If you’ve ever organised a business or community event, you’ll how much time and effort it can take.
So it’s very disappointing, after a venue has been set, activities finalised, speakers or performers booked and behind-scenes helpers arranged, to realise that nobody knows about your event.
That’s what happened recently when we were called in to help publicise a big community event just weeks before it started. Running over several days and with the potential to attract people from across the country, we realised that publicity should have been started months before to pull in the largest number of visitors.
Thanks to social media tools, including twitter and facebook, and some quick public relations, we were able to secure coverage in the regional press, a local radio interview and a regional TV mention on the day, but we could have achieved so much more if we’d been brought in earlier.
With planning and preparation in good time, there’s a lot you can do to publicise an event and attract lots of people to it. Here’s a brief guide to what you can do.
What do you need?
Work backwards to determine deadlines and create an activity schedule
Deciding how far in advance you need to publicise an event is one of the first tasks.
Depending on the type of event you’re organising, deadlines for each promotional activity will differ. For example, if you’re organising an international event aimed at visitors from other countries, you’ll need to take into account the time people need to make their travel arrangements and book accommodation. They probably won’t be able to jump on a plane and fly over at a moment’s notice, but will need to be targeted many months in advance. On the other hand, a small local event could require several weeks’ notice.
Publications all have deadlines and you need to send information to them in time for them to include it before printing and distribution. Some monthly magazines need information several months in advance, while newspapers and online media often work to shorter deadlines. Use these deadlines to create an activity schedule so that you know when each task needs to be completed.
Who do you want to attract?
If you’re staging a performance, the target audience is likely to be those people who like live entertainment. You can break this down further, depending on whether it’s music, theatre, comedy or another type of act. You can do the same for other activities, such as sports or hobbies.
With business events, your event could appeal to small or large businesses, those in a specific sector, people with similar job types, eg marketing or human resources, or other group.
Identifying the target market you want to attract is essential if you are to reach them through your publicity and advertising.
How much promotion do you need?
A one-off seminar with 10 places will probably need less publicity than a seven-day run of theatrical performances with an audience capacity of 3,500. Each event will have different requirements and so it’s best to determine the amount of promotion required. What budget do you need to reach this number of people? How many posters, flyers or other material will you need to print? How long will it take you to prepare and distribute material?
Your answers will help you to fine tune your activity schedule.
How do you reach your audience?
Find out what publications and media serve your target group. Anglers will read fishing magazines or visit specialist web sites, while lawyers will read the legal press and monitor web sites for legal professionals.
Advertising, press releases, events listings, newsletters and social media campaigns can all be used to promote your event. Advertise community events with posters in shop windows and banners in the street, and approach local television and radio stations. Promote business events through printed and email newsletters, and press releases sent to general or specialist business press. There are many media channels available.
Social media tools are ideal for promoting events and you can use these to talk about an event, where it is, what it’s about and what people will get out of it. You can also take advantage of viral opportunities for people to pass on details to all their family, friends or contacts. As well as press releases and written material, use videos of previous or similar events to show people exactly what they can expect.
How do you persuade people to book?
It’s easiest when you have a dedicated box office which people can phone to book tickets or an online booking service where they can reserve and pay for tickets at any time.
Make ticket booking phone numbers and web addresses prominent on all adverts and posters and in all press material. Make it as easy as possible for people to make a booking.
All forms of online promotion can link directly to the booking page. You can also post the event on twitter, facebook and online entertainment or event sites. There are services such as schmap.it which help you promote events on twitter, while you can create events listings in Facebook.
Of course, the description of your event has to be appealing and photographs and images always help to attract interest.
Is that everything?
There’s no end to what you can do to promote an event and the main limitations will be time and budget. It’s worth deciding how much time and money you want to spend promoting your event before you start organising it. If you’re looking to generate a profit, you don’t want to spend more advertising it than it will generate in ticket and other sales.
What is most important is that, whatever event you organise, you publicise it as widely as required in good time so that people who are interested do not miss it.
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