Tina had booked the venue, hired the band, and created the flyers. She then posted the flyers on social media every day. However, three weeks before the event, with only 10% of tickets sold, she knew she was in trouble.
She couldn’t figure out what she had done wrong. It was Detty December, and we were ready to party across West Africa—from Freetown to Monrovia and Accra to Lagos. Parties started at night and continued into the morning. So why wasn’t Tina selling tickets? How had she missed the mark?
When events are successful, they can lead to significant profits, but without a digital marketing strategy, you’ll be staring at empty halls and seats.
This year, you can sell tickets to your concerts and conferences if you follow Vickie Remoe’s tried-and-true digital marketing tactics to create awareness, build excitement, and sell event tickets online and at the gate.
Digital Marketing Tips for Concerts, Festivals, and Entertainment Events
When Tina planned her event, she overestimated the utility of the event flyer. Sharing one or more event flyers online is not a strategy, and you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Vickie Remoe, the Director of Digital Marketing at VR&C Marketing and founder of Make Sierra Leone Famous LLC, has some critical advice for event planners.
“Think beyond the digital flyers!”
The flyer will only share information about your event—what is happening, where, when, who, etc. If you want people to attend the event, you must sell the experience.
Digital marketing offers all easy and effective ways to go beyond the flyer to reach audiences. Organizers can use a mix of content, copy, email, influencer, and social media marketing to boost event discovery and convert audiences to ticket buyers.
Identify Your Event’s Audience
“The best way to sell an experience is with great videos and photos. Don’t tell people what’s coming; show them! Use your multimedia content to seduce the audience and imagine themselves there,” Remoe said.
So knowing your audience—the type of person who would see your event and think this is precisely what I’ve been looking for is key. Six months before your event, you need to start thinking about how to get their attention.
Resist the urge to believe that “everyone” is your target audience; you’ll never be able to develop a strategy if “everyone” is your audience. Narrow it down. Are you targeting Africans in the diaspora? Young adults, who love to party? Whatever the case, define your audience clearly. Are they old? What digital platforms do they use the most? Who do they trust online?
Digital Marketing is Your Kingdom, and Content is Your King
Now, it’s time to gather your content. Ask yourself: What type of content will attract your target audience to your event? Your content can be directly related to the event or unrelated to it if it’s eye-catching and retains your audience’s attention long enough for you to connect with them.
If you’ve held the event before, use past footage highlighting the vibe. Videos and pictures capturing the raw emotions of attendees are powerful in swaying your audience. You can also gather content from past attendees to add to your archive.
If this is your first time hosting the event, look online for inspiration. Think about the types of content you have seen for similar events and create your own. As Remoe advises, “Surprise people a little, especially with reels and short videos. Think of something that will catch them off guard and make them love your content.”
Creative Announcements Reach More People
Once your content is ready, it’s time for the big announcement.
Plan strategically to make your announcement stand out online. Will you use influencers to make the announcement? Host a press conference? Have headline personalities attending your event shared the news? A creative launch strategy will make your event memorable. People will be more likely to remember your event and talk about it.
But remember, the announcement is just the beginning. You need to create content over the coming months to keep building interest. Avoid re-sharing the same poster repeatedly. Most people will not share something they have seen before.
Instead, think of fresh, engaging content to maintain excitement. Create humorous videos related to your event or even something slightly controversial, as people love drama! Another great tactic is influencer marketing.
Influencer Marketing is Essential for Event Promotion
Collaborating with influencers can amplify your reach. However, not all influencers are the right fit. “Before partnering with an influencer, you must assess whether they are the right fit for your brand,” Remoe advises.
Choose influencers whose audience matches your audience and work with them to promote your event authentically. They could hype up your event, share personal recommendations, or offer exclusive discount codes to their followers on your tickets.
Influencers bring credibility and trust to their audience. When their followers see them endorsing your event, it feels like a personal recommendation, which can be just the push they need to buy your ticket. If the influencer is going to be at an event, it’s an added benefit.
One promotional tool that is often underutilized is email marketing. If you don’t have an email list, export your contacts and use that as your list.
Aim to send at least 5 to 6 newsletters or promotional emails about your event. Use these to share exclusive updates and ticket sale deadlines or highlight key personalities involved in the event. If you want people to open your emails, ensure your subject line has an attention-grabbing hook.
Early Bird Sales Sell Tickets Faster

Early bird ticket sale promotion – we produced five different creative reels to highlight key countdown dates for early bird tickets to Drizilik’s concert at the Clapham Grand in Nov 2024
Regarding ticket sales, strategy discounts and the stress of a countdown clock are your friends. The early bird sale rewards people who purchase tickets early.
“Your early bird sale marketing should use captivating visuals, compelling copy, and attention-grabbing flyers that highlight the savings or the limited-time offer,” said Remoe.
Your early bird sale campaign must have milestone reminders. Announcing an early bird sale is not enough. You must let people know they’re running out of time to save on their tickets.
Adverts Complete a Winning Digital Campaign
“I’m always surprised when people don’t factor advertisements into their digital marketing strategy. Adverts guarantee that people will know about your event,” said Remoe.
The best kind of advert for events is one that gets your content to your target audience (a boosted post on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube). While pay-per-click ads will take the audience directly to your site, they can be very costly. Your advertising objective for your event is to turn your best content into boosted posts that link back to the ticketing platform.
Digital Marketing Tips for Conferences and Corporate Networking Events

Vickie Remoe sits in front of a backdrop ready to record video content to promote the 2024 Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference
Your digital marketing approach for conferences and corporate events ticket sales is the same as that for entertainment events, with one major caveat: Entertainment events sell a vibe, while professional events sell knowledge, platforms, and networking opportunities.
Promote Your Speakers
A great way to gain visibility for the conference is to create high-level feature profiles about speakers. Creating inspiring speaker profiles will increase engagement and reach. These profiles can be shared across various platforms, including social media, email, Whatsapp, and blogs, ensuring maximum visibility among your target audience. Once you’ve created the content, the next thing is to promote the speakers through your and their channels.
Let your speakers know that they have a role to play in the promotional success of the event. To make it easier for speakers to participate in content marketing, provide resources to help them. If you want them to record a video, send them a sample script and attach an example of a correct video or a sample. If any of your speakers have had past engagements, you can also repurpose those videos (crediting the source).
Media Coverage Builds Credibility
You can skip media coverage if your event has no sponsors and you never plan to do another. However, if you are trying to establish trust and plan to do other events, then document everything.
Your influencers can help you create “point of view” and “come with me” media content, but you also need to hire a videographer and photographer. Also, invite media houses by offering all access passes and co-branding opportunities.
On the day of the event, capture footage of everything: on-stage and off-stage. Highlight your audience’s personal style, mood, and reactions. The videos and photos should capture different angles, especially those that show the event was a success (seats filled, large crowds).
High-quality media will make pitching your event for post-event publicity coverage to news and blogs easier. If you did a great job documenting your event’s impact, it should make it easier to get sponsors.
Should you host again, your media archive will be a treasure trove of content that jump-starts your next digital marketing campaign. Media coverage can be costly, but it’s worth the investment.
No matter how great your event is, we will only have your word for it if there’s no media record.
Digital marketing is the Answer to Your Event Promotion
The final tip for a winning event promotion online campaign is to create your calendar early in planning. You’ll need a strategy that will take you from 90 days before your event to the two weeks after.
“People underestimate how much time they need to produce content, design materials, and copywriting; each is a key part of the campaign,” said Remoe.
“At VRC, we produce content for client concerts and conferences four to six months in advance. Preparation prevents panic and sets you up to launch a winning digital marketing strategy.”
In 2025, if you’re planning events and looking for guidance and leadership from a team of digital marketing experts, get in touch with VR&C Marketing. VRC is the digital marketing firm behind the two-time sold-out Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference, Drizilik live in London at the Clapham Grand, and Drizilik live in DC at Howard Theatre.