Once you have decided to create and manage a live event, you will need to let people know it exists – marketing and event promotion is essential to actually get people there!
When considering an event initially, you should also be looking at marketing an event. This isn’t just about advertising and booking a few slots in the local newspaper but you will need to consider all aspects of the following: within the initial event proposal, you should include details of the strategy behind the event so any further promotion is clear (What is this event? Who is it for?). You may also wish to conduct any appropriate market research to help shape who your event is aimed at. Then you can consider sending invitations, budgeting for and buying any advertising and issuing press releases. You may also have to consider any merchandising and sales promotions, so discussions with suppliers will be essential at this point too.
There are PR and Event Management companies who specialise in promoting events and will be able to manage all aspects of the marketing and promotion of your event. If your event is expected to be large, or you are looking to make a particular kind of impression but aren’t quite sure how to get this across then using their expertise in promoting events may be worth the additional expenditure. This is particularly true when considering a PR strategy, looking at new methods of promotion such as online advertising, use of social networks, creation of artwork and content for promotion and so on.
If you have a very small budget for your event promotion however there are things you can do yourself that just require some preparation, research and possibly some legwork! Making use of free listings magazines, newspapers and websites as well as social networking sites is easy to do. As are basic flyers or leaflets, which can be handed, out or posted. You can also work with the Royal Mail to distribute to specific postcodes, which is relatively low-cost. You may wish to consider placing adverts in larger newspapers or magazines, but this can be expensive so choose your publications appropriate to your target audience. Additionally tube/underground/bus/taxi advertising is not as expensive as you may think but you will need some artwork and text already prepared. Outdoor poster and bus-shelter sites can also be useful for location-specific promotion (outside colleges and universities can be very successful for example) but this will push your costs up.
Whichever methods you choose, please don’t forget to include time, date and location and spell check, read and re-read (and get a second or third pair of eyes too!) – nothing worse than forgetting essential details or seeing a major spelling error in an advert or leaflet after it has gone out. Don’t expect the designer or printer to change it because they won’t!
