6 Easy Ways to Plan and Promote an Event through Internet Marketing.
Event planning is both a vital tool and an annoying gnat in internet marketing and promotions. One the one hand, people love being given something to do that is both fun and interesting. On the other, no one wants to look for events – they want events to just happen by themselves. This is where things become interesting for a marketer and event planner. We have to make sure that the information about our event reaches the correct target market, and that it does so in a way that peaks their interest.
When promoting an event online, one thing to remember is that while events are meant to raise money, increase sales or some other monetary and measurable value, another important thing is to build awareness and relevance with the consumer. You should focus on registration, but also on the exciting reasons why that individual cannot miss the event.
1. Use your social media resources. As the first obvious outlet to event marketing online, social media is a chance for you to personally touch individual people who are interested in or looking for an event such as yours. You can have conversations on Facebook walls, tweets and retweets, and alert your connections on LinkedIn.
2. Connect directly to consumers with emails. Most people check their emails up to 2 to 3 times a day. You can either collect a database of your client’s customers or create your own personal one (segmented into demographics) and send email blasts about upcoming events or specials. More often than not, individuals have a preview area for their email, so they’re likely to see something in the email that might capture their attention.
3. Post on local community sites. Generally in today’s internet savvy world, a city or town will have a community website for local businesses or citizens to find events or happenings that are going on in the community. These sites are excellent for a town’s economy: it helps smaller businesses have a higher traffic flow and informs the locals of upcoming events. These sites are usually free and get a lot of localized traffic to them.
4. Link your way into the people’s hearts. While time consuming and detailed, link building can be the one thing that drives your event to the next level online. There are a few things to remember when link building, however. Always make the links and event relevant to the blog or post you’re linking to. Try to find blogs, sites and posts that have a DoFollow. And last, don’t sound like an advertiser. Blogs are for people, so talk like a person.
5. Speaking of blogs, create one. A great way to spread the hype about an event is to post on your current blog about all the preparations, pre-games and after events. If you don’t have a blog, make one. And put the link on everything you do. People love watching behind the scenes and before and after shots. Capitalize on this.
6. Last but not least, have a webpage on your site just for your event. It’s a pretty basic concept, but you’d be surprised at how this great tactic is overlooked. Yes, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and emails are great, but you need that firm foundation. An event needs a heart of information, and let your website be just that.
Currently, TriMark Solutions is promoting an event for their client, Window World of Utah. The event is the “Kids Running for Kids” 5K, 10K & Children’s 1-Mile Race, and is raising awareness and donations for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. TriMark has kept a close watch on all of the aforementioned tactics to promote the race, and is very excited to see what kind of results it yields.
What are some ways you promote your event online? Let us know!
