How to Successfully Market Your Event to Local Audiences
When you’re planning an event, it’s easy to feel like there are just too many things to do and too little time. Organizing, booking, and scheduling, tasks can start to add up leaving little room for one of the most important tasks of all -- marketing.
With so many details to iron out, the tasks to market an event can be pushed to the side and not given the attention they deserve. This can be a costly mistake.
Even if an event is perfectly executed and impressive to attend -- it isn’t a success if no one shows up.
Marketing has to be at the heart of event planning. It must be the core of your event before, during, and after scheduling a date. If you are overwhelmed and can't give event marketing the energy it needs, it’s time to find a partner, so your event receives the exposure it needs to succeed.
For this, there is MyArea Network. This is how we help you successfully market an event like a pro.
Get In Front of Active, Local Audiences
The first step in getting local people to attend your event is to let them know about it.
MyArea Network sites are the perfect place to connect with these active, local audiences.
Our network audiences are engaged with their community and active in their area. They seek things to do in their city and love getting out and exploring. They use our site to find great things to do around them.
To add your event to one of our area sites, visit the MyArea Network Locations page and choose the area for your event, create an account, and easily add your free or premier event listing.
Create the Perfect Event Listing
It’s not enough to just create an event listing. You need to create an event listing that draws attention and pulls in potential attendees.
Use the following tips to market an event by creating the perfect listing on MyArea Network.
- Event Name: Your event name should, of course, include the actual name of your event. But to catch extra attention, try adding a feature if possible. For example, instead of writing, “Tampa Bay Margarita Festival 2018," title it “Tampa Bay Margarita Festival 2018: Featuring Barenaked Ladies.” The trick, however, is to keep your title under 80 characters for best Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Short Description: Dive deeper into the unique features and benefits of your event in the description section of your MyArea Network listing using 255 characters.
- Details: List detailed information guests need to know about your event. Include frequently asked questions, pricing, directions, and a full schedule of events with times, prices, etc.
- Website: While listings help promote your event, you also need a standalone website or landing page for your event. Develop a page for your event and link to it. This builds authority for your event and positions it well in Search. Add the URL to your website in your MyArea Network listing connecting the two.
- Ticket URL: Here is where you insert the URL for the landing page for ticket sales. When you add your URL here, a 'Ticket" Button appears on your listing page making it simple for your guests to buy a ticket.
- Event Type: Match your event with the best categories. Don’t select categories because you think they will gather the most attention. Choose the categories that best match your event type.
Promote Your Event
Once you create your event listing, you want to maximize its potential. MyArea Network offers multiple services to market an event and boosts exposure through our network.
Hold a VIP ticket giveaway.
Generate interest in your event by giving away a few of your best tickets. Hold a VIP ticket giveaway asking audiences for their phone number or email address in exchange for a chance to win.
This not only generates interest for your event, but it helps you collect contact information from people interested in your event so you can remarket them later.
MyArea Network works with event promoters to offer ticket giveaways on our site. We also match this promotion with data management and analytics, so you know how to use the information you collect.
Offer a ticket drop.
Another type of ticket giveaway is a ticket drop. If you have sponsors for your event, give them a select number of tickets they can give away at their location.
This builds demand and creates excitement for your tickets and is also a great tactic for sponsor activation as it provides value to the brands who support your event.
Utilize targeted, display ads.
Display advertising is beneficial when ads appear in front of interested audiences. This is why display ads are so compelling on MyArea Network sites.
To market an event, place ads on pages where your target audience is likely to see them. Place banner ads on our events page to get in front of audiences in your area looking for something to do.
Another example of strategic display ad marketing is promoting your event on a themed page that matches your category. For example, you could advertise your Halloween event on a page that curates top Halloween events.
Continue Marketing During Your Event
Marketing doesn’t end when your event begins. To get the most out of your marketing, you should continue to connect with audiences throughout your event. Use the following tips to keep fans engaged, collect vital data, and encourage guests to share their experiences with their friends.
Hire a photographer.
When professional photographers attend your event, it makes the event feel exclusive and high-end. Guests love it. And, it presents marketing opportunities.
You can utilize a photo promotion by capturing photos of attendees and giving them directions on how to access the photo. When they locate the photo, they are asked to provide contact information in exchange for the picture. They receive a free keepsake while you capture useful data for future remarketing and retargeting campaigns.
You increase brand exposure as guests share their photo featuring your logo.
MyArea Network has a community of professional photographers who drive our lead-generating photo promotions.
Run a photo contest.
Another fun way to use photos while your event is happening is a photo contest. Give guests a task related to your event (such as “Post a picture with a margarita” for Margarita Fest or “Post your favorite pirate picture” during Gasparilla). Then, assign a hashtag to the promotion and offer a prize for the best image.
This promotional tip helps guests have a good time while encouraging them to post photos on social media which heightens your visibility.
Offer giveaways during the event.
Giveaways can continue as your event goes on. Deliver a text marketing campaign that collects guest phone numbers in exchange for entry into a contest while at your event.
Like photo promotions, this is an excellent way to engage with guests while giving them great prizes and collecting valuable audience data.
Remarket and Reconnect After Your Event
Finally, your work still isn’t over even after your event ends.
If you followed the strategies outlined in this post, you would have even more opportunities once the event is over because you'll be able to reconnect with guests after your event.
You can use the data you collected from guests to re-engage with them through email marketing and text marketing. This allows you to promote other products and services, stay connected, and build excitement for your next big event.
How to Market an Event Successfully
As you can see, marketing is not a small part of the event planning process.
Event marketing is one of the largest and most important elements of event management. Putting together an event that produces excellent experiences for guests and equally fantastic returns for promoters and advertisers is key.
If the marketing efforts for your next big event are falling to the wayside, contact MyArea Network to see how we can help.
Whether you work directly with our team or independently through our online platform, you can find multiple ways to use multi-channel promotions to maximize local exposure for your event using MyArea Network resources.
We have worked with some of the biggest and best events in our area and would love to help recreate those results with you. Schedule a free consultation to talk to our team and see how we can help you successfully execute and market your next event.
