Insight, advice, news and chit chat

5 ways to market an event

5 ways to market your event to people

Make a page for your event

This is the landing page that can describe the event and allows people to sign up. I like Eventbrite, though it takes a  commission it’s really easy to use and people can book themselves in. You don’t have to manage a spreadsheet of attendees, it takes care of payment online, and it sends reminders a day before the event to those who have signed up. It also lets you modify the URL of the event so you can use this when sharing the event on social media, in emails, and in your email signature.

Share the event page

Anyone in your team can be given a selection of draft Tweets, LinkedIn updates, Facebook updates that they can use on their social media channels. As part of your event marketing plan, decide how often a week you will be sharing the details of your event, and vary the words you use. Be sure to shorten the URL (I use Bitly) See here 3 different example tweets (not with the right link), that can all be about the same event:

Join Keren for Social Media training on March 16th– it’s life changing! https://tldis.it/socialandcontent

It’s 3 weeks away – your chance to learn what’s important in digital marketing! https://tldis.it/socialandcontent  #socialmediatraining

We’re excited to launch our first ever social media training day at Netcetera! https://tldis.it/socialandcontent  #socialmediatraining

Plan a 3 sequence email campaign:

The first is the “Early Bird” version – rough draft (note I put square brackets around the detail bits)

——————–

We are very excited to announce that we will be bringing over an experienced speaker to help us to work out the opportunities and possibilities of digital marketing today. People are more and more aware that it’s not just “whether to have a digital strategy” for your business, but more “how will digital marketing fit into our strategy”?

Here are the main details you need to know
[Date / Time/ Location/ Booking info / etc]

What will you learn
[bulleted list]

This is the start of other future events we plan to hold, and will give us all a change to network with each other and continue to build on our potential relationships, both online and in person.

Book before [date] for the early bird discount of [amount].

All attendees will receive a free booklet on 44 Marketing Tips

————————

Then plan to send 2 more, which are written differently – and have promts such as:
“You have 1 more day to get the early bird discount”
“5 spots left, be sure to book yourself in”

It’s your choice if you want to do an early bird discount, but the point is to write 3 emails, spaced apart, and make sure each email is:

  • Well written
  • Text is unique to that email, not copy pasted from the previous one
  • Spaced logically apart in terms of timing in relation to the event
  • Well formatted
  • Links are all working
  • Information is true and accurate

You can out by sending it to me so I can check formatting and wording.

Write blurbs for your centres of influence to send in their next email communications.

If you have contacts that have large mailing lists – for example accountants or trade bodies / associations, you can make it easier for them by writing a draft blurb that describes that their friends Netcetera are hosting an event. This means they don’t have to think about how to word it. Include a picture and ensure whoever is managing their newsletter sends a test to you so we can check the wording, formatting and image placement.

Mention the event when you speak to people

When having your normal day to day meetings, or attending events/networking breakfasts, mention the event, ask people outright if they would like to come – it’s a great icebreaker, gets you talking about online marketing and social media, which affects all businesses, and even if people aren’t available, it’s good for them to know you are hosting such an event, and it prolongs your conversation (which of course builds deeper connection!)

It may seem a lot of work, but events are a great talking point. There are huge marketing benefits to you to be associated with hosting an event, bringing in a speaker, helping people with marketing, and being seen as someone who contributes to the local business community. Let me know if you want me to review any blurbs or test any emails you send out before they go out to the full mailing list.

Leave a comment

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>