The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
One of the key elements to making your event a success is the marketing strategy. Without an effective marketing campaign your event could be a spectacular failure. There are various different ways to market an event but the best way to ensure its successful is to carry out every possible marketing strategy available. If you have an upcoming event here are the marketing methods you may wish to consider to ensure it’s a success.
Online Marketing
The easiest way to reach a large audience is to market your event online. If you’re short for time the most effective way to do this is with social media marketing and email marketing. Set up social media accounts on the popular social networking platforms Twitter and Facebook. On both these sites you can use hashtags. Every time you post on these pages you can use relevant hashtags to generate interest in your event. Build followers and encourage them to share you event info. Alternatively you can set up an event invite on Facebook and make it a public event. This means anyone can join, comment and invite their friends.
For events on a slightly larger scale PR is a must. By hiring a professional PR team you can be sure that your event will have maximum exposure and coverage amongst various platforms. A PR professional can use their contacts to get news of your event into targeted publications that will increase the interest in your event. Most public relations strategies include some level of social media marketing too so by choosing to have someone manage your PR for the event this could cover social media too. There are also specialised PR companies out there, so choose from an agency that specialises in your industry or in events PR.
Traditional Marketing
When hosting a one off local event a great way to create a buzz about it is to carry out a street stunt in the local area. Do something that will grab people’s attention. Make it clear you’re not doing it for money, rather to advertise something you think they’d be interested in. Have a banner made and leaflets to hand out so it’s clear why you’re there and people can find out all they need to know about the event. Try leafleting too, hand them out to people in the street and pop them through doors. Ask local venues to put up posters for you or display leaflets. Getting people talking in the area could be all you need to kick start the interest in your event.
When it comes to promoting your event you may choose to use a mix of all these methods, or just one. Traditional marketing such as leafleting works well for an event that will mostly be attended by locals, where as social media marketing and PR can target a wide audience from wide spread locations. Think about how each individual method would work for your particular event, could they all be beneficial? Getting the marketing strategy right is key to your event.
