What are the best ways to advertise and promote our events?
There are many ways to promote your event:
Mailings to past attendees and donors.
Approaching your sponsors and asking them to send out information about your event to their customers or potential customers they would like to have present at your event. Remember, one of their sponsorship objectives will be to use the event as a marketing tool. What you need to be prepared for is that they may want to handle the mailing and addressing of the clients and not share their client mailing list with you. It would be confidential, as would yours, unless having access to your mailing list is part of your sponsorship agreement with them.
Radio promotion
Local community newspaper promotion – paid for, donated space or feature story.
National newspaper and magazine promotion – paid for, donated space or feature story.
Local television cable or news coverage – feature story.
National television coverage – feature story.
The Internet – your website, e-blast mailing etc. One idea that can be adapted: the author of the book Anonymous Lawyer gave out 300 advance copies to bloggers to get them talking about his book on the web and reach people that shared the same interests (his book came from his blog and he also sent pencils with the book title to aspiring lawyers about to take their bar exams).
Other word of mouth or targeted advertising campaigns (blanket mailings, newspaper or magazine inserts, billboards, flyers, product placement (collector’s item promotional wear such as t-shirts, hats, bags etc. reflecting your theme sold as part of your fundraising event campaign).
The important thing is to explore each avenue and see how you can creatively capture attention for your event. Remember that hundreds of organizations are doing the exact same thing and you are competing for the same audience of guests and sponsors in many cases. Your promotional and advertising pieces and campaigns must have a strong hook and capture your intended audiences’ attention in the first 20 seconds. Mundane and mediocre will not cut it or bring you your desired results. You are setting the tone for your event and what you want to do is create anticipation and excitement around it.
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Judy Allen is the author several bestselling books about event planning: Event Planning, The Business of Event Planning, Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette, Marketing Your Event Planning Business, and Time Management for Event Planners. For paid professional event planning consulting – event design, site selection critique, venue and supplier contract review, budget analysis, strategic planning, event logistical and timing requirements, and on-site orchestration – contact Judy directly at Judy Allen Productions.
Disclaimer: Advice and recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.
