Email marketing for events
Email is one of the most reliable channels for selling event tickets. Unlike social media, you’re not competing with an algorithm – your message lands directly in someone’s inbox. Done well, an email campaign can drive registrations at every stage: before tickets go on sale, during the selling window, and after the event wraps up.
This guide covers the practical side: building a list worth emailing, writing subject lines that get opened, timing your sends, and setting up automation so your campaign keeps working without you.
How do I build an email list for my event?
Your email list is the foundation of every campaign. The earlier you start building it, the better positioned you’ll be when tickets go on sale.
The most reliable source is your existing attendees. Anyone who’s come to one of your events and opted in to hear from you is a warm contact – they know you, and they’ve already shown they’ll show up. Export this list from your ticketing platform after each event and keep it up to date.
For future attendees, give people a clear reason to subscribe before tickets are available. A landing page with an “I’m interested” or “notify me” option lets you capture demand early and builds a pre-sale list you can activate the moment tickets open.
If you use TryBooking, you can add a custom question during booking asking buyers whether they’d like to join your mailing list. The data flows straight into your reports for export. It’s a simple addition that compounds over time.
One important note: only add people who’ve explicitly agreed to hear from you. Emailing an uninterested audience drives up unsubscribes and spam complaints, which damages your sender reputation and reduces deliverability for everyone on your list.
Which email platform should I use for event marketing?
For most event organisers, a mainstream platform like Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, or Kit (formerly ConvertKit) will do everything you need: drag-and-drop email builder, list management, basic automation, and open/click reporting. All offer free or low-cost plans suitable for smaller lists.
If you’re running high-volume campaigns or need more sophisticated automation – conditional journeys, behavioural triggers, A/B testing at scale – platforms like ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo offer more depth, though at higher cost.
What to check before committing: the platform’s automation capabilities, how it handles list segments, whether it integrates with your ticketing or CRM tools, and what the pricing looks like once your list grows.
How do I write email subject lines that get opened?
Your subject line is doing one job: getting the email opened. If it doesn’t do that, nothing else matters.
A few approaches that work well for events:
- Specificity beats cleverness. “Jazz Night at The Forum – tickets now on sale” outperforms “Don’t miss this.” People scan their inboxes quickly; make it obvious what the email is about.
- Create genuine urgency. “Only 30 tickets left” or “Early bird ends Friday” work when they’re true. False urgency erodes trust fast.
- Use the recipient’s name sparingly. Personalisation works, but leading with it in every subject line makes it feel formulaic.
- Keep it short. Most inboxes show around 40–50 characters on mobile. Get the key information into that window.
Test two or three subject line variations on a small segment before sending to your full list. Most email platforms offer built-in A/B testing.
When is the best time to send event marketing emails?
When you send matters as much as what you send. The right timing depends on your audience and your event type.
As a general guide:
- Business and professional events – Tuesday to Thursday, mid-morning (around 9–11am). These audiences are checking email during business hours.
- Leisure and community events – evenings or weekends often perform better, when people are thinking about how they’ll spend their time.
- Urgency-driven sends – the day before an early-bird deadline or a few days before tickets sell out. These are high-intent moments where people are most likely to act.
Plan your send schedule backwards from your event date. A typical campaign for a significant event might look like this:
- Announce the event (as early as possible)
- Tickets on sale / early-bird offer
- Speaker or programme announcement
- Final push (one to two weeks out)
- “Last chance” as the deadline approaches
- Day-of reminder for registered attendees
- Post-event thank-you and highlights
Don’t over-email. Once a week is plenty for most events; once a fortnight or monthly is fine for smaller ones. Each email should offer something new – an announcement, an update, a reason to click – rather than repeating the same message in slightly different words.
How do I segment my email list for events?
Segmentation means sending different emails to different groups based on what you know about them. It takes a bit more setup, but the payoff in open rates and conversions is significant.
Common segments for event organisers:
- Past attendees vs new subscribers – people who’ve been before can receive “you’ve been before – you know it’s worth it” messaging; new subscribers need more context about what to expect
- Location – if your event runs across multiple cities or regions, send location-specific emails rather than a blanket campaign
- Ticket type – VIP or premium ticket holders often want different information than general admission
- Engagement level – contacts who haven’t opened your last three emails may need a different approach, or it may be time to remove them from your active list
Most email platforms let you build segments based on subscriber data, past behaviour, and tags. The key is collecting the right data in the first place – if you want to segment by location, make sure you’re capturing that when people subscribe or buy tickets.
How do I set up email automation for events?
Automation lets you send the right email at the right moment without manual effort. For event marketing, the most useful automations are:
Welcome sequence. When someone subscribes or registers their interest, send a confirmation email immediately and a follow-up a few days later with more detail about the event.
Post-purchase sequence. After someone buys a ticket, trigger a short sequence: a confirmation with all the practical details, a reminder a week before the event, and a day-before message with venue information, what to bring, and anything else they need to know.
Re-engagement emails. If a subscriber hasn’t opened your last few emails, a targeted message – “We miss you – here’s what’s coming up” – can either reactivate them or confirm they’re no longer interested (at which point removing them keeps your list healthy).
Abandoned interest. If someone clicked through to your event page but didn’t buy, a follow-up email a day or two later can recover a meaningful percentage of those missed sales.
Which email marketing metrics should I track?
The metrics worth tracking are opens, click-through rate, and conversions. Opens tell you whether your subject line worked. Click-through rate tells you whether your content and call-to-action were compelling. Conversions – ticket purchases, registrations – tell you whether the whole thing did its job.
Don’t obsess over open rates in isolation. Email clients that pre-load images (including Apple Mail with Mail Privacy Protection) inflate open numbers. Click-through rate and conversion rate are more reliable indicators of genuine engagement.
Check performance after each send and make small adjustments: different send times, shorter subject lines, a clearer CTA button. Over multiple campaigns, you’ll build a clear picture of what works for your audience.
Should I keep emailing after my event ends?
Most organisers stop emailing once the event is over. That’s a missed opportunity.
A post-event email – sent within a day or two – that thanks attendees, shares highlights or photos, and hints at what’s next keeps the relationship warm. It’s also the right moment to ask for feedback. A short survey after the event gives you practical information for planning the next one, and it signals to attendees that you care what they think.
If you’re planning future events, the post-event period is when your audience is most positively disposed toward you. Keep communicating – even at a lower frequency – so you’re front of mind when you’re ready to announce something new.
How can TryBooking help with event email marketing?
If you’re using TryBooking to sell tickets, you can set up automated post-event emails directly through the platform – no separate email tool required. Use this for order confirmations, event reminders, and thank-you messages. For more sophisticated ongoing campaigns (segmented newsletters, multi-step automations), a dedicated email platform alongside TryBooking gives you the most flexibility. Your attendee data, including any custom questions you’ve collected during booking, can be exported from TryBooking’s reporting tools to feed into your email segments.
