So often we hear businesses and organizations saying they aren’t sure how to market their upcoming events. “Where do we spend money for advertising?” “How can we get the word out?” Below are steps you may follow to start promoting your events.
Step 1: Gather all details of the event.
Answer the following questions about your event:
- WHO – Who is your intended audience of your event and who is sponsoring your event?
- WHAT – What is your event?
- WHEN – When is your event? Also, when does the audience need to register for your event?
- WHERE – Where is your event?
- WHY – Why is your event being held?
- HOW – How does your audience get involved in your event? Is there an event registration process or a volunteer sign-up sheet? What about vendors?
Knowing the answers to the above questions will help communicate exactly what your event is with little confusion.
Step 2: Decide where and how you want to promote, advertise, and publicize your event.
First focus on your website, social media, and newspapers.
Here are ways to get the word out:
(Only use things your target audience participates in. If your targeted audience is 60+ years old, Instagram might not be the best place to market.)
Promotions:
- Business Magazine
- Annual Report
- Calendar
- Face-to-Face
- Blogs
- Handbook & Directory
- Newsletters
- Emails
- Direct Mail
- Website
- Social Media
- Emails
- Newsletters
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Sonsorships
- Television
- Signs
- Radio
- Direct Mail
- Citation Pages
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Flyers
- Telephone
- Posters
- Blogs
- Emails
- Networks
- Newsletters
- Telephone
- Face-to-Face
- YouTube
- Blogs
- Telephone
- Blogs
- Stories
- Emails
- Face-to-Face
- Media Connections
- Press Releases
If you are a volunteer organization with limited funds:
Utilize the things you have such as your website. Write your own event stories and blogs and post them to your website. Then, post those stories and blogs to your social media and share them with your media connections.
One of the biggest ways and least expensive is to create an event on Facebook with all the event details. Get every person who is helping you with your event to invite all their Facebook friends who they think will be interested in your event.
If you have funds available, boost your Facebook event to people on Facebook within a 25-mile radius of your event location. I suggest spending anywhere from $20- $100. The more money you spend, the more likely you are to reach a larger audience.
Step 3: Take action
Now that you have your details of your event nailed down, promote, advertise, and publicize your event.
Set up committees that will oversee certain details of your event and let them have control. Trust your committee members to do their tasks. It’s hard for volunteers to stay motivated. Encourage your volunteers and be their cheerleaders. Remind your volunteers of why you are having the event in the first place. Keep them passionate about the work they are doing.
Just remember, every little bit helps. You don’t need to advertise on every medium. In fact, if you do advertise on every medium, people will get annoyed by seeing all your advertisements and boycott your event because of it. Pick and choose what you want to use and what your volunteers know how to use.
Make goals for yourself to measure your successes.
Create spreadsheets as to when things need to be done and stick to it. It’ll help you stay organized.
Have fun!
Communication Checklist
We are excited to share with you our Communication Checklist! Our Communication Checklist contains a whole list of things you can do to help you promote your event including checkboxes to check once you complete a task. It contains everything from things to do on your website to posting to social media to creating a press release, flyers, and posters. We hope it helps you promote your event!
To receive our Communication Checklist, please add your email below and click submit. Within 24 hours, we will email you our How to Market Events Guide that contains our Communication Checklist. Keep an eye on your inbox!