Pre-event marketing gets your brand in front of customers before the big day arrives. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Singles' Day and Christmas are obvious examples: the brands that win them have usually been warming up their audience for weeks.
A good pre-event plan does three things. It builds awareness, it gets your audience ready to buy, and it gives you a chance to test channels and messages before the stakes are highest.
In this article, we cover three essential pre-event marketing tips and how gamification can support each of them:
- Lead generation
- Email marketing
- Building a community
1. Lead Generation
The smartest pre-event move is to build a strong list of people who are likely to buy, then keep them interested until the event starts.
The problem is that nobody visits a website hoping to fill in a sign-up form. So make it more interesting.
To convert well, lead generation has to give more than it takes. A gamified campaign gives people something back straight away, a prize, a discount or simply a fun moment, in return for their details. That's the principle of reciprocity: when people receive something, they want to return the favour.
Offer prizes your audience actually values, such as products, discounts, early access or merchandise, and invite people to play for a chance to win.
Use the game to learn more about your leads
Gamified lead generation is also a great way to enrich your data. A Product Finder or a Quiz can ask about preferences, sizes or interests while people play. You can then use those answers to send personalised offers when the event begins.
2. Email Marketing
Email is still one of the most effective channels for telling your audience about deals and news, and it's where your pre-event leads will hear from you most.
Lead nurturing begins the moment someone fills in your form. Prepare your drip campaigns and trigger-based emails in advance so nothing is left to the last minute:
- Nail the welcome email. It's your first chance to make an impression, so make it useful and on-brand.
- Build anticipation. Send a short series that keeps people curious about what's coming.
- Reward early sign-ups. Include offers that are only available to subscribers, so they have something special waiting when the day arrives.
- Personalise on the day. Use the data from your games to send each segment the most relevant deal.
You can also put gamification inside your emails. A link to a quiz or product match game turns a one-way newsletter into an active customer journey, and it tells you what to offer each person. With Scratcher's integrations, new sign-ups and answers flow straight into tools such as Klaviyo, HubSpot or Mailchimp.
3. Build a Community
Email keeps your subscribers informed, but on its own it's not enough. Social media is where you build buzz and get people talking about your event long before it happens.
The more active, personal and engaging your social channels are, the better. Social media is a great place to build trust and relationships, and an easy way to send followers to your gamified landing page.
Contests, quizzes and games that reward people for taking part or sharing give your audience a reason to engage, and they make it simple for new people to discover your brand. Read more about running gamified campaigns on social media.
Keep the Momentum Going
Pre-event marketing can broaden your audience, lift sales and create buzz around your event or product. But customers expect more than the occasional campaign. The brands that see the best results use interactive marketing all year round, not just in the run-up to Black Friday.
Looking for inspiration for the biggest shopping weekend of the year? Read our guide to Black Friday marketing, or try Scratcher free for 14 days and launch your first pre-event campaign today.
