How to Sell More Event Tickets with Email Marketing
I recently started a second business that is on the other end of the spectrum from Egg: it’s a creative workshop business. Each month, you can find me hosting a succulent arrangement event at my favorite bar or guiding an intimate group of folks in a
Luckily, I know a thing or two about marketing, so I’m using my knowledge to get people to sign up for my workshops.
I’ll be honest: while I know the value of email marketing, I’ve gotten away from using it for Egg. I don’t sell products, so there are better avenues for me to find business (like guest blogging).
But now that I’m also running Creating Space in Kensington (my new biz), I’m finding
A Tiny But Engaged Audience Beats Thousands of Subscribers
There’s a lot of messaging out there encouraging you to grow, grow, grow your list. And yes, in theory, I agree with that. The more people on your list, the more will convert to a sale.
However…
I have a tiny subscriber list three months in. Like: 55 people tiny. But I get mad crazy open rates. You know why? Because I’ve interacted with 80% of the people on my list in person. They’ve been to my classes. Most of them live within a few blocks of me. They know me. There’s that personal touch that you just can’t have when you have thousands of subscribers.
Of course, my list will grow. I want it to. But for now, I have more control over the message because I can see which emails are getting the highest open rates (the announcement about upcoming workshops was a hit) and tweak future campaigns accordingly.
If There’s Value, You Can Email More
With B2B email marketing, I always recommend just one or two a month: a newsletter and then a promotion or special offer. But when you’re hosting multiple events a month, how can you inform people without bombarding them?
I plan to send one email a month announcing all classes, then send a followup for each class closer to the date with a special offer if I haven’t sold out the class.
Segmenting is great for this, too. Once I have people booked for a class, I can send just them emails about the event or offer them a discount on future classes if they bring a friend to this one.
It’s less about how frequent you email and more about the value you deliver.
Don’t Make it Your Only Channel
In addition to email marketing, I’m also heavily using Facebook, Instagram, Meetup, and my local NextDoor social site. There’s some overlap in my audience on social and via email, but I find that people tend to need the reminder on multiple channels about an upcoming event.
I do try to diversify what I send on each channel so there’s not redundancy.
I’m a beginner all over again with email marketing for this business, but I’m finding it interesting to see how different my strategy (and results) are from what I’ve done for Egg in the past.
