8 PR ideas for promoting your upcoming event
Target the audience you want
Hopefully you will have already identified your target audience when mapping out the format of the event, and you will need to keep this demographic in mind throughout the promotion planning process. Whether the audience is broad and inclusive or highly targeted and niche, you will always need to revert back to the question – ‘will this activity reach my chosen audience?’. More than just numbers, you need to ensure that you are reaching the right people with your PR event ideas. These are the ones who will take the action you want them to, as a result of attending the event.
Make sure you know what your goals are
Whether your goal from the event is ticket sales, brand awareness or creating a buzz – all of your PR event tactics should revolve around achieving your identified outcome. You should set these in advance of the event and make sure they’re clear to every person involved in promotion.
Email marketing
Developing a communications plan for emails well in advance will mean that regular communications throughout the promotion of the event will underpin all the other amazing work you are doing towards building your guestlist. If you have permission to contact an existing database that is relevant for your event, this is an easy way of reaching a targeted audience that is already aware of your brand and receptive to news relating to it – and should hopefully secure some attendees.
Social Media
If you’re looking for the most effective PR event ideas, social media is one of the best ways to promote events. You can either do this with targeted ads or with regular content leading up to the event. The interactive nature means that queries can be answered instantly, and objection handling becomes simplified. A hashtag can help to unify your social media efforts across various channels and can help with tracking. Facebook event listings are a brilliant way to spread the word to the public – RSVPing is easy and creates a virtual diary entry for the attendee as a reminder. If appropriate, you could also run a competition on social media to raise awareness and generate FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)!
PR
It’s easy to focus all your attention on digital platforms, but don’t forget traditional methods for event PR. Drive awareness to your event via media alerts and event listings in various relevant media outlets. Writing a great press release around the event will create a buzz. Research the media outlets that write about your type of event – for example, if the topic of your event is around food and drink, look up the journalists that specialise in food and drink and send them the release – you can also invite them!
Direct Mail
Although digital is the buzzword of the moment, traditional marketing tactics like direct mail arguably have a bigger impact of late due to the ease with which digital marketing methods can be deleted or ignored! A physical, personalised invitation sent through the post to your VIPs could get their attention more than an online communication, so its worth considering!
Sponsor engagement
If you have sponsors for your event, create a strategy for engaging with them and plan how to maximise the opportunity with their audience. Even something as simple as mentioning the event in their newsletters or sharing posts on social media is great PR event practice and can help to promote the event and increase the list of attendees.
Website/landing page
A compelling website is a crucial component of event promotion. All your promotional activities will relate back to the website, and it will be one of the first ports of call for your prospective audience. So, whether you build a website from scratch or host a landing page on your existing website, you need to ensure that all the necessary information is available to drive ticket purchases or attendance. This includes a detailed agenda, information on speakers, hotel and transport information and all other activities. Including social media share buttons will help spread the word.
Many hands make light work. If you are planning an event and would like some assistance in generating effective PR event ideas for promoting it, contact us for a chat about how we can help.
For more ideas and information, read our ultimate guide to PR event best practice.
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