Event Promotion
All the efforts into event planning will be useless if the targeted market does not attend the event. This brings in a concept called event promotion. Promoting an event is making the people that are targeted by the event organizers not only to attend, but also to want to attend. Over the years event organizers have come up with ideas that have not only made their events successful, but also memorable.
There have been panel discussions at Winter Music Conference by leaders in the IDM music industry and concert promotion offering their experience in event promotion.
Here are some ideas to get you going…
Be Concise in the Advertisement Media
You probably have been given a flyer of an event at one point in your life. How much of the information do you read? A paragraph utmost? This is precisely why your advertisement media should be brief and clear. You must communicate what you want to pass on in your event promotion material within the first sentence.
Promotion Transfers
This is like the student exchange program, only this time it is with the media stations such as TVs and radios. What happens here is that you promise to promote them on your flyers if they slot in an ad of your event in their programs. Remember radios and TVs have a very wide reach to targeted people. Actually, they are the best form of event promotion there is today.
Social Media
This is the newest method of event promotion. A good example will be opening a page on Facebook for your event, link it with your website and other social media platforms such as twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. Social media has a very wide reach. If you are able to market your event well on social media, it will be an instant success. You can give discounted tickets to people that like your event page on Facebook.
Concentrate on your Target Audience
Do not waste a lot of the resources allocated to the event promotion budget on people who may not attend your event. The industry standard is spending 70% of your event promotion budget on the target audience. If you are promoting a religious convention, concentrate on Christian media and websites to get the message across. Promoting the event in sports websites is counterproductive…you get the drift.
Get your Facts Right
There is nothing that has a devastating effect on events’ attendance like a sudden change of venue or participants. If your promotion material says person ‘X’ will be addressing the meeting or band ‘Y’ will be performing or the event will take place at venue ‘A’, please let these facts be right. A sudden change of the facts as per your event promotion material will make your event look disorganized. People like being associated with events that are properly organized. Do your best to keep your word as shown in your event promotion material. This industry is built on reputation and if yours is good, you will find organizing and promoting events an easy task.
Prepare for any Eventuality
It is expected that things will not go as expected in major events. As an events promoter, you should be prepared for these eventualities with an alternative program. You should have a plan A, B, and C for any event that you are promoting.
