The Worst (And Most Common) Ways to Mess Up Your Event Promotions
When it comes to getting the sale (in this case, getting more people to show up at your event), you’ve got to do whatever it takes to make things happen and reach your targets!
… right?
Not always.
Sometimes, overenthusiastic event planners make things worse for themselves by going overboard with their event promotion pushes. At other times, it’s because they’ve tried to cut costs by hiring students with too little experience and too much gusto in their blood.
The results are usually… well, you can see for yourself as we highlight some of the worst (yet common) ways events planners have messed up their event promotions.
Messaging random people on social media platforms
When you give an inexperienced salesperson a task to “get the word out to as many people as possible”, what’s the first place their mind usually goes to?
These days, it’s social media.
Of course, while there’s nothing wrong with posting a series of event promotions on your personal Facebook page, Instagram account or Twitter profile, things do get out of line when your salesperson starts sending private messages to everyone who’s connected to every social media account they own.
Make sure your event doesn’t get a reputation as “the place that needs to spam people for attention”. Let your sales teams know what’s acceptable practice, and what isn’t.
Inviting everyone
Building a list of customers and prospects takes time, but is a worthwhile endeavour. Every person on your contact list has trusted you with their email address or contact number (or both).
Make sure their trust in you has been well placed. These people are giving you permission to contact them with emails and calls for events and promotions that they might be interested in, and nothing else.
So be sure you’ve properly categorised the people in your distribution list, so every email you send to recipients, is a useful one that they may want to take action on.
Remember, just because you have a list of 8,000 emails, doesn’t mean all 8,000 people need to know about your upcoming event.
Just the ones that may find it worth their time.
Spam people who don’t respond
Even event planners who manage to tiptoe past the previous 2 potential pitfalls, often fall for this trap.
They’ve carefully chosen the group of people they want to attract to their next event, and have chosen to engage them professionally – either with a phone call or email.
But the person isn’t interested, or just doesn’t respond.
So they do what any good salesperson would do, and follow up.
Again. And again. And again. And again.
Maybe you’ve been at the receiving end of such emails?
"Join us for X Party 2017!"
"Did you hear the news about X Party 2017?"
"Maybe you missed our emails, we’re here to tell you about X Party 2017!"
"This is your last chance to register for X Party 2017"
"The registration deadline for X Party 2017 has passed… but we’re keeping it open just for you! Register today!"
Sometimes, it’s better to just move on. (Especially since your hard-earned contacts can unsubscribe themselves from your mailing list at the touch of a button, if you’re bugging them incessantly.)
Promote your events, the right way
We hope you have a better idea of what not to do when promoting your event. Some of these tips may look obvious at first glance, but you’ll be surprised at how often we see these unfortunate mistakes spoil an otherwise incredible event.
Don’t let this happen to you. All the best!
