Promoting an Event Requires Creativity

All the planning is done and you’re now ready to begin promoting an event. This is where a lot of event planners consider the major part of their job complete. However what’s often overlooked is that it takes planning and creativity to promote an event. I’m sure you have planned the best function ever however, without getting the word out properly, your event may fall short of expectations.

When Promoting an Event Think of the Attendees

I’ve seen too many meeting and event planners promote events the way they feel they would want to be approached. While I agree that this is a part of the promotion planning, it’s also important that you put yourself in your potential attendees shoes. In other words, think about what is it that would appeal to your target market that would make them want to attend your event.

Two Tips on How to Promote Your Event More Effectively

We all know how valuable social media platforms have become today. They’re one of the most effective tools for communication that we have. But, unfortunately, it’s not as simple as putting a message on Twitter, or Facebook for example, and then assuming that alone will communicate your message. As many seasoned promoters will tell you, your message can get lost in all of the chatter that is going on at any given time.

Keywords. Keyword sounds simple enough. For example, in this article a keyword that I’m using would be “promoting an event”. Keywords are often thought of as ways to increase organic traffic to your site. But think of keywords as they would relate to the theme of your event. Another way to think of them would be buzzwords. Words or phrases that will make your message pop out. Google trends is an excellent platform (that’s free to use) to research keywords or phrases for the type of event you are planning.

photo by mashable.com

Hashtags. If you are on twitter you’ve seen hashtags. They are words that are preceded with the “#” symbol. Now, unless you have a very popular twitter account, I’d be very careful about creating your own hashtags. There”s certainly nothing stopping you from using your own hashtags. If you already have a large mailing list for your target market, you could create your own hashtag and then communicate that to your mailing list. But if you”re like many event organizers your goal will be to drum up new attendees. This is why it’s important to understand the makeup of your target markets. You’ll want to research potential hashtags that this market segment would already be aware of. One site that you may want to check out is hashtags.org. There you can find trending hashtags as well as research potential hashtags that you’re considering.

It’s said that in today’s world you have about 6 seconds to make your “elevator pitch”. When you need to promote an event it’s important that, in addition to the event itself being enticing, you make sure your message pops out from all of the others.