Even with the accelerating digital environment, it’s hard to catch a glimpse in the hordes of inboxes, let alone events. Having viral emails will really turn the tables for your event and can help make your event much more popular and attendee friendly. Here we will go over the techniques and best practices of sending emails to get your recipients to read and forward your event to their networks.
Understanding Viral Emails and Its Purpose.
A viral email is an email message that spreads outside its intended audience and is spread through word-of-mouth, social media, and other methods of distribution. For event marketers, the entire idea behind viral emails is to create awareness about the event and encourage attendance through content and calls to action.
What Are The Key Ingredients of a Viral Email?
1. Compelling Subject Line
The subject line is like the front door of your email; it’s the one thing that decides whether your email is going to be read. Your subject line should be memorable, clear, and interesting. Use numbers, questions, or even humour to lure the reader. For example, an introductory subject line such as “5 Secrets to Boost Your Productivity” not only promises useful information but also creates interest. Either way, make sure that your subject line represents the email content in a way that establishes trust without breaking promises.
2. Engaging Content
When you have succeeded in attracting your email open, the next step is keeping the reader interested. The content must be engaging and comprehensible, and a conversational voice can go a long way in influencing the listener. Use interesting stories or relatable examples to entice readers. Giving out testimonials from past attendees, if you’re holding an event, can strengthen your brand and get people to sign up. You want the reader to care about whatever you’re describing, be it an event, a product, or important information.
3. High-Quality Visuals
You can make your email much more memorable and expressive by using good-quality images. Pictures or graphics related to your event or message will make the experience seem more exciting. An infographic with a key summary or major event highlights will deliver value at a glance, and short videos provide an engaging snapshot of what you’re selling. Photo elements not only support your email story but also make it shareable and potentially viral.
4. Strong Call to Action (CTA)
The Call to Action (CTA) is essential for any successful viral email. When someone registers for an event, downloads a resource, or sends the email to their friends, they need to know exactly what to do. The CTA needs to be clear and concise, and ideally action-oriented to create urgency. Text messages such as “Register Now,” “Join Us,” or “Share with Friends” will encourage users to immediately act and this in turn will spur them to share the content.
5. Social Sharing Options
You want to use easy-to-share social media sharing buttons on your email if you want it to be as viral as possible. It lets recipients easily distribute your event or message to their networks, further enhancing your influence even further. You can add these buttons to the top and bottom of your email to increase its visibility. With the speed with which your audience can quickly share content, not only is this better engagement, it also capitalizes on the use of social proof to pull in new users.
6. Personalization
Personalization pushes the audience to the edge. If you send emails based on names and other relevant personal information, you can have the impression that you’re writing an email for each recipient. Custom emails are known to generate higher open rates and can even drive more shares. It makes it seem personal and pertinent, making recipients feel appreciated and more likely to promote your content in their own networks.
Strategies for Creating Viral Emails
1. Leverage Urgency and Scarcity
Be as desperate as possible and limit your email content. Use limited-time discounts, early bird deals, or a countdown to the event. When people fear they may lose out, they tend to jump on the opportunity and offer it up to others.
2. Create Exclusive Content
Provide your email recipients with something special. These may include advance ticket sales, VIP merchandise, or behind-the-scenes videos. Recipients that sense that they are receiving something exclusive are more likely to forward the email to others to share the benefits.
3. Foster Community Engagement
Create a community around your event by using tools such as social media. Encourage participants to upload photos displaying their excitement using hashtags, and include user-generated posts in your emails. This not only draws the viewers into the picture but can also result in greater distribution.
4. Craft a Share-Worthy Story
Create a narrative that your audience will enjoy. Whether it’s your event story, a past event success or the story of the organizers, human interest tales will usually move people and inspire them to share.
5. Follow Up After the Event
So don’t shut it up when the party is over. Send a follow-up email to thank participants, describe highlights, and request their feedback. This helps preserve the relationship and allows for future engagement.
6. Analyze and Optimize
You can track email performance regularly by looking at open rates, click-throughs, and shares. What you will learn from the best parts of what resonates with your audience will allow you to continually adapt and tweak your email marketing approach.
Conclusion:
Viral emails for event marketing are both an art and a science. So think about what people would like to hear, make your content readable, use images, and promote sharing to bring as much exposure as possible to your event. Remember that successful marketing is all about relationships, so make your emails informative, educational and inspirational. With a little planning, you can turn your event into a community event that everyone will be talking about long after the event is over.
