To celebrate Event Organizers Day, I wanted to take a minute to talk about my history with event promotion and how my event planning package can help you streamline your events. This post is just a taste of what is in the package, and if you’re stumped on how to promote your event, especially if you’re selling tickets, make sure to read on and download my workbook and full write-up.
dG Event Social Media Planning and Promotion – FREE Package
Download the manual and spreadsheet to help create your very own custom event plan. If you would like to chat with me about this template, schedule a screen-sharing call and if you need to get everyone on the same page, we can do a conference call for your team.
Whether I am promoting festivals on either coast, sitting on the board of the local TEDx event, or putting together pop-up markets featuring local artisans, my experience has been diverse. Most of the time, there was limited, or no, budget for social media, which meant there was a lot of creativity involved in getting these events off the ground. I established blog spaces, newsletters, laying out event program booklets, speaker selection, and sought after vendors for markets.
Working with a dedicated team of folks to bring an event to life is rewarding. While it is challenging to put on an event, there are so many moments that make it worthwhile. The memories and experiences I have are some amazing times. I’ve also had the pleasure of volunteering for events like Charlotte Oktoberfest for many years and the first Carolina Cannabis Convention earlier this year.
First Things First
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Before you can begin promoting your event, make sure to do the basics. Determining the criteria for a venue can include things such as easy access for load-in, available parking, plus onsite, and online promotions. Don’t forget to check if you need to get a permit! Once you’ve secured your location, the focus should shift to some quick, necessary planning.
Create an event plan with branding and short snippets for you to use when you begin promoting. This message will grow into your promotional materials and keep your communications cohesive. You will need to consider your competitive market, target audience, theme or feel of the event, and establish other marketing must-haves like a tagline or three main benefits of your event. Now is the time to create an early bird or VIP tickets plan. You may want to consider event attractions like children’s activities, local art, and other accommodations for guests.
Participants
“Collaborate with people you can learn from.”
– Pharrell
What does your event look like, who is participating? From team members to volunteers, you need to drum up participation. If you’re running an in-store or online only promotion, consider the brands around you to help boost the signal on social channels in your online community.
In the manual, you can learn how to reach out via email and seek partnerships to help cover logistical needs for the event. Whether it’s adding a logo to the shirt sleeve in exchange for free shirts or a donation of tables for vendors, enhance the experience with partnerships and sponsors to prevent vendors or ticket-holders from being the primary source of funding for the event budget. Building beyond your team also increases your reach with cross-promotion from your partners.
For a list of important emails, make sure to download the package. In it, you will find a breakdown of event-coordination and promotional emails to help you reach vendors, volunteers, or sponsors as well as guests. Establishing healthy expectations for everyone involved helps keep everyone happy and ready to go, eliminating as much day-of chaos as possible.
Build social participation with participants by providing them with the tools to promote your event. Offer marketing materials like infographics, vendor icons, and Stories templates for them to create their content. Encourage them to share these visuals and tag other partners they know or use a specific hashtag. Let them know what to submit, so they have ample opportunity to be featured in event promotions. Make sure to specifically request vertical video submissions from participants (sponsors, vendors, volunteers, team members) for Instagram Stories. And make sure that partners are adding their Facebook page to your Facebook Event to optimize the event page reach.
Event Promotion
Shine bright like an algorithm.
Now that we have the annoying business things out of the way, it’s time to get creative.
Using the suggested design and media specs located in the spreadsheet, follow the Promotions Timeline tab to plan out a successful launch and promotional campaign with plenty of content for you to begin putting together your posts.
Putting together your marketing material into a plan starts with a pitch page, whether it’s your Facebook event or Eventbrite page, or your website landing page, here’s how you put everything together to begin generating activity around your event.
By now, you should have the following for your event page:
- Location or Venue
- Date Plan
- Tagline
- Event Hashtag
- Event Logo
- Images of Desired Participants
- Event Distinction
- 3 Benefits
- Attractions + Amenities
- Special Offerings
- Beneficiaries
- Capture for Participants and Sponsors
- Event Notices & Policies
- Brand(s) Boilerplate (for main brand or sponsors etc.)
The event promotion package goes into detail on how to establish these for your event and create a successful pitch page.
Now it’s time to fill out that event promotion calendar. Set up a shared calendar (or calendars by category), including critical milestones, assignments, and other deadlines. Things like advertising target dates, email dates, and other calendar-related items can be plugged in and shared for easy date planning.
After you’ve got your website or Eventbrite setup, consider the following launch ideas to begin building buzz:
- Create a Facebook Event Page. Link Eventbrite if desired or linked back to the website/ticketing page.
- Begin a Save the Date campaign in a newsletter and on social media.
- Submit a short description and small icon to local news or blog event calendars.
- Create capture forms for volunteers, vendors, or sponsors.
- Boost Facebook event page early to capture vendors and sponsors.
- Start creating Insta stories that include personal introductions or excitement from the team.
- Begin flyer distribution.
- Set up ticketing. Add tickets to Facebook Event Page, so anyone invited or interested will get the notification that tickets are now available.
- Create five headlines to use on Twitter. Schedule tweets starting six weeks out to share these headlines via your Twitter network. Link to Primary Event URL or Facebook Event.
- Add linkbacks or website features for vendors and other participants as they are acquired.
The event promotion workbook includes a full list of targets for social media to help solidify a campaign that suits your brand. Things like optimizing your shoutouts and highlights, making sure to feature event participants and sponsors on social media, and in newsletters to highlight contributors and encourage them to share on their social networks. How to build awareness using the promotional items you’ve already established like benefits and attractions. Plus, some creative prompts like quotes, snippets, questions, and controversies for you to use when building your event campaign.
Finishing Touches
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
-Benjamin Franklin
While finalizing the event schedule or details, make sure to set the tone and keep building buzz. Set a reminder to check or follow the event hashtag to reposting or sharing when anyone tags the event. Now that vendor placement planning is completed, exhibitors can begin sharing with their audience where they will be within the event. Send out some visual aids for them to post on their networks and encourage them to invite any friends to the Facebook event to help boost the signal.
On Instagram Stories, share posts tagging or using the event hashtag to show off your social proof and amp up the audience participation. Repost Twitter excitement. Share Facebook posts. Be respectful when using other people’s content. Ask permission before posting and use image tags for profiles, including photographers, when using their images on your Instagram.
Event marketing increases engagement. Make sure to include ways for attendees to interact with at your event to encourage engagement on the event page or profile. Photo booth props, signage with the hashtag or other event promotion details on them, and other prompts to help share online will help get shoutouts. Where possible, use incentives or discounts to increase activity. Every social network has a specific vibe, so make sure you customize and promote in spaces where your audience inhabits.
Post-event Wrapup
The end?
Celebrate! Good job putting yourself out there. Shortly after the event, put out a Post Event Survey and see if you can do a Team Review for standards and improvements for next time! Share video or image galleries from event, schedule out over time to space out the content, and help make it last when you’re not actively working towards a new event. Tie up your loose ends with my list of ideas on wrapping up and rounding up feedback in the manual.
“Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.”
– Geoffrey Fisher
Unfortunately, in the event promotion industry, there are a lot of shady practices and people. Knowing what to look for when participating in events can help you avoid disasters. There are a few things to look out for if you are an artisan looking to participate in pop-ups. Check to see whether the vendors’ fee is going towards advertising, promotion of your brand, and maybe even backlinks to your website. Look for a website, strong social presence, event sponsorships so that the budget isn’t based solely on the artists. Stay savvy!
Need an event description? How about a Save the Date campaign? What about raising some awareness? If you have any questions or need a consultation for your event, schedule a call today!
Consider consulting with me to nail down an event promotion plan and timeline. Bring your team together for a custom pre-event planning session to get everyone on the same page. We can do a video call to review the template and talk about your digital marketing needs.
Happy planning!
