If you’re planning an event, we’ve created below the ultimate guide on how to maximize brand awareness, social media engagement, event participation, attendee satisfaction, testimonials, surveys, follow-up, and repeat business in a fun and inexpensive way.

Stickers have the power to engage your audience before, during, and after an event and in dozens of ways. With stickers, your event, brand, and your mission lives on even after it’s over, and for everyone to see.

The first rule of sticker marketing though, is to have a plan before you start slapping stickers on everything. To help you get started, we’ve put together a checklist of 17 actionable tips on how to use stickers as an easy and affordable way to get people talking about your event, visiting your website, increasing social buzz, and attendees coming back for more.

Before the Event:

Tip #1 - Create Custom, Limited Edition “Memorabilia”

Stickers are an inexpensive way to create personalized marketing materials and are much more affordable than custom-printed merch. You can add your logo, name, and website to all sorts of products to create limited edition memorabilia specific to your event that attendees can take home and keep.

Tip #2 - Create Personalized Water Bottle Labels

Provide custom-branded water at your event. You can design the bottle labels using your logo and branding and adhere them to plain bottles of water. They can then be sold on-site to increase revenue and brand awareness for your event.

Tip #3 - Create Sticker Collections

Another thing you can do to make your stickers stand out at the event is to create a collection of varying themed designs. Stickers are something that people love to collect, and if good enough, we’ve noticed they can even be like trading cards. By creating unique sticker collections, you can encourage attendees to purchase a variety of stickers and increase your sales while also providing a talking point and conversation starter - both at the event and afterward.

Tip #4 – Link stickers to your website or social media

With some forethought, it’s possible to make your sticker designs work for your digital marketing and social media engagement. You can include a URL or QR code references your website, or you can put a hashtag related to your social media.

Tip #5 - Print Stickers With Upcoming Dates to Advertise your Event

There are many ways that you can advertise your event including print stickers with upcoming dates on them. You could leave these in strategic places local to where your event will be held over send them out to prospective attendees on your mailing list. This is a great way of spreading the word about your upcoming event as well as making sure that attendees don’t forget when it’s happening.

Tip #6 - Send Stickers in a Welcome Pack

Sending out welcome packs before to your event adds a nice personal touch to keep your attendees informed about everything that’s happening and what to expect. The welcome pack can contain all sorts of things; from discounted accommodation deals to restaurant recommendations and maps of the event location. Welcome packs make attendees feel valued, and stickers can start conversations and encourage some pre-event social media activity.

Tip #7 - Create Stickers With Inspiring Taglines

When it comes to sticker design, logos are great, but you can also make a positive statement that rallies your tribe. Consider including inspirational taglines that relate to your event or mission that like-minded individuals will want to share on social media or keep around as a reminder. You could use also use a positive affirmation, philosophical reminder, or goal-oriented statement your company or organization is trying to reach.

Tip #8 - Share Stickers on Facebook, Insta, etc

Stickers can be used as part of your online marketing efforts to promote your event and increase engagement by sharing sticker images on social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Deign them well and they can go viral, so put some thought into what is worthy to be shared.

During the Event:

Tip #9 - Add Stickers to Swag Bags / Goodie Bags

Stickers are perfect to go inside swag bags for events. Attendees can stick them on their laptops or water bottles when they get home as a lasting reminder of the day and its activities, keeping them engaged with your brand even after they leave. They are a great alternative to business cards in goodie bags because they allow your guests or attendees to share your brand. Once stuck on a notebook or laptop they are a constant advertisement for you.

Tip #10 - Give Out Stickers at Registration Desks

At your registration desk, have volunteer staff members hand out stickers to every attendee. Many people will wear the sticker throughout your event and this is a fun way to get new people talking and mingling with each other.

Tip# 11 - Give Away Stickers During Talks/Keynotes/Breakouts

Stickers are a great way to engage your audience and show them that you want to connect with them further and can act as a fun, functional communication tools during talks/keynotes/breakouts. For example, you could give away stickers as a way to encourage volunteers to participate throughout presentations. People are often reluctant to volunteer in front of a group but this can be a fun way to sweeten the deal. They could also be used as a fun follow-up after the talk.

Tip #12 - Use Stickers as Prizes in Raffles / Contests

Raffles and contests are always a good addition. People love to win things! Stickers can be used as prizes for competition runners-up or can be included with larger prizes in raffles.

You could also create more sticker-specific contests such as holding a "Sticker Scavenger Hunt" where guests go around looking for specific stickers related to learning topics or key takeaways and place them around the venue. The person with the most stickers at the end wins a prize.

Attendees can also be rewarded with stickers for completing various tasks during the event as part of a contest. The person with the most stickers could win some free swag. These are just a few ideas, but the options are endless.

Tip #13 – Use stickers to incentivize social posting at the event

Stickers can be a way increase social media engagement in the following ways:

• · You could have an Instagram contest where you ask people to take photos at the event to win a prize
• · Have people take selfies with the sticker and upload them online using the hashtag #YourEventName
• · Ask attendees to tweet your event and get a sticker in exchange

Tip #14 - Rewards for Taking Surveys or Event Testimonials

The best and most trusted way to advertise is of course word-of-mouth. If you as for testimonials or surveys at your event, have stand with a volunteer who offers free stickers as incentive to complete a survey or leave a testimonial about their experience at the event.

After the Event

Tip #15 - Thank-You Stickers

After an event, send out ‘thank-you’ stickers to your attendees as a token of appreciation. It’s a cheap and easy way to show your gratitude for people attending an event or conference.

Tip #16 - Sticker Giveaways As Part of a Follow-up Email Campaign

Stickers can keep your event top-of-mind for attendees in the weeks following. Sending stickers as part of an email follow-up campaign after the event can drive traffic back to your website or be a reminder for future events.

You could also ask people who attended your event to reply to your post-event email with their sticker images to get a discount on your products.

Tip #17 - Post-Event Sticker Design Contest

This is a simple but effective idea where people who have attended your event are contacted and then given the opportunity to design a new sticker for your brand. The contest culminates in winners receiving a free ticket to your next event.

Conclusion

We hope some of these ideas have helped you amplify the many and best uses for stickers when it comes to generating excitement around events.

And remember, for virtual events, the overhead is typically much lower, so it’s worth allocating some of those cost savings to extra physical swag to maximize the connection with your attendees.

Keep this checklist handy as you plan your next event or promotion campaign; it will help ensure that you don't miss any important steps along the way.

When planning ahead remember there are many different types of stickers; from kiss-cut stickers, die-cut stickers, and hologram stickers, to vinyl stickers, oval stickers, and more. Each has its own unique uses and benefits, but ultimately any type of sticker can contribute to the buzz surrounding your event.

And of course, if you’re looking to order stickers for your event, do get in touch and we can help you find the perfect solution.