The 7 Best Event Marketing Tools for 2026

Event marketing has more moving parts than most marketing disciplines. You need to drive registrations, manage channels, track attribution, and prove ROI — often with a small team and a tight timeline.

The right tools make this manageable. The wrong ones add complexity without results. This guide cuts through the noise and covers the tools that event marketers actually use and recommend in 2026.

How We Evaluated These Tools

We assessed each tool on four criteria that matter most to event marketers:

• Event-specific features: Does it solve problems unique to event promotion?
• Ease of setup: Can you launch in days, not weeks?
• Measurable impact: Can you tie it back to registrations and revenue?
• Value for money: Is the pricing reasonable for the results it delivers?

We intentionally excluded generic CRM platforms, project management tools, and enterprise suites that require six-figure contracts. This list is for event marketers who need practical, affordable tools that work.

1. Attendir — Attendee Advocacy & LinkedIn Sharing

Best for: Turning registered attendees into promoters via branded LinkedIn sharing cards.

Attendir lets you create customized sharing cards that attendees post to LinkedIn after registering. Each card includes the attendee's name and your event branding, making every share a personal endorsement rather than a corporate ad.

Key features:

• Branded LinkedIn sharing cards with attendee personalization
• Automatic share tracking and analytics
• Real-time dashboard showing shares, impressions, and referral registrations
• Self-serve setup (no sales calls or onboarding required)

Pricing: Lite plan at €390/month, Unlimited at €990/month. 7-day free trial.

Why it matters: Attendee advocacy typically delivers a cost per registration of €15-50, compared to €50-200+ for paid LinkedIn Ads. The trust factor of peer sharing also means higher conversion rates. See real results from TEDAI Vienna and ViennaUP.

Best for events with: 100-5,000 attendees, B2B audiences with strong LinkedIn presence.

2. Mailchimp — Email Marketing for Events

Best for: Building and executing event email sequences that drive registrations.

Email remains the highest-converting channel for event marketing, with registration conversion rates of 8-20% from email clicks. Mailchimp provides the templates, automation, and analytics to run effective event email campaigns.

Key features:

• Pre-built event email templates
• Automated drip sequences (save-the-date, early-bird, countdown)
• Audience segmentation by past event attendance
• Registration tracking via landing page integrations

Pricing: Free tier up to 500 contacts. Paid plans from $13/month.

Why it matters: A well-structured email sequence can drive 30-50% of total registrations. The key is timing and segmentation — not just blasting your entire list.

Best for events with: An existing email list of at least 500 contacts.

3. Buffer — Social Media Scheduling

Best for: Scheduling and managing organic social media promotion across multiple platforms.

Buffer keeps your event visible across LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook without requiring you to be online 24/7. Schedule a content calendar weeks in advance and let it run.

Key features:

• Multi-platform scheduling from a single dashboard
• Optimal timing suggestions based on audience activity
• Team collaboration for approval workflows
• Performance analytics per post and platform

Pricing: Free tier for 3 channels. Paid plans from $6/month per channel.

Why it matters: Consistency matters more than virality. Events that maintain a regular posting cadence in the 6-8 weeks before the event see 2-3x more organic reach than those that post sporadically. See our LinkedIn event promotion guide for content ideas.

Best for events with: A social media presence across 2+ platforms.

4. Google Analytics 4 — Attribution & Tracking

Best for: Understanding which marketing channels drive registrations and revenue.

GA4 is the foundation of any event marketing measurement setup. With proper UTM tracking, you can see exactly which channels, campaigns, and content pieces drive the most registrations.

Key features:

• Multi-touch attribution modeling
• Event-based tracking (registration completions, form submissions)
• Real-time reporting on traffic sources
• Audience insights for retargeting

Pricing: Free.

Why it matters: Without attribution, you are guessing which channels work. Even basic last-click attribution is better than no attribution. See our guide on measuring event marketing ROI for a practical setup framework.

Best for: Every event. There's no excuse not to have this running.

5. Canva — Visual Content Creation

Best for: Creating event graphics, social media assets, and promotional materials without a designer.

Event marketing requires a constant stream of visual content: social media graphics, speaker announcement cards, countdown posts, email headers. Canva makes this accessible to non-designers.

Key features:

• Event-specific templates (invitations, social graphics, banners)
• Brand kit to maintain consistency across all assets
• Team collaboration with shared asset libraries
• Animation and video creation for social posts

Pricing: Free tier with generous features. Pro plan from €12/month.

Why it matters: Visual content generates 2-3x more engagement on LinkedIn than text-only posts. Having a tool that lets you produce professional-looking graphics quickly means you can maintain a high content cadence throughout your promotion period.

Best for events with: Multiple content pieces needed per week during promotion.

6. Unbounce — Event Landing Pages

Best for: Creating high-converting registration landing pages without developer involvement.

Your event landing page is where every marketing channel converges. If it doesn't convert, nothing else matters. Unbounce lets you build, test, and optimize landing pages specifically designed for conversion.

Key features:

• Drag-and-drop landing page builder
• A/B testing built in
• Dynamic text replacement for personalized ad landing pages
• Smart Traffic AI that routes visitors to the best-performing variant

Pricing: From $99/month.

Why it matters: A well-optimized landing page can increase registration conversion rates by 20-50%. The key elements: clear value proposition above the fold, social proof (attendee count, speaker names, logos), and a single clear CTA. See our guide on optimizing event landing pages.

Best for events with: Paid advertising campaigns driving traffic to a registration page.

7. Hotjar — User Behavior Analytics

Best for: Understanding why visitors drop off your registration page.

Hotjar shows you exactly how people interact with your event website through heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys. When your landing page isn't converting, Hotjar tells you why.

Key features:

• Heatmaps showing where visitors click, scroll, and drop off
• Session recordings of actual visitor behavior
• On-page surveys for qualitative feedback
• Funnel analysis for multi-step registration forms

Pricing: Free tier for 35 daily sessions. Paid plans from €32/month.

Why it matters: Data tells you what's happening; behavior analytics tells you why. If 70% of visitors leave your registration page without scrolling past the hero section, that's a design problem. If they reach the pricing section and leave, that's a messaging problem.

Best for events with: An existing website getting 100+ monthly visitors.

Building Your Event Marketing Stack

You don't need all seven tools. Start with the essentials and add as you grow:

Minimum viable stack (free events or small budgets):

• Google Analytics 4 (free) — track where registrations come from
• Mailchimp (free tier) — email your existing audience
• Canva (free tier) — create promotional graphics

Growth stack (paid events, 200+ expected attendees):

• Everything above, plus:
• Attendir — activate attendee advocacy on LinkedIn
• Buffer — maintain consistent social promotion

Optimization stack (large events, serious about ROI):

• Everything above, plus:
• Unbounce — A/B test your landing pages
• Hotjar — understand visitor behavior and fix drop-off points

What Matters More Than Tools

Tools are only as good as the strategy behind them. Before investing in any tool, make sure you have:

1. Clear positioning: Why should someone attend your event instead of the alternatives?
2. A target audience: Who specifically are you trying to reach?
3. A promotion timeline: When does each channel activate?
4. Measurement goals: What does success look like in numbers?

Get those right, and the tools amplify your efforts. Get them wrong, and no tool will save you.

For a comprehensive promotion strategy, see our B2B event promotion strategies guide. And if you want to see the math behind attendee advocacy specifically, try the ROI calculator.