It’s the morning of your on-sale and fans are excited to see your invitation waiting in their inboxes. 

After pouring a cup of coffee, they open it with bated breath. They laugh at a joke from last year’s event and are delighted by their personalized discount code. Within minutes, they’ve bought tickets, shared your event on social media, and inspired a few friends to attend, too. 

Welcome to the power of segmentation, the act of tailoring your emails to subgroups within your mailing list. Unlike mass blasting, which can lead to unsubscribes from disgruntled recipients, segmentation allows you to send relevant messages that inspire action and boost conversion.

Marketers can improve conversion by 355% and revenues by 781% by sending more targeted emails.

Jupiter Research Study

“A lot of people overlook segmentation because they think  it’s too complicated or intimidating,” says Mailchimp Senior Product Marketing Manager, Adrienne Joselow. “But it’s not. Segmentation is actually a simple concept that will take your event marketing strategy to the next level.”

In this guide, Mailchimp and Eventbrite have teamed up to show you how to use segmentation to send better event email invitations that resonate with your most important audiences. Read on to discover tips, templates, and more to help you get more from your email marketing.

Attendees are the lifeblood of your event, but that doesn’t mean email marketing isn’t just as important for your partner network, because it is. This group of sponsors, vendors, and talent all come together to offer your attendees unforgettable experiences and memories.

The talent/performers/vendors

Who performs or speaks at your event is almost as important to attendees as the event itself, so booking the right talent is extremely important to your success. Here’s how to use your email invitation as a way to open the door with talent and start building a relationship with them.

Send this message

The best talent and vendors have busy schedules. And because they are so good at what they do, they have plenty of events wanting them as a partner. It’s important to keep your initial invitation fairly short and to think of it as a vehicle for getting a first meeting.

Event sponsors

Standing out in a sponsor’s crowded inbox is no small feat, but it’s a must if you want to hook their attention and get them to consider sponsoring your event. Here’s how to craft an email invitation that breaks the ice and helps you establish a partnership for the long haul.

Send this message

Whether you know the person you’re emailing after having met them at a networking event or you’re making a cold introduction, it’s important to keep the first email short. Avoid overwhelming prospective sponsors with a sales pitch — save that for a later meeting.

How to automate segmentation

Segmentation can take up a lot of your team’s time, unless you use automation (which just means letting technology do repetitive tasks at scale for you). But don’t let the technical jargon scare you off, automation isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

If you’re an Eventbrite customer, it’s easy to automate your segmentation with Mailchimp Sync, a free extension that lets you seamlessly import attendees into your Mailchimp account. After adding the sync, you can create segments that let you send customized invitations with a click.

How to set up the Mailchimp integration

To get started with Mailchimp and Eventbrite, visit this page, then click the “Connect Now” button and follow the prompts to complete the setup and to start syncing your Eventbrite attendees and events into your Mailchimp audience.

Once connected, you’ll start seeing Eventbrite data in the Mailchimp contact profiles of people who’ve attended your events. You’ll also be able to create, save, and send to segments based on purchase activity or participation in Eventbrite events. 

Two ways to segment your lists in Mailchimp

• Purchase-based segments: Segment your audience by purchase activity to view contacts who purchased tickets to a particular event (and what type of ticket).
  

• Tag-based segments: Tags are the easiest way to organize your audience and label contacts based on information you have about them, such as venue, event name, etc.