Guide for planners
Email marketing for event planners
Updated
How should event planners use email marketing?
Build one list from past clients, people who inquired and the venues and vendors you work with, and split it by who they are. Set up three automatic emails (a fast inquiry reply, a proposal follow-up and a thank-you with a review request), then send one useful email a month. Measure replies and booked events, not opens.
This guide is about email that wins and keeps clients for a planning business. It is not about promoting an event to attendees. The people on your list are the ones who hire planners: corporate bookers, couples and hosts, and the venues and vendors who refer you.
Email suits planners because the sale is slow. A client may inquire in spring for an event in autumn, a corporate booker may need you once a year, and a venue coordinator may recommend you a dozen times if they remember you. Email keeps you in front of all three without chasing.
1. Build the list from people who already know you
Start with four groups: past clients, people who inquired and did not book, corporate contacts you have worked with, and the venue and vendor teams you see at events. Add everyone who fills in your inquiry form from now on, with a line on the form that says they will hear from you.
Do not buy a list. Bought addresses do not know you, they mark your email as spam, and that hurts delivery to the people who do want to hear from you.
2. Split the list by who they are
A corporate booker, a couple planning a wedding and a venue coordinator need different emails. Tag each contact with a type (corporate, social or wedding, partner) and, where you know it, the month of their event.
Three groups are enough to start. The point is that a venue coordinator never receives your wedding planning timeline and a corporate client never receives a note meant for vendors.
3. Set up three automatic emails first
The inquiry reply: sent within minutes of a form being filled in, it confirms you received the details, says when you will answer in person and links to a portfolio of that event type. A fast, specific reply often decides who gets the call. Our guide on how to get event planning leads covers the form itself.
The proposal follow-up: a short note a few days after a proposal goes out, offering a call and answering the question clients most often ask at that stage.
The thank-you: sent a day or two after the event, with a direct link to leave a Google review and a line asking who else they know who is planning something. Ask everyone, and never offer anything in exchange for a review.
4. Send one useful email a month
One email a month that is worth opening beats a weekly one that is not. Good subjects for a planner: a recap of a recent event with three photos and what made it work, a venue you have just worked in and what it suits, a date reminder (when to start planning a holiday party or a spring gala), or a short answer to a question clients keep asking.
Write it the way you would write to one client. One subject, a few short paragraphs, one link, one clear way to reply.
5. Time your emails to the booking calendar
Look at your own records: when did last year's holiday parties, galas and summer events first inquire? Send the reminder for each kind of event a few weeks before that month, to the group it applies to.
For annual events, set a reminder for each past client ahead of the month they booked last time. A note that says you are holding dates for the season is useful to them and costs you nothing.
6. Keep venues and vendors in the loop
Partners refer the planners they remember. Send your partner group a short note a few times a year: events you have coming up in their space, photos they can use with credit, and a thank-you when a referral books.
Credit them by name in your recaps. People forward and share an email that makes them look good.
7. Stay legal and stay out of spam
In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act requires commercial email to say honestly who it is from, include a physical postal address and carry a working way to unsubscribe that you honour promptly. Other countries ask for more, including consent before you send, so check the rules where your clients are.
Send from an address on your own domain, not a free webmail address, and follow your email tool's steps to verify that domain. Remove addresses that bounce and people who have not opened anything in a year.
8. Measure replies and bookings
Open rates are unreliable, because many mail apps load messages automatically. Count what matters to a planner: replies, calls booked, inquiries and signed events that started with an email.
Tag the links in your emails so your website analytics show which email sent each visitor, and note the source on every inquiry. Our post on tracking event leads explains the setup.
Email marketing checklist for planners
- One list holding past clients, inquiries, corporate contacts and partners
- A line on the inquiry form saying people will hear from you
- Each contact tagged corporate, social or wedding, or partner
- An automatic inquiry reply with a portfolio link
- A proposal follow-up a few days after sending
- A thank-you with a direct review link after every event
- One useful email a month, one subject each
- Seasonal reminders sent a few weeks before each booking window
- A note to venue and vendor partners a few times a year
- A postal address and a working unsubscribe in every email
- Sending from your own verified domain
- Replies, inquiries and booked events tracked back to email
Keep reading
How we do this for clients: Marketing for event planners.
Common questions
Yes, for staying in front of people between events. Planning is sold over months and repeat and referred clients are the most valuable ones, so a list of past clients, past inquiries and venue and vendor partners is worth more than a large list of strangers.
Once a month is a sound default, plus the automatic emails after an inquiry, a proposal and an event. Send more often only when you have something a client would thank you for, such as a booking reminder ahead of a busy season.
One subject per email: a recent event and what made it work, a venue and what it suits, when to start planning a kind of event, or the answer to a question clients keep asking. Add a few photos and one clear way to reply.
In the United States you may, provided the email says honestly who it is from, includes your postal address and lets them unsubscribe. Say on your inquiry form that people will hear from you, keep the emails useful, and check the rules for clients in other countries, where consent is often required first.
Replies, calls booked, inquiries and signed events that began with an email. Open rates are a weak signal because many mail apps open messages automatically.
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