Does your business plan events for yourself or other businesses? If so, you know that getting bodies in the door is one of the most important pieces of planning an event. This task may seem daunting - it’s hard to know who will show up and who won’t. The best solution is to promote the event in the places where you can reach a large number of people, online. Here are three ways to amplify your reach and ensure your event is a success:
1. Promote your event on social media. Which social media platforms are you using? Make sure you’re promoting on all of them. Feel free to start as soon as your event is planned and information available online is. If you’re more than four weeks out from the event, mentioning it once or twice a week will suffice.
As the event gets closer, post on each platform as much as you feel is appropriate. My personal promotion rule is 2-3 times per week on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and similar platforms, and up to once per day on Twitter. Make sure you get creative! Post photos of the venue, create online flyers to be distributed, post event links - and remember, images typically get more interaction than simple text posts.
2. Create shareable content - then share it. Do you have a place where you write regularly online, such as a blog? Make sure you drop in mentions of your event when it make sense as you’re writing. Then, write blogs specifically for certain milestones in the event planning process, such as date/venue/topic chosen, early bird registration, end of early bird registration, registration closing, etc.
The key piece of this strategy is sharing your blog, also known as seeding. Seeding is essentially distributing your blog link as much as possible across the web. Here are a few free places to consider submitting your blog: Alltop, Pinterest, Scoop.It, and some paid options: Outbrain, social advertising on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
3. Leverage sponsors, speakers and your audience. Will you have sponsors or speakers at your event? If so, they almost certainly have a dedicated audience that pays attention to what they say. Make sure sponsors and speakers are doing their part to sell tickets or fill seats at your event. Give them a checklist of ways to promote the event (this blog is a great start!) and, if you’re skeptical about follow through, offer sample content for them to use for promotion.
Leveraging your audience can be equally successful. Run a contest; give away tickets to the event, backstage passes, a signed speaker giveaway - whatever you can come up with. Then promote the contest on social media. Make sure you ask participants to share your photos and posts to enter, thus promoting your event to their audiences as well.
What strategies do you use to ensure your event goes off without a hitch? I’d love to hear more about them. Drop me a line at jackie@jackiesteinmetz.com or leave a comment below.
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