Basic Event Marketing

Two elements, in varying proportions, make marketing possible – program content and the organizations or individuals involved in promoting the event.

Fairly early in my career I was thinking about creating a large event for architects. I started by meeting with a friend of mine, a curmudgeonly but well-respected architect. He said, “You want to do an event for architects? I go to events every year put on by the state association, the national association, and several other industry and interest groups. Why would anyone want to attend an architecture conference sponsored by Sean Spence?”

I was thrown off by the bluntness of his response and didn’t regain my balance in time to offer anything of value to the conversation, so the whole idea kind of dissipated and we moved on to other things. He was right, of course, and the experience provided two pretty key lessons.

1. Make sure you have key validators as early as possible.

2. To whatever extent is necessary, be ready to include the involvement of those key validators in your marketing messages, from the very beginning.

I never did do the architecture event, but I have created others related to the arts, African American culture, the insurance industry, and homeland security. Am I an expert or recognized authority in any of these areas? No, but for each case I made sure that, early on, we had solid, recognizable partners who could lend the event their impeccable credibility.

As you start to think about promoting your event, remember those two key elements – program content and validators. They provide the raw materials you need to create solid promotional messages.

Once you have a strong foundation for your event, you’ll need to create the messages you want to send. Sometimes your budget may be such that you can hire an agency to do the work for you, but this book is about how to do these things for yourself, so forget about that.

You can make the process of creating your core messaging as simple or as complex s you want (based largely on the amount of time and help you have). Here is a seven-step process that works well, and you can alter it to accommodate your resources.

1. Make a list of all the reasons people should want to attend your event.

2. Do Internet research, reading about similar events.

3. Review the list and add to it or otherwise adjust it as you see fit.

4. Assemble a group of 2-5 other people and talk about the event and the list, adjusting it as the group sees fit.

5. Write a persuasive statement about the event.

6. Discuss the statement with people you trust and alter accordingly.

7. Use the statement as the foundation for all of your promotional messages, which can now be written, as needed.

Once you have your marketing message, then the primary thing that remains is choosing the tactics you will use. This will be determined in many respects by budget. In the best-case scenario, you will be able to have a mixture of free and paid promotional vehicles.

Let’s take a good look at the options, starting with the “I have no marketing budget at all” options and working our way down the list to “Hey, I can actually put some bucks into getting folks to this shindig.”

E-mail

One of the most powerful tools you can have for event marketing is a good e-mail list. Sure, you can probably find someplace to buy a decent list, but there really is no substitute for building your own. In this respect, Google is your best friend. For every event, expand your e-mail list.

Here are some tips:

· Personalize the message as much as possible (all sorts of online services are available to make this easy).

· Follow spam laws

Social networking

There are a handful of social networking sites – and there will probably be more by the time this is published – but as of right this minute Facebook is the only one that can play a major role in attracting people to most events.

Your best bet is to create a Facebook Event – this is essentially a Facebook-based Web page that will exist specifically for your event. You can send invitations to your Facebook friends and your friends, in turn, can invite their friends. You can also post photos, messages, videos, and discussions. It provides an easy way to invite lots of people, allow others to invite people, and interact

Media relations

We could pretty easily write an entire book about media relations for event promotion (maybe that should be the next one?). In those cases in which you think the media should be interested in your event, here are the key things to remember.

· Target members of the media who cover the news related to your event. If you don’t know, call the assignment editor and ask.

· Pre-calling is better than follow-up calls to confirm that media releases and other information have been received. In media surveys, follow-up calls are generally among the top three reporter pet peeves; this is not the case for pre-calls, in which the message can be something like, “I’m just calling to let you know if this is something that might interest you; if so, I could e-mail you the details right now.” In the frequent case in which you get voice mail, you can say something like, “I’m calling to let you know about this event; since you aren’t around, I’ll just e-mail you the details. Please let me know if you have any questions.”

· Five to ten days before the event, send a media advisory (or even just an informal e-mail) to targeted media, with basic information about the event, just to get it on calendars.

· Send a detailed media release the morning of the event (media staff meetings are often held around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m.), or the day before, if your event is after noon.

· Send hand-written follow-up notes to members of the media who attend and/or cover your event. This should not quite be a thank-you note – the media typically see themselves as just doing their jobs and can misinterpret a thank-you note as implying bias – just send a note saying something like, “We appreciated that our event was worth your time. If you ever have a question about what we are doing, please feel free to contact me.”

Web site

There is a wide range of easy, inexpensive – even free – ways to create a Web presence for your event.

· Use a free blog service, such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com.

· Use an event registration service, such as Eventbrite.com. These services are typically free for free events or charge a small percentage if you are selling tickets.

· Use any of over 100 inexpensive Web hosting services. Any of them you find will offer Web site templates and relatively easy to use software to customize the site to meet your needs.

Invitations

Formal invitations can be a powerful marketing tool for pretty much any sort of event, either as a primary tactic or to target a portion of your market (especially VIPs). Printed invitations provide an excellent way to highlight VIPs who are already invested – with a host list and/or using the name of an event chair or master of ceremonies in the return address.

Here are a few tips for invitations:

· A big part of the power of sending this sort of mail is in the ability to personalize. In every way you can, make each invitation look like it is being sent to a real person, from a real person.

· Use hand-applied, first-class stamps. This will dramatically increase the number opened, as opposed to sending them with bulk-mail postage.

· Address it from a human being, not from an organization.

Mass mail

Technically, sending the invitations can be considered mass mail, but their high quality warrants putting them in a different category. For true mass mail, the best way to go will be colorful, generally glossy, oversized post cards (5 ½ by 8 ½ inches or there about). Any good print shop will have a graphic designer who can work with you to create high quality mail; typically, the design services will be included in the price of printing or relatively inexpensive.

· Use as much color as you can.

· Use pictures if you can.

· Keep text short; limit it to the information that is absolutely necessary to entice people and get them where they need to be, when they need to be there.

Advertising

If you have a real marketing budget (at least $2000 to $5000, bare minimum, depending on your media market), then you can think about doing advertising. For both

· Start with radio, which provides a cost-effective way to provide a repetitive message. Do not run fewer than 3-5 spots per day, during drive time (roughly 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.).

· If you feel like you are running enough radio, move up to television (cable and/or broadcast).

· If you feel like you are running enough radio and television, then run some newspaper ads. Make sure to run ads that are at least 1/8 of a page that repeat at least three times before your event.