Kokoro Graphix

10 Ways to Promote An Event

My launch party finally happened last Wednesday on April 22nd! Thanks to everyone who attended! It meant so much to me. I think we were a record-breaker in turnout and anticipation for ImprovAstorm! Seeing so many people from different parts of my life blend together under one roof was so surreal to me.

I do admit that my launch party was also my way of creating awareness for ImprovAstorm. What is ImprovAstorm? ImprovAstorming is a Blank Stage-exclusive event in which they round up improv actors to churn out commercial, marketing, and campaign ideas for business owners.

It was so much fun. I couldn’t believe all the ideas they came up with! You can see a couple of them (and these weren’t even the best!) in the embedded video above!

The ImprovAstorm taught me so much about promoting events. I’ve tried to promote events before but with little success. This was indeed a learning experience.

1. Promote the event way ahead of time. Not always possible but promoting it a month and a half beforehand gave me time to find different ways to get the word out, remind people about the event, provide information, and prepare the event accordingly.
2. Use social media. Facebook helped me reach my entire network easily and tell them about the event. It also helped me disperse information, keep track of attendants, send mass notifications, and create chatter about it.
3. Use strategy in invitation. Brent gave me the idea to first invite the people closest to me whom I know would be coming, and then invite people whom may or may not come. Seeing that there are already people on the list is social proof. It also creates comfort to know who is coming. The list of attendees just snowballed!
4. Bring it up in conversation. Often. Be sincerely excited, though! Keeping up my own excitement level became contagious. There were folks who were looking forward to the 22nd since February! Ramp up anticipation and you will build participation.
5. Guests come first! Your guests are like your customers: they come first. Make an effort to ensure entertainment, food, and atmosphere. I paid special attention to my guests pre-event and post-event and did my best to facilitate a comfortable, chatty environment. I got good feedback so I hope I did a good job!
6. Individually invite guests. I learned this from an officer from the KSU Kiwanis Club: people are more likely to respond to an individual email than a mass email. Take a minute to write out a couple of sentences or call a guest and tell them that you’re excited to have them be a part of your event. Again, be sincere! Insincerity is often transparent. Make your guests feel like kings and queens!
7. Delegate host duties. I wish I had asked a couple more people to help me welcome guests instead of flying solo. I ended up conversation-hopping and it was overwhelming being the only one overlooking the crowd. Gather the social butterflies and ask them to help welcome guests, warm up wallflowers, and create conversations between people.
8. Keep in mind flake rate. Because I had so many people wanting to come to the event, I had to cut down the list to 50 due to the room capacity. Even then, I still had a marginal flake rate. People will have to cancel at the last minute for various reasons. next time, I’ll go ahead and invite more people to fill in the flake rate. 🙂
9. Take the opportunity to break out news and accomplishments! My new business name, Kokoro Graphix, and logo made their debut on April 22. Make announcements and celebrate while you have your supportive audience there with you. Letting your guests know first makes your event special.

   

10. Don’t wait until the last minute to prepare food. Fortunately, the food I chose was simple but it would have been far less stressful if I didn’t procrastinate!

The success of your event is a result of your effort! Have any other tips on promoting events? Share them in the comments!