The old kind of event marketing just doesn’t work anymore. Your event marketing strategy has to catch up to what’s possible. If you’re a great inbound marketer, or if you consider yourself one, then you’re into getting people to come to you (versus just interrupting them with your advertisement).

Sadly, a lot of what passes for event marketing strategy today is just the opposite of a great inbound marketing strategy. It doesn’t have to be that way though. The old-fashioned event marketing approaches can be updated to make them more inbound-focused. Making your event marketing strategy more inbound-oriented is the ideal way to move your event marketing strategy into the modern age.

Ways You Can Modernize Old-Fashioned Event Marketing Tactics

Sending Out Direct Mail: How do you get people to come to your event? What happened in the past was that prospective attendees would get mail at their office or home. Sometimes, people would even go door-to-door to promote their event, or they would stand out on street corners and pass out flyers to get people the word. Those strategies just won’t fly today. They are inefficient, wasteful, and annoying. Plus, they’re limited to your own immediate area.

There are cheaper, easier, and much more effective event marketing strategies that can bolster attendance.

Email marketing is good. If you have a list of subscribers, then you can promote your event to them (at least to the ones who live in the geographic area of your event). Be sure to personalize each message you send out. There are higher open rates, and people are a lot more likely to respond personally to your message (including by attending your event).

Keeping Event Info A Secret: It was once true that in order to get people to your event you had to promise them exclusive content that they couldn’t get unless they came to the event. Instead, you should share content ahead of the event. You don’t have to share content that is too juicy, but you should be pushing a lot of event content on your social media page for the event. This teaser content will get people excited about your event. Never before has there been such an easy way to connect with your audience on a consistent, relationship-building, and direct level. The power of social media marketing should be merged with the power of teaser content.

Spamming Your Audience: Event marketers in the past have spammed their email lists with incessant updates about their event. That just doesn’t work anymore. Even if your audience is on an opt-in email list, they will get tired of the incessant email updates, and they will eventually block your email address. Instead, use social media to post a lot of information about your event. It is a lot less invasive than excessive email sending. When you post a lot of event updates to your Facebook wall or your Twitter feed, people don’t mind as much.