35 Tips to Promote Your Event
Promoting your event doesn’t have to be a headache. While promoting an event can cause anxiety or frustration, there are proven ways to grab people’s attention and bring guests to your event.
Here are 35 tips for how to promote your event, including some new ways you can reach out to get more people to come to your event.
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Post your event on Events.org.
Events.org is a great place to promote your event. Some people search for things to do on websites like Events.org—make sure you create an attractive, branded posting with an easy call-to-action. And, with a tool like Events.org you can manage your event in the same place! -
Use your email list.
Send out email invitations to promote your event to your list. You can target this to a subsection of your list that is more likely to attend or send out a more broad invitation. -
Post on social media.
Make sure this is engaging content and not just an announcement. Tease what will happen at the event, share interesting stats or facts, or include a personal appeal to come from one of your leaders or a well-known community partner. -
Run Facebook and Instagram ads targeted to your audience.
Running Facebook and Instagram ads to promote your event is an easy way to get your event in front of people. Target your ads geographically or two people with particular relevant interests for the best results. -
Post about the event on your website.
This one is pretty obvious—if you’re hosting an event, make sure to have a robust page on your website with information, instructions for how to register, and even options for people to easily share the event with others. -
Ask your staff to share the event on their personal social media.
Your staff are some of your most effective options for promoting your event, especially on social media. Encourage people to talk about your event and invite their friends and family. You can easily get more people to come to your event by giving your staff easy, predesigned templates they can share online. Since personal posts are prioritized over posts by pages, they’ll reach people that you won’t be able to. -
Encourage those who do sign up to share with friends and family.
Another great source of word-of-mouth referrals is your existing guests. Ask them to invite others to join them—it’s especially effective when you explain to them how they can benefit your cause even more by bringing more people out. Easy social media sharing buttons in an email can be a simple way to generate more buzz about your event. -
Create a referral program.
For some events, a great way to promote them can be to offer referral discounts. Give your guests a way to earn free extra tickets or special prizes at your event through referring others to come. You can excite them by providing great bonuses and by telling them how referrals can make a difference. -
Send out Save the Date postcards.
Have a mailing list? Send out save-the-date postcards! A simple, catchy design can stand out to your potential guests—a lot of people receive less mail these days, so a well-designed postcard can be a special way to connect with possible attendees for your event. -
Mail out formal invitations.
To promote your higher-end event, consider sending out formal invitations to a curated list of supporters or community partners. Consider handwriting the address and their name for a special touch—the intentional step will make your potential attendees take notice. -
Send swag bags to social media influencers or valued partners
Another great way to build social media buzz is sending a curated swag bag to local social media influencers or valued community partners. They’ll be thrilled, and you can ask them to post about the event on social media. Posts like those typically get high levels of engagement on social media—just make sure that the swag bags you send have high-quality, valuable items inside. -
Hire a local social media influencer to promote your event.
Beyond sending a swag bag to social media influencers, you can also reach out for a paid partnership. Rates vary, but a successful placement with an influencer who appeals to your target audience can be an incredibly effective way to promote your event. -
Attend community meetings or other events and promote your upcoming event there.
Going to community events to promote your event can be a great way to connect with potential attendees. Face-to-face connections go a long way to building trust, and you’ll be able to get in front of people you may not reach otherwise. However, attending meetings is not a very efficient way to promote your event and so needs to always be part of a larger strategy. -
Staff a table at a festival or farmer’s market to promote your event.
Another great setting to talk about your event is by staffing a table at a festival or farmer’s market. Make sure you have a clever draw to get people to stop by, whether that’s a giant Jenga game, a prize wheel to spin, or a special giveaway. Catching people’s attention is critical to getting them to stop by and giving you a chance to tell them about your event. -
Print flyers and posters and distribute them to local businesses.
Try coffee shops, restaurants, fast food places, and anywhere else that has a bulletin board. -
Put up flyers at your local library.
Be sure to check your library’s policy on what events can be advertised there. Many libraries require events to be free and open to all. -
Ask your corporate partners to promote your event to their staff.
Maybe its a vendor you work with, a long-term partner, or even your office neighbors—whoever it is, it never hurts to ask your corporate partners to promote your event and send out a note about it. Make sure you give them easy, pre-created collateral to share to make it seamless and simple. -
Offer Early-Bird discounts for registrations.
Early bird discounts are a great way to encourage people to register quickly and inject a sense of urgency. That fear of missing out can be a powerful motivator to promote your event and drive registrations. -
Offer group discounts.
Try offering group discounts to encourage registrations to your event. This helps encourage people to promote your event to their friends, families, and colleagues. Whether that’s a discount for a table at a banquet or a team rate for a more casual event, this is a simple way to boost your numbers. -
Post your event on online local community calendars.
Most local papers and tourism bureaus have free online event calendars. Add your event to these to help spread the word and further promote your event. -
Create a Facebook event.
Facebook also serves up events to people using its algorithm. Make sure to create a Facebook event with catchy, clear language and attractive visuals to promote your event beyond just your Facebook followers. You can also use Facebook’s boost feature to push the event to more potential guests. -
Pitch your event to local media.
Make sure you have a unique hook for promoting your event. Maybe you have a unique way the money is going towards your cause or a well-known special guest—either way, put together a short pitch for local media that is interesting and has the option for some good visuals. That can help get the word out. -
Confirm a celebrity guest.
You don’t have to shoot for the stars with this one—find a well-known local businessperson or leader and see if you can confirm their attendance. That can be a great way to generate buzz for your event and incentivize more people to come out and support your cause. -
Purchase billboard advertisements.
Keep these simple—promote your event with large, bold text and a brief call-to-action. -
Record a brief TV spot and purchase ad space.
A simple appeal focused on the impact of your event and the fun opportunities can reach a broad audience. Don’t forget to see about running the ad on streaming services like Hulu, too. -
If your event is fancier, like a gala or banquet, create Pinterest posts and ads with the aesthetic and decor.
This works best if your design is trendy or unique. Reach out to your venue to see if they are willing to help—these kinds of photos and posts help promote them as well, so they may provide some assistance. -
Run Google Search and Display Ads.
You’ll pay per click, so try to make sure you have targeted keywords that describe your event well. It can be a great way to stand out and build awareness for your event. -
Have a leader participate in an upcoming run and promote the event with a branded shirt and talking points.
The next 5K or other race near you can be a great opportunity for some effective event promotion. Have a leader or two participate, either by themselves or with a team, and wear branded t-shirts promoting the upcoming event. Depending on how many people you get to participate, you might even be able to turn their run into a media opportunity to talk about the event as well. -
Have a leader participate in a community event.
If one of your executives participates in a community panel or other event where they are speaking, that can be a great opportunity for them to promote your event. Have them personally invite attendees to join and share a very simple way to get more information. -
Run a ticket giveaway contest.
Invite people to enter a ticket giveaway contest to win free attendance to your event. By providing a few free tickets, you’ll generate a lot of buzz and word-of-mouth promotion for your event. In fact, you may even be able to leverage the contest into some coverage by your local media or area’s visitors bureau! -
Create a lightbox on your website.
Many websites give you the ability to create a lightbox that pops up the first time any visitor to your site in a certain time period. This can be a great way to call out information that you want to make sure people see, such as promoting your upcoming event. Create a simple graphic with a call-to-action like “Learn More” or “Register Now” and drive people to your event page on your website. -
Pay attention to SEO on your web page.
Think through what kinds of things people would search for when interested in an event like yours. Common keywords like “things to do” in your area are helpful, but will have a lot of competition. Make sure you feature those keywords, but add in more specifics like what kind of event it is—and don’t forget to put keywords in headlines and titles throughout the page. -
Partner with another organization to promote your event by supporting their cause.
Whether it’s collecting nonperishable food items at the door or encouraging blood donations, partnering with a cause can be a great opportunity to promote your event and help your community. Consider offering free or discounted tickets for those who participate—you can easily generate social media and even news coverage this way! -
Create a video or social media post using a current trend.
Try creating a TikTok video or Instagram post with a current trending sound or dance. It may sound cheesy and some people will laugh, but it can be an effective way to get people interested in your event and promote your event more broadly than you could otherwise. -
Create an event hashtag.
When you’re putting together social media posts, make sure you have an event hashtag that you use consistently. While this is most effective when you can get users who are attending your event to post with the hashtag, by posting with it you can build up a backlog of posts to make it an even more effective tool to promote your event.
Promoting your event can be difficult, but these tips can make getting the word out easier. Focus on what your event has to offer and try multiple different avenues of event promotion—you’ll only find the right combination of tactics through trial and error.
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