Enjoy A Successful Summer By Planning Ahead!
Summer will be here before you know it. Is your organisation ready to make the most of it?!
There’s an awful lot that goes into planning an event. Depending on the nature and scale, you might find yourself having to think about things like catering, parking and even services such as water, gas or electricity. With so much hard work going on behind the scenes, the last thing anyone wants is for an event to be poorly attended.
Here at Little Bird Creative, we’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with a variety of events, from small-scale one-offs to community-wide occasions that span multiple locations. We pride ourselves on our understanding of event publicity and with Christmas events just around the corner, it feels like the perfect time to share some of our top tips on how to publicise your event.
We love a “to-do” list here at Little Bird HQ! In fact, we use them for pretty much everything – and there’s no reason why your event promotion should be any different. Have a calendar printed out and mark on it when you want to start promoting your event (hint: further in advance than you think!), and more importantly, how you want to promote it. Planning a publicity schedule in advance will stop you from feeling overwhelmed as the event gets nearer and having posts ready to go out on social media means you’ll have time to focus on the practicalities of organising the event itself.
We offer bespoke publicity packages and we’re always on hand to help you plan how to publicise your event well in advance.
But what kind of things need to be on that plan?
You want people to come to your event, so how are you going to ensure that they know about it?! One simple way is through the press. A press release is an official announcement, designed to inform journalists of news or events happening in your community and they remain an important marketing tool for businesses and organisations – both large and small.
Writing an interesting press release – building up excitement for your event – is crucial. There’s a lot of competition for not only newspaper column inches, but radio and TV news bulletins and even podcast and blog content, so it’s vital to ensure that your press release stands out from the crowd. You’ll need:
Don’t forget, the press release isn’t only for pre-publicity! After your event takes place, be sure to send another, showing off just what a fantastic time was had, whetting people’s appetites for the next time you host an event.
If you’re thinking: “That sounds like a lot of work…” don’t panic; Little Bird Creative can take the stress out of your hands. Writing press releases is something we can happily do all day long!
But it’s not just words that are important…
If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that a picture can speak a thousand words. Graphic design is therefore a vital part of your event publicity. Posters, which can be easily displayed to ensure they’re spotted time and again in the run-up to your event, are a brilliantly visual way to engage your audience. How often have you subconsciously memorised the date for a car boot sale, simply because you’ve walked past the sign every day whilst walking the dog?!
Want to put your event information directly into the hands of your potential attendees? In that case, flyers containing all the details they’ll need are a fantastic addition to your print publicity materials. These can then be posted through letterboxes or even sent out to shops, libraries, schools etc for distribution.
Of course, graphic design doesn’t stop simply at print publicity. Not only can you incorporate that same design into things like maps, signage and even merchandise at the event itself, but any posters or flyers created to promote your event can be used digitally, too. We’ve mentioned before that social media posts featuring pictures or videos are far more likely to stop a person scrolling and take notice, so make sure you’re using imagery in a fun and clever way when you’re promoting your event online. For example, bespoke graphics can really help you stand out from the crowd.
Again, if that all sounds too much like hard work, we can help!
You don’t just want to tell people about your event, you want to engage with them. Making a connection with potential attendees well ahead of your event means that they feel like they’re part of it before they even walk through the door. They can interact with you, asking questions and furthering their knowledge of what to expect, whilst also getting excited through your use of countdowns and teasers. As we keep saying, the more visual these posts are, the better! So, get creative with photos, videos and graphics that stop people scrolling.
Social media is also a great way to ensure the details of your event are well known. You can set up a Facebook event page, tag local businesses and organisations on Instagram, create bespoke hashtags on Twitter and even post trailers on YouTube. The more visual and exciting your content is, the more likely it is to be shared, so really go for it!
Your social media promo doesn’t have to stop once the event starts or finishes, either. On-the-day coverage via live-streaming or live-tweeting can create a buzz and show off what you’re doing, encouraging more people to turn up and hopefully ensuring that those who missed out will be keen to attend the next event in your calendar!
If the online side of publicity makes you scratch your head, don’t worry! Little Bird Creative offer a range of services that can help you make the most of your social media promo, from video teasers to custom logos, social media banners and more.
In summary, if you really want to publicise your event to the widest audience possible, your best strategy is… all of the above! Keep your social media posts visually exciting, engage with your audience ahead of time, during and after your event and make sure you’ve covered all your promo bases.
Little Bird Creative are proud to offer ready-made publicity packages, with the option to customise your very own package to suit your needs and budget. If you need help with how to publicise your event, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
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