10 best email marketing tools for event planning businesses in 2025

Event planners typically spend countless hours manually sending confirmation emails, reminders, and post-event surveys — time that could be spent securing sponsors or improving attendee experiences. Email marketing software eliminates this administrative burden through intelligent automation that handles the entire attendee journey.

HubSpot’s workflow automation builder enables event teams to create multi-step campaigns that trigger based on registration actions. These campaigns automatically send personalized confirmations within seconds of sign-up, provide parking instructions 24 hours prior to the event, and include feedback surveys after the event concludes.

Plus, by implementing HubSpot’s pre-built event workflow templates, planning teams can significantly reduce manual email tasks while ensuring no attendee falls through the cracks, whether managing a 50-person workshop or a 5,000-attendee conference.

Maximize attendance rates through data-driven optimization.

The industry-wide challenge of no-shows costs event planners money in wasted catering, materials, and venue capacity; however, email marketing platforms provide the analytics to help improve these numbers.

Modern email software tracks open rates, click patterns, and engagement timing to identify which messages actually drive attendance versus those ignored in crowded inboxes. HubSpot’s Breeze AI analyzes historical event data to automatically optimize subject lines and send times for each segment, helping event planners to improve their attendance rates when utilizing HubSpot's predictive sending features.

Additionally, HubSpot’s A/B testing tools allow teams to experiment with different reminder frequencies and messaging styles, providing precise data on whether attendees respond better to “last chance” urgency or exclusive “VIP preview” framing.

Centralize attendee data across multiple events and touchpoints.

Event planning companies juggling multiple simultaneous events often struggle with scattered attendee information across spreadsheets, registration platforms, and email lists, leading to duplicate communications or missed VIP recognitions.

Email marketing CRMs create a single source of truth that tracks every attendee interaction from initial interest through post-event engagement. HubSpot’s unified contact database automatically syncs with popular event platforms, such as Eventbrite and Zoom Events, while maintaining complete histories of which events each contact attended, their ticket types, and engagement levels.

This centralization through HubSpot’s Marketing Hub means planners can instantly identify that a registrant attended three previous conferences as a VIP, automatically triggering premium treatment and early-access offers without manual research or risk of overlooking loyal attendees.

Scale personalization without expanding team size.

Growing event companies face the paradox of needing more personalized communication as their attendee base expands, yet lacking the resources to write individual emails to hundreds or thousands of registrants. Email marketing software enables mass personalization that maintains the boutique touch attendees expect from premium events.

HubSpot’s smart content dynamically adjusts email sections based on attendee attributes, displaying different agenda highlights to speakers versus sponsors, or customizing meal options according to previously indicated dietary preferences. Additionally, with HubSpot’s personalization tokens and Breeze AI, a single team member can:

• Create emails that address each recipient by name
• Reference their company
• Recommend relevant breakout sessions based on past attendance

Measure ROI and justify marketing investments.

Event planning companies often struggle to prove the value of their marketing efforts to stakeholders, relying on basic metrics like registration numbers that don’t tell the complete story of campaign effectiveness.

Comprehensive email marketing platforms provide attribution reporting that connects specific campaigns to:

• Revenue
• Sponsor acquisitions
• Long-term attendee value

HubSpot’s attribution reporting dashboard tracks the complete journey from first email open to ticket purchase, showing exactly which campaigns drive the highest-value registrations and which messages convert free attendees to paid tickets. By leveraging HubSpot’s custom reporting builder, event teams can demonstrate clear ROI from their email campaigns, whether that’s ticket sales from early-bird promotions or new sponsorships generated through HubSpot’s sequences tool, providing concrete data that secures continued marketing investment.

5 Important Features for Event Planning Email Marketing Software

1. Event Registration Forms with Smart Field Mapping: The ability to create customizable registration forms that automatically populate your CRM is essential for capturing attendee information without manual data entry. HubSpot’s drag-and-drop form builder allows event planners to design registration pages with conditional logic, showing different questions based on ticket type or displaying meal preferences only for in-person attendees. Most importantly, HubSpot's forms integrate directly with the CRM, automatically creating or updating contact records, assigning lead scores based on ticket value, and triggering appropriate nurture workflows based on registration type.
2. Multi-Channel Campaign Automation with Timeline Visualization: Event promotion requires coordinated outreach across email, SMS, and social media on precise schedules leading up to event day. HubSpot’s visual workflow editor lets event teams map entire promotional campaigns on a timeline, setting automatic triggers for early-bird announcements, deadline reminders, and day-of logistics. Within HubSpot’s automation suite, planners can create branching logic that sends different messages based on a user’s registration status. HubSpot’s Marketing Hub also enables cross-channel coordination, allowing teams to pause email campaigns if an attendee registers through a social media ad, preventing redundant messaging while maintaining consistent communication across all touchpoints.
3. Mobile CRM Access for On-Site Event Management: Event planners require real-time access to attendee information as they navigate between venue spaces, manage vendor relationships, and address last-minute changes. HubSpot’s mobile app provides full CRM functionality from any smartphone or tablet, enabling planners to check attendee lists, update contact records, and even send targeted emails while walking the event floor. During registration, staff can use HubSpot’s mobile app to manually check in attendees, add notes about dietary restrictions or special requests, and immediately trigger welcome emails with WiFi passwords and agenda updates.
4. Native Integration Ecosystem with Event-Specific Platforms: Modern event planning requires seamless data flow between ticketing platforms, virtual event software, payment processors, and marketing tools. HubSpot’s App Marketplace offers pre-built integrations with essential event platforms, including Eventbrite for ticketing, Zoom Events for virtual components, Calendly for speaker scheduling, and Stripe for payment processing. These native HubSpot integrations eliminate the need for manual CSV exports or custom API development, automatically syncing registration data, attendance records, and payment status in real-time.
5. Advanced Analytics with Attribution Reporting: Understanding which marketing efforts drive ticket sales and sponsor conversions is crucial for optimizing event promotion budgets and demonstrating ROI. HubSpot’s attribution reporting tools track the complete journey from first touchpoint to ticket purchase, showing whether attendees converted from organic search, email campaigns, or social media ads. Event planners can leverage HubSpot’s custom report builder to create dashboards showing registration pace compared to previous events, geographic distribution of attendees, and revenue by ticket type.

How to Choose an Email Marketing Tool for Event Planning Companies (Step-by-Step)

Step 1: Map your event marketing workflows.

Before evaluating any email marketing platform, document your complete event lifecycle from initial promotion through post-event follow-up. Start by outlining each touchpoint in your attendee journey, including:

• Awareness campaigns
• Early-bird promotions
• Registration confirmations
• Reminder sequences
• Day-of logistics
• Feedback surveys

Identify which communications are currently manual versus automated, noting pain points like sending individual sponsor updates or coordinating speaker confirmations. Then, consider the complexity of your events — do you manage single-day workshops or multi-track conferences with VIP tiers? Map how data flows between your registration platform, payment processor, and communication tools.

This workflow visualization reveals whether you need basic email broadcasting or sophisticated automation with branching logic based on attendee behavior, helping narrow your platform requirements before entering the evaluation phase.

Step 2: Identify must-have features for event success.

Create a prioritized list distinguishing between essential capabilities and nice-to-have features based on your mapped workflows. Essential features for event planners typically include:

• Registration form builders with conditional logic
• Automated confirmation and reminder sequences
• Mobile access for on-site management
• Integration with ticketing platforms like Eventbrite or Cvent

Next, consider your team’s technical expertise — do you need drag-and-drop simplicity or are you comfortable with HTML customization? Evaluate whether you require advanced capabilities like dynamic content personalization for different attendee segments, attribution reporting to prove event ROI, or multi-channel coordination across email and SMS.

Pro tip: Don’t forget operational necessities like list segmentation for speakers versus sponsors, GDPR compliance tools for international events, and the ability to quickly send urgent updates about schedule changes or weather delays.

Step 3: Compare ease of use and team fit.

Request trials of your top platforms and have your actual event team test core functions they'll use daily. Evaluate how quickly team members can create and send a basic event invitation without technical support (if it takes more than 30 minutes, consider the productivity impact across dozens of annual events).

Test the learning curve for advanced features: can your coordinators build automated workflows independently, or will you need ongoing IT involvement? Assess the quality of customer support, particularly during critical pre-event periods when you can't afford delays.

Once you’ve done all of this, review the vendor’s training resources, looking for:

• Event-specific templates
• Best practice guides
• Dedicated onboarding for event planning companies (versus generic setup assistance)

Step 4: Check cost at scale.

Calculate total cost of ownership beyond base subscription fees, factoring in your expected growth over the next 2 to 3 years. Most platforms price by contact volume, so project costs if your database grows from 5,000 to 15,000 contacts as you add events. Include hidden expenses like overage charges for:

• Exceeding email send limits during peak registration periods
• Fees for additional user seats as your team expands
• Costs for premium features like custom reporting or dedicated IP addresses

Lastly, compare pricing models — some platforms charge per email sent while others offer unlimited sending to your contact limit. Factor in potential savings from consolidated tools; replacing separate email, survey, and landing page services with an all-in-one platform might justify higher upfront costs.

Pro tip: Request custom quotes if you’re managing over 10,000 contacts or 50+ events annually, as enterprise pricing often includes negotiable discounts and additional support resources.

Step 5: Choose a flexible platform — like HubSpot.

Select a platform that can evolve with your event business from intimate workshops to large-scale conferences without requiring a complete system migration. Look for solutions offering modular upgrades where you can start with basic email marketing then add advanced automation, CRM capabilities, or reporting tools as needs develop. HubSpot exemplifies this scalability — event planning companies can begin with free email marketing tools then progressively adopt Starter, Professional, or Enterprise tiers while maintaining consistent workflows and historical data.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the best email marketing tool for event planning companies?