Creative Ideas for Event Promotion

You know your event is going to be great. You have fantastic speakers, the perfect venue, delicious catering and entertainment to wow your guests.

All you need now is to make sure people actually turn up! Here are our top 10 creative ideas for integrated marketing campaigns for event promotion:

Be Social: Social media is a fantastic tool when it comes to promoting your event – it has been reported that 10-20% of ticket sales are a result of a strong social media campaign. A few ways to really make social media work for you are:

• Paid advertising – this is one of the most inexpensive advertising options out there, if used effectively
• Create an event hashtag to see your event trending – you can check what is being said about your event by following the hashtag
• Create fun, interactive competitions, such as “tag a friend to be entered into a prize draw. Winner to be announced at the event”
• Respond! If someone sends you a message through social media, make sure you respond to them, people are busy like immediate responses. The more you are at the forefront of their minds, the more likely they will be to attend your event.

Event website: You will need a place for people to register to attend your event, direct their questions and find out all of the vital information – your website is the place to do this, so make it engaging and accessible to your audience (it will also help increase your page views too, which will help your website climb in those all-important search rankings).

Email: Email is still a great way of spreading the word about events, however to achieve maximum effectiveness, make sure you do it properly. Not all customers will be interested in every event, so it is important to segment your lists. The more targeted and relevant your emails are, the greater the likelihood of conversion. For your day to day emails, how about adding an eye-catching banner promoting your event to your email signature that will link through to your site?

Partners and Sponsors: People still buy from people. Your business will have built up a network of contacts, and each of them will have their own network. What activities can they do to help promote your event? It is in the interest of the companies sponsoring your event to bring people in, so let them help do the work!

Think Local: Most towns and cities will have local publications or online “What’s On” guides. Take out a small advert and you might even get some free editorial thrown in.

Be creative, challenging and innovative: One of the best things about planning an event is embracing the opportunity to be creative and to try something new. Can you organise a pop up installation to promote the main event somewhere central that will create a buzz? (This works wonders for your social campaigns!) Get people talking by leaving some clues around the city (where permitted) such as temporary signposts, floor stickers etc. – this is also great for building brand awareness.

Incentivise: Encourage early booking by offering an early bird discount, something as simple as a discounted booking fee can really help drive up those ticket sales! Offering the opportunity for people to be entered into a competition when they register is also an effective way of engaging your audience.

Be Visual: As they say; “a picture speaks a thousand words” so instead of using those thousand words, post an engaging image with a short, sharp caption, effective alt text descriptions or a powerful infographic and see attendance climb.

Social influencer: If you have a little more budget available, you could look to engage with an “influencer” who can help spark interest in your event. An important thing to remember though, is that they must be appropriate and relevant to your product and business – perhaps your keynote speakers can promote the event to their networks.

Think thematically: Does your event have a theme? For instance, have you decided on a circus themed gala dinner? If so, have fun with making your promotion tie in with your theme, such as creating your invitations to look like an invitation to a show in the Big Top.

Combining some of these simple ideas will see your events sell out in no time!