The Event Marketing Manager arguably has one of the most important jobs in events – it’s down to them to build awareness, drive interest and ultimately put “bums on seats” by helping sell tickets.

Without an effective event marketing strategy – and someone to oversee its implementation – an event stands a slim chance of success. But if you’re launching your own event you might find yourself in this role with no prior experience.

Here are the qualities you’ll need to create and execute an innovative marketing plan and sell out your event.

1. An eye for design

Marketing is not just about sales tactics; it’s about creating a brand, a vision and a lifestyle – something that people want to buy into. Part of that is an event’s visual identity, so the Event Marketing Manager must conceptualise the right look and feel to appeal to the event’s demographic.

You’ll need to create design guidelines for your designer and work with them to hone marketing materials such as your event website, flyers, brochures and advertising artwork.

Related: The top 10 trends in event branding

2. A Head for figures

As Event Marketing Manager, you’ll be in charge of managing the marketing budget. You’ll have to figure out what paid advertising is likely to bring in the best results and how much you can afford.

You’ll need to monitor that spend and constantly review the effectiveness of your campaigns. Having an analytical brain will help as you use reports, data and marketing metrics to analyse the impact of your marketing activities on ticket sales.

Related: Use marketing analytics and Eventbrite reports to improve your event ROI

3. A “geeky” side

Since marketing has gone largely digital, event marketers have had to embrace new technologies to reach their audience. To compete online you’ll have to have an understanding of advertising tactics like Google AdWords, pay-per-click and affiliate marketing.

You’ll also need to stay up-to-date with the latest search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies, ensuring your website and content has good organic visibility. Keeping your finger on the pulse of new tech tools and trends to assist with things like marketing automation will also make you more effective at your job.

Related: A Practical Guide to Online Marketing and Advertising for Event Managers

4. A love of all things social

Social media plays a massive role in the promotion of live events, enabling you to connect and engage with potential attendees and build living, breathing communities around your events.

You’ll need to not only be passionate about your event, you’ll need to love getting online and talking about it and be highly driven to create innovative content across different platforms and mediums.

The Event Marketing Manager must have a deep understanding of the target demographic; what interests them, where to reach them and how to get them to engage.

Related: How to find your audience online

5. Endless creativity

Ideas, ideas, ideas! To keep your marketing fresh you’ll need to continually come up with new initiatives.

Event Marketing Managers use their creativity to devise highly shareable social content, eye-catching advertising, headline grabbing press stunts, irresistible promotions and offers, and lucrative partnership opportunities.

But it’s not all about originality – if a savvy event marketer sees something that works well in another industry, they’re not shy to pinch it for themselves!

Related: 10 Ways to unleash your team’s creativity 

6. A way with words

The writing of marketing copy also falls within the realm of the Event Marketing Manager, so you’ll need to be comfortable with the written word.

Your talents will be called upon for writing website and landing page copy, snappy ads, marketing emails, brochures and press releases.

As well as an understanding of what makes for interesting copy, your spelling and grammar must be up to scratch too! Event Marketing Managers working with professional copywriters must have the ability to brief and manage these resources.

Related: The ultimate guide to copywriting for events

7. A big contacts book

A great Event Marketing Manager has extensive contacts and is a natural networker. You’ll need to be on first name terms with the most important media contacts in your industry, and be confident pitching them with story ideas.

You should also be adept at building relationships with corporate, association and industry partners, and always on the lookout for potential sponsors.

Related: A guide to networking using LinkedIn groups

8. Be über-organised

Creativity and organisation don’t always go hand in hand, but the Event Marketing Manager must be both freethinking and highly methodical.

You’ll need to keep on top of campaign dates, ad booking, project reviews, meeting planning and database building. Implementing the use of customer relationship management system (CRM) to keep detailed records of all your attendees is also important for future marketing efforts.

Related: 7 Great CRM tools to keep your event data clean and useful

9. A team mindset

An Event Marketing Manager usually works as part of a marketing team and, on a wider scale, alongside sales reps, production and operations teams.

Working in close partnership with everyone involved in the event is vital, so being a team player is a key quality.

But team dynamics don’t just apply to big in-house teams – any freelancers or suppliers contracted for your event are also part of your team. You’ll need to be able to work closely with them to make the most of their strengths.

Related: 12 Internal communication tools to keep your team in sync

10. Leadership abilities

As well as being fantastic team players, effective Event Marketing Managers need to be confident leaders.

You may have line management responsibility for other junior members of the marketing team and you’ll need to oversee their training and performance reviews.

Even with no direct reports, you’ll need to be able to give clear instruction to freelancers and suppliers, to delegate tasks, and express a clear vision for the future of your event.

Related: How to be a great leader

Conclusion

Highly effective Event Marketing Managers possess a plethora of skills, but perhaps the most important trait of all is passion!

If you have this, it will keep you inspired and motivated as you seek to spread the word of your event, grow your following and your ticket sales.