What is the ultimate goal of event organization?
The entire reason you put together an event is so that people can buy tickets and go to it. Promotion is essential for attracting attention to the event. Digital strategies can reel in a lot of attendees, but it can also make it easy to break the budget.
Continue reading to learn about 10 innovative ideas for event promotion:
- Make it Conversational
Don’t strictly stick with obvious marketing content. Make your messages conversational and engaging. The 4:1:1 rule is implemented by businesses to build trust with their audience. It states that for every four content posts there should be one shared post or repost and one promotional post.
Content posts are messages and ideas from others that are related to your event. These will grab potential attendees’ attention and prompt them to start a conversation.
Another way of making things engaging is to use the Story feature that most social media apps have nowadays. Give people the chance to see behind-the-scenes and insider content of the event as it’s being organized and prepared. The more social media accounts you have, the better chance of attracting more attendees. Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are popular apps for posting stories.
- Start a Blog
Why have a blog when you can reach a wide audience through various social media? Well, blogging has multiple benefits. The blog is completely dedicated to teaching people about your event, such as how it’s entertaining or educational. The information given, which can be as many posts and as lengthy as needed, will show the purpose of the event.
Having an entire blog for your event rather than only using social media allows you to boost SEO. Blogging regularly and properly using keywords will increase your search engine ranking. People browsing the web are more likely to come across your blog.
You can also feature sponsors and guests on blog posts to expose your content to more audiences.
- Merchandise
Giving away or selling merchandise effectively creates walking advertisements. If you print t-shirts, anyone who wears it will make everyone they pass by aware of your event.
Using colorful designs and simple logos catches people’s attention. It’s also easy for them to remember your event and look it up later. You can order other merch besides t-shirts. For example, Make Your Wristbands creates custom wristbands.
- Create a YouTube Channel
YouTube is the second-biggest search engine. It makes sense to take advantage of that and create a channel for your event. A great way to initially expose your new channel is to collaborate on videos with guests that have a large following on YouTube. There are a number of promotional videos you can film.
A highlight reel of the last event or a compilation of past events show what the event looks like and what attendees will be doing. Behind the scenes videos give extra content that is more personal instead of purely a marketing strategy. Sneak peeks that are enticing make people want to know more about the event.
A video explaining what attendees will get from the event and one on how to get the most out of the event promote the purpose of the event. If your event is like a convention, where participants can pick and choose from a variety of mini-events, then people may see a certain one they like in a video on the specific mini-events.
- Implement Email Targeting
Sending out general emails isn’t very effective. The people within your target audience aren’t all the same, so a general email will only catch the attention of a portion of those it’s sent to.
Segmenting email lists make it easy to write more specific emails tailored to each target group. You can have separate groups for location, age, industry, ticket type, people who have been to the event before, and first-time attendees.
Create appropriate subject lines and CTAs. The emails will feel more personal and actually connect with the smaller groups.
- Try Podcasting
70% of Americans know what podcasting is. In just a short amount of time, podcasting has gained more and more popularity. Your podcast should be relevant to your event. It should also be engaging, whether it’s educational or entertaining. A good idea is to have guest speakers from other podcasts or people participating in the event.
If managing a podcast seems too daunting, you can be a guest speaker or sponsor for podcasts with related target audiences. If it sounds like something you’d be interested in trying, visit https://melonapp.com/features/
- Find Social Influencers
Many fans help promote your event without even being asked to. They may make a post about how they bought a ticket and are excited to go, or upload pictures of them at the event. A creative way to reel in new attendees is to find a fan who is a social influencer. They can help you promote the event and sell more tickets.
You can also search for celebrities, famous bloggers and YouTubers, and experts to become paid ambassadors. They’ll talk about your event in strategic posts or videos.
Buyers can be ambassadors, too. Give attendees the option of sharing a link to their social media account after purchasing a ticket. Those who click the link will get a discount code. To increase the number of people who share the link, refund a portion of the ticket cost for every person who buys a ticket through that link.
- Free Tickets
Giving away free tickets may seem like a loss, but it promotes your event. For example, you can offer tickets to large, influential companies and ask that they talk about the event on social media and tell their contacts. This is usually done with companies that are somehow participating in your event.
Another option is to implement an enter-to-win sweepstakes. You can get creative with online giveaways and incorporate the social media platform you’re using.
For example, have a video contest on YouTube, a drawing or writing contest with a given prompt, or a tagging contest. Make sure you follow the rules set by platforms when holding a contest.
- Limited Offers and Extras
Ticket discounts distributed throughout the year remind people of the event. Limited time to buy the tickets or having a specific number of discounted tickets is an incentive for people to purchase a ticket soon. These messages can be emailed and sent through social media.
An additional idea is to offer something a little extra for those who buy tickets. For example, if the event is educational, send a free video class to attendees. For an entertaining event, send a special video they only have access to.
To get more people to attend, set up a raffle for for those who buy early. Email attendees an icon or badge that they can show on social media. Embed a link in the icon or badge, so anyone curious is redirected to your website.
- Show off Sponsors and Guests
Let potential attendees get to know more about special guests and those behind your sponsors. Upload “About” pages of individual people working on the event on your website, share their stories on social media, and even have some people post original content.
This will show that the event organizers, which includes you, value individuality and aren’t all about making a profit. You and everyone involved in the event want attendees to enjoy their time and come back for the next one. It’s a marketing strategy that has a personal touch.
Make Event Promotion Creative
Having creative ways to promote your event can actually cut down marketing prices. It can be fun for you and your target audience if you set up giveaways that engage them, launch an interesting podcast or YouTube channel, and so on.
You may not be able to use all of these event promotion ideas for one event, but you can mix and match. Implement any of these strategies to entice your target audience!
