In today’s ultra-competitive world a basic event website simply isn’t enough. Your online presence needs to be an orchestrated approach of information, engagement and conversion optimisation.

In this blog, we chat about why it’s important to have an engaging event marketing website and what key elements make up an appealing site.

Our in house event expert Mike Brown, who ran his own conference for 12 years, will share some of his own wisdom and essential event marketing website tips — to help you transform your site into a powerful catalyst for attendee registrations and ticket sales.

Why is it important to have an engaging event marketing site?

An event marketing site goes beyond being a canvas for painting the key details of your upcoming events. It’s a brand amplifier that needs to be highly engaging in order to convert site visitors into event attendees. It should provide you with a platform to begin telling your event’s story — to help foster an emotional connection and build anticipation.

Knowing your audience and what appeals to them

A crucial part of growing a successful event marketing website is knowing your target audience’s demographics, interests and online behaviour — to effectively appeal to them. You’ll want to optimise your messaging and visuals to resonate with your audience.

Knowing your audience and what they want isn’t just an option — it's essential for creating an engaging event marketing site that converts.

For a broader view on your marketing strategy, check out our article on how to create an effective event marketing plan.

What are the key elements of an engaging event marketing site?

To gain engagement and buy in from visitors to your site, you’ll need to use event website best practices like the following.

1. Create a strong first impression

Just like going out on a first date, the initial reaction visitors feel when landing on your event marketing site is critical. It’s the first major touchpoint they have with your event. An event website that doesn’t feel engaging and looks mundane may lead site visitors to assume the same about your event.

An event website that doesn’t feel engaging and looks mundane may lead site visitors to assume the same about your event.

Your event website is your first handshake with potential attendees

Put time into the big things like eye-catching visuals, clear and concise messaging, and calls-to-action (CTAs) that encourage visitors to learn more or take the next step.

Just as important are the little things, such as:

Avoiding placeholders or empty content gaps
Ensuring all your links work as they should
Checking there aren’t any spelling or grammar errors
Finding the right tone of voice to fit your brand.

By investing in building a strong first impression, you’ll open the door to successful events and potential long-term audience relationships.

2. Tell a compelling story

Unleash the power of storytelling — but only if you’ve got one. It’s not a smart idea to try and force a story if there isn’t one to tell.

People will want to attend your event due to the speakers and the programme you've put together — not so much because of who you are and where you’ve come from.

“If your story and journey is relevant, and gives you credibility in what you're doing with the event, definitely highlight it.“

Mike — former Webstock organiser & Lil Regie Co-founder

Always consider storytelling with each event you plan to host. Rather than just telling site visitors about the event, show them why it’s worth attending. Your event landing page design can help create a compelling story by featuring:

Appealing visuals
Engaging videos
Authentic testimonials.

If you can capture your audience’s attention, you’ll quickly turn them into attendees — and possibly even advocates.

Example of storytelling in speakers description.png 1.09 MB

3. Make your site easy to navigate

Like any web page worth visiting, your event marketing site should be easy to use and navigate. The website user experience has to guide guests to find the information they need fast and without fuss.

The four key pieces of information people want to know about your event are:

The full programme — including the titles of talks, blurbs about each talk, detailed info on the talks and the date (which is often missing)
The speakers — bios outlining who’ll be talking, about what topics and for how long
The price — clearly stating how much the event will cost and when early bird tickets will finish
Where and how to register — ensuring your registration CTAs are prominent.

Make it simple to navigate your event marketing website and to find this vital information. You might also want pages on sponsors, the venue, childcare options and a code of conduct.

Save space in your footer for information of lesser importance such as about us, privacy and contact. Site visitors will find them when they need to.

4. Design a unique website

Visual content is a powerful way to engage visitors and communicate your message — and it all begins with your website’s unique design.

If you have the budget, create a distinctive design for your site that will capture the attention of your target audience. If your budget doesn’t allow for this, aim to keep your website design clean, simple and tidy.

Utilise high quality images and videos that are relevant to your event and will capture the attention of your target audience. Ideally, use visual content from your own events as this helps to show that:

You care about your events
Your mindset, as an organiser, is about creating great experiences for your attendees.

Website visuals go a long way towards heightening expectations about how great your upcoming events are going to be.

Optimising your site for search engines (SEO) will help get your event noticed at the top of Google’s rankings. Make sure to include keywords and content that potential attendees may be searching for in Google.

“Try to avoid using stock images. If you don’t have high quality images, plan to use as few as possible.“

Mike — former Webstock organiser & Lil Regie Co-founder

5. Showcase your event experience

Words and images alone won’t create that fear of missing out (FOMO) with your potential attendees anymore. These days, you need to paint a vivid experience of what your event will be like. You can achieve this by:

Giving potential attendees a taste of the atmosphere at the venue
Sharing the bios and achievements of your presenters — ensuring they come across as relatable and interesting to your target audience
Featuring the testimonials of people who attended your previous events — or if this is your first event, try to source testimonials from those you’ve worked with on the same topic
Showcasing some highlights of previous events — by sharing videos to get attendees talking with their peers about how much they enjoyed it
Compiling a bunch of high-quality photography from your past events — either on your site, via platforms like Instagram or Pinterest, or by linking to a selection in your business’s Flickr account.

Webstock's Flickr page showcasing the conference experience

“Past attendees can often be your best salespeople. With Webstock, we used to post all our videos of all our event talks on our website. People who attended an event could relive a talk they really liked, even sharing it with friends or work colleagues — essentially creating free event marketing.“

Mike — former Webstock organiser & Lil Regie Co-founder

Webstock website sharing videos of previous presentations

6. Optimise your site for mobile devices

Creating a mobile-friendly event website seems like an obvious and necessary step to take. It is absolutely crucial because:

More than 60 percent of web traffic comes from mobile devices like phones and tablets
Capturing spontaneous event registration decisions can happen while people are on the move — like on public transport, in-between work tasks or at lunch
Engagement and convenience are linked — your seamless mobile experience will show that you care about the available time of potential attendees.

By prioritising a mobile-centric approach, you’ll be able to connect with your audience on their terms and gain their interest at any moment.

7. Promote your event on social media

Social media is a dynamic and interconnected environment that you can utilise to generate excitement and drive traffic to your event website content.

By harnessing the power of social, you’ll gain:

A wider reach — across a diverse audience of thousands
Interactions — with potential attendees’ sharing, liking and commenting on your event and posts
Fast word of mouth — social platforms are designed to easily share information, increasing the visibility of your event and attracting a broader audience
Dynamic engagement — through giving updates and making announcements in real time, all helping to build anticipation towards your event.

Compared to traditional advertising channels, promoting events through social channels can be more cost effective. You can also post relatively frequently and use playful language if it fits your brand.

8. Use email marketing to stay in touch with potential attendees

Email marketing is a form of direct communication with those people who are thinking about coming to your event. It allows you to personally reach out to individuals — and will feel like a one-to-one connection if your email is worded right.

“The most effective marketing we had — aside from word of mouth — was an email list we’d built up even before our first event. Treat these contacts like gold — they’re your audience and they’re people who will want to attend. And if you have an email list, you should also have a subscribe button on your website. People who can expressly opt-in may be more likely to stay.“

Mike — former Webstock organiser & Lil Regie Co-founder

Email marketing is an efficient way to keep your potential attendees informed and to:

Create a sense of anticipation leading up to your event
Signal the end of early bird pricing
Announce your speakers and any event updates
Launch the event.

Beware of sending out too many emails. This can feel like spam — or worse, your emails end up in your potential attendees’ spam folders.

Communicate relevant and useful information about guest speakers, rather than just talking about your event and your business.

If your event has sponsors, you may need to mention them in your marketing email. Take a respectful and low key approach — and never share your email mailing list with your sponsors.

Find out how to create an effective event marketing plan.

Both social media and email marketing offer automation. This lets you set up automated campaigns based on specific actions — so that potential attendees receive information that’s both relevant and timely to them.

9. Incentives and special offers

Early bird prices are one of the most persuasive incentives you can offer visitors to your event marketing website. An early bird price is a discounted or special offer for people who register or buy tickets to your event by a deadline date.

Ensure you prominently display any early bird prices, accompanied by a clear and concise CTA — to help site visitors purchase tickets and register with ease.

Limit the number of early bird tickets to your event to create a sense of scarcity and urgency — so visitors may assume demand is greater than supply.

Be careful about offering bulk discounts. Instead of displaying group discount offers on your website, consider asking interested parties to contact you directly. This way, you’ll have some flexibility with what you can offer them.

Alternatively, you may not mention a group discount option at all — dealing with any queries on a case-by-case basis.

10. Seamless ticketing process

The key with your ticketing process is to make it easy. Ensure you have a reliable and secure event ticketing system, and aim to streamline the registration and purchase process.

To help get the event conversions you want, aim to:

Ask minimal questions — gathering the least amount of information possible while covering your needs as the event organiser.
Keep your registration process to a few simple steps
Communicate clearly — confirming all successful registrations via email
Show simple, clear error messages — if a field is filled out incorrectly on your registration form.

Also, be sure to provide multiple secure payment options for your ticketed events.

Learn about the best practices for a smooth registration process and the pros and cons of using event registration software.

“Make it easy for someone to register. Let me repeat — make it easy for someone to register! If people are ready to sign up for your event, and are ready to give you money to do so, let as few things stand in their way as possible.“

Mike — former Webstock organiser & Lil Regie Co-founder

Conclusion

Remember that first impressions matter — and an engaging event marketing website will immediately stand out. However, to be successful you’ll need to build a unique mobile-first site that’s easy to navigate, and put an easy registration and ticketing process in place.

Incentives and offers can help, though ultimately, promoting the event on your website, social and email channels — perhaps even with a compelling story — will convert prospective attendees.

Lil Regie Team

Our passionate and experienced team loves to share insights on how to set up and execute exceptional events.