Just the other day, I was chatting with a friend about how hard it can be to promote events in today’s market.
There’s a ton of competition out there – with brands competing every day for audience attention and engagement.
This is why graphic design and consistency within your promotion strategy are absolutely essential if you want to sell more tickets to your events.
Did you know that your audience will need to receive your message between five and seven times before they make a purchase decision about snagging a ticket?
Yep. So you’ve got to keep their attention and show them why it’s worth their time to come to your event.
After 12+ years of design and marketing work in the music industry, I’ve helped some of the most renowned promoters in Los Angeles maximize their marketing potential.
After a ton of testing and doubling down on what worked, I successfully positioned them to sell more tickets, work with premier clients, and expanded their influence in the music scene.
A common misconception about the event promotion is that when you create the flyer, you’re done with asset creation. That’s simply not the case in today’s social media driven world.
While the flyer is certainly an important component of event promotion, you’ll also need to create a suite of supplementary graphics and promotional materials.
Plus – you don’t want your audience to get bored with you, right?
So that means you’ll need to go beyond the flyer.
You’ll need to entertain them to keep their attention. You’ll need to educate them on why your event is the one that they should attend, when there are so many other options out there.
How do you do this?
- Make a list of all of the selling points around your event.
Include the talent, food vendors, specials, limited edition merchandise, art installations, etc. in your list.
Each of these components will essentially become your content pieces.
- Take each of these pieces and create a strategy around how you will present them.
You’ll want to make sure that you vary the types of content that you’re pushing out. Use a mix of videos, gifs, carousel posts, and static images.
Get creative with your content. Have a little fun with it and infuse your brand’s personality into your posts.
- Create the content within your brand guidelines.
Use a consistent color palette, overall style, language, and fonts throughout your materials.
This is important on a couple different levels.
First – consistency with graphics helps to visually reinforce that you’re a trustworthy brand. It sends a message that you have invested in your event.
And – over time, as your audience sees you pushing out graphics that have a similar look and feel, it will help with your overall brand recognition.
- Create a schedule and post consistently.
Every human sees hundreds of marketing messages per day. So, you can see why staying top of mind with your audience is critical. Posting consistently is how you achieve this.
Not every message has to be over-the-top salesy either. In fact – I don’t recommend taking that approach. I mean – think about it – nobody likes that guy at the party who is trying too hard.
You’ve got to focus on building trust and nourishing your audience relationships before someone will trust you enough to buy from you.
Use the 80/20 rule when it comes to posting. 80% of your content should be value / 20% should be your pitch.
Informational posts are indirect selling.
Entertainment posts are indirect selling.
Even when there’s no “BUY THIS THING” messaging attached – because you’re building the foundation of the relationship with that potential buyer.
Ultimately, the more that you deliver the stuff that they connect with – the more they will come to trust you as a reliable source for cool content.
So, if you’re ready to get more people to your events, try folding in these guidelines into your strategy. Happy event promoting!
Megan is an expert in helping businesses boost their sales by creating stunningly unique graphic designs. We are happy to have Megan as one of our design partners. Need help designing graphics for your next brand activation? Stop what you’re doing and check out her portfolio. You won’t regret it!
