Seasonal & Event Marketing
23
min read
In 2025, events need to deliver real outcomes. That takes an event marketing strategy that’s built for speed, clarity, and results. This guide walks you through exactly how to pull it off, with proven tactics, tools, and real-world examples you can actually use.
In 2025, audiences have become harder to impress, and even harder to reach. After COVID disrupted the live event space, many potential customers simply didn’t come back. In fact, 65% of former in-person attendees say they have no immediate plans to return.
As a not-so-pleasant bonus, marketers are now competing with Netflix, TikTok, and the undeniable pull of the couch. In this attention economy, outdated event marketing tactics don’t stand a chance. If you want to stand out in this new era of digital marketing, you need a strategy that actually cuts through the noise.
This guide is built to help you do exactly that. Inside, you’ll find 15 real-world successful event marketing strategies for filling seats, boosting engagement, and turning events into brand assets, all backed by examples, tools, and practical advice.
Event marketing is a promotional approach that leverages experiences — online or in-person — to engage audiences, communicate brand value, and drive business goals. A solid event marketing strategy outlines how these experiences will be planned, promoted, and executed to attract the right people and deliver specific results, like registrations, leads, or conversions.
At its core, this strategy defines:
Many marketers use frameworks like the 5 C’s (Concept, Coordination, Control, Culmination, Closeout), the 5 P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People), or the 3 E’s (Engage, Educate, Entertain) to guide planning. But when it comes to execution, what makes the difference is a clear connection between event goals and actions.
Event marketing isn’t limited to one format. Depending on your goals, audience, and budget, it can take many forms, including virtual or hybrid events, each of which offers different opportunities for visibility, engagement, and lead generation.
Here are the most common types of event marketing you’ll see in 2025.
→ In-person events
Conferences, pop-ups, and product launches are powerful for building trust with existing customers and closing high-value deals. They often require a higher event marketing budget but can deliver strong ROI when executed well.
→ Virtual events
Webinars, live event marketing, virtual summits, or online panels offer greater accessibility, lower costs, and often allow for better tracking. They’re especially effective for reaching global audiences and nurturing leads at scale.
→ Hybrid events
A mix of physical and virtual components, hybrid events allow attendees to choose how they engage. These events often require more coordination but give marketers the flexibility to reach both local and remote audiences.
→ Experiential activations
These are brand-driven experiences, like pop-up installations, branded photo booths, or live product demos, designed to leave a lasting impression. While they can be standalone, they also work well as part of larger campaigns or sponsorships.
→ Educational events
Workshops, seminars, and boot camps are designed to teach a range of skills, including industry trends, product usage, and hands-on skills. These events position your brand as a helpful expert and are great for lead nurturing and trust-building.
→ Internal events
Events designed for employees, partners, or investors. These can be company kickoffs, training sessions, or roadmap reveals. While not public-facing, they play a big role in brand consistency, culture, and internal advocacy.
Each event format serves a different purpose, and the type you choose should align with your goals, your audience, and the kind of experience you want to create.
That covers the strategic foundation. Now, it’s time to move from event planning to action.
In the next section, you’ll find 15 event marketing strategies designed to bridge the gap between your goals and real outcomes, with practical methods, proven tools, and examples you can start applying right away.
A successful event is the one that starts weeks earlier, in your audience’s feed.
One of the most effective ways to generate attention is to treat the lead-up as part of the experience. Pull back the curtain of future events and let people in on the process. Show them what’s happening behind the scenes, even if it’s messy, early, or small.
This approach works because it taps into curiosity. Instead of making announcements out of nowhere, you give the audience a reason to care before anything official drops.
Here’s how to do it:
As one event marketer on Reddit put it, “Ask yourself: if you were the target audience, would you be excited to add this to your calendar?” And in most cases, that single question is often more useful than any checklist for creating an effective event marketing strategy.
A great example is Burt’s Bees during last year’s Met Gala. The brand released a clever stop-motion video of its lip balms walking the green carpet, echoing the glamour of the event. But what gained real traction was the DIY behind-the-scenes clip shared by the creator. This post reached over 150,000 likes, while the brand’s final version got 38,000. People were hooked by how it was made, proving that this kind of attention can do more than any paid promo.
Done right, behind-the-scenes content marketing makes your audience feel like insiders. It builds connection, momentum, and anticipation all before the event begins. To make the most of it, lean on tools like Canva for visuals, Descript for fast video editing, and Buffer or Later to keep your posts consistent and timely.
And when time is tight, it helps to have a design partner who can keep up. If you need to turn a last-minute speaker quote into a polished graphic or cut a hype reel for Instagram, a team like TodayMade can deliver branded assets within 48 hours. Because at event speed, fast and on-brand beats perfect.
There’s a simple truth about strategic event marketing that often gets ignored: it’s easier to borrow audience trust than to build it from scratch.
No matter how compelling your offer is, your audience might hesitate to engage until someone they already follow, admire, or buy from gives them a reason to care. That’s why event marketers actively seek out brand-adjacent partners: people or companies speaking to the same audience, but from a different angle.
If you want to make influencer marketing work, here’s what to keep in mind:
Among event marketing strategy examples, a standout one is Slack’s collaboration with Notion and Miro, tools that share a common user base but solve different problems. Each brand promoted the event through its own channels, drawing in a broader and more engaged audience than Slack could have reached on its own.
Partnerships are one of the few event tactics that grow stronger with repetition. Start small, document what works, and build a network of allies who’ll help carry your next event further. To move faster, you can rely on SparkLoop for referral tracking and Figma to create clean, co-branded visuals fast.
For many marketers, event platforms like Eventbrite, Meetup, or LinkedIn Events are places to drop event details and forget about them. But these event management tools are actually discovery engines that can actively drive sign-ups, boost visibility, and bring in measurable ROI.
One Reddit user broke down a repeatable approach that consistently delivers results: “I set up a simple waitlist website for early buzz and private invites. Then I use Eventbrite to sell tickets and run low-cost ad campaigns. Last event I spent $50 a week and sold 100 tickets at $20 each — that’s a CPA of $0.49.”
In event marketing best practices, the key isn’t complexity, it’s stacking lightweight, high-leverage channels. For that, try the following:
It’s also worth noting that many event platforms carry strong domain authority. In some cases, your event listing may outrank your own website in Google search, meaning your platform presence improves your SEO footprint too.
Recent data backs this up. Platforms like Eventbrite report that for free events, small ad campaigns (around £9/day) boosted registrations by up to 10x, with conversion rates averaging 10%. One organizer saw 300,000+ free-ticket registrations in just three months, even spending under £150 total.
And while great strategy sets the foundation, strong visuals seal the deal. In this regard, our TodayMade team can design platform-optimized banners, covers, branded landing page assets, special media posts, and lightweight animations that match each channel’s tone. It’s the same kind of work we did for Eleken, capturing attention fast and staying visually consistent across every touchpoint.
Getting people to sign up is one thing. Getting them to bring others along and boost ticket sales? That’s where the real growth happens.
Referrals aren’t just for SaaS products or newsletter growth. They work incredibly well for events, especially when you give attendees a reason to share. A clear incentive paired with a simple process can drive event registration and turn your existing list into a self-replicating promotion engine.
Let’s be clear: we’re not talking about over-complicated affiliate programs. A basic offer like “Bring 2 friends, get early access to the keynote” or “Refer 3 people, win a free VIP pass” can be enough to drive traction, as long as it’s easy to track and easy to claim.
Here’s a quick way to put it into action:
For example, the Uber referral program worked because it made sense the moment you saw it. You sent a link to a friend. They got a discount on their first ride — maybe $10, maybe more. Once they took that ride, you got credit too. There are no extra steps, no fine print, just a simple exchange that felt fair on both sides. That kind of clarity is exactly what makes a referral offer stick, and it’s the same principle that can turn your event attendees into promoters.
Referral-driven marketing doesn’t require fancy automation. All you need is a good hook, a few reminder nudges, and the right kind of reward. Start small, test what resonates, and watch your event attendance list grow without buying another ad.
No one wants to fill out a form or respond to an email just because someone asked nicely. But give them a reason — something playful, visual, maybe even competitive — and people start handing over their info without hesitation.
We’ve seen it happen with contests that spark just enough curiosity, scavenger hunts that send people exploring the venue, and quick polls that make them feel like their input matters. These aren’t just gimmicks, they’re ways to start conversations while quietly collecting the data you need.
Take something as simple as a QR scavenger hunt. You place a few clever signs around the venue, each with a different scan-to-enter code. Attendees who complete the trail get entered into a giveaway, maybe for a free strategy session, product credit, or a premium pass. They’re engaged, they’re moving around, and they’re giving you data you can actually use.
Another solid tactic is badge-scan raffles or instant-win draws via mobile forms. The mechanics are easy, but the impact is real, especially when the prize is personalized and relevant to your target audience.
Once you are ready to roll it out, keep it simple with this setup:
You don’t need anything over the top to impress your leads. Sometimes the most straightforward marketing ideas for events work best, and that’s exactly the approach we used while working with Eleken. For them, we designed newsletter covers focused on strong copy and minimal visuals. Each piece was built around a direct user request — no fluff, no clickbait — that pulled people in and got results.
After all, you don’t need a huge prize or complex mechanics. What matters is that it feels intentional — part of the event, not an afterthought. And if it’s designed well, it doesn’t just capture leads. It makes the experience more memorable, too.
You’ve done the promotion. The room is filling up. But this is where many marketers go quiet… Just when it matters most.
Your onsite presence is your biggest opportunity to turn attendees into real-time promoters. And yet, too often, that moment gets lost in stale backdrops, generic photo ops, or booths no one remembers. As one Redditor put it: “The event organizers will get people there, but your primary focus needs to be how to engage with those who are attending.”
If you want people to share your event agenda, you have to give them something worth sharing. Think meme booths, branded sticker walls, live polling screens, or even a casual hangout corner with a clever name. These are content factories that can spark organic stories, photos, and videos that travel way beyond the venue.
And for online visibility, don’t overlook social media marketing shareables, like branded GIFs, selfie filters, recap slides, or even pre-cropped quote images from keynotes. The easier you make it for people to post something that feels like them, the more they’ll do it.
To do it well, here are our recommendations:
One tactic we love is setting up a “share-to-win” station: post a photo or video, tag the brand, and get entered into a live raffle. It’s low effort, highly visible, and creates instant ripple effects online.
We can spot this approach in action at the coastal music festival NeverSea. The organizers used custom Instagram and Snapchat AR filters, giving fans branded overlays to share in real time. These filters led to thousands of organic shares, as attendees showed off their personalized looks, turning the event into a trending visual experience.
What happens after your event ends is just as important as what happens during it. But far too often, the post-event follow-up is rushed, one-size-fits-all, and completely forgettable. You spent weeks targeting different audience types, designing different entry points, and capturing valuable context.
Why throw all of that away by sending everyone the same thank-you email?
Smart event marketers treat follow-up like a continuation of the conversation, not a courtesy message. And that starts with segmentation. You can approach it this way:
You can go even deeper by segmenting by session attendance, ticket tier, content engagement, or referral behavior. Attendees who refer others or stay active across sessions are signaling interest. Don’t treat them like casual signups.
Segmentation is closely tied to real business impact. Industry data shows that segmented email marketing can boost revenue by up to 760% over non-segmented ones, while personalized CTAs can drive conversions by 202%. So, if you’re investing time in the event itself, give just as much thought to what comes after.
The event might be over, but your content pipeline is just getting started.
Live events are a goldmine of raw material: presentations, questions, soundbites, behind-the-scenes clips, audience reactions, and so on. All of it can be reused, reshaped, and turned into content that extends your reach long after the doors close.
And yet, many teams leave this value untapped.
Instead of starting from scratch post-event, build an event marketing plan to document as you go. Film your speakers. Snap audience photos. Save quotes from breakout sessions. Capture the kind of content you wish you had a month later, because if you don’t collect it while it’s happening, you won’t get another shot.
Here’s what a repurposing flow could look like:
A great example of this mindset in action is Netflix. Every time they release a new show, they don’t stop at promotion — they keep the conversation going across all channels.
Their TikTok account features cutdowns of key moments, cast interviews, and reaction clips. On YouTube, you’ll find dedicated playlists for individual shows filled with behind-the-scenes videos, bloopers, cast commentary, and themed edits. Their blog and newsletter surface fresh takes even weeks or months after a release, often timed to hype up a new season or spin-off.
It’s a smart reminder that if you’ve already built something great, don’t let it fade after day one. Repurpose it, remix it, and spread it across every channel your audience uses.
Most post-event surveys feel like an afterthought and get treated that way. They’re long, impersonal, and usually arrive just when your attendees are checking out. But smart feedback loops start earlier, feel lighter, and show up in moments where your audience actually wants to engage.
Rather than waiting until the entire event program ends, think about micro-feedback moments throughout the experience:
These approaches collect input without friction. And when the final survey does go out, segment it too: speakers get one version, VIPs another, first-time attendees a third. Even a few tweaks in tone or framing can double your response rate in the event industry.
And don’t forget the most powerful part: acting on what you collect. When people see their feedback reflected in programming, format, or even the snacks you serve, they’re more likely to engage again next time.
This shift toward in-the-moment interaction is something real attendees appreciate. While browsing Quora threads on event engagement, one response summed it up perfectly: “There’s no need for ’raising hands,’ no more ’headcount,’ and no more microphone sharing to share your thoughts at any conference event.”
Live polling makes it easier (and more comfortable) for people to contribute, especially in large settings. Tools now support everything from quick Q&As and emoji sliders to word clouds and open-ended responses, even custom embeds right inside presentations. Feedback no longer interrupts the flow, it becomes part of it.
Smart event marketers rely on event management marketing strategies to build reputation, trust, and recognizability that compound over time. More so, every detail contributes to this: your visuals, your tone of voice, your speaker lineup, how you welcome people, and how you follow up.
Let’s take Netflix again. The brand opened its first immersive pop-up experience in Asia, called “Only on Netflix”. Visitors could walk through themed routes based on popular titles like Wednesday, Stranger Things, and Emily in Paris. This event was about making the Netflix brand feel lived-in, emotional, and local. Such touchpoints elevate brand equity by transforming passive viewers into engaged fans who’ve “experienced” the brand beyond the screen.
Consistency here matters more than perfection. When your audience starts to recognize your look and language, you can be sure that you’re reinforcing a brand they remember.
Even smaller brands are catching on. Creators and tech companies often reuse design systems and micro-branding (fonts, colors, graphic elements) from their events across newsletters, YouTube thumbnails, and ad campaigns, keeping brand cues consistent even outside event season.
We’ve done something similar with 8K Academy, an online design course platform. To ensure visual consistency across their digital ecosystem, we built assets using their established color palette, typography, and style. The final output included presentation decks and social content that felt aligned across every touchpoint, reinforcing their identity without reinventing it every time.
As you can see, you don’t need a massive creative team to grow brand equity through events. You just need a system that makes your visual and verbal presence consistent. Do that, and each event becomes part of how people remember you.
When people are unsure whether your event is worth it, they start searching for context: “Who’s speaking? What’s the vibe? Is this actually for me?” A pre-event live Q&A with keynote speakers or an ask-me-anything session is a low-cost way to answer questions and give potential attendees a reason to care before they commit.
Think of it as a soft launch for your event, with none of the logistics stress. Bring in one of your keynote speakers, a panel moderator, or even just your event host for a casual 15–30 minute livestream. Let the audience ask questions, tease session topics, or vote on what they want to hear more about.
There’s no shortage of platforms to make this easy. You can go live on LinkedIn, Instagram, or YouTube if your audience is already following you there. And for questions, tools like Slido, Pigeonhole, or StreamYard allow anonymous submissions, especially helpful when you want honest input.
To make it work for you, follow the next event marketing tips:
A pre-event AMA or Q&A is a great reminder that there are real people, not just posts, behind your event. And sometimes, that’s all your audience needs to say yes.
In event marketing success, timing is leverage, and some moments call for immediate communication.
That’s where SMS and WhatsApp shine. These channels deliver relevant updates exactly when they’re needed, straight to the device people are already holding. A short, well-timed text can confirm a VIP lounge access code, unlock an early session entry, or direct someone to a last-minute schedule change.
Plus, it’s a great tactic to elevate the experience for high-intent segments. For example, attendees who paid for front-row seats or joined via referral links can receive extra perks, special reminders, or direct links to exclusive content.
Let’s break down a few places where this really works:
To implement this smoothly, tools like Twilio or Attentive offer reliable event-scale SMS infrastructure. For more conversational outreach or group coordination, WhatsApp Business is a natural fit. Used selectively, it becomes your high-speed lane for signals that can’t afford to be missed.
Bringing play into the event experience ups enjoyment and involvement. That’s why gamification works so well — it gives your attendees a reason to move, explore, and return. And in the process, it increases time spent with your brand, boosts brand recall, and gathers meaningful engagement data.
A standout example of this approach comes from Coca-Cola, which brought a playful twist to its booth at the Cyber Battle event. They created a two-game experience: a drop game, where players caught falling objects while dodging sugar cubes, and a fortune wheel to raffle off branded drinks. The games were built with bold visuals and projected on a large LED screen, creating a crowd-drawing centerpiece.
The interaction didn’t stop at screens. A live host kept energy high by offering encouragement, commentary, and tips throughout the games. As people played, others watched, turning each session into a micro-event. Over 200 gameplays were recorded in just 7 hours, showing how simple gamification can dramatically increase dwell time and emotional connection.
If you’re building your own experience, it doesn’t have to be complex or tech-heavy. You can start small:
Gamification isn’t a gimmick when it’s thoughtful. It’s one of the event promotion strategies for making your brand memorable. People may forget your booth layout, but they’ll remember how it felt to win something, laugh, or compete. That’s what sticks.
Your speakers already have what most event planners work hard to build: an audience that listens. But just because they said “yes” to helping promote the event doesn’t mean it’ll actually happen. They’re willing, but what exactly are they supposed to share?
That’s where shareable content packs come in. Skip the long explanations and give them something simple: a clean, ready-to-post kit. No digging through emails, no resizing images, no rewriting copy. Just polished assets, they can drop straight into their feed without a second thought.
What to include in a speaker promo pack:
When a speaker shares a clean, professional visual about their talk, it reflects well on them and extends your brand in the process.
And that’s the point where a team like TodayMade can lend a hand. We can design graphic elements like speaker banners, quote cards, and other things that match your brand’s style without slowing down your workflow. It’s a small lift that turns into a big signal across every speaker’s audience.
We’ve touched on private communities and referral networks earlier, but this strategy goes deeper. Not every attendee needs a long-term space to connect. But for the right people, creating a private circle after your event can lead to something more valuable than engagement: continuity.
This doesn’t mean launching another Slack workspace for the sake of it. All you can do is offer a focused space for the people who were already leaning in, the ones who asked smart questions, showed up early to every session, referred friends, or joined your pre-event Q&A.
These small circles become your future ambassadors. They show up again. They bring others. They’re the ones who post about the event long after it’s over.
Here’s what these groups can look like:
The goal here is to build a direct line to your most invested people and make it easy for them to stay involved without forcing it. And when those circles are designed with intention, they often become the most valuable outcome of the entire event.
Even the best strategy falls flat without the right event marketing tools behind it. From lead capture to content repurposing, every tactic in this guide becomes faster when you’ve got the right stack in place. Here’s a quick recap of the platforms we mentioned throughout (plus a few extra picks worth knowing), organized by what they help you do.
The truth is, most events don’t fail because of a bad idea. They fail because of rushed execution, unclear targeting, or a design that gets treated like decoration. When time is short and resources are stretched, it’s tempting to cut corners. But the brands winning in 2025 are the ones doing marketing with more focus.
We advise you to treat every event as a system, not a moment. The strongest results often come from small decisions: segmenting properly, repackaging what you already have, or making it easier for your partners to promote you. And with the right support in your corner (yes, we mean the TodayMade team), you can get there a whole lot faster.
The playbook’s here. Now it’s about turning strategy into action.
