In the world of event planning, there will be clients who will come up to you and make you plan an event on short notice. Ideally, planning should happen several months prior. But there can be times where even the most organized event manager will be tasked to promote an event in just a week (or days).
So how does an event organizer plan and promote an event with a limited amount of time? Here are some tips you can take note of to help you in case you find yourself in a time-crunch.
1. Check your audience.
You need to know your target market and what the aim of the event is. Determine who you are trying to attract and customize your program and presentation to cater to this profile. If your target audience consistent of existing clients, then you can go for direct mail. If you are trying to reach out to new customers, you can use different social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. It is best to establish a relationship with your audience first.
2. Get in contact with your attendees.
Reach out to the potential participants for your event. You can use a combination of marketing via SMS, e-mail, and social media, to promote. These events are usually social, so you can go ahead and start a conversation and build a platform for engagement. You can also use mobile ad campaigns or post ads on websites that your targeted audience frequently visit. Social media networks like Facebook and Instagram are the top platforms that are great for paid advertising because you can target your audience easily.
3. Videos
Using videos are great for catching your targeted audience’s attention. It also is a good medium to get your message across and can even cost-effective. You can include videos in your e-mail campaign or, when promoting the last-minute event via Facebook or Instagram, or you can also upload it to your website. Using a video from past events gives your possible attendees an idea of what they can expect from this event and the next ones that are led by you.
4. Check who participated in previous events
Another way to recruit possible attendees to your event is to contact people who were present during the previous one. Ask them for any referrals who may want to attend the next event. Previous attendees can help you spread the word.
5. Send reminders
You can create an invitation that can be embedded in the e-mail and sent to your contacts and other organizers, so they can help you forward the invites. You can also send out invites via SMS and set event notifications and reminders via Facebook. You can schedule reminders a couple of days prior, 24 hours before, and on the day of the event itself.
6. Promote your event on multiple websites
You can list your event on different websites that will catch the attention of your target participants. This can be a meticulous task, but it will help you with getting the quick exposure for your event. There are also marketing solutions that you can go for to help you promote your event and monitor your promotion, as well.
Organizing and planning for an event can be quite stressful, especially if you have to promote it on such a short notice. However, there are still ways you can successfully set this up. Just make sure to have all the details and follow these tips, and you can be sure your event will be successful.
