5 Cost Effective Tips for Event Promotion

It is better to have 200 informed, engaged and committed attendees at an event who are ready to spend money, than 400 people who are learning about your organization for the first time. Informed. Engaged. Committed. You get your guests to that place with a communications plan that interacts with them throughout the entire year. Once you have an informed and engaged audience, you can implement the following five cost-effective tips for event promotion:

1. Send a "Save the Date" post card several months in advance of your event. Make sure the postcard is a small enough size to qualify for postcard stamps. Why a postcard? Because nobody is going to clip a letter to their refrigerator for an extended length of time.

2. If you have events throughout the year, hand out flyers each time a group gets together so they know which event is coming up next.

3. Build a strong committee to help plan and promote your event. They can share event news from your Social Media accounts to their own. They can also put up posters at key places and invite their own friends to the event. There is a benefit for those with large committees!

4. Take advantage of critical mass. A few examples for schools: Do you have a student theater or concert production? Include an insert about your fundraising event. At a sporting event? Have a beloved and enthusiastic spokesperson on the PA system to share the details. You get the picture.

5. For schools again: Get kids involved. Yes, the kids. Offer them the chance to write a note to invite their parents to attend. You are a school. They are your key constituents. Taking ownership of an event that impacts their school does two things: a) It helps students feel like they have an important role in school giving, and b) it proves to their parents that their kids are invested and that they should get invested too.

What event promotion tactics have worked well for you? Make a comment and let us know!