Hey, event marketing keeners! Trellis recently led a webinar with Charity Village where we talked about creating click-worthy social posts, building an event promotion schedule, how to leverage partners to expand your reach, and what data you can track to learn from what is working. We received a TON of amazing questions from our guests and answered the most frequently asked questions below. If you missed the webinar you can find it here, and download this event marketing guide to ensure you are up to speed before diving into the questions below.
Event Marketing FAQs:
1. When should I start promoting my event? And how frequently should I promote it?
We recommend you begin promoting your event as soon as your previous event ends. To start, try an announcement to all of your already engaged and excited guests that you will be hosting another event shortly.
The date you launch your ticket sales will depend slightly on what type of early bird incentives you wish to offer. If you have a lot, you might want to start promotions even earlier but we think a good starting point is 3 months out from your event. Start with an email campaign and social media campaign to all of your current followers and donors.
In the final two months before your event, increase your marketing efforts. Launch more consistent social media posts, emails, and other outward campaigns to interest new donors and attendees.
How often should you email or post?
1-3 months out: 1-2 emails per month, 1 post on every social media channel every couple of days.
2 weeks out: Increase social media to nearly every day and start involving your event partners (get everyone involved in your event to reshare and comment on your posts).
After your event: Continue the hype for a couple of weeks with posts every couple of days about the funds raised, impact, and thank everyone involved.
If you can, two weeks before the event call your top donors with a personal invite! And last but not least don’t forget to ask your event partners to spread awareness. Curious about how this crucial piece works and who to reach out to? Download this guide for a walkthrough.
2. How many hashtags should I use? And how should I pick which hashtags to use?
Hashtags are a great way to expand your reach and make your post more searchable. The amount of hashtags you should use depends on the platform you are posting on. Below is a good starting point:
- Instagram: 15-20 at the end of your post. Instagram is where you will benefit the most from using hashtags.
- Facebook: A couple at the end of your post. Hashtags on Facebook aren’t as commonly used.
- Twitter: 3-4 hashtags at the end of your post and a couple #sprinkled into your post.
- LinkedIn: 3-4 at the end of your post.
As for choosing which hashtags to use, the best place to find quality hashtags is on other popular posts. Look at what is working for other people!
Do a bit of research by searching for hashtags that you think are relevant to your cause and look at the other hashtags people are using! Think “what would I search for if I was interested in my cause or event?”
3. How can I encourage people to buy their tickets earlier?
Start by asking yourself these two questions:
- Am I being totally clear about what I want my audience to do?
- Have I given them a reason to take action now?
Your donors will take action once you have checked off both of those boxes. They will know what to do and they will be prompted to do it in a timely manner. The fun part is figuring out exactly how you want to do this and there are many ways!
Here are a couple of ideas:
- The classic – create an early bird discount for your tickets. Send out an email telling your donors to purchase their ticket before the discount ends on such date.
- Create a limited VIP ticket – instead of a discounted ticket, make a limited number of VIP experiences and encourage people to buy them before they sell out.
- Create a limited VIP basket – a twist on the point above, maybe you have a basket of goodies or a virtual coupon basket that you can add on to the first 100 tickets sold.
- Get your sponsors involved – for an in-person event, consider getting a sponsor to donate 100 bottles of wine and incentivize the first 50 tables sold with a bottle of wine on their table.
- Great contest or game – instead of a prize or VIP experience for the first 100 tickets sold, ask them to enter into a draw or contest with one big prize for one lucky winner.
4. How long should my social media caption be? What should I include?
Shorter social captions are generally better, but it will vary for each platform. While Twitter is the only platform with a caption limit, try to keep your captions for all platforms 1-2 sentences, or 1 paragraph at the most. By keeping it short and punchy you have a higher chance of grabbing the attention of your audience!
What to include in your post? You can find the 5 key elements to a social media post here! PS. We also have a social media template for you to steal!
5. What can I do besides social media and email?
On-premise marketing is a great option if you’d like to expand your current reach! You can advertise at your own location, your event partners’ locations, local businesses involved with your event and local businesses who are simply willing to help! For example, these locations could give out flyers and/or put up posters advertising your event. Businesses who donate an auction item to you are a great place to start as the more traffic looking at your auction means the more eyes on their product!
Online ads are another great way to get the word out about your event, and reach a new audience that you may not already know! We recommend starting with Facebook ads if you’re new to online advertising. With your new online ads, make sure to use affiliate marketing links so you can track their success and see what’s working to engage more people!
Another great option besides social media and email is personal phone calls. This is a great way to make your donors feel special by leaving them a message or a live call inviting them to your event.
6. Which event partners should I leverage first? And which will be the most effective?
Focus on local sponsors first! Auction sponsors, talent, and hosts. These event partners will likely be local to you, and more than happy to ensure lots of eyes see your page (and ultimately their product and services too!)
Next, leverage your partners with the biggest followings and networks. With their already engaged audiences, you can drive more traffic to your fundraiser.
Don’t think you have any partners? You’d be surprised! For a full list of event partners to reach out to, download our guide here.
7. What’s the easiest way to get started?
Start with what’s already working! Not sure what’s really working for your organization? We recommend tracking which marketing channels are leading to the most ticket purchases through Affiliate links (custom links that track the funds coming in, i.e. all the funds that came through a link you posted on Facebook) and custom checkout questions (questions asking how they found out about the event when they are buying their ticket).
If tracking and data collection is new to you, download our guide here to find more actionable steps, checklists, and templates. Ready to start selling tickets?
Still have questions before you get started? Or curious what tools and software you need to maximize your marketing efforts?
We know not all ticketing, event, or auction platforms are built the same and we’d love to show you the marketing features we have built into Trellis. Join a demo here. We’ve got your back!
