How to Use SMS Marketing for Events Business

Running an event itself is a challenge, and it certainly starts with the promotion. No matter how strategically planned and engaging your event content is, if you fail to reach your target audiences, then it will be of no use.

In the ever-evolving event industry, depending solely on email and social media marketing is not enough to get your audiences attention. With overflowing email inboxes and content-dense social media feeds, it takes a fraction of a second for people to skip ads.

That is why more and more event organizers are getting inclined towards SMS marketing for events. Starting from inviting attendees to sending registration confirmation and follow-ups, SMS marketing helps you grab your audience's attention instantly and ensure that they don't miss an update from you.

If you have not adopted the event marketing channel yet, it's high time you take steps to utilize it. This article will be helpful for you in this journey as we have shared a detailed guide on SMS marketing for events and how you can use it for your business business. So let's get started.

What is SMS marketing for events?

SMS marketing for events is a marketing channel that allows an event organizer to bring the entire event communication process into mobile phones through SMS. All types of event promotional messages like event invitation, registration, or ticket confirmation, reminders, follow ups, venue details, last minute changes, feedback form etc can be sent through messages.

Why use SMS marketing for events?

SMS marketing for events is more than just an event marketing method. In fact, research says more than 50% of consumers also consider it an effective way of marketing. Whether it is about registration confirmation or event reminders, it helps deliver messages instantly.

• Unbeatable open rates: SMS have an incredibly high opening rate that beats any other marketing channels. You might be surprised to know that the event email open rate is only 21% whereas the open rate of SMS is around 98%. Email box remains flooded most of the time, and that is why skipping important updates is common, but SMS are delivered directly and opened almost instantly. That is why SMS marketing for events is more useful than emails or social media posts.

• Mobile first behavior: People keep their mobile phones close to themselves almost 24*7 which means whenever a message is delivered, they get instant attention from the receiver. That is why it is the easiest way to grab the attention of your audiences towards your events. This is a device that they constantly stay in touch with, which means your messages are most likely to be seen quickly.  

• Instant delivery and access: The best part about SMS marketing for events is that you can instantly communicate any last minute changes, event day ticket sales, or schedule update to your audiences.  It is a both-way beneficial process because audiences also get instant access to all information that organizers provide.

• Budget friendly: Conventional marketing channels such as emails and paid ads are more expensive than SMS marketing. In fact, it is remarkably cheaper than cost per click marketing that may cost you around $6 per click. SMS marketing requires a minimum set up cost and no additional payment for ad space.

• Better visibility: As users don't need to visit a website or login to check SMS, they get better visibility. Promotional messages in inboxes often go unnoticed, but the phone message box always catches people's attention, offering a better visibility to the event marketing texts.

• Automation and personalization: Automation and personalization is the heart of event marketing. Most consumers prefer to receive personalized messages that make them feel valued. Event marketers can personalize SMS by mentioning the recipient's name, modify the content as per their interests, and more. Similarly, automation saves marketers' time as they don't have to type messages to send to each attendee.

Now that you know why SMS marketing for events is important, let us share some key strategies with you to implement SMS marketing.

Key Strategies to Implement SMS Marketing for Events

1. Structure your messages wisely

Creating a solid SMS marketing strategy for an event begins with structuring your messages correctly. Consider the following tips to structure your messages for event promotion:

• Keep it short and crisp with only essential details like event title, date, time, registration like, location etc.
• Create a sense of urgency among recipients using words like limited seats, over valid till (date), final call for attendees etc.
• Considering the limited character count in text messages, avoid unnecessary things like the usage of slang, jargons, stretched paragraphs etc. 
• Add a brief description of the things your audiences can expect in your event like activities, speakers details, any special offers on ticket prices etc.
• Personalize messages using receiver's name, relevant details etc.

2. Prepare a timing strategy

Whether it is a reminder message or registration confirmation message, timing plays a pivotal role in determining engagement level in SMS marketing.

Here are some tips for you to prepare a timing strategy for your SMS event marketing journey:

• Send event invite messages as soon as your event is finalized so that your audiences get time to make plans accordingly and purchase tickets.
• The second message or the follow up message should be sent a week before your event and the final call should be made a day or two before the event.
• Make sure to avoid sending too many messages to your audiences as overflowing messages annoy them.
• Two to three strategically timed promotional messages are enough to keep your audiences engaged.

3.Categorize audience

Categorizing your event audiences is crucial to ensure a systematic management of your SMS marketing journey and offer personalized event experiences to them.

Consider the following tips:

• Segment your audiences based on their registration status.
• Categorize audiences who have not registered yet. You can provide incentives to them or run a special offer to encourage them to sign up.
• Create separate messages for VIP guests, Sponsors etc.

4. Measure the effectivity of your previous SMS campaigns

It is important for every event marketer to check if his or her SMS marketing campaigns are working or not.

• To track the effectiveness of your previous SMS campaigns, you can begin with the click through rates, which show how many people have actually engaged with the text messages.
• Secondly, check the conversion rate to find out the number of people who registered or purchased tickets for your event based on your text messages.
• Opt-out- rate should also be considered to find out why they have unsubscribed, where you can improvements etc to reduce it. .
• Keep experimenting with different types of messages to see which works better.

5. Use WP Event Manager for  a smooth SMS marketing experience

When it comes to SMS marketing for events, use a WordPress plugin like WP Event Manager SMS notification to automate the process and enhance your marketing efforts. It allows you to send customized email messages instantly using Twilio integration.

Key features of the SMS notification addon include:

• Enables you to track your sent messages and track their status.
• Automates scheduled SMS.
• Get built in SMS template that saves time and adds convenience.
• Offers better security for admins and organizers with Twilio integration by separating their credential set up.
• Lets you send role based SMS like sending different messages for admins, organizers, and attendees.
• Offers a detailed dashboard for organizers in the frontend for better SMS setting management, tracking SMS and more.

Discover the plugin now !

Wrapping up

SMS marketing is a revolutionary step for event marketers to get noticed. It is cost-effective, it has a great open-rate, supports mobile first behavior, offers real-time messaging facility, better visibility, and drives engagement. Whether you have already adopted the new marketing method or you are a beginner, using a plugin like SMS Notification makes the process easier for you.