The cornerstone of event promotion
The cornerstone of all promotion is on the event page or event website. The great thing about having an online presence these days is that it is so cost-effective even small events with small budgets are able to have a big online presence. Housing your event details online can be free if you use Facebook, or very low-cost if you build a website using an online template:
- Utilize the free service of Facebook. Create a Facebook Page or Facebook Event for your event. Facebook pages and events have the ability to house all the information and enable people to share and ‘Like’ your event.
- Create a website with an online template. There are many DIY sites, such as Squarespace.com, which offer website templates where you simply upload your images and fill in your content on various pages. You can have your website live at a cost of less than $20 per month.
Tell a story
Write a compelling event description. The event description is what will determine whether people will feel the need to attend your event, so get creative and make it compelling. Key information such as dates, pricing and location are required but it is the interesting specifics that will fully convert the customer.
For your event to have high sales it’s crucial you make it appealing to the consumer.
Have a call to action in your all communications. In every message you send out and on every platform that markets your event, you should have a call to action; this is a response you want users to complete. Call to actions are said to be one of the most effective techniques to improve conversion. It should be persuasive and compel the reader to perform the conversion you want. Common examples are:
- Book now
- Sign-up today
- Start your trial now
- Tickets available here
- Download now
Marketing avenues
The size of your event will likely determine your marketing budget, which will determine the promotional activities you can undertake. Some suggestions of platforms and marketing avenues you could utilize to promote your event with are as follows:
Free/low-cost marketing
- Event Listing on SouthlandNZ.com
- Community newsletter notices
- Facebook page and/ or Facebook event – informational posts, competitions, deals
- Twitter account – create hype with tweets, competitions, deals
- Instagram account – imagery-heavy platform
- Sponsorship support (your sponsor/s will be able to use their channels – databases, social media pages – to push your event)
- Facebook advertising – set your spend to whatever your budget allows
- Website hosting
- Social media/ e-newsletter competitions (the cost is simply the number of tickets you give away)
- Free ticket offers/ giveaways (offer media tickets in return for advertising)
- E-newsletters (create a consumer database by having people sign up through your website)
Paid marketing
- Newspaper adverts(local & domestic) and magazine adverts/ inserts
- Google Ads
- Radio
- Television
- Flyer letterbox drops
- Signage (window decals/ car signage/ banners/ billboards)
- Collateral (posters, brochures/ flyers)
- Visitor guides
- Celebrity endorsement (celebrities attract media attention and often have large followings)
Create a Communications Plan
A communications plan is a timeline of all information distributed in the lead up to, during, and post the event. A communications plan could state the channel being used, the activity which will spread the information, a sentence that sums up the message it will be sending, the date it will take place, the name of who will be the owner responsible for making it happen, and a progress bar with the status of the activity. This is an internal document for your team only. A communications plan created in Excel could look a bit like this: