Event Promotion

There are several ways of promoting an event, and these ways can be done before, during, and after the event, whether that event is in person, or online.

Jump to: Advertising info l Pre-Event l During Event

l Post-Event l Social Media Examples

Advertising in General

Before the event, you should consider the following:

Scope of event
1. How large do you wish for this event to be? Something small for a select group of people? Or, something larger with people from across Alberta? You will have to budget (see budgeting), research, and advertise based on the size of your event.
Social Media Advertising
1. Age of target(s)
  1. Social Media platforms require some simplistic demographics which are important to them so they know who they are targeting with their advertisements. The age of your target audience is important. If, for example, you wish to reach youth, you might choose anyone at or under the age of 23, but if you are targeting everyone, you might choose every possible option, which will increase your target audience significantly. Social Media platforms will show you an estimate of impressions on your advertisements. Be sure to have your advertisements ready in advance (see Social Media Event Templates).
2. Region of target(s)
  1. Social Media platforms require some simplistic demographics which are important to them so they know who they are targeting with their advertisements. The region(s) of your target audience are important. Depending on the places to which you choose to advertise, your estimate of Social Media impressions will increase. Be sure to have your advertisements ready in advance (see Social Media Event Templates).
3. Most Effective Social Medias to Promote Your Event
  1. Twitter
  2. Instagram
  3. Facebook
  4. YouTube
Newsletter Promotion Options
1. If the company/organization overseeing your event has a newsletter, they are great places to advertise events happening within your company/organization. If, however, you are an independent agent/agency without large amounts of traction, you might look into partnering with a/an company/organization who sees eye to eye on your beliefs/ideas and has a newsletter so you can advertise your event there.
Elite Advertising
1. If you have a substantial budget and are looking for a large audience/scope of events, and have already invested in and exhausted the above options, then the next higher advertising option is using advertising in the real world. Have you ever seen the billboards on highways? The bus stops with advertising? Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations? All of these places have a commonality that is related to this specific webpage. They all have advertising places—and they are all highly visible to people everywhere. And, the company which does all of this advertising is called Pattison Outdoor Advertising. They are one of the largest and most well known outdoor advertising companies in Canada, and one of the leaders in exemplary advertising abilities. If you have the financial means—your event could be posted on the digital signs at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the transit system in Calgary, or the billboards adjacent to the Athabasca River in Hinton.
Budgeting for Your Advertisement(s)
1. Your budget depends on whether or not you are part of a company/organization—or if you wish to advertise with payments at all (although this will make it significantly harder for you). If you are part of a/an company/organization, then you can request a budget and use it for advertising. If, however, you are an independent agent/agency without large amounts of traction, you might look into partnering with a/an company/organization who sees eye to eye on your beliefs/ideas, and with the agreement that they will pay you for advertising them throughout their event. This will in turn allow you to advertise your event elsewhere. If your event scope is larger and you do not have the funds/ability to contact another company/organization for budgetary help, you could try raising money for the event. See this article for more information on raising money, and this article for more information on creating a budget.
Other ways of advertising (for free/with payment)
1. See this article for information.

Advertising

Before the Event

Before your event, we suggest that you advertise about your event on social media by paying them to push your posts to people in whichever demographic you choose. This will increase your reach in people who might not follow, but might be interested in the same things as companies/organizations followings (assuming you are working with a/an company/organization). If, however, you are not working for a/an company/organization, and are an outside agent/agency, then you might want to reach out to the people you are working with and ask them to advertise your event by themselves at their own discretion. This idea, may however, not work as effectively, as your members likely have a dissimilar following (as in size of following) as a/an company/organization. This, again, is an excellent opportunity for an independent agent/agency to contact a/an company/organization to ask them for a possibility of an advertisement on their social media (without payment).

You may also want to advertise for your event using the method of a newsletter, which is explained under Newsletter Promotion Options.

There are many other options for advertising, and these options can be found in the Other Ways of Advertising subheading above.

Consider assigning a role where someone manages your event’s social media. For example, the role could be “Social Media Manager”. This person can be the one who designs and posts Social Media postings. This person would be in charge of the way your event is seen and advertised to the public. They would make the strategic decisions which your initiative needs to make around Social Media. See the Assigning Roles section on this website for more information on this, as well as the During the Event and After the Event subheadings within this specific webpage.

Before your event, the Social Media Manager should be the one who makes postings about the event. Here are some ideas for posts before the event:

The initial announcement of the event: “*company/organization or independent agent/agency name* is proud to present our *event name*! More details to come soon!”
To provide information for the event: “Swipe left to look at our full information for our upcoming *event name*.”
1. Then in following slides follow format of: “*event name* is *event overview—should be brief description of event, minimum 2-3 sentences*. *event name* takes place on *event date (dd/mm/yyyy) * from *0:00am/pm to 0:00am/pm*. We would love for you to join us! Attend *event name* by *method of joining event*
  1. If there are specific sign up instructions use: “To sign up for *event name*, *Direct Message/Click link in Bio/Contact Information/etcetera*. Limited spots are available so please sign up by *sign up deadline*.”
Two Weeks Before Event: “Reminder! There are two weeks left before *event name*. We are so excited and hope you can join us at *event date and time*! Please *method of joining event*! We will see you there!”
One Week Before Event: “Reminder! There is one week left before *event name*. We are so excited and hope you can join us at *event date and time*! Please *method of joining event*! We will see you there!”
Day Before Event: “*Event name* will take place tomorrow at *event time*. We still have spots open, so if you’d like to come sign up by *method of joining event*!

pre

During the Event

During your event, the Social Media Manager should be the one who makes postings about the event. The Social Media Manager should be aware that they will not be able to participate in the event nearly as much, as they will be posting as the event goes on. Here are some ideas for posts during the event:

At the time of the event: “The *event name* is beginning now! Join us now by *method of joining event*!”
When event has began: “Our *event name* has just begun! We are still welcoming anyone to join by *method of joining event*!”
When event is half way through: “There is still time to join us for the second half of *event name*! Join us by *method of joining event*!”

If your event is in person or online, there are options for live streaming your event. If the event is in person, your video recording setup can be as simple as a phone and computer, or as professional as a news program. If your event is online, many webinar programs, such as Zoom Webinar allow you to live stream your event to YouTube and Facebook at the same time! Zoom Webinar, however, does cost a monthly payment, but you can, for example, pay the monthly fee for one month only and then cancel your monthly payment for the month following your event once it has ended. (Be sure to save anything that can only be accessed in the professional version of Zoom Webinar, as once you have canceled your subscription, you won’t be able to save the recording of your event.) Live Streaming your event makes it even easier for people to join, as all people must do is click a link and they will be directed to an application they most likely have.

During your event, your Social Media Manager should record the event so that it may be split into small clips and posted to social media once the event has ended. See After the Event for information regarding this.

durin

After the Event

Once the event has completed, don’t celebrate just yet! You should always make sure that you have your recording of the event saved to your computer, and that someone takes on the job of editing it.

You can also have postings ready for after the event. Here are some ideas:

When event has ended: “Thank you to all that attended *event name*! For those who missed it—we’ll be posting some of the most interesting snippets.”
One week following event: “To anyone who attended *event name*, and anyone who did not—here are some of the best parts!”
Two weeks following event: “We’ll be hosting another *event idea/name*, so to anyone who attended *previous event name*, enjoyed our content and wants to get involved—*method of getting involved*!”

If your company/organization wishes for more people to be involved, use this time to involve people who attended and are interested in becoming part of your company/organization. You can also ask for involvement in your feedback form following your event.

If you are an independent agent/agency and you are wishing for more help in your future—you can do the same as suggested for a company/organization.

Post

Social Media Exemplars

Click here to see our Social Media example posts, based on the examples explained in this article.

Julia Dalmann with permission for donor stewardship.JPG

Closing

There are endless ways to promote your event—and we have only covered some of them. If none of our suggestions work for you, then we suggest doing some research on the internet, where there are several articles of information which explain how you might wish to undertake the advertising of your event.

Examples