A Comprehensive Guide to Event Marketing for Your Venue
Heather ApseNovember 6, 2023
Event marketing is such a key business driver for anyone in the event, private dining, and catering space. There is so much opportunity for increased bookings and revenue with the right promotion and advertising. There are countless ways to market depending on your business and your audience, and you may not have your venue marketing approach up to speed; we put this go-to guide together.
The purpose of this resource is to provide a rundown of event-specific marketing techniques for restaurants, hotels, unique venues, and catering businesses. This information will be helpful with building a marketing strategy and putting your plan in motion. You’ll be a better marketer and reap event revenue rewards!
Event marketing is how you can attract event planners to your property or your event services. It is the effort you make to gain more event leads and sales.
An eventmarketing strategy is a basic outline of your brand, who your desired audience is, how your venue appeals to them, what your goals are, and how you will achieve them.
An eventmarketing plan includes specific, actionable steps and a timeline to meet your strategy goals.
There are huge benefits to marketing your venue, whether you are a restaurant, hotel, unique venue, or catering business. By setting a strategy and implementing an event marketing plan, you can increase discoverability and brand awareness to boost your event bookings ultimately.
What Goals Should I Set for Event Marketing?
If you don’t have a marketing strategy yet for your venue or you are striving to improve yours, it is important to understand the goals of event marketing.
How Much Should I Budget for Event Marketing?
There is certainly no one-size-fits-all budget for event marketing. Venues are one of a kind, and there are so many factors to consider when deciding what to spend including your business goals, your operational costs, and your revenue. But think about event marketing as an investment. There are a range of options in marketing, some that cost little or nothing – beyond your time. If you do decide to budget funds towards paid marketing, many businesses spend about 13% of sales.
Event Marketing Tips for Venues
Establishing Your Overall Strategy
How to Define My Target Audience: Event Planners
Your marketing strategy is your basic gameplay in advertising your venue to gain sales. The following steps can get you started in developing your strategy.
The first step in creating an event marketing strategy and plan is identifying your target audience or target market. Your target audience is a smaller group of the general population whose business you hope to gain.
In the industry of event management, the target audience is event planners. They create and execute the details of various events including social events and corporate gatherings.
Event planners can be hired professionals who create events for an individual or a company. Alternatively, they can work independently as a for-hire event planner or as an employee of an event planning company. Lastly, event planners can be everyday people wanting to host events. Think of mom-of-the-bride planning her daughter’s wedding shower.
When developing your target audience, you also can dive deeper and define buyer personas, which are descriptions of who you think your most common customers are. You want to pinpoint common traits of the various groups of people that plan events using your venue. Personas can include things like demographic information, like location, and psychographic information, like what their goals are.
Pro-tip: Remember that your target audience consists of both your existing customers and new potential customers. Tripleseat’s powerful reports offer you a way to target your biggest accounts and contacts, ordered by number of bookings and revenues earned.
What Events Should I Market?
As you shape and build your marketing strategy and plan, you’ll want to continue to understand the various types of events that are in demand. What types of events will you market?
First, you can decide on various F&B formats of events including breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, cocktails and apps, food stations, and catered events. Next, event planners prepare gatherings and celebrations for both corporate and social events. These can range in size whether small scaled private dining all the way to grand conventions and functions.
We’ve listed various kinds of events below that you may opt to include in your marketing plan whether you do hotel events, restaurant private dining, catering, or a combination of these:
Pro-tip: Make sure you mention the types of events you specialize in on your event pages of your website and any directory pages in order to help with search engine optimization (SEO).
How Do I Do a Competitor Analysis?
As a venue, whether you are a hotel, restaurant, unique venue or caterer, it is wise to do an assessment of your competitors,both in servicesand sales tactics in order to strengthen your marketing efforts. When we say competitors, we mean other venues that event planners may choose over yours. You can both be inspired about your advantages as well as see any barriers.
Here’s what you need to do:
Identify competitors by searching on Google or event marketplaces like EventUp
Research business info like venue services, pricing, customer reviews, staffing models, partnerships, and promotions.
Rate competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
Identify your distinctive strengths and advantages.
How Do I Define My Value Proposition?
A value proposition (value prop) is a simple statement summarizing your value and why a customer would choose your venue. One of the most important decisions an event planner makes is where to hold their event. So when you decide on your value prop, understand the challenges that event planners have and how your venue will help to meet these challenges.
Here are some examples of venue features that could add value and be part of your value proposition:
Location
Capacity and minimums
Contract flexibility
Costs, packages, and upgrades
Insurance
Parking and accessibility
Services and amenities
Flexible floor plan layout and furniture
Menu options (unique menu items, upgrades, beverage pairings, hands-on experiences, chef demonstrations, etc.)
Outdoor options
Decor, ambiance, views, theme etc.
Experiential activities and entertainment options
Wifi/AV/music/lighting
Partnerships, vendors, etc.
Want to Watch a Podcast on Digital Marketing for Hospitality?
To hear about top marketing strategies you should concentrate on from a digital marketing expert, make sure to listen to Tripleseat’s Podcast Two Chicks Three Seats:
Understanding and Choosing Marketing Channels
There are many marketing channels to choose from. While social media remains a top channel, make sure you leverage a mix for optimal results.
Social media plays an important role in driving customers to your venue. The hospitality industry and its customers use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok the most, so that’s where your business needs to be. Facebook is the place for news, updates, videos, and photos — any business that shares a good mix of information about their venue plus interesting posts that will delight their customers will thrive there. Instagram is where you show your creative side with photos, graphics, and videos that tell the visual story of how you do what you do and give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your journey. LinkedIn is a top place to connect with event planners especially for corporate events. TikTok is all about short form videos which are perfect to show your decor, menu items, friendly staff, and features.
The content you share on any social media should be informative and entertaining without being too salesy. It’s easier than you think — all you have to do is consider how your post can provide value to the customer.
Pro-tip: Post at least once a day but don’t overwhelm people’s feeds. A great social post idea is to go live on Facebook or Instagram and interview an employee. Make sure you use hashtags and include your lead form in your social profile.
Content
When trying to boost your venue sales, you must make sure you are providing all the information your customers need to make the decision to book you. Content can be video, images, blog posts, customer reviews, or anything that will drive interest and keep people on your site. Make all content on your website and beyond simple to access and understand and in a friendly, consistent tone of voice. Customers expect an easily accessible, self-serve model. Create clear and engaging content throughout the customer journey including:
Customized lead forms for specific types of events specific to each marketing channel
Landing pages for menus, packages, FAQs, promotions, pricing, and more
Images, videos, or animated graphics (GIFs) that will grab the attention of prospective customers
Website and online profile updates (event directories, social media, etc.)
Quality photos and videos (menu items, tour of your event space, behind the scenes, and past events)
Emails that include succinct and valuable content – subject, email text, and CTAs
Ad copy that is well-written and click-worthy
Blog articles that are engaging to your audience
Use QR codes for in-person ways of pulling your audience to your marketing efforts
Pro-tip: Tripleseat’s venue marketplacedirectory, EventUp, is a great way to promote your event space and catering services. Now it’s even easier for prospects to find information and for your venue to spotlight your event space and amenities. Read more about how to get your listing up and running. Make your EventUp directory profile stand outby including high-resolution photos. Don’t forget to include a description of what your venue offers for private events, add your website link, and fill out all of the categories and amenities that your venue provides. Post links to your profile in emails and social media posts.
Email Marketing
When it comes to email marketing, it may be a relief to know that less is more. You don’t have to write a long email when promoting your events. The formula for a great email is simple:
Use images and videos, with alt text should they fail to load
Link to your lead form or private events page
Quality over quantity
Email is a very effective marketing tool to drive new or repeat event business to your venue. And it’s a primary way to reach customers. Tripleseat provides integrations with three email service providers: Constant Contact, Fishbowl, and MailChimp. Your Tripleseat contact list will sync with these tools, allowing you to market easily to your event customers. You can find details about those integrations and other marketing partners at tripleseat.com/marketplace.
Pro-tip: Log in to your Tripleseat account and take a look at who booked events with you in the past. Send an email that thanks them and remind them to contact your venue soon to plan this year’s event.
Paid Ads
There are many types of paid ads including search, display, and social. When leveraging the popular PPC (pay-per-click) and Google Ads, consider what’s important to party planners, both social and corporate. Make sure to bid on applicable keywords and include the word in your ad copy and on the landing page you are sending the visitor to. This tactic works really well for both social and corporate event planners.
Social media paid advertisements will provide you with a wider audience that you can then target. Social ads will build awareness and drive leads to your events, private dining, and catering. You can build social media campaigns based on target audiences, which is great for corporate planners, or use retargeting ads that are served to people who have already visited your website to re-engage a lost or inactive customer.
Pro-tip: Make sure you pay attention to paid ad reporting so that you can assess the relative interest by your audience. Set a daily spending max so that campaign costs don’t get out of control.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Optimizing your venue for organic and local search is an important tactic in venue marketing. By putting effort into this marketing channel, it will make it easier for your audience to discover your venue. Keep in mind you want to optimize for mobile experience.
First and foremost, make sure your website is optimized. You want your Google profile, called your Google Business Profile, to be accurate. Let people who are searching for you know what your venue offers. Use Google’s event listing posts to promote your offerings.
Pro-tip: Encourage your customers to post reviews in your Google Business Profile.
Printed Materials
Part of any great marketing plan in the event business is to include some printed and promotional things. If you are a restaurant, unique venue, or hotel, table tents or postcards are a tried and true way to get the word out about your events and private dining. If you are a caterer, send out a traditional mailer to loyal customers or businesses local to you. Think about a branded item you might send to some of your loyal customers and remind them about your amazing services.
Make sure you hang eye-catching posters up around your restaurant, hotel, or venue to let potential customers know about your event and private dining offerings. Place postcards promoting them in check holders and takeout order bags.
Pro-tip: With your promotional efforts, make sure you are directing customers to your lead form or TripleseatDirect to reservebook now. If a printed promotional item, use a QR code to get potential customers to book.
Networking
Networking is often a tactic used in the hospitality industry and accounts for a lot of success in marketing. Basically, you and your team use your existing network of connections and seek out new connections to share more on your brand with the objective of gaining new leads. Perhaps you connect with existing customers on Linkedin or share photos in your social media accounts. To find new connections, search for event planners on social media and event-focused groups. Some event planners are easier to find and target than others so you may need to target keywords in addition to title searches.
Pro-tip: Create your own networking event for event planners at your venue so you can showcase your space and event offerings.
Sponsorships
Sponsorships are simply partnerships between brands and can be mutually beneficial. Perhaps you support a local charity organization by providing cost-savings in booking an event with you and they in turn provide promotion of your venue to their network. These sponsorships can attract new customers and increase your reputation in the community and beyond.
Pro-tip: Find out about local organizations and charities to determine what might fit best with your brand. For sponsored events especially, make sure you use branding within your space and your staff’s attire.
Creating your Detailed Event Marketing Plan
Similar to your strategy, your marketing plan is much more specific and has a definite timeline. Here are the elements you should include in your marketing plan:
1. Set campaign objectives
2. Determine campaign duration
3. Choose channels
4. Identify your campaign budget
5. Utilize tech tools
6. Measure campaign results and ROI
How Do I Set Campaign Objectives?
Set clear objectives of what you are trying to accomplish with your marketing efforts. Different from a general goal, a campaign objective is specific, attainable, and measurable.
For example, a general marketing goal might be: Focus on loyalty. While a campaign objective might be: Increase repeat customer bookings rates by 10% in a year by developing a loyalty program.
How Do I Determine Campaign Duration?
Determine how long this campaign will be live. Typically, a campaign that is set out for branding runs for around three months. If you’re pushing a promotional campaign, then your campaign would run the length of that event.
How Do I Choose Channels?
Pick the marketing channels that you will use like social media, email, paid ads, printed campaigns, etc. You can choose free or paid channels, ones that are suited for the specific campaign and content, and a mix of many channels.
How Do I Set My Campaign Budget?
Figure out how much you want to spend for a specific campaign. Most social channels and PPC tools will provide an estimated audience for you to reach and the cost to reach them. That can help you base your budget cap.
How Do I Utilize Tech Tools?
To enhance your marketing efforts with the bonus of providing a great customer experience, using technology is required nowadays. We will begin with Tripleseat features that are sure to help you boost your event, private dining, and catering sales.
Tripleseat Lead Form
You can use the link to your lead form just about everywhere — put it on your website, emails, and social media posts. You can add a customized button that says “Book Now” right below your Facebook cover photo and link it to your lead form. Create different lead forms for various occasions, holidays, and themes, and one for each marketing channel to track which source sends you the most inquiries.
TripleseatDirect
If you are a TripleseatDirect user, utilize this feature to allow your customers to easily rbook their events or order catering with your venue online 24/7. This is a great way to increase your bookings if you leverage it by linking to it from other marketing tools.
Tech Partnerships
Tripleseat offers integrations with the most widely used hospitality software, email marketing tools, credit card processors, and more. Our partners and integrations give you the ability to operate seamlessly within Tripleseat to access your most-used daily tools without leaving our site. Check out Tripleseat Marketplace.
How Do I Measure Campaign Results?
Make sure to measure performance so you’ll be able to determine if a campaign is successful. KPIs, or key performance indicators, are how you can measure the performance (both successes and challenges) of your event marketing. For example, creating a lead form for each marketing campaign is an easy way to track how your marketing efforts are doing in Tripleseat reports.
Here are some KPIs to measure your venue marketing success:
Email marketing metrics:
Opens
Clicks
Form fills
Bounces for list maintenance
Unsubscribes
Conversions
List growth rate
Social statistics:
Follows
Likes
Comments
Shares
Clicks
Advertisement metrics:
Ad Impressions
Ad clicks
Cost per click
Click-through rate (CTR)
Conversions
Website Marketing Metrics:
Overall traffic (organic vs. paid)
Traffic by channel (Facebook, email, etc.)
Conversions
Bounce rate
Search trends
How Do I Calculate the ROI of Event Marketing Campaigns?
Because marketing is a long-term process where there are multiple factors that lead to growth, it is not always straightforward to measure the ROI. The ROI of any marketing campaign ultimately comes in the form of increased sales. Use this formula: Take your Sales Growth and subract your Marketing Cost. Take this number and divide by your Marketing Cost. For example, if your sales grew by $5000 and you attribute $1000 in marketing spend, your ROI is 400%
How to Use Marketing Tools to Boost Tripleseat Leads
Event Marketing Inspiration
One of our favorite ways to get started with marketing is with the fun stuff! Spend some time looking for creative, fun campaigns that inspire you. It’s ok to look outside the event industry. Think about your tone of voice (funny, sophisticated, trendy…) and ease into your campaigns and do some of these:
While marketing is a blend of art and science, there is no question that event marketing will pay off by providing more event leads, bookings, and sales. With some thoughtful planning, you can create an event marketing strategy and put a plan in motion for your hotel, restaurant, one-of-a-kind venue, or catering business. You’ll be on your way to discover what works best for your venue.
Learn How Tripleseat Can Help Your Events, Private Dining, and Catering
Are you ready to grow your event business? Schedule a Tripleseat demo to take a closer look at our event management features.
