The trick to hosting a successful event isn't just putting on a show that people will enjoy. More often than not, it's a matter of making sure interested fans know about the event in the first place. With so much digital content competing for the attention of customers, it's easy for a promising event to get lost in the fray.
Thanks to location-based targeting strategies, digital channels have become a valuable way to address this issue and dispense event marketing materials. Brands can seek out smart partnerships and relevant advertising destinations to reach their target audience and build interest for their event weeks — or months — in advance.
To reach a large, targeted audience with your event marketing, you should leverage a combination of channels and strategies. Here are three effective event marketing best practices to use as part of your integrated strategy.
1. Local Media Sponsorships
You should look into local media sponsorships to help generate interest in your event. Radio stations, TV channels, newspapers and other local media companies may be interested in sponsoring your event, and this will help you reach a wider audience through joint promotions. Media sponsorships help diversify an event marketing strategy, since these companies can dispense information across radio, television, print, digital and other channels. As a result, partnering with a media company is a great way to build a large media footprint for a regional event. Tech.Co also recommends partnering with local industry publications to promote your event to a targeted audience and contacting the local chamber of commerce to get your event added to the official online calendar.
2. Targeted Display Ads
Display ads are great for promoting an event within a specific city or region, thanks to location-targeting possibilities. In addition to targeting consumers based on location, marketers can also use filters to further refine who sees the ads. By using demographic information to identify people who are likely to attend, you can filter according to age, online behaviors, expressed interests, income levels and more, thereby increasing the efficiency of your display ad campaign. When filtered the right way, display ads can be very economical and efficient for an event-based campaign.
3. Pre-Roll Videos
As videos become more prevalent online, pre-roll options have evolved into a practical option for events. The medium is especially beneficial for visual events, such as theater, sports and other performances. Pre-roll ads can be delivered to a variety of video outlets, including local media stations and online video networks. The flexibility of this strategy allows you to run pre-roll campaigns, monitor their effectiveness and make tweaks to targeting and ad delivery until you find an effective approach.
Digital marketing often plays a huge roll in an event's success, so you need to understand how to reach the right consumer base. Make sure your event-promotion strategy is tailored to reach the right customers before you launch an all-out integrated marketing campaign.
