Why Your Social Posts Aren't Filling Your Events (And What Actually Will)

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In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, host Kendra Corman dives into a common challenge many businesses face—getting people to actually register for events. From galas to webinars, it’s easy to assume that a few social posts will do the trick. But as Kendra reveals, likes don’t equal registrations, and engagement doesn’t always lead to action.

She shares a real-life client story that sparked this conversation—one where a business expected 150 signups but only had three, just two weeks before the event. Through this story, Kendra breaks down what went wrong and how to fix it.

The Problem with Relying on Social Media

• Why social engagement doesn’t translate to registrations
• How algorithms limit visibility even when people “love” your brand
• The danger of assuming that posting equals inviting

The Power of Direct Communication

• Why email marketing still delivers the highest ROI
• The unmatched impact of showing up in someone’s inbox
• How physical invitations can cut through the noise of the digital world
• Why you own your email list, but not your social audience

Creating an Effective Event Promotion Strategy

• How to balance social, email, and direct mail for maximum impact
• The importance of storytelling and multiple touchpoints
• Why you should think of event promotion as relationship building, not just announcement making
• How to plan and audit your 2026 event communications strategy

Key Takeaways for Marketers

• Stop treating social media as your main event driver—it’s a support channel
• Use email to reach your audience where they actually take action
• Craft a holistic plan that combines storytelling, repetition, and relevance

Whether you’re planning your next gala, golf outing, or webinar, this episode is a wake-up call to rethink your promotional approach.
 Are you ready to turn your next event from under-attended to unforgettable?
 Tune in to learn how to create a strategy that connects—and converts. 

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:27):
Hi, I'm Kendrick Corman.
If you're a coach, consultant,or marketer, you know marketing
is far from a perfect science.
And that's why this show iscalled Imperfect Marketing.
Join me and my guests as weexplore how to grow your
business with marketing tipsand, of course, lessons learned
along the way.

(00:52):
Hello and welcome back toanother episode of Imperfect
Marketing.
I'm your host, Kendra Corman,and today we're going to be
talking about a doozy, and thatis events and event
registrations.
I had a client call me freakingout because they had not
registered enough people fortheir event, right?
So I said to them, I said, well,what are you, what are you

(01:15):
doing?
And they said, Well, we postedit on social, we created a
Facebook event and we put it onour website.
Like, all right, well, did yousend out any emails about it?
Did you send out any physicalinvitations?
And their answer was no.
And they had like three peopleregistered and wanted like 150.
And we were two weeks out.

(01:36):
Granted, most of the invitationor most of the registrations
come in the last two weeks, butyou usually don't go from three
to 150 in the last two weeks.
So the problem is that there's adisconnect between likes and
engagement to registrations.
And you have to reach people ona more personal and direct

(01:57):
level.
And that's going to be email anddirect mail.
So when you're hearing or whenyou're saying we're posting on
social and that is our eventstrategy, that's not ideal,
right?
That might get a little bit ofvisibility.
That might get you some reach.
That might get you a couple ofadditional people, maybe.

(02:18):
But what you want it to do issupport the other communication
methods that you're doing.
What you have to think about iswhen it comes to email, people
are signing up for your emails,right?
It's permission based.
So they gave you permission tobe in their inbox.
A lot of people who are Gen Xlike me, we manage our lives out

(02:39):
of our inbox, right?
That's what's going to have meregister.
That's going to have me put iton my calendar so that I'll be
there.
I don't manage it off of myTikTok that I'm scrolling
through late at night as I'msitting in the living room
decompressing in between readingchapters of my book.
Posting just isn't enough tostay top of mind.

(03:01):
And part of that is becausepeople aren't seeing all of your
posts.
Yes, you can tag them.
Yes, you can post to yourheart's content, but they're not
seeing everything.
I have a client who she seesalmost all of her organization's
posts because she likes andengages with every single one of
them.
So the algorithm shows them toher.
The majority of people don't seeor engage with them at all,

(03:25):
right?
Which is crazy.
So I want you to remember thatlikes on social do not equal
commitment or action orregistrations, right?
You want to send people thatphysical invite or that email
because you know you're gonnasee that.
You own that mailing list, youown that email list.

(03:48):
It's a lot more powerful andyou're not beholden to the
algorithm.
And I think that that's the realthing that people struggle with,
right?
You're not seeing what yourcustomers are seeing, which are
800 other things other than yourstuff.
And that's the trick there.
So here's a question.
If someone didn't see yoursocial post about the event, did

(04:11):
you actually invite them?
Different way to think about it,right?
Isn't it like something if aforest, if a tree falls in the
forest and nobody hears it, didit make a noise?
We don't know because nobody wasthere to hear it, right?
Same thing with social posts.
If you didn't, if they didn'tsee it or they didn't comprehend
what it was, did you really eveninvite them?

(04:31):
That's the trouble with that.
So again, social media, youdon't own the platform.
You're competing with everybodyelse in their feed and you don't
actually know what's in theirfeed, right?
And what they're seeing.
And they scroll past a lot ofthe posts without truly
engaging.
Maybe they see it's your postand they love it because they
love you.

(04:52):
But that doesn't get action.
The power of showing up insomeone's email inbox or even a
mailed card and invitation, youown that.
That you have less competitionfor, even though I know I get
150 emails a day.
Although I think today was likesomewhere around 300 so far.
It's been insane.

(05:13):
I have a client that sent me anemail and said that her email
newsletter is officially thehighest return on investment
marketing activity she's doing.
That's mind-boggling, right?
And she's doing a lot ofdifferent marketing stuff.
The highest return on investmentis by far her email marketing.
I want you to think about that.

(05:33):
I want you to think about whenthat when you're putting off
your newsletter, when you'rethinking about your proposal for
how you're going to be invitingpeople.
Okay.
Because you want to think abouthow many people are actually
seeing your social posts, right?
I think on Facebook, it's likesix percent of your audience
might see your post.
Six percent.

(05:53):
Whereas how many would see anemail?
For some, it's 20, 30.
Actually, just one client justshowed me her open rates are
62%.
That's insane, right?
That's so powerful.
So I'm not saying it's you haveto do email, forget social.
Social doesn't work.
It does.
It works on reach, it'sdefinitely a combination player,

(06:15):
right?
You want to send the email, youwant to post on social, you want
people seeing both messages sothat they take action.
Of course, storytelling winsevery time.
And so you want to engage peopleto make them want to come to
your event, whatever thathappens to be.
And you want to make them awareof it, get them to give you

(06:36):
interest in the event, give thema reminder.
And then, of course, you got togive the last chance because
that's when like 80 or 90% ofthe people actually sign up for
things.
Again, this is really, reallyimportant when you're doing it.
So think about every eventpromotion, every, every golf
outing, every gala, everywebinar as relationship

(07:00):
building, not announcementmaking.
Changes the way you think aboutit, doesn't it?
Changes the way you're gonnathink about the tactics that
you're gonna put with that.
So if you are planning eventsheaded into 2026, I know it's
it's only December, right?
Um, but you're planning your2026 calendar.

(07:24):
If you have these events on yourcalendar, please, please, please
make sure that social media isnot the only outlet that you're
using.
Think about how to reach yourtarget.
Think about understanding yourtarget audience, where they are
at, what kind of communicationsthey like to see and will see,
and share them information thatway.
Because you want to make surethat you're touching them

(07:47):
multiple times.
So that might be social, right?
It might be email, it might bemail, whatever that happens to
be.
So review your event promotionstrategy, definitely audit that.
Make sure you're not relying tooheavily on social.
Start building or revitalizingyour email list if you haven't
already, and then create apromotion plan that includes all

(08:09):
of these multiple touch pointsacross the year.
I'll get off my soapbox now, butI really wanted to stress this
because as we were headed intothe fourth quarter, I had a lot
of clients that were frustratedabout event attendance and
communications.
And part of it was they justweren't communicating it in ways
that their audiences needed tosee it and hear it to actually
take action.

(08:30):
They were posting it in socialand not getting engagement, not
people weren't going back andfinding that post in that link,
and they were missing out onthings that an email could have
fixed.
So thank you so much for tuningin to another episode of
Imperfect Marketing.
I'm your host, Kendra Corman.
I hope today's littleconversation, an imperfect

(08:50):
marketing brief, taught yousomething good that you will be
applying to your future events.
If it did, it would really helpme out if you would rate and
subscribe wherever you'rewatching or listening.
Until next time, have a greatrest of your day.