There are loads of different tactics available to savvy event organisers, who know a thing or two about using the Internet to their advantage. Suddenly there are a wealth of promotional avenues available at a fraction of the cost of offline media and with directly measurable ROIs. So which are the best avenues for promoting your events? Should you build a microsite or get heavily stuck into social networking? Let’s look at some promotional techniques and the pros and cons
Event Microsites
In case you’ve not heard of a microsite, it’s simply a small website with around 5 - 10 pages. They are usually on a very specific niche, events being a classic example of where microsites can be used to good effect.
Pros
- All the information about your event can be gathered together in one easy to access place - so you’ve got an easy place to point punters to in your other promotional materials, e.g. flyers, online listings.
- You can integrate ticket buying and delegate management systems into your event microsite, so you don’t have to worry about how to handle and take payments.
- Your microsite can be branded to boost brand recognition, increasing awareness of your event
Cons
- Good microsites take time and effort - you need quality content to engage your audience - perfect if you’re starting up a recurring event, but it may be too time consuming for a one-off
- Every heard of SEO? It’s all about ranking well in search engines, and search engines love to rank older, bigger websites with a lot more trust in the top places. You might get lucky, but chances are your little event site will be fighting against tough competition for a number one slot on Google or Bing.
- You really can’t take a “build it and they will come” attitude to websites, your event website will still need to be just one part of your promotional plans for your event.
Conclusion: On balance, the pros of microsites tend to outweigh the cons for events marketing, but you need to be aware of their limitations before you rest your entire PR plan on one.
Social Networking for Events
Social media is a hot topic in the marketing world, that’s showing no signs of stopping for the forseeable future. So, it stands to reason that you’d want to hop on the gravy train and get a piece of the social action while you’re promoting your event. But, is it all it’s cracked up to be?
Pros
- You’ve got a whole community of people ready and waiting to talk about your event, so start conversations, you might even find new ideas for your event.
Cons
- You’ve got a whole community, made up of lots of smaller communities, of people ready and waiting to talk about your event. Finding the right people to talk to, particularly if you’re brand new to a social network can be tough.
Conclusion: Social media can be a great tool for event promoters, but you need to do your research and find ways of reaching the right people to have an impact.
Events Listing Websites
There are a number of websites that will list your event - either for free or a small fee - so are they worth using?
Pros
- These sites aggregate information, and tend to already rank in search engines, so these are great places to get a bit of promotion for your event.
Cons
- Just like with social networking, a lot of these sites have a lot of listings on them, so you’re unlikely to reach a massive audience.
Conclusion: Worth doing, but don’t spend too long on this area, choose niche websites that you know your target market uses to get the best take-up of your event.
Promotional Page on Your Existing Website
The simplest way to promote your event online is to create a brand new promotional page on the company website. Just because it’s the easiest way, doesn’t it’s the best though. Or does it?
Pros
- Simple to manage if you have a blog or CMS.
- You already have brand equity and (hopefully) a readership.
- The cheapest option in most cases.
Cons
- Your promo page may get lost in cyberspace if you regularly update your blog or have a lot of existing content on your site.
- You may have a lot of information to fit onto a single page of your website, which doesn’t make for easy reading.
- It’s difficult to create a distinct identity for an event when it’s sitting on a branded company site.
Conclusion: This isn’t the best approach to marketing an event, but if time and money is limited, it may be the best option.
So, How Should You Promote Your Event Online?
If you have to choose one way to promote your event online, our money’s on an event microsite. However, what you really want is a mixture of all of the above - in short, a complete integrated promotion plan using both online and offline promotional techniques.
Katie Saxon works with AMA Events, events management experts who can help you every stage of the way - from planning and promotion to collecting post-event feedback.