t take much time, they received more requests making their event planning effective.

Improve Volunteer and Staff Communication

Maintaining the functionality of an event requires volunteers and coordination. Longwood University was able to utilize SMS to share links to their student body and volunteers to keep them engaged and informed of an upcoming debate. As a result, the university was able to collect over 1000 volunteers and the event was a huge success.

Coordinating staff is a crucial part of maintaining a smooth running event. Using SMS for employee communication gives you an efficient form of communication for responding to emergencies, coordinating scheduling, and distributing your sources correctly. Staff will spend less time on the phone, and more time focusing on keeping your event running smoothly.

There's never a better time to use SMS to engage an audience than during the promotion of an event. From announcing the time and place of the event, to sending special ticket offers, text messaging makes reaching a wide audience easy and affordable.