Event Promotion Timeline: Timing Your Event Marketing Strategy

By administrator

Nov 22, 2021

While keeping organized is a key component of pulling off a great event, timing is also part of the success. If you have any experience planning an event, large or small, you know that planning out the timing of everything is vital to a successful event. Even with the best plans, there are always hiccups or unforeseen circumstances that can affect your event promotion timeline as well.

While event planners like yourself have many plates in the air, like technology support and space concerns, one of the main parts of a successful event is ensuring that people actually know about it. Marketing is an important part of getting your event on people's calendars. Learn more about how to time your event marketing strategy so that the event is well attended.

10 Months Before the Event

While it may seem that 10 months of prep is too long for events, it is an excellent way to let people know who may need to travel and start your team on the beginning pieces of event planning.

Start Planning Early

We all know that planning well ahead of time is the best way to plan out your event marketing. Use your co-workers and those above you to help hash out what events are coming up in the future. Even if you don't know all of the details or even have a venue on contract, you can still keep the idea in mind, getting the creative juice flowing. 

6-8 Months Before the Event

For large scale events of thousands of people, ensure that your core customers know about your event early on. Smaller events of a few hundred people can wait on announcing details as they take less time to plan.

Invite Your Target Audience

While some events have a broad scope of possible attendees, even the largest events have a target audience. Pinpoint what type of person will most likely want to attend your event. If you are hosting a business conference, your guests will most likely be those business-minded people who are busy and often respond to high-tech marketing. 

If you are hosting an event for charity, your target audience may require more original forms of marketing like flyers, postcards, and hard copies. Knowing your target audience is essential in deciding what time of marketing you'll need for the event.

Set Up an Event Website

Those who visit even the smallest events often expect that there is a website tied to the event. Creating an event website is a great organizational tool to use where you can collect registrations, answer questions, and provide communication to everyone involved. Even if the plans for the event aren't set in stone, you can still create a mini-website that is a starting point.

Ask Partners to Join

Sponsorships, vendors, and partners should all be contacted at least 6 months before your event. Remember that these organizations need time to plan on their end and that the more time you give them, the better it will be. Create sponsorship levels and open up vendor areas for those businesses that are a good fit for your target audience.

2-3 Months Before Event

Spreading the word with the media as well as using social communication is a great way to market for your event.

Share With the Media

Press releases are a great way to get the ball rolling when it comes to marketing your event. Media outlets want to know things that are going on in the community and may even announce your event for free. Add your event to community calendars at the chamber of commerce, radio stations, churches, and community groups. 

Use Social Outlets and Email

Gain interest and utilize FOMO (fear of missing out) to boost registrations and get people committed to attending your event. Add posts to all of the top social media sites and send emails to invite your email list to register. 

Be careful, however, with the number of emails you send about your event. There is a fine line between keeping everyone interested and bugging them so much that they unsubscribe.

Plan your On-Site Registration Needs

Work with Choose 2 Rent to plan your Badge Printing needs, Session scanning requirements, and lead scanning tool. Planning this 2 - 3 month in advance ensures that you will have the right amount of on-site equipment at your event, enough time to add the branding to your name badges, and block any on-site technicians from Choose 2 Rent for your event. 

1 Week Before Event

Add in some extra features the week before your event to get everyone excited and possibly score some last-minute registrations.

Create a Highlight Video

Add a video of your last event like this one to your YouTube channel and share the video on socials and through email. If this event is new for you, consider creating a video of highlights of your speakers, companies, vendors, or even the venue space to get people excited and talking about your event.

Go Live on Socials

Have your host go live on social media channels to help boost excitement and involvement with your guests. Show them all that is going on behind the scenes to pique interest and bring in those last-minute registrations.

Prepare for Problems

No event goes off without a hitch. There is always something, large or small, that happens in a way that you may not have expected. It is essential to think about the possible sticky spots of the event and have a backup plan (or two) to ensure that the event runs smoothly despite any issues.

Day of Event

It's showtime! All of your planning and hard work should pay off on the day of the event. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for you and your staff. It is important to plan out a minute-by-minute timeline for the day and give everyone a clear job on the day of the event. 

Week After Event

No matter how your event went, it is important to thank your guests, partners, and vendors for their part in it. Send a quick follow-up email as well as a possible short survey to take so that your next event is even better. If your event happens on an annual basis, you can announce next year's dates at this time as well.

Again, events come in many different sizes and varieties. While you may be a small event planner who focuses on weddings and corporate events, it doesn't mean that you can't size down the event promotion timeline to meet your needs. For extra-large events, you may need to expand the event promotion timeline to better fit your event's scope. 

Choose2Rent is ready to help no matter what type of event you are planning. From temperature scanners to event wifi to iPad rentals, Choose2Rent has you covered. Contact Choose2Rent today to learn more about how easily they can help take event tech off your plate.