Drawing attention to your next event has never been easier in the age of social media. With Instagram Stories and Reels, TikTok videos, Facebook posts, and more, you have endless opportunities to market and promote your next big in-person experience.
But if you’ve been getting likes and engagement without the sign-ups you’re hoping for, chances are you’re missing out on a crucial step.
To convert interest into action, you need to create a seamless path to purchase for your audience. That means making it incredibly easy for them to go from discovering your event to signing up—ideally, in just a click. This is where the link-in-bio comes into play.
Here’s why it’s a powerful tool for driving event sign-ups and turning social media engagement into real, measurable results.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Understanding the role of the link-in-bio in event marketing
While social media users started using link-in-bio on Instagram to get around the platform’s pesky “no links in posts” rule, it caught on quickly and spread to plenty of other social platforms as well.
And with the average person spending over six hours a week on social media, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X are the perfect environments to generate excitement and awareness about your event. Each of these platforms can drive high engagement, but without the ability to seamlessly direct people to further information, you risk losing potential attendees.
This is where your link-in-bio comes in. A link-in-bio is a tool that lets you post a link to a custom landing page in the bio section of your social media profiles. It serves as a bridge between your social content and actual event sign-ups, transporting potential attendees directly to your event details.
Benefits of using a link-in-bio for event engagement
Link-in-bio tools can help you drive audience engagement on social media and make your next event a sold-out success. Here’s why you need these links as part of your event marketing strategy.
Centralizes all event information
Link-in-bio tools allow you to centralize all of your event’s important links in one place. You can create a homepage that houses everything attendees need to know—date, time, location, schedule, speaker bios, and ticket links. They get everything they need to make a decision and sign up, all in one place.
Encourages user interaction and sharing
As McKinsey research shows, most consumers today see social media as a “full-service channel.” That means brands need to go beyond seeing social channels simply as tools for marketing—they’re now part of the customer experience.
Including a link-in-bio on your social channels plays into this mindset. It enables you to direct followers to your event sign-up page without their having to switch platforms or navigate the web.
They also encourage social sharing: When your audience trusts your links, they’re more likely to share your content with friends and colleagues. The more times your link is shared, the more people see it, meaning more reach for your brand.
Optimizes the limited space social platforms provide
Instagram and TikTok limit you to just one link in your bio, making it tough to share all the details for an upcoming event. You’ll likely want to share multiple links—like your event homepage, speaker lineup, and registration page—as part of your marketing efforts.
Link-in-bio tools solve this problem by enabling you to include multiple links on an organized landing page. Essentially, they empower you to bypass the one-link restriction so you can display all your event-related content in one convenient place.
Strategies for enhancing event engagement with link-in-bio
Ready to use a link-in-bio page to drive traffic to your event sign-up form? Here are some best practices to keep in mind.
1. Choose a dynamic link-in-bio tool or platform
Even the best-laid plans can go awry—dates change, speakers cancel, venues overbook—and if you create a static link-in-bio page, there’s no easy way to communicate those changes. Fortunately, with a dynamic link-in-bio platform, you can update your landing page at any time when plans shift.
For example, with Bitly’s link-in-bio feature you can quickly create a responsive, mobile-optimized microsite using the platform’s no-code landing page builder and then update it in real time as needed. With Bitly’s paid plans, you’ll also get access to plenty of customization options, so you can create an attractive landing page that reflects your brand and serves as your online event hub, where you can link to all your event pages.
2. Include key event details
As PwC highlights, a great user experience is frictionless: effortless, intuitive, and free of roadblocks. A link-in-bio is crucial to building this frictionless experience. But what you include in your link-in-bio page is as important as having one.
When visitors land on your microsite, they should immediately see the most important information about your event: the event date, time, and location. Placing these essential details at the top of your landing page saves potential attendees the hassle of searching for them, making it more likely they’ll stay on the page and convert.
3. Provide a clear call-to-action
Once guests land on your page, give them direction so they know what to do next. Avoid overwhelming them with a long list of links. Instead, give each one context with a clear, compelling call-to-action (CTA) button that tells them exactly why to click.
Your CTA should be engaging and action-oriented. For example, for the button leading to your ticket purchase page, your CTA could be “Get your tickets today!” For one that leads to your event itinerary, you could use “View the agenda.”
4. Add countdown timers for urgency
Adding a countdown timer at the top of your landing page can help create a sense of urgency and motivation that compels users to buy tickets on the spot.
If you’re offering early-bird pricing for a limited time, a countdown timer can encourage users to grab their tickets before prices go up. Even if you’re not promoting time-sensitive discounts, a general event countdown timer can build excitement and boost conversion rates.
5. Include engaging visuals and event media
Incorporating engaging content like eye-catching images, graphics, and videos on your landing page is an excellent way to generate buzz around your event, especially if you have visuals from previous events to showcase.
As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. These images and videos don’t just describe but show visitors what they can expect, increasing the likelihood they’ll stay on your page and take the desired action.
6. Organize links by event phase
Keep your link-in-bio updated and aligned with where you are in the event cycle to provide a seamless experience for your audience.
- Pre-event: This is your opportunity to build excitement and drive sign-ups by featuring ticket links, speaker bios, and detailed event agendas. If you’re offering early-bird tickets, make sure to highlight them prominently—and remove them once the sales period ends.
With Bitly Pages, you don’t have to worry about doing this manually. Simply use the built-in scheduling tool to set your early-bird ticket link to automatically unpublish once the promotion is over.
- During the event: Amplify your event with links to livestreams and session schedules so your audience has easy access to the most important content as it happens. You can also add fun by gamifying your event marketing with contests, polls, and challenges.
- Post-event: After the event, maintain the momentum by adding a feedback form, recorded webinars, and a sign-up button for your newsletter to keep attendees informed about future events.
7. Cross-promote on other platforms
Once you have your link-in-bio URL, share it across all your social media platforms and beyond. You can include the link in Instagram Story stickers, add it to your email signature, and embed it within QR Codes on physical flyers and posters.
Plus, with Bitly’s link-in-bio feature, you can get access to a wealth of real-time metrics like the number of link clicks and referral sources (depending on the plan you choose). This allows you to see exactly where your event page traffic is coming from, so you can refine and optimize your event promotion strategy for maximum impact.
Boost event engagement with a link-in-bio powered by Bitly
Link-in-bios are a simple yet powerful way to transform social media engagement into event registrations and ticket sales. They act as a seamless bridge between your online marketing and ticketing pages, converting interest into action and making it easier than ever to boost engagement and attendance.
With Bitly’s link-in-bio feature, you can transform your social media bio into a high-converting event hub. Simply create a custom URL, choose from a range of pre-designed microsite templates, and add clickable links to everything your attendees need—ticket sales, schedules, speaker bios, and more. In just a few minutes, you can create a sleek, streamlined microsite, complete with a QR Code for easy sharing.
Ready to boost event engagement like never before? Find the right Bitly plan for you!
