At 50 years old, email is looking good. Email marketing is the darling of B2B companies, with 59% saying it’s their most effective marketing channel, according to WIX. And half of consumers are swayed into making monthly purchases by snazzy emails. Despite being half its age, social media marketing doesn’t hold a candle to email marketing, which is three times more effective at securing a sale. So, let us say on behalf of email newsletters and Gen X everywhere, 50 is the new 30. Far from being dead, email marketing for NYC event planners is in its prime. And in this article, we’ll show you how to use email newsletters to increase event bookings and sales in 2025.
Develop a Lifecycle Email Marketing Strategy for NYC Event Planning
Your clients have different needs at different stages within your sales funnel. They may have found your website because your content helped them solve a problem or answer a question. To keep them engaged, the best event planner email newsletters must continuously anticipate their needs and interests. Consider the following lifecycle stages of your email marketing campaign.
- Awareness: They find you because your content answered a pressing question, such as, “What are the top new technologies for corporate events?” This is when they sign up for your email newsletter.
- Interest: At this stage, your marketing emails pull double duty by keeping their interest and establishing you as an NYC event planner extraordinaire. Your content should reflect a broad understanding and thought leadership for all things event planning.
- Consideration: The client is considering their future event planning needs. At this stage, you should send content that dives deep into their pain points.
- Go Time: They have an event in the works, and they’re actively looking for the best event planner for the job. Your marketing emails should establish you as the best choice, such as content that details how you solved a client’s event planning dilemma.
- Pulling the Trigger: An event planning contract is imminent, and your meeting went swimmingly well. A hyper-personalized email, perhaps with a small discount or other carrot, can seal the deal.
- Post-Event: Your email marketing strategy continues after the event with thank-you messages and satisfaction surveys.
- Reengagement & Advocacy: During this stage of the email marketing strategy, NYC event planners should continue to send targeted emails tailored to the client’s interests and needs. Additionally, send messages that ask for referrals or testimonials, or upsell them on another event.
Use a Lead Magnet
Visitors to your website are more likely to give up their email and other personal information if you offer something in return, otherwise known as a lead magnet. Try offering a free webinar, an event planning checklist, or a special report in exchange for the email and demographic information. The key to effective lead magnets is to provide free information that is valuable and can’t be found elsewhere.
Automate Your Email Marketing Campaign
Implementing a lifecycle email marketing strategy and sending your newsletter will be easier when you use email automation. Automated emails are predesigned messages that send automatically when triggered by a client action. The following are examples of automated emails and their triggers.
- A welcome email when a client signs up for your newsletter.
- A series of emails, spaced out and delivered in order, in response to a client signing up for your “free course.”
- Reminder emails about the webinar the client signed up to attend.
Use Dynamic Content in Your Email Marketing Messages
Dynamic content is a powerhouse in a NYC event planner’s marketing toolkit. With it, you can send email messages with graphics and content tailored to your recipient. One email template can have several interchangeable features.
For example, your corporate clients will see links and graphics related to corporate events, while wedding clients will see the same template with content tailored to them.
You can set any number of parameters when creating dynamic content. Create content for recipients in each of the five boroughs. Or send a countdown timer that updates when the recipient opens the email.
Segment Your Email Marketing List
The tips we’re sharing will work better if you segment your email list. When your recipients feel like you’re emailing directly to THEM, the message will resonate more. And segmenting refers to breaking your list down into several groups based on recipients’ characteristics. Segmenting your email list based on several recipient traits will help you create highly personalized newsletters that are more likely to be opened. According to WIX, segmented email newsletters are up to 7 times more effective than standard email campaigns.
Use A/B Testing (Tried ‘n True)
A/B testing is still the gold standard for honing in on the most effective email newsletter campaign. Your middle school science teacher is especially fond of A/B testing because it resembles the scientific method.
- Define your mail goals for your email marketing campaign. Do you want to increase click-through rates or webinar sign-ups?
- Develop a hypothesis. For example, a better subject line will result in a higher email open rate.
- Create two variations of the same email. Everything is the same except the single element you are testing, e.g., the email subject line.
- Track and analyze the results, and use what you learn to consistently create better email newsletters.
Keep Event Clients Coming Back With Email Newsletters
Email newsletters have aged well because they are quite possibly the perfect marketing tool. Recipients have a positive association with your email newsletter because they signed up to receive it. You can send your newsletter to thousands of willing recipients for a relatively low investment, resulting in an average email marketing ROI of $36 for every dollar spent. And with new-fangled tech like dynamic content and AI, email marketing is hotter than ever.
Learn more hot marketing tips at The Event Planner Expo, where you can sit in the front row as industry leaders share their expertise about the latest event trends. Buy your tickets today.
