How To Market An Event - 4 Easy Steps
In my on-going digital marketing internship I was given a task of marketing an online concert about a month before it actually took place.
I had a little experience of marketing events on social media from my college societies. All I knew was, putting up stories on Instagram and Facebook, posting about the event on a consistent basis and making sure that the word was out and all the college groups were spammed.
But of course, it is way more than just that. Here is what I learnt:
2. Using eye catching graphics
3. Targetting accounts on social media
4. Taking action
Writing the right content
Spreading the word on social media, telling people about the event through online means is expected. But what people often forget is that content matters more. As it is rightly said, Quality matters not Quantity. The content should be short and crisp but also one that people would want to read from the first word itself. It should be long enough for people to understand what the event is about and short enough to not put people to sleep. It does not always have to be just one piece of content, as my seniors told me, there should be multiple pieces all worded and framed as per the above specified things. It should also not lose the essence of the main subject i.e. The Event. Different pieces of content simply keeps it fresh and does not make the organisers look lazy.
Using eye catching graphics
What really makes people look at the content is the graphic. The well executed design is what catches a person’s attention. One thing I have learnt from spending a year in the technical department of my college societies is that, what looks good to you is what looks good to them. While making the graphic, the question you should ask yourself should be ‘Do I like it?’ and not ‘Will they like it?’. The details on the poster/video should be minimal, meaning that only important information such as the date, time and venue should be displayed. The same rule as followed in content should be followed here, not putting very little information that people don’t understand what the event is about but also not putting so much that you burn people’s eyes.
Targetting accounts on social media
This step even though seems easy is quite tricky. In the digital marketing world, marketing in a specified topic or field is often referred to as ‘Niche’. Let me give you an example that my senior gave me: Let’s imagine your brother is going to a party and he is asking you for advice on clothing. He gives you three options: a) Formal Pants with T-shirt b) Formal Pants with an Indian Kurta c) Formal Pants with a shirt Which option will you go for? I am assuming you are not as bad at fashion as compared to your brother and you would go for option C because it looks the best. That is what niche is. Posting content or marketing about an event in its specific category, what it would ‘go well’ with. Niche marketing helps you by targetting those specific groups of people who would be interested in what you are marketing, hence making your work easier and simpler.
Taking action
This is by far the easiest of all. All it requires you to do is, posting the easy to read content along with the attractive graphic on the accounts that you have targetted. This can be in the form of comments on already existing posts, making new posts, posting stories and even answering questions related to your topic. In my case, I commented and posted on various musical groups on facebook, commented on related youtube videos, commented on tagged instagram posts and those who had included a relevant hashtag, contacted some instagram pages to ask for a promotion and even answered some related questions on quora.
I would also like to mention that posting about your website to gather traffic on one platform, by platform I mean ‘Social media’, does not affect its rank on a search engine to a huge extent.
This is what I learnt in the past few weeks.
Looking forward to keep my blog updated.