Event Promotion Plan

An event promotion plan banishes those sleepless nights caused by stress over ticket sales. In 2021, events have become far more varied and innovative due to necessity. This article shares how to find the balance between under and overselling online. It also dives into powerful techniques to boost ticket sales. If your team is organising one such event in 2021, here are actionable steps that you can take so that your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.

What is event promotion?

Event promotion uses marketing strategies and channels to attract your event’s target audience and effectively drive event registration. The channels can include both online, such as social media and email marketing, and also physical, including flyers and adverts. Event promotion differs from event marketing as the goal of this format is to secure sales or brand awareness using the event itself. Whether you’re looking to impress at your next hybrid event, virtual or in-person, event promotion is how to sell tickets. 

Seven actionable steps for promoting your event

1. Paid social

Many myths surround paid Facebook and Instagram that frankly need to be debunked in this article. Many falsely believe that Facebook ads are ineffective for B2B or that you need to have a massive budget to see results. Having even a modest budget spend for your campaign allows you to increase and direct your reach.  

Facebook users average 12 ad clicks per month. That may not seem like many, but it’s one every 2.5 days. It’s also good to keep note that not all ads need a click to be effective. Most importantly, this Facebook stat shows that users continue to pay attention to and engage with Facebook ads, rather than tuning them out.

 

Top tip: rather than boosting your post. Make a specific ad campaign in Facebook ads manager. This way, you can control the target demographic, including age range and interest. You can also decide which platforms and which functions the post is seen through. Facebook Ads Manager can also use Instagram posts to create an ad. 

2. Create a video campaign

Creating a video campaign can help capture the excitement in ways a photo and caption can only dream of achieving. Achieve sign-ups for your event by garnering a real sense of excitement. Your target audience needs to see that this event is not one for them to miss. 

Highly engaging video content that tells the story of your event is the best chance of creating hype around your event. 

 

Allocate a budget for your video campaign and go from there. Shooting from your smartphone will give a relaxed tone, and you can build up to a professional crew to capture the build-up in precisely the way you envision. A video production team can help with everything from storyboarding to post-production so that you can focus on preparing all of the tasks for your event to run smoothly.

3. SEO 

There are plenty of tools to get to grips with SEO, often over-complicated by ‘marketing gurus’. What you need is an SEO keyword searcher such as Keywords Everywhere or Uber Suggest. Find what people are searching for. If your event is in person, you can narrow the keywords by country. Settle on your list of keywords to help people interested in your event find it and register. After that, it’s time to create blog posts, each dealing with one of the main keywords. 

If your event is not a once-off, the SEO work you do now will help future events, so it’s worth the investment. 

4. Encourage speakers to share

If you have keynote speakers, entertainers, musicians or any other professional taking part in the event, encourage them to share the news on their social media. The more content that circulates around your event, the better. Start by sending those involved videos, graphics and images. These make it easy for them to take part, which often means they’ll be more likely to help with promotion.

5. Email marketing 

Email marketing is free to use and relatively low on the time investment side too. However, it’s still one of the most effective ways of an event promotion plan. The average person checks their email 15 times per day! 

Start by building your email list. Usually, you’ll need some form of freebie or discount to get people to sign up. Another hint is to refrain from going overboard with the emails. Sending too many will lead to a swift unsubscribe. You need to create high-quality, personalised and engaging emails that recipients will enjoy opening.

6. Influencer marketing/ brand ambassadors

Influencer marketing isn’t just for the fashion and beauty industries. Getting in touch with social media influencers that have a direct line to your target audience is a smart move. Another option is to set up a brand ambassador scheme so that those that have purchased a ticket and refer a friend are eligible for a discount on future events. These are just two examples; however, promotion work often happens best when it’s not coming from the horse’s mouth!

7. Conversational promotion

Setting the tone across your promotion channel is another essential step in creating a tone that draws in rather than deters new followers. Long gone are the days of overselling. Strike a balance between engaging/informative posts, reposts and finally posts that are created for sign-ups. This way, your feed is enjoyable to check in with, but you’re also offering direct reminders that this upcoming event is exactly what your audience is looking for.

 

At Film Your Event, we are fully equipped with expertise and a talented crew to provide all the video work that you need for your event to be the best that it can be. You can check out our production packages here and how working with us maximises your event’s potential.

 

If you are looking for virtual event services in London or Belfast, here’s how to get in touch with our sister companies:

 

Virtual Events London & Virtual Events Belfast