Are you planning a summer event to promote a good cause? If so, you know very well that events take a significant amount of time and resources to organize. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the details of the event, and not recognize prime opportunities that would lead to the successful marketing of your event. Two common mistakes that lead to poor promotion of the event are working with a partner who does not help promote the event and selecting an event that is not a good fit for the intended audience.
Selecting an involved partner: Your choice of sponsoring partners, marketing firms, and/or the recipient of the fundraiser will have a significant impact on both the financial and overall success of the event. The partners you work with should play an active role in promoting the event. They should be willing and excited to help with the following:
• Promote the event via their social media networks
• Include the event in their newsletter
• Engage their employees, members, and supporters to attend and donate to the cause
CASE STUDY: Let’s take a look at a charity golf outing as an example. When the recipient of the funds promotes the event to their audience and engages their existing donor base to participate in the outing, you are likely to see an increase in both the number of sponsorships and golfers. More importantly, you may recognize increased revenues of more than 50%, as compared to working with a recipient who does not participate in the event promotion. A side benefit is that you do not have to work as hard at promoting the event. This is a definite WIN for all involved.
Choosing the right event: When choosing the event, be sure to first define and understand the audience who supports the cause and who you are targeting to attend and donate. The better you are able to match the two, the more successful your event will be. Following are examples of matching the event type to the target audience:
• Ice Cream Social / families
• Golf Outings / business individuals
• Clay Pigeon Shoots / Marcellus Shale organizations
• Purse Auction / women
• Black Tie Event / upper income individuals
Follow these two simple recommendations, and your event is sure to be a success.
About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group ~ The Edmiston Group provides senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business growth.
Summertime is a time to relax…unless you happen to be involved in promoting summer events. Many nonprofit organizations, catering companies and seasonal businesses depend on the summertime for a large source of revenue. But the increased workload to execute and promote events can be overwhelming.
If you are fortunate enough to be involved with summertime events, such as golf outings, picnics, family days, camps, sporting event picnics, clay shoots, or a number of any other summer events, we have a couple suggestions to make your life easier, your events more successful and your summer more enjoyable.
- Consider outsourcing some of the marketing for your summertime events to help with the overflow. Marketing firms can help with press releases, direct mail, flyers, online registration products and general marketing. By working with a marketing firm who specializes in promoting events, you can count on efficient execution, saving you countless hours and much frustration.
- Use an event registration tool. You will be amazed at the time and money savings from using a product such as Constant Contact’s Event Spot. This product takes care of registration, collecting money and helps to market your event.
By incorporating a few changes and enlisting in a bit of help (from both people and technology), you can have the confidence that your event is promoted using the best tools and in a professional manner. One call to 724-612-0755 is all you need to get started. You deserve to enjoy the summer too!
About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group ~ The Edmiston Group provides senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business growth.
Memorial Day is just around the corner, and to me that means SUMMERTIME. What does summertime mean to you? To me, summertime means warm days, sunshine, flip-flops, ice cream, picnics and vacation. As much as we require a little R&R to rejuvenate, spend time with family and friends, and to simply enjoy all the wonderful gifts summer has to offer, our businesses simply can’t take a vacation.
Just as you plan for your vacation, you need to take a few steps to plan how to continue marketing your business while you are away. Many business owners make arrangements to ensure their core business continues to operate while away, but fail to consider the impact of putting their marketing and PR on hold. This can result in a pipeline that is lacking upon return from vacation. A month down the road, you may regret not taking precautions to maintain a consistent marketing and PR program…but by then it is too late. You can only look forward.
So what is the solution? Consider outsourcing your marketing needs on a short-term basis. With a simple consult and/or meeting, you can rest assured that your email marketing, social media presence, blogs and press releases will continue in your absence. No one would ever guess that you’re off enjoying yourself on a beautiful mountaintop or soaking the sun on a white sandy beach. One call is all it takes.
About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group ~ The Edmiston Group provides senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business growth.
Are you planning a summer event to promote a good cause? If so, you know very well that events take a significant amount of time and resources to organize. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the details of the event, and not recognize prime opportunities that would lead to the successful marketing of your event. Two common mistakes that lead to poor promotion of the event are working with a partner who does not help promote the event and selecting an event that is not a good fit for the intended audience.
