HOW TO MARKET YOUR EVENTS

Tyler Korso

Wally's World of Entertainment, wally@houseofwally.com

Before a performance, Harry Houdini was notorious for performing a stunt in the middle of town for all to see. In 1915 he performed a public escape right here in Kansas City that drew over 5000 people to downtown. The result of his efforts each time? SOLD OUT SHOWS. Houdini may have been a master of magic, but he was also a master of marketing, even if you didn’t know it.

In today’s fast paced world, you are always being marketed to. You may not be able to avoid such a thing, though you can certainly learn from it and better promote your own endeavors. Was it sold out or was it lightly attended? Do you have any idea why? Chances are, it was due to the marketing. So let’s talk about how to use marketing to your advantage and the pitfalls to avoid.

When Should You Market an Event?

Simple answer? Always. A successful event is typically marketed before, during, and after the fact.

Before - The most obvious form of marketing happens prior to an event. If no one knows it will happen, nobody knows to show up. The less obvious part is how to do that marketing well!

Passive vs Active marketing - Passive marketing is the act of casting a wide net and hoping to catch something. Flyers, mass emails, and announcements (social media) make up a good portion of these marketing tactics.

Active marketing however is more direct and often verbal or face to face. It’s asking your friend to come to your concert, it’s reminding someone of the lecture happening today, it’s hand delivering a ticket. It takes more work, but often yields higher returns. When asked directly, there is more of an obligation to attend. When given a physical ticket you don’t want it to go to waste.

Both forms of marketing are key to building a good turnout. The wide nets will catch some, and if added to the guaranteed audience you brought in through active marketing, the event only grows.

During - You may not realize it, but you can and should be marketing during an event.

1. When guests arrive it should be easy to spot signs to the event. This not only makes it an easy experience for them, it also garners the interest of passersby. 2. If it is indeed an open event, don’t shy away from fanfare or visibility. Afterall, a crowd draws a crowd. 3. A few simple announcements prior to a performance gives others nearby a chance to hear what’s going on and decide to participate.

After - The event may be over, but your marketing should not be!

1. If you aren’t telling this audience about the next event happening on campus, you’re missing out on a valuable resource. Repeat attendees! 2. If you’re doing something like a raffle, save it for the end! People love to wait around and see what happens, but once it’s done their interest is too. So hold off. 3. Finally, social media posts can be gold. Create an incentive or simply a habit to ask your audiences to take photos and tag your organization in them.

All forms of marketing are improved by the same tactic: “targeted marketing”. A poster for a magic show hung up on a street sign is certainly “marketing”. That same poster hung up outside the classroom the magic club meets at however, is targeted marketing. The more refined you can be in where your passive marketing sits, as well as what it advertises, the better a return you can expect.

Even changing key words based on where a poster or email is going can matter. A Theater department may get excited to hear this poet appeared Off-Broadway, whereas the English department may be fascinated by their body of published works. Same ad, different keywords, better results. Active marketing can easily be targeted as well. Have you gathered the emails of those who attended similar events? If not, you’re missing out on a demographic that has shown they attend events.

Things to Avoid!

Nothing feels less engaging than receiving an ad for great insurance rates for a private jet that I do not possess. I clearly was not the person they had in mind for this post, and I’ll probably be blocking that company from marketing to me. Not everything you do needs to be targeted, but it certainly helps to at least know who's likely to see the information you’re presenting. Understand spam habits for emails. Google and lots of other email systems can flag mass emails (even from your professional school emails) as spam and they will never reach your intended recipients. Just make sure you’re avoiding any unnecessary roadblocks!

Do not expect any one form of marketing to be enough! If you do 5 different tactics and they all bring 10 people, that’s great. If you only do one tactic and it falls flat, you have no other tactic to lean on.

Final Tips:

Ask yourself or your team the following questions: • Could we be targeting this event's marketing better? • Could we be reaching more people? • Have we built a strong culture of attending events on our campus?

Depending on your answer, find out how you can best improve. You may not be Harry Houdini performing an escape over downtown, but you can certainly work some magic to better promote your events!

Marketing

Where for art thou audience?

No event happens without an audience, and most audience's don't happen without good marketing!

So let's talk about some tips on marketing before, during and after an event. (hint, you can always be marketing somehow)

Before During After