Event MarketingHints & Tips

Topic: Effective Event Marketing

5 Ways to Maximize Attendance at Your Next Event

With any event, be it a class, seminar, open house, fundraising gala, or something in between, the ultimate goal is to get as many people as possible to attend. There's no point in planning a free or fee-based event if no one shows up.

To get the most out of your event efforts, here are five ways to maximize registration and increase attendance.

Answers from Your Attendees

With the weather turning cooler in much of North America right now, my thoughts are turning to end-of-the-year events (then again, my mind is always on events). Given how much time and work can be involved in planning an event, chances are good that if you're going to be hosting something in the next couple months -- a fundraiser, customer or client appreciation party, an open house, or another gathering -- then you've already started the planning process.

How will you know that you've done a good job with your event marketing? Here are some ways you can find out, while your event is still taking place and after it's all over.

Communication Recipes: Vary to Taste

A recent study by Microsoft and MarketTools on how people (adults in particular) are using the smorgasbord of communication tools at their disposal shows that email and social media usage are both up year-over-year, 45% and 21% respectively. As marketers, this means you have more ways than ever to reach out to customers, members, and prospects, but finding the right mix of tools (email, Facebook, Twitter, et al) can be a bit of a challenge.

Creating More Successful Events

Feedback is key for this nonprofit's event efforts

Event Planning Through Survey

An event is great way to attract customers to visit your store to learn and make purchases, to bring members together to celebrate an occasion, and to rally supporters to raise funds for a good cause. While events can take multiple forms -- be it a class, webinar, open house, or gala -- they all take proper planning to ensure your organization and attendees get the most out of the gathering.

Sending a survey before your event to get feedback from potential attendees can help with these efforts not only to tell you if your thinking is in line with your guests', but also to make the event even better based on attendees' input.

Gauging Success

Meeting goals and attendee expectations defines success

Promoting Your Holiday Events

With Halloween a couple weeks away, planning your end-of-the-year holiday fundraisers, open houses, or gala events is probably well underway. Most of these events will likely occur in that hectic stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so the time is ripe to start promoting your events and driving registrations sooner than later.

Quick Campaign Ideas to Spur Your Marketing

It's a busy time of year, with a number of events and holidays approaching -- Memorial Day, Father's Day, graduations, Fourth of July, and summer itself. But you don't need a significant event like a holiday to plan a smaller campaign that will spur donations, get consumers to visit your store or web site, or will just say, "Thank you."

Reel in Potential Attendees with Content

When promoting your event to potential attendees, it sometimes takes more than just an invite with the who, what, where, and when details to get guests to commit. To get people off the fence and clicking the Register button, you may need to give them a taste of what's to come at your gathering and share why they should attend.

Small Steps for Hosting Big Events

It may be hard to believe, but 2010 is already here, and events planned for the year ahead are well underway. 

There's no need to fret, though, if your business or organization hasn't started planning for this year's calendar of events. Just follow these simple tips and you'll be on the road to successful gatherings. 

Studio Uses Multiple Channels to Promote Events

As owner and primary instructor of FlavaFitness Studio, a dance and fitness studio in Tampa, Jeni J. is a very busy woman who's always looking for ways to efficiently promote her many class offerings and special events, get customers signed up, and ensure things are running smoothly so her energy can be focused on helping clients get in shape.

Using Social Media to Promote Your Events

An event -- be it a networking gathering, open house, fundraiser, or class -- is by nature a social affair. People attend events to connect, interact, and share with their peers. Similarly, people join social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect, interact, and share with their peers.

Given their complementary natures, it makes perfect sense to use social media to help plan (through the use of pre-event surveys), promote, and build excitement for any public event you're hosting. If the goal is to get as many people as possible interested in your gathering, then social media is a perfect tool for spreading the word to your core base of customers and members, and beyond.

Warm Up Customers with a Holiday Event

The end of the year is a busy one for everyone, whether you're selling, fundraising, or buying. But it's also the perfect time to step back and say thank you to your customers and supporters for their patronage and loyalty over the past 12 months.

That's just one idea for an end-of-the-year get-together. An event, no matter the type, gives your business or organization an opportunity to create intimacy and make a more personal connection with those you come in contact with. When you invite customers and members to a special event, you're building relationships the old-fashioned way -- with personal, face-to-face contact. That can give you a huge advantage in a tough economy.

Your Center of Activity

When promoting an event, be it a seminar, class, webinar, open house, or charity fundraiser, an effective homepage dedicated to the event can help drive registrations and serve as a central location for all details concerning the occasion.

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