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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What do you think when you’re looking for a product or service on the web and you find a web site that doesn’t have any contact details except an email form?

I ask who is behind the web site. Is it a genuine business? Can they actually provide what I’m looking for? Should I trust them with my money?

What I’m looking for is proof that they are a real business.

What do you need?

A question of trust

With so much fraud, spam emails and phishing attacks, most people like to satisfy themselves that they are dealing with a bona fide business. An email address linked with a specific domain (such as hel...@z2z.biz rather than a free email service), preferably a landline number rather than a mobile and a postal address can assure potential customers that you are a real business.

If I get to the point where I want to buy from a site but find the only way of contacting the company is through an email form, I simply won’t buy from them.

What if I have a question or something goes wrong? How do I know that anyone will answer if I fill in and send their email form? How do I get a refund?

Credibility is important in building customer relationships

Once customers can see who you are and where you are, they’ll feel more confident about buying from you.

Now you may have a very good reason for using a mobile phone rather than a landline, especially if your business keeps you on the move most of the time. That isn’t a problem if you also offer other contact details. Two or three methods of contact demonstrate that you are accessible and can be contacted easily. If you have other ways to prove this, these will help to establish credibility.

Do real businesses hide?

Why would any business looking to generate sales hide? Getting your contact details out as widely as possible makes it easier for customers to contact you and buy from you.

What do you think?

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And what do other people think you look like?

They can’t tell if you don’t have a good photograph. And many people in business still don’t have a decent photograph of themselves.

What do you need?

Why do you need good photos?
It no longer surprises me when someone has taken the effort to write and distribute a press release but hasn’t thought about an accompanying photo or image. They will probably spend hours trying to get in front of an important potential client, forgetting that they could also get noticed by having their photo published alongside an article.

When I do ask, often I receive a photo taken at low resolution with a mobile phone camera or a badly composed picture taken in an office with battered box files and piles of filing in the background.

How do you get a good photo?
I’d recommend a professionally taken photograph, but even a well composed shot at high resolution against an uncluttered background is a step in the right direction.

That means a JPEG file with a resolution of 300 dots per inch at a size of 500K to 1MB or more, depending on the efficiency of the camera and any photo editing software (if you use it).

What can you do with it?
Add it to your web site, online networking profiles, send it with press releases or articles. Before long, people will see your face popping up everywhere and be more aware of who you are.

More importantly, if you get a call out of the blue asking you to comment on a topic in the media, you’ll have a photo ready to send so that not only will you sound professional, you’ll look professional too.

And just to show that we practise what we preach, we’ve included a photo of z2z partners Robert (I’m on the left) and Simon.

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