People often assume that promoting an event comes with spending a large amount of money on advertising agencies or complicated software. However, with the right tools, you can create a healthy marketing workflow all on your own. From social media posts to landing pages to flyers, you can really do it all while remaining on a strict budget.
In today’s blog post, we’ll go over 5 budget-friendly online tools that can help to create event registrations, reach a wide audience, and keep attendees engaged. Let’s dive in.
Which Tools to Use to Effectively Promote Your Event?
1. PosterMyWall
Overview
PosterMyWall helps in centralizing all marketing-related tasks within one editor. It combines tools for visual content creation with features for social media publishing and audience management, allowing you to sit back and relax. It’s relatively beginner-friendly and doesn’t break your bank compared to other marketing tools. This all-in-one powerhouse comes in handy if you’re in-charge of creating full promotional campaigns.
Key Features
- Thousands of customizable templates
- AI-powered design tools
- Can create an event landing page
- Content planner
- Social media scheduler
- Video and subtitle editing
- Email campaigns
Pricing
- Free: $0/month
- Premium: $13/month or $109/year
- Premium Plus: $30/month or $319/year
Best For
- Conferences
- Workshops
- Festivals
- Fundraisers
- Corporate events
- Restaurant promotions
- Community events
2. EventBrite
Overview
Eventbrite focuses on managing the event itself, rather than covering its creative promotions. It provides efficient and quick tools to create event listings, sell tickets, collect more registrations, communicate with attendees, and manage check-ins along the way.
Key Features
- Publish unlimited free events (no fee)
- Ticket sales management
- Payment processing
- Custom registration forms
- Automated reminders
- Waitlists and check-ins
- Attendee marketing
If you’re looking to create promotional social media posts and flyers for your event, you’ll need a visual design platform as well as Eventbrite.
Pricing
- Free events: $0
- Paid events: 3.7% + $1.79 service fee per ticket
- 2.9% payment processing fee per order
- Premium: $69/month
Best For
- Conferences
- Workshops
- Networking events
- Seminars
- Ticketed performances
- Open-mic events
3. Buffer
Overview
Creating event content is important but only half the job. Social media scheduling is crucial to ensure that people actually see what you’re posting. If you’re an event organizer, Buffer can help in planning and scheduling social media content across multiple platforms. Manually publishing each post can be a tiresome chore, but with this tool, you can simply automate it.
Key Features
- Supports social channels (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads)
- Post scheduling
- AI-assistant
- Analytics
- Content ideas
- Community engagement tools
Pro tip: If you’re running an event campaign, you should have at least 2-3 posts in an event series. One singular announcement post won’t cut it. Instead, have an event launch post, speaker introductions, countdowns, and reminders as well.
Pricing
- Free: Connect up to 3 channels
- Essentials: Starting at $5/month per channel
- Team: Starting at $10/month per channel
Best For
- Organizers who already have promotional content
- Simple scheduling needs
- Social media management
4. Mailchimp
Overview
Email marketing is an effective way to stay in touch with people who have already expressed interest in your event. With Mailchimp, you can easily reach out to people through email marketing, manage audiences, automate emails, create landing pages, forms, analytics, and more.
Key Features
- Send event announcements, invitations, and registration reminders
- AI features for subject lines and campaign copies
- Predictive segmentation
- Send-time optimization
Pricing
- Free: $0/month for up to 250 contacts
- Essentials: Starting at $13/month
- Standard: Starting at $20/month
- Premium: Starting at $350/month
Best For
- Conferences
- Recurring workshops
- Newsletters
- Membership events
- Fundraisers
- Small community-based businesses
5. Canva
Overview
If you’re looking to create an event’s visual identity and a complete set of event graphics, Canva’s got you covered. This tool is a popular choice for designers that need to create promotional layouts without any professional graphic design skills. Its simple drag-and-drop editing interface allows users to create posters, invitations, social media posts, and more in no time.
Key Features
- Magic Studio for AI-powered tools
- Repurposing layouts into other formats
- AI writing
- AI image creation and editing
- AI resizing
Pricing
- Free: $0/month
- Canva Pro: $15/month for one person
- Canva Business: $20/person/month
- Canva Enterprise: Custom pricing
Best For
- Weddings
- Student events
- Parties
- Conferences
- Product launches
- Social media campaigns
7 Factors to Consider Before Investing in an Event Marketing Tool
Not all online platforms for event promotions are created equal. You need to prioritize your specific marketing goals to pick the best fit for your event. Here are some important factors to keep in mind:
1. Budget and Pricing Structure
Don’t stick to the advertised monthly price. Instead, go over all important features such as:
- AI credits
- Downloads
- Users
- Number of contacts
A free plan is good enough for a small event. However, if you’re running a larger campaign, a paid subscription might be a better option for you.
2. Decide Which Features You Actually Need
Before deciding which platform to use, create a list of essential tasks. Here are some examples of marketing-related tasks you might be prioritizing for your event:
- Flyer creation
- Social media scheduling
- Email marketing
- Event registration and landing pages
- Analytics
It’s important to pick a tool based on features you’ll actually use frequently. Unnecessary expenses can be avoided if you only pay for what you need on a regular basis.
3. Ease of Use
A powerful tool isn’t of much help if you need several hours of practice to get the hang of it. Therefore, look for features that make designing simpler and beginner-friendly. These include:
- Intuitive interface
- Customizable templates
- Variety of templates
- Drag-and-drop editing
- AI features
Before committing, use a free trial or plan to test out the features for yourself and gauge their difficulty level according to your skills.
4. Integration and Workflow
The tool you choose shouldn’t be working against you. Instead, it should neatly fit within your existing marketing process. A good way to look at it would be to find a platform that combines design, social media, email, and event promotion in one.
PosterMyWall Event Marketing tool is a good example of an online tool that juggles a little bit of everything from within the same editor. This way you can save time and costs from not having to switch between multiple services.
5. Scalability and Long-Term Value
Don’t just plan for an event-to-event basis. Think: If your audience, team, or number of events grow, will this tool still be able to meet your promotional requirements?
It’s important to check limits, users, contacts, storage, AI usage, registrations, and marketing campaigns to make sure that the platform of your choosing will be able to grow with you.
6. AI Quality and Capabilities
If you’re choosing to simplify your workflow with AI, look at what each tool can accomplish instead of picking an AI-powered platform based on the inclusion of AI alone. Consider:
- Design generation
- AI writing and copies
- Image generation
- Resizing and editing
- Automation of repetitive tasks
If you’re able to use AI on a free trial, make sure to test the quality of the outputs. Ideally, little to no editing should be required.
7. Customer Support and Reliability
It’s important to consider the type of support you’ll be getting in case something goes wrong. Look for customer service that is:
- Responsive
- Helpful
- Provides tutorials
- Has knowledge bases
- Reliable
If you’re working with ticketing and registrations or time-sensitive promotions, it’s even more important to stay in touch with a tool’s support team.
