7 Creative Event Marketing Promotion Ideas That Work.
Event Marketing an event is difficult.
Fortunately, there are creative ways to advertise your event.
If you want to know how to market an event, here are 7 ideas to get you started.
Are you putting on a major event?
Event planning requires a special talent, serious effort, and a significant time commitment.
After this type of expenditure, you want to ensure the word gets out and that you meet or exceed your goal.
Your marketing goals include:
- attracting your target market.
- meeting or exceeding your attendance goal.
- receive a return on all investments, including time, labor, and capital.
- Doing so depends on effective marketing.
Do you know how to find your perfect customer and get their attention to promote a successful event?
Keep on reading to learn more!
Event Marketing and Where to Start. Marketing an event takes serious effort, but with creativity, you can make it both fun and efficient work!
1. Create a Facebook Event
Over one billion people use Facebook.
Creating an event on this marketing platform is easy to set up and you can target your perfect customer with paid advertising on Facebook.
Facebook also allows you to expand your reach to a worldwide audience with ads that can start at $5 -$10. This is an excellent way to test out your offer and see how people respond to your posts.
You can invite loyal fans who attended your events in the past and those who follow your social media site already, you can easily reach them and encourage them to invite others into your personal network.
This allows you to target people you know will want to attend and keep them updated on the progress so that they remember to attend your event.
Though the inviting process takes time, Facebook always sends reminders as the event approaches, making it time well spent.
2. Create Blog Posts
Did you ever wonder how to promote an event without people knowing that you are promoting the event?
Write creative guest blogger posts, or hire a content company to write them for you, then slide a link to your event page inside anchor text on an outside blog.
For example:
- Your Event: Bodybuilding Competition
- Outside Blog: a local or national nutrition company’s blog
- Guest Post(s) Topic: best foods to eat while training for a fitness competition
- Anchor Text: insane bodybuilding competition
People do not usually share advertisements, but they do share interesting blog posts!
The outside company benefits from the free content you have written, you expand your customer base and you are also building important relationships in business.
You get to advertise without it looking like an advertisement!
3. Enlist Local Businesses
Local businesses can help you promote by postering, flyering, and even adding your event onto their own marketing material!
Some companies might love your event idea and happily do this for free.
Others may want in and advertise if you make them a part of the event, adding an extra element.
Either way, you may gain their loyal customers and improve your event with their help!
If your product or service is complementary and not directly competing with your potential partner, you can both cross-promote and benefit from reaching a new audience while cutting down your cost of advertising.
4. Brand for Success
Everybody loves free stuff. Amp up your flyering session by passing out event goodies instead of paper.
Add at least the event name and website to cool giveaways to draw people in.
We provide custom t-shirt printing, tote bag printing, and embroidery for hats and polos.
If you’re providing uniforms for your staff or giving out branded t shirts to your potential customers. T-shirts make a great billboard that’s inexpensive and get’s your logo out in front of people’s eyes. If you are looking for the best quality t shirts read this article.
Cool marketing gear includes:
Choose gear that fits your event and turn crowds into walking advertisements with printed logo tees!
5. Create a Contest
Again, free offers draw people in.
Create a sharable contest on social media to get people interested in your event.
Ideally, you would want to capture your audience email to be able to market and advertise your upcoming events, product deals or services you offer.
You can collect emails through your website using pop-ups like app sumo or you can collect emails through your Facebook page.
Enticing prizes include:
- free entry
- backstage passes
- a meet and greet or luncheon with the keynote speaker
- an impressive prize package from event vendors
Not only will this help the word spread like wildfire, but it provides you with the opportunity to collect names and email addresses for future promotions!
6. Start a Podcast
With the growing podcast trend, you should start your own, with topics related to your event’s mission.
Research shows that podcast listeners show loyalty, listening often and through most if not all of the cast.
There are a number of great resources to help you get started podcasting and the tools needed to get going are fairly inexpensive.
This Entrepreneur article goes through the Top 10 Items you’ll need to start a podcast.
For a successful podcast:
- cast consistently
- pick topics related to your event that your target audience will love
- throw in exciting bits about the event
- build anticipation with secrets that will get revealed at some point
- make it useful by offering helpful information
- bring on guest speakers that do great things in whatever industry your event falls under
- If you create an engaging podcast, you make people want to meet you and get involved in whatever you’re doing.
They will talk about it and share it with their friends, and you will grow the event numbers.
7. Hire Brand Ambassadors
You can do this on multiple levels. First, if you know of any influential people who attend your events or often promote similar causes, reach out to them and see if they would consider promoting yours.
If they like what you’re doing enough, they may want to do this for free!
Another way to go about this is to hire local promotional models to go out and hype up your event at local restaurants, bars, gyms, etc. Set them up with games to make it interactive.
A friendly face can work wonders with boosting attendance numbers!
Watch Your Attendance Numbers Grow!
Implement some or all of these ideas on how to market your event, and watch the masses pour in!
For all of your promotional item needs, from shirts to tents, email us and check us out!
We want to help you create a successful event!
If you have any suggestions and ideas that have worked for you, let us know in the comments below!