So far in our event planning series, we’ve laid the groundwork for the first decisions to make to kickstart your event planning, we’ve talked about what makes a good theme, and we’ve identified the key players to reach out to early on in your event.
This brings us to the ultra important part of event planning: getting the word out and getting attendees registered!
When it comes to marketing your event, here are some places to promote your event:
- Your Organization’s Website or a Stand-Alone Event Website – You can decide which one makes the most sense depending on the size of your event or conference. In either case, make sure that your event has the center-stage treatment it needs to get the interest of your audience and make it easy for them to buy tickets.
- Marketing Event Pages – You can utilize other platforms to get the word out about your event, such as Eventbrite, Facebook Events, and public calendar listings. The more places you share the event, the larger your potential audience pool becomes, so share it far and wide.
- Social Media Ads, Flyers, Magazines and Newsletters – Depending on your event budget, utilizing forms of paid advertising can give even your event even more visibility. If you’re working with a smaller budget, you can still share the event regularly in your own newsletter.
- Event Speakers or Partners – If you have event speakers or partners, you can reach out to see if they could promote the event to their audience. Make sure to create a promotion packet with sample newsletter and social media text, as well as event graphics, to make it easy for them to do so. You can also offer sponsor discounts by providing them with tracking codes so that they can give their audience a special deal.
- Personal Outreach – You can send personal emails, messages on LinkedIn, or make phone calls to specific people that you’d like to invite to your event. This is more time-intensive, and you can’t wait until the last minute to start the outreach. It can be worth the extra investment of time and energy, as people are likely to pay special attention when receiving a personal invite.
In your marketing plan, it’s important to include multiple deadlines in the process to give attendees incentives to purchase their tickets. You can do this through having an Early Bird Registration window, where attendees save money by registering early. There may be other discounts that are beneficial to offer to certain audiences, such as a student rate or a small business owner rate.
We hope this series has given you some concrete tips to focus on as you start planning upcoming events. If you’d like our support and guidance in the process, message us or book your 15-minute call with Sandy here. We look forward to speaking with you.
Reimagining Places With You,
The PPR Strategies Team
