Marketing An Event Is Easy... Right?
It’s understandable to be nervous about marketing your event. After all, it’s arguably the most important piece of a successful event. If your marketing isn’t up to snuff, you won't have the turnout you have been hoping for. After all, you're thinking that your event is going to be the best thing ever and since you’re throwing it, you want people to know about it. Here are some ways you can liven up your event marketing efforts.
Be creative with the media. No one reads promotional material anymore. While print is dying out, blogs are rising in popularity and those who do not have a blog are going to have a harder time getting their message across to potential attendees (and their family and friends!). Use a large format printer to print out your marketing material on glossy paper (or professional printing will cost more than doing this yourself). Don't bother with pamphlets and sheet-fed printers.
Blogs are the new way to catch the attention of people and you’ll get higher visibility by getting a specialist in this field to write about your event. This can be done for free but if you’re serious about promoting your event, then you may want to get a professional social media marketing company involved. Your brand and your message will be more visible in front of people who follow them on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn than it will be in a free blog. Reach out to the marketing firm now and plan for a way to make the post live at least three weeks before your event so that it will generate interest among the blogosphere well before your date.
Do an online video. You can post a video on YouTube, host an online event, or use a video media company like Vimeo to create a professional video. You can place the video on your website (if you do this well before your event) and then embed the video in all of your social media platforms so that you will be more visible. Since most people do not view videos in their entirety, you will want to make sure that the visuals are dramatic and engaging. Remember that people have short attention spans so if they're bored with this bit, they're likely to switch off and forget about you altogether.
Video marketing can be a great way to reach out to potential attendees. You may want to consider video sharing sites like Vimeo or Youku. If you don’t know how to create a video of your own, it’s time you take that course on video production now. Make sure you have as many links as possible going back to your website and your social media accounts so that people know where they need to go in order get in touch with you with more information.
As the event gets closer, put together a newsletter and send it out using the tools you have at hand (mailing list programs can work for this if you have enough contacts). You can use it as an online communication tool to send out information about the event to your list of people.
You can also mail physical invitations and postcards to build a buzz about your event in advance. You should think about including these in all of your newsletters, brochures and flyers so that people will know where they need to go if they are interested in attending.
Make sure you have a catchy way of wording your invitation that everyone will remember. If you are using a service like Eventbrite, then there is a template that you can use which makes it easier for everyone involved.
If you’re planning to use an online event registration system, there are a few things that you should keep in mind: Tell them what they will get if they register (the email confirmation and the discount code)
Make sure that your online registration system works smoothly so that people can easily find the information that they need and fill out their information correctly.
Ensure that everyone has access to their registration page by allowing email registrations from anywhere. You may have multiple systems for sending out your invites but the way you send them seems to be no longer important.
Use a digital flyer for your product offerings. Again, this helps to get people to take notice of your event. You can use a graphic design company that can create something visually appealing and also uses industry terminology (it will mean more to people if they understand what you are offering).
Write press releases that are interesting, relevant and catchy so that the writers will have no trouble putting them in their publications. Make sure that the things you say make sense to the people who read them (they won't know what you're talking about if your press release is full of jargon).
Have someone write an article about your event so that online magazines can get some free publicity by including it in their database.