They say you’ve only got one chance to make a great first impression, right? Well, the same rule applies to event announcements.
When you’re organizing a new event, you need to get other people as excited as you are — otherwise, your event may get lost in the sea of competition.
So how do you create an event announcement that’ll stop people in their tracks?
At Eventbrite, we’ve helped event creators get noticed for over 15 years. We want to share with you what we’ve learned about designing an irresistible event announcement. We’ll cover the importance of event announcements and provide our best tips on creating exciting announcements for email, social, and video.
Table of Contents
What is an event announcement, and why is it important?
Exciting announcement examples for inspiration
What is an event announcement, and why is it important?
An event announcement is when you publicly share the details of your upcoming event. Event announcements unveil excitement and generate interest among potential ticket holders.
There are a few types of announcements, including emailing an existing subscriber list, social media posts to your followers, a video announcement across your online platforms, radio ads, brochures, signage, or even a new landing page on your website.
Regardless of the medium you choose, your event announcement should include all the basic information about your event, such as:
- Event name
- Date and time
- Location
- Contact information (an email address, your website, etc.)
- Performers or speakers who will attend
- Event type (conference, workshop, etc.)
- A call to action (CTA)
If you’ve already partnered with a ticketing platform like Eventbrite, a typical call to action would be “buy tickets.” But if tickets aren’t on sale yet, your CTA might be to encourage social media followers to keep checking back on your page for further event details.
Why is an event announcement important?
An event announcement is your chance to grab your target audience’s attention and shine a spotlight on your upcoming event! Announcements get people talking about (and even planning for) your event, create awareness before tickets are available, expand your reach, and promote your upcoming event to a wide audience.
How to announce an event
To make an excellent first impression and showcase your next big event, you’ve got to put some thought into how you announce your event to the world.
That means creating content tailored to your target audience.
You also need to consider where your potential attendees are most likely to see your announcement by researching what platforms they’re most active on — and using a format that works well for that channel and resonates with your audience.
To craft a successful event announcement, let’s dive into a few different types of event announcements and how to wield them to build some excitement.
Email announcements
Emails allow you to leverage an event attendee or subscriber list, which means you’ve already got a platform with leads who have already expressed an interest in your events.
But you know how quickly email inboxes collect spam. In fact, 63% of all marketing emails are about new event promotions or building product awareness.
Using email marketing tools like Mailchimp can be a cost-effective and simple way to cut through the noise. They offer a basic but effective drag-and-drop structure that makes it easy to create professional-looking email announcements in minutes.
But how can you make sure people open and read your event announcement email?
- An attention-grabbing email subject line: Make it concise and personal and use strong verbs and active language. Depending on who you’re talking to, you might even want to sprinkle in an emoji or two to catch their eye.
- Engaging email content: Once you’ve captured their interest, your email should include clear, relevant, and interesting content. As well as including registration details, highlight the best parts of your event and why they can’t be the ones to miss it.
- A call to action (CTA): That means a bold CTA button that’s eye-catching and prompts them to take the next step.
Streamline the process with Eventbrite, and connect your ticketing page with your Mailchimp account to send incredible emails that’ll stop serial scrollers in their tracks and take them straight to your payment page.
To understand the sheer power of email for event announcements, take a look at event creator ORLOVE. At the end of the pandemic, ORLOVE used Eventbrite’s Marketing Tools to announce their upcoming boat party. According to owner Matt Orlove, that email announcement generated a 30% open rate, and the event sold out within an hour.
💡 Pro tip: Maximize your chances of selling out your event by sending your email announcement on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Marketers say they get the best engagement rates on these days.
Social media announcements
By utilizing social channels, you have a higher chance of getting your announcement in front of more eyes. That’s because people share social media posts — and so your followers can effortlessly reshare your event announcements with just a tap.
Social media event announcements are also cost-effective and can help with brand awareness.
There are a range of social media platforms to choose from depending on where your audience hangs out and the content type you want to include. There are visually-led platforms like Instagram, video-powered channels like TikTok and Twitch, text-driven platforms like LinkedIn, and all-rounders like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
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So how do you create killer content that aligns with the platform you’ve chosen?
Your winning post should start with a strong visual to catch your followers’ eyes. Facebook research indicates you may only have a quarter of a second to get a user’s attention before they continue scrolling.
Use branded graphics, videos, reels, or images from previous events to create fear of missing out (FOMO). Keep it concise, use a clear CTA, and link directly to your event page.
If you need help formulating great social media announcements, Eventbrite Marketing Tools enables you to build, test, and schedule targeted campaigns to optimize your social media event announcements. You can even utilize AI to generate content ideas for your posts.
Want to take your social media announcement to the next level?
Integrate a social media contest or ticket giveaway to boost engagement. Or increase your following by collaborating with social media influencers to leverage their authority and follower count.
To see social media announcements done the right way, check out event creator Freq Group. By utilizing Eventbrite’s Marketing Tools for their social media marketing activity, Freq Group optimized content through audience targeting on Facebook and Spotify to generate a 24.1x return on ad spend.
💡 Pro tip: Not sure which post to lead with when announcing your upcoming event? Try both. Use A/B testing to sample messages in the beta stage and see which gets the most clicks.
Video announcements
When it comes to social, video is king. Surveys show 89% of users say they’ve bought a product after watching an online video — and 91% of customers want to see more videos from the brands they love.
Video announcements capture scrollers’ attention and stop them from whizzing past (if the thumbnail is exciting enough). They’re also easily shareable, embeddable (which means you can use them on multiple platforms), and concise.
To make your video announcement pop, make the video short and sweet. Just like a text-driven announcement, your video should provide viewers with all the key event details quickly.
In terms of styling, users want to see unpolished marketing videos. That means using lo-fi and mobile-shot video because it’s “more human” and relatable. For example, you could film your event team setting up the venue, scenes from previous events, or speak directly to the camera and announce your event.
YouTube lends itself really well to this, but if you want to make a shorter and snappier video announcement, try reels on Instagram or TikTok. You could even livestream an announcement on Twitch or Snapchat.
Need inspiration?
Check out Eventbrite creator Gold Beams Events and the amazing video trailers they use to promote and drive excitement around their upcoming events.
For example, their announcement trailer for an upcoming panel discussion perfectly teased users by giving them a taste of what to expect — enticing them to snag tickets and experience the full discussion first-hand.
💡 Pro tip: Repost and repurpose your video announcements across multiple platforms. Once you’ve finished your video announcement, you can use Evenbrite’s Marketing Platform to repost it, or post it separately on YouTube, Facebook, and X — and then condense it into a shorter version for platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
You can even embed your videos on your Eventbrite event page to give users a taste of what’s in store if they end up buying tickets.
Exciting announcement examples for inspiration
Now that we’ve covered the platforms you can use to announce new active events to your target market, let’s take a look at how event announcements are done the right way.
Here are a few examples of real Eventbrite creators and how they used event announcements to raise awareness and sell tickets to their community events, amazing parties, and unique experiences.
1. Bollywood Dreams
For best practices in social media event announcements, look no further than Bollywood Dreams. Their regular Bollywood dance parties and workshops are always a hit — and they’re incredibly proactive on social when it comes to signposting followers to new events.
They also do a great job creating short, fun videos that give users all the essential details without seeming too text-heavy or long.
2. SEED Food and Wine Festival
The Miami-based SEED Food and Wine Festival makes fantastic event announcements for its festival and its satellite events — and one of the reasons they shine is by utilizing collaboration.
By teaming up with social media influencers and tagging event participants, they’re able to make sure their video reel announcements gain more exposure and leverage the authority of big industry names.
3. Tampa Bay Wine and Food Festival
If you want to see video announcements executed perfectly, check out Eventbrite creator Tampa Bay Wine and Food Festival.
Their 2023 event trailer was trendy and cool and took advantage of short and tantalizing food shots to build a sense of excitement and FOMO around their upcoming festival.
Just admit it: This video makes you hungry.
Start creating your event announcement today
The right announcement can often mean the difference between a successful event and an empty venue. Introducing your next event By right, we mean understanding your audience, announcing through different channels, and offering engaging, fun, and “human” content.
It also helps if you partner with the right platform. That’s where Eventbrite comes in. By taking advantage of our suite of marketing tools, you can optimize your social media posts and email announcements so your event announcements are loud and proud and capture as many leads as humanly possible.
